Finally, for the first time (outside of San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H), we’re finally getting a great look at Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Or at least about 50 planets — for now.
“Our mission for the teaser was very simple,” director Luc Besson (Lucy, The Fifth Element) tells EW. “We said, ‘It’s not about the story. Today, let’s introduce the two protagonists, Valerian and Laureline, and let’s the audience a flavor of the universe. Let’s give an ambience, let’s give a color.”
Color would be an understatement. The 95-second trailer — backed by the ethereal hymn of The Beatles’ “Because” — is a plunge into beautifully crisp and vivid outerspace-scapes. And in addition to Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne as the movie’s two heroes, intergalactic space cops and lovers, we also get a healthy supply of alien creatures. That includes large, whale-like sea monsters, humanoid warthogs — oh, yeah, and Rihanna, who in one GIF-ready flash-frame we can see shape-shifting from a 1920s flapper into a blonde maybe-Marilyn.
