Cursed: What Happened Next To Nimue In The Book

Cursed season 1 ended on a cliffhanger that saw Nimue falling into the depths of a lake, but there’s a bit more to her story the series leaves out that is in the book. A year after the first season was released, Netflix quietly cancelled Cursed. While the fantasy series ended without resolving Nimue’s arc, the book adaptation by Tom Wheeler and Frank Miller reveals what happened next to the Arthurian heroine. 

Cursed reimagined the legendary story of King Arthur through the eyes of Nimue, a Fey with great power and someone who was destined to become the Lady of the Lake, who ultimately bestows Arthur with Excalibur. At the end of season 1, Nimue was knee-deep in fighting off the Red Paladins, a religious group who wanted to eradicate the Fey. With the Sword of Power in tow, Nimue was primed to escape in a bid to protect the sword from falling into the wrong hands, but she is shot with arrows while trying to save Arthur from the Red Paladins. Injured, Nimue drops the sword and falls into the lake below, plunging deeper with seemingly no hope for survival. 

While Cursed season 1 ends with Nimue’s fate up in the air, fans of the series might guess that her fall isn’t fatal. In the book adaptation, an epilogue reveals Nimue does survive her fall into the lake, with the arrows having broken off on a stump. She promises to protect the Sword of Power until a “true king rises to claim it” before her body washes up on a shore near the Minotaur Mountains, the location of the leper kingdom. However, Nimue barely has time to register her survival before she is surrounded by King Rugen’s lepers and subsequently taken into their caves. 

In the book, Rugen is also trying to usurp Uther Pendragon as the king of England. Though his role is minor in the series and novel, he will probably take on a much bigger role in the second book. Unfortunately, things could become even more complicated for Nimue when she learns Merlin, her father, promised King Rugen the Sword of Power and he will undoubtedly be angry when he realizes Merlin lied. The book version of Cursed ends less ominously than the Netflix series, leaning less on the cliffhanger of Nimue’s potential death, with more of a focus on setting up the next phase of her story. With a potential meeting with King Rugen, Nimue will likely find herself entangled even further with the politics and power dynamics of this mythological world. 

While a second novel has yet to be published, and no release date has been announced, Wheeler vowed that more of Nimue’s story is coming. This is a relief considering the cancellation of Cursed. At least her adventures will continue to be at the forefront in book form despite her story no longer getting a chance to play out in live-action. Considering the way things ended for Nimue at the end of Cursed season 1, the second novel could delve into whether she inches toward becoming the legendary Lady of the Lake or if her story will only tease that aspect while veering towards something else entirely. Either way, the novel will offer the answers the Cursed series no longer can. 

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Mae Abdulbaki
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Mae Abdulbaki is a movie reviews editor with Screen Rant. She previously wrote about a variety of movies and TV shows for Inverse, CinemaBlend, Pajiba, and The Young Folks, where she wrote reviews, features, news pieces. Her other work can be found at The Mary Sue, Film School Rejects, UPROXX, Heroic Hollywood, Looper, The List, and Bam Smack Pow, among others. Mae has also appeared on television segments, podcasts, and panels to discuss all things entertainment.

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