What you need to know

  • The first trailer for the Brad Pitt space epic Ad Astra is here.
  • It shows Pitt going back up to space in a mission to save the world.
  • Ad Astra arrives in theaters September 20, 2019.

The first trailer for James Gray's space epic Ad Astra just dropped and it gives us a look at Brad Pitt as astronaut Roy McBride, who is tasked with saving the world.

Ad Astra has been in the works for years now though few details have been released. Up until this point, we'd only seen one image of Brad Pitt in an astronaut suit, but now we have a full trailer and it is very ominous.

The trailer starts with McBride revealing he became an astronaut because of his father, whom he sees as a hero and a great man. Unfortunately, he never made it back from a space mission called the Lima Project.

However, once a space mission goes horribly wrong due to an event called the "Surge," it is revealed to McBride that his father was experimenting with a highly classified material that could threaten the fate of the world.

McBride is then tasked with going back to space to unravel the mystery of his father and the material he was working on, no matter the cost, even if it means destroying the project entirely.

The trailer looks absolutely breathtaking. That's because it boasts cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema who has done some amazing work with Interstellar, another epic space movie, and Dunkirk, the latter of which earned him an Oscar nomination.

Joining Pitt is a star-studded cast that includes Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Live Tyler and Donald Sutherland.

Ad Astra arrives in theaters September 20, 2019.