Luc Besson's The Fifth Element has become a classic over the years due to the absolutely wild and unapologetic science fiction universe that the director created. For this reason, we're incredibly excited to see his return to the genre. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets promises to be just as wild as that previous endeavor. However, based on the first poster, it also promises to be beautiful.
The poster image comes courtesy of Dane DeHaan, the star of Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets who plays the title role of Valerian. His co-star will be Cara Delevingne as Lareline. We're assuming that's them standing beneath the spacecraft and above the title. They're both armored up, which is what our own Sean O'Connell saw when he got a sneak peek at some early footage during San Diego Comic-Con this past summer.
Beyond the two human figures, what we get is a look at the spaceship that the time traveling agents will use. Based on the scale, the ship looks absolutely massive. There could be an entire city inside it. Above the craft is the beauty of space. While this poster really is just a tease of what's to come, we have most of a year before Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets makes it to the screen, the image certainly makes us want to see more. Details of what the film is actually about have been scarce, and this image doesn't tell us anything.
While Luc Besson has been keeping himself busy as a writer and director of action films, his movie The Fifth Element is probably his most famous work to date. While it wasn't a smash hit in its original release, it's one of those movies that was found on DVD and Netflix by many more people than went to the theater. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets promises to be just as imaginative as that film was as far as its ability to create a vast science fiction universe. For what it's worth, Besson thinks that the modern audience is a bit more prepared for his style of sci-fi insanity and believes they will embrace Valerian more than they did the previous endeavor.
Between this film, which looks to be going the hard science fiction route, and the somewhat lighter Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, 2017 is shaping up to be a great year, or at least a great summer, for fans of real science fiction movies. This is a trailer that we really want to see. If the world of Valerian is as amazing to look at in reality as it is in our mind's eye, this could be a phenomenal film.
Valerian and the City of A Thousand Planets also co-stars Rihanna. It hits theaters July 21 2017.
