This isn’t your usual round table tale.
The new Netflix show “Cursed” reimagines the origin story for King Arthur, Merlin and Lancelot — literary characters who have become pop culture staples in countless movies and shows. But central to this retelling is a young Lady of the Lake, played by Katherine Langford.
Premiering Friday, the fantasy epic is set in a pseudo-medieval world of kingdoms and magic, similar to “The Witcher.” It’s co-created by Frank Miller, best known for the comic books that led to the movies “Sin City” and “300.”
Although Miller didn’t direct “300,” expect the costumes of “Cursed” to take some inspiration from the Spartan classic, which cloaked its characters in stark colors and comic book-like silhouettes, says costume designer Marianne Agertoft.
“The world of ‘Cursed’ is not as stylized [as ‘300’] — it’s got a more naturalistic element to it,” Agertoft tells The Post. “But what I loved about [‘300’] was they did manage to combine the naturalistic with the high-contrast elements and strong storytelling.”
Based on a graphic novel of the same name (by Miller and showrunner Tom Wheeler), the story follows Nimue (Langford, best known for “13 Reasons Why”), who will eventually become the famous Lady of the Lake later in life. After the tragic death of her mother, she crosses paths with a swaggering young mercenary named Arthur (Devon Terrell, best known for playing a young Barack Obama in 2016 movie “Barry”), who joins her on a quest to deliver a sword to Merlin (Gustaf Skarsgard, “Vikings”).
Agertoft, who also designed the costumes for period drama “Poldark,” worked with color to help tell the characters’ origin stories. For example, she says, “The village Nimue grew up in feels like a medieval village, but there’s a strong sense of [the color] blue — a unique look we tried to keep for her.”
Along their journey, Nimue and Arthur encounter a threat in the form of a fanatical and violent group known as Red Paladins, spearheaded by a mysterious hooded figure known only as the Weeping Monk (Daniel Sharman, “Teen Wolf.”)
Those characters have the most classic Frank Miller look, similar to “300.” As the name suggests, the Red Paladins are clad in blood-red outfits.
“The color red can really become very dominating when you don’t particularly want it to be. So we spent a lot of time and energy in getting that right; the slight nuances of red in order to make that work,” says Agertoft. “[Their looks] are totally Frank Miller.”
The characters Arthur and Merlin both also have more modern aesthetics, including leather jackets that wouldn’t look out of place today.
“Arthur is this extremely handsome, very charismatic character,” she says. “He needed to move in a way where we recognize a handsome man when we see him. So I never wanted Devon’s costume to feel like he’s wearing a period piece. With the costume construction, it was important to me that he’d say, ‘These trousers are like anything I would wear.’ ”
For Merlin, she also wanted to give him more of a cowboy air.
“He’s the lone rider very much — that was the feeling behind his costume.”
Wheeler and Miller were still developing the graphic novel at the same time that the show went into production (the book was published in 2019). Agertoft felt that designing the costumes as the writers were developing the story gave her more artistic freedom.
“They’d already given us license to look at it very differently, license to take the most wonderful bits and ensure that people could recognize an Arthurian feel to it, but also feel like they’re coming into this new world.”