ViQueens’ Annecy teaser drops Ella Purnell, Rita Ora, and Erling Haaland cameos

If you think animation is a quiet lane where the loudest thing is a studio logo, ViQueens just walked in with a celebrity lineup that reads like a pop-culture scoreboard. Dutch-Norwegian director Zwart Arbeid previewed his upcoming animated feature at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, and Deadline shared the teaser. The voice cast includes Ella Purnell and Rita Ora, plus a special appearance from global soccer superstar Erling Haaland.

That matters because ViQueens is not being marketed as “a nice animated movie someday.” It is being previewed in one of animation’s biggest trade-and-credibility venues, and it is leading with recognizable names people can attach to immediately. At Annecy, directors and studios often use masterclasses and teasers to signal craft and tone. Here, the signal is clear: Zwart Arbeid is banking on star power to cut through a crowded entertainment market, while the product is presented as premium animated drama.

To understand why this is a smart, risky, and very modern move, look at how attention works right now. Streaming and global release pipelines have made audiences more selective, not less. When a project includes a high-profile international athlete and chart-adjacent music talent, it creates a wider surface area for press, social sharing, and cross-audience discovery. The point is not just that fans might show up. The point is that the film becomes easier to explain in a single sentence. “Animated Viking drama” plus “Ella Purnell, Rita Ora, Erling Haaland” is instantly legible.

Annecy is also an unusually strategic stage for this kind of positioning. The festival is where animation industry insiders show up to look for what is next, not just what is safe. A director using a masterclass to preview an upcoming feature is effectively saying: pay attention, the team has something to prove, and the craft is worth a closer look. By sharing the teaser exclusively too, Deadline is amplifying that credibility signal. In other words, this is not a random celebrity announcement. It is being framed as part of an artistic rollout.

There is a second layer executives should notice: voice casting in animation is both creative and commercial. When a project pulls in names like Ella Purnell and Rita Ora, it can broaden the marketing audience beyond traditional animation demographics, but it also raises internal standards. Stars bring momentum, and momentum comes with expectations about performance quality and character fit. Even in a teaser-first world, stakeholders will want the tone to match the talent. If the movie lands as a Viking drama with the right energy and narrative voice, the celebrity casting supports the storytelling. If it misses, the stars can make the gap more visible.

Then there is the Haaland factor, which is particularly interesting because it is a special appearance rather than standard voice co-starring. That choice often signals a deliberate strategy: give the project a “moment,” a recognizable event that travels fast, without turning the entire project into a novelty. For decision-makers, that is a reminder that not every celebrity partnership has to be a full takeover. Sometimes the goal is to create one hook strong enough to drive awareness, while the core remains the film’s narrative and emotional arc.

For boards, producers, and investors watching from the sidelines, ViQueens also raises a broader question about where animated features are headed. The old model relied heavily on brand identity of animation itself. The newer model increasingly blends animation with entertainment ecosystems that include mainstream music and global sports fame. That can unlock distribution interest and media coverage, but it also changes the risk profile. Projects will be judged not only on animation craft and script strength, but on whether the celebrity elements feel integrated or incidental.

The strategic stakes for peers are straightforward: celebrity casting can accelerate attention, but it does not replace substance. ViQueens, previewed at Annecy by Zwart Arbeid and teased by Deadline, is setting a tone that says the project wants to be both culturally visible and animation-authoritative. If it delivers, it becomes a blueprint for how animated drama can compete at global scale. If it under-delivers, it becomes a warning that star power is easiest to hire and hardest to justify after the first wave of buzz.