Disney has released the official trailer for Cruella, the live-action prequel to 101 Dalmatians starring Emma Stone as the fashionable villainess, Cruella de Vil.
Cruella takes us back to London in the 1970s, where a young Cruella de Vil (Stone) is coming into her own as an aspiring fashion designer who attempts to make a name for herself in ruthless, wicked ways. Viewers hear Cruella de Vil narrate the trailer, as we meet her with bright red hair before she dyes it black and white. "I guess they were always scared that I'd be... a psycho," she says while laughing.
Image via YouTube
Eventually, she gets put on a path that will one day lead her to steal an incredible quantity of Dalmatian puppies for her own dastardly plans to make coats from the puppies' fur. “From the very beginning, I realized I saw the world very differently than everyone else,” Stone says in the trailer.
The trailer arrives just one day after a black-and-white poster for Cruella was released on Disney's Instagram, with Stone completely transformed into Cruella. The poster and trailer are the biggest updates for the live-action prequel that fans have had in quite some time, with Cruella's release date getting pushed back over the last two years. Originally, Cruella was scheduled for release during the Christmas 2020 moviegoing season. But, following the start of filming in August 2019, Disney delayed Cruella's release from December 2020 to May 2021.
In addition to Stone, Cruella stars Emma Thompson, Mark Strong, Paul Walter Hauser, Joel Fry, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste. Cruella is directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) and is co-written by Dana Fox (How to Be Single) and Tony McNamara (The Favourite) from a story by Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada) and Kelly Marcel (Venom) & Steve Zissis (Togetherness).
Fans on Twitter reacted to the trailer, with some saying Stone's portrayal was reminiscent of Angelina Jolie's Maleficent, Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, and even Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen.
Cruella is scheduled for release on May 28, 2021. Check out the official trailer below and let us know if you're excited for the film.