Hall H at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con felt rather superb this afternoon with the debut of the first teaser trailer for the 2013 Superman film Man of Steel.
Director Zack Snyder and Superman/Clark Kent actor Henry Cavill were on hand to premiere the trailer, which was confirmed to be attached to next week's release of The Dark Knight Rises in theaters. The following are descriptions of the trailer taken from the site io9:
The first part of the trailer consisted of scenes of Clark Kent's childhood, intercut with the grown-up Kent walking around a snowy landscape like Alaska or someplace. The childhood glimpses included blades of grass with the Kent farmhouse in the distance, and then a rusty toy wagon on its side, a toy butterfly, and a swingset. Then a little kid wearing a red towel as a cape and running in a field with laundry hanging. There are lots of shots of laundry.
A voiceover says: "What if a child dreamed of being something other than what society intended? What if a child aspired to be something great?" We see the older bearded Clark, looking alienated, as he works at a fishery in the middle of nowhere, struggling with his identity.
And then there is a glimpse of a sequence when Clark is a little kid, and a schoolbus crashes into a river, falling in slow-mo. And then water is flooding inside the bus, and the kids are drowning. And Clark somehow swims up to the emergency door and saves the kids using his superpowers. A woman says in a voiceover, "My son was in the bus. He saw what Clark did."
Kevin Costner, playing Pa Kent, says "People are afraid of what they don't understand." He takes young Clark into the Kent barn with a flashlight. There is a weird dark shape in there, full of tubes and ridges — and like we said, it looks squidlike, or whale-like. "It's not from this world, Clark, and neither are you," says Pa Kent. He hands Clark a small object, like a signet ring, with the "S" shield on it.
And something squid-like lifts up into the air, a small item, levitating.
We see the older bearded Clark saying, "All these questions, like where do I come from." He looks positively grief-stricken and miserable.
Then we hear Pa Kent again: "It was left to you to decide what kind of man you want to be, Clark. Whatever that man is, good or bad, he's going to change the world."
And during this, Clark is going into a space in the middle of the tundra — and maybe it's the Fortress? He's wearing The Suit and looking pensive. He closes his eyes for a moment. And then he opens them — and rockets skywards, leaving a little Jetstream behind him. He soars over the clouds like a bullet, and it looks frankly incredible. The flying in this movie looks like nothing we've seen in a superhero movie.
And then there is some weird action with cars and trucks being lifted upwards as if by an anti-gravity ray.
We see a grief-stricken Jor-El (Russell Crowe), exposing the S-Shield on his chest, as if revealing a secret.
And then Clark is in a series of horrible situations — he's being buried in rocks and shouting "NO!" He's on fire and apparently stark naked. He's thrown through the air and through the wall of a building, landing next to a bank vault (as in the photo we've seen.) He's handcuffed, wearing the Superman costume, and being led away by guards. And there's just a glimpse of General Zod, the movie's villain, scowling.
Oh, and Clark is holding a baby protectively, in the middle of a nightmare battle. And we also see Clark kissing Lois, and an explosion on the side of a building, as Metropolis gets trashed. There are also shots of CG blue flames going everywhere.
And Clark says, in a voiceover: "My father believed, if the world found out who I really was, they would reject me out of fear. He was convinced the world wasn't ready. What do you think?" And we see Clark walking into the Daily Planet office, past the famous globe and logo, and putting on the glasses.
There are soldiers raising machine guns to Superman — and Superman walks towards them, fearlessly. Smash to the "S" shield.
Snyder also confirmed that the legendary John Williams Superman themes will not be incorporated into Hans Zimmer's score for the film. "We had to act as if no film has been made. When we approached it, we had to say 'this is a Superman for the first time.' And you can’t say, 'Oh, now let’s steal a little music.' So yes, it’s awesome music but Hans (Zimmer) is going to do something awesome."
Cavill remarked on approaching the film cleanly. "I just wanted to bring as much of the modern Superman into the world. You guys know everything about him. You’re there through thick and thin. This is for everyone else out there, to bring him to the modern world that everyone can associate with."
On the subject of a Justice League film, Snyder said, "Let’s say this: We know that Superman is the jewel in the DC crown. We wanted to get this house in order. And then...Who knows what’s possible?"
Man of Steel is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on June 14, 2013.