Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer Gets First Explosive, Morally Torn Trailer

Universal Pictures has released the first trailer for Oppenheimer, writer-director Christopher Nolan’s next movie. The film is slated for release on July 21, 2023.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film tells the story of the scientist who spearheaded the Manhattan Project. This group created the technology behind the atomic bomb that the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. And in the new trailer below, you can see how much Oppenheimer wrestled with the ethics of advancing technology for warfare in this way.

Cillian Murphy stars as Oppenheimer in a cast that also includes Emily Blunt as his wife, biologist and botanist Kitty Oppenheimer. Matt Damon stars as General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project, alongside Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Gary Oldman, Josh Peck, James Remar, Florence Pugh, Casey Affleck, Benny Safdie, Josh Hartnett, Rami Malek, and Kenneth Branagh further round out the cast.

Oppenheimer is Nolan’s first movie after he strongly criticized WarnerMedia’s decision to release the studio’s 2021 theatrical films day and date on HBO Max, and specifically for how the movie giant apparently did not give a heads up to directors and talent. Netflix has an ongoing charm offensive for Nolan to consider making his next movie with the streaming service. Scott Stuber, head of original films at Netflix, said in 2021 that he’s “had ongoing conversations” with Nolan, and is doing “everything I can” to convince the writer-director, who is a vocal proponent of the theatrical experience.