Ridley Scott’s new historical epic is now out in theaters as it tackles the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Primarily focussed on his relationship with Empress Joséphine, Napoleon tracks his rise and fall across key battles. Gladiator and Joker star Joaquin Phoenix plays the lead role opposite Vanessa Kirby in the film that’s been called one of Scott’s best recent features.
Like another major 2023 release, Killers of Flower Moon, the film was financed by Apple TV Plus as well as Columbia Pictures. As a result, you might be wondering when exactly it’s coming to the streaming service, especially because a longer, wilder directors’ cut has been promised as well. Below, we go into everything we know about its streaming release date so far.
When will Napoleon be on Apple TV Plus?
Currently, the release date for Napoleon on Apple TV Plus is to be determined. The platform doesn’t have a specified amount of time before it puts its content on digital release either so it’s likely it will be a little while before we know exactly.
Other Apple TV Plus originals like Sharper and Tetris arrived on the streamer just weeks after their theatrical release. However, we’re expecting Napoleon will have a different deal.
Probably the best idea we’ll get on this one will be when Killers of the Flower Moon makes it onto the platform as another huge release from a prolific director. That film has an exclusive cinema run of 45 days, per Digital Spy.
If Scott has a similar deal, then the earliest it could arrive on the streaming platform would be early January. However, with an epic film from a notable auteur like this one, we wouldn’t be surprised if it stayed in cinemas for a while longer. We’ll keep you updated as soon as we have a streaming release date.
When is Napoleon’s director’s cut released?
No Scott film would be complete without a director’s cut, and luckily it looks like Napoleon will be no different. We don’t have a specific release date for this yet, but we do know it will be arriving on Apple TV Plus.
Speaking to Total Film for our cover feature on the film, Scott shared some insight about the longer cut. "I’m working on it. It was four [hours] 10 [minutes] this morning," he told us in the October issue. "And so what will happen is, we’ll screen [the theatrical cut] first with Sony, and then it has its run, and then the perfect thing is that [the director’s cut] goes to streaming, and we have four hours 10 minutes."
For what you can watch now, here's our guide to the best Apple TV Plus shows.
