Orcs, Elves, and Will Smith: watch the first trailer for Netflix's new fantasy LAPD movie

It’s been a few years since we’ve seen an exceptional Will Smith action movie, but that could change with the upcoming release of Bright, a genre-bending new movie that combines action and fantasy and hails from Suicide Squad director David Ayer. The film was written by Chronicle writer Max Landis and will be coming exclusively to Netflix later this year. The streaming service dropped the first teaser trailer during last night’s Oscars ceremony.

That’s a teaser in the truest sense of the word, in that it does almost nothing to communicate any legitimate plot information to us. The video starts like a Budweiser commercial (complete with cheesy music), but very quickly descends into madness with images of a shotgun-wielding orc, wild-eyed elves, and Smith holding some kind of ancient sword. Thankfully, Netflix sent over a press release that includes the official plot description for the film:

Set in an alternate present-day where humans, orcs, elves and fairies have been coexisting since the beginning of time, this action-thriller directed by David Ayer (Suicide Squad, End of Watch, writer of Training Day) follows two cops from very different backgrounds. Ward, a human (Will Smith), and Jakoby, an orc (Joel Edgerton), embark on a routine night patrol that will alter the future of their world as they know it. Battling both their own personal differences as well as an onslaught of enemies, they must work together to protect a young female elf and a thought-to-be-forgotten relic, which in the wrong hands could destroy everything.

That clears things up a bit, and actually sounds like an inventive take on the type of run-of-the-mill cop thrillers that tend to come around every couple of years. And considering the troubling number of police shootings in America over the past few years, the idea of a human officer dealing with other species seems like a good opportunity for some relevant social commentary. We’ll see if Ayer can bring it all together when Bright comes to Netflix this December.

Image: Netflix