Warning: This article contains spoilers for 2025’s 100 Nights of Hero.100 Nights of Hero is a fresh new fantasy romance that ends with one of the three leads making a disappointing decision, among other events. 100 Nights of Hero is a new Independent Film Company movie starring Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe, and Nicholas Galitzine, set in a fairy tale-esque world where a young bride’s life is threatened if she cannot produce an heir.
Cherry (Monroe) is panicking because her husband Jerome (Amir El-Masry) will not sleep with her, but leaves her in the company of his friend Manfred (Galitzine). Cherry is unaware that Manfred and Jerome have a bet that Manfred will not be able to seduce her. However, Cherry’s maid Hero (Corrin) occupies Manfred’s attention with a vivid story.
Ultimately, Cherry decides to sleep with Manfred to try and get pregnant, is caught by her husband, is initially defended by Manfred, and then openly declares her feelings for Hero. But while Manfred has come to feel something for Cherry and sympathize with her situation, he agrees to go along with Jerome’s concocted story that places all the blame on the women.
In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Tatiana Hullender, Galitzine and director Julia Jackman talk about Manfred. “We see a moment where it clicks for him almost,” started Hullender. “He almost gets it […] and he still chooses to side with his friend and with the patriarchy. Can you talk about that moment and how you played it? Do you think he feels anything about the end result of the film?“
Indeed, 100 Nights of Hero shows Manfred starting to realize the injustices of the system through getting to know Cherry and hearing Hero’s story about Rosa (Charli XCX) and her sisters. Galitzine responded that Manfred’s evolution is apparent, but that he was still too afraid in the moment, something the actor thought made sense:
Yeah, it was interesting because we’d actually talked a bunch about whether there should be some sort of coda where we see Manfred after the fact. Because it really is my sense that he definitely was too afraid to stand up for what was right and save these people. But how does that manifest with him after the fact? Where would we imagine Manfred would be? […] I think we always had a sense that, just from an audience’s perspective, you are seeing the change in this person. It’s subtle, but we do see some sort of emotional revolution.
Jackman also suggests that Manfred needed more time to be able to truly take a stand: “What would it have been like if it had been another hundred nights? It’s not quite enough, and it takes a long time for someone like Manfred to sacrifice his own. It’s his destruction or theirs.“
They also comment on how Manfred’s choice plays into the bigger themes of the story, which sees Cherry and Hero left to face the consequences and choose to go down for what they believe in. As far as Manfred is concerned, he is one of many people in this setting who go along with this cruelty, but he now does so with some understanding of it, which is still plausible.
“Yeah, people often – ultimately and disappointingly – still choose what is best for themselves over what is best for everyone,” says Galitzine. “I think that’s the unfortunate reality that we have to tell in this story, because it is like life. I like to hope that Manfred comes around eventually, but who knows?“
Jackman says that Manfred “strikes [her] as the type to go, ‘I’ve grown so much because I’m doing the same s–t, but now I feel bad about it!’“ But she also says: “That really is the first step, asking, ‘Why does this feel not quite like the victory it might have?’” We don’t see Manfred after his betrayal of Cherry, though she and Hero enact real change in the world.
100 Nights of Hero is a kind of tragedy, where there is no rescue for the heroines, because of the society they live in, where even sympathetic people like Manfred choose themselves. But the ending is still touching and hopeful, implying that things can change.
- Release Date
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December 5, 2025
- Runtime
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90 minutes
- Director
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Julia Jackman