Twitter was thrown into overdrive this morning when the first trailer for the newest Charlie’s Angels movie dropped on YouTube . The film, which was produced by Elizabeth Banks, stars Twilight star Kristen Stewart, Aladdin actress Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska as the iconic trio.
Charlie’s Angels was first created in 1976 as a television show in which three women, hired by a mysterious benefactor known only as Charlie, fought crime. The show was a huge success and continued airing for five years.
In 2000, the concept was revived again in a movie that starred Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu. Despite lukewarm reviews, the film was a huge box-office winner, earning $264,000,000 on a $93 million budget, in addition to a sequel.
There was a short-lived television series revival in 2011 starring Minka Kelly, but it was cancelled after eight episodes due to low ratings.
According to Elizabeth Banks, all those previous iterations of the Angels technically exist in the new movie — and calls the film a “continuation” rather than a reboot, per Pop Sugar .
In the latest rendition, Townsend Agency has become an international force, providing security and investigative skills by employing spy-like women. In fact, it has become so large that it is compartmentalized into multiple teams of Angels lead by a number of Bosleys. Kristin Stewart and Ella Balinska star as two of these Angels. The pair is tasked to protect Naomi Scott after her character realizes that a popular engineering system can have dangerous consequences.
The trailer opens with Kristin Stewart in disguise on a date. However, it is soon revealed that her date had swindled humanitarian aid money, and she and Ella Balinska attack the conmen to retrieve the stolen cash. At the end of the sequence, Stewart pulls off her blonde wig, revealing a pixie cut.
The clip then cuts to Naomi Scott explaining her new powerful technology, before being rescued by Stewart and Balinska, who embark on a gun-filled car chase.
Elizabeth Banks then takes the stage as Bosley, who brings the three girls to the Townsend headquarters, a spy’s haven filled with gadgets and disguises galore.
The rest of the trailer is filled with snippets of scenes, including horse races, car chases, and exotic shots of Hamburg, Istanbul, and Berlin. However, the overarching theme is that of girl-power.
“It was important to me to make a movie about women working together and supporting each other, and not make a movie about their romantic entanglements or their mother they don’t call enough. When I’m at work, I don’t talk about those things. I get on with my job,” Banks said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly .
“It felt important to do that for the Angels, to treat them with the respect their skill set demands.”
