20th Century Fox has just released the first trailer for Steven Spielberg’s reimagining of West Side Story. It sets up that timeless romance between Tony and Maria — played by Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler, respectively — with the help of some retro outfits, close-knit friends, and of course those iconic finger snaps. Watch it below.
Spielberg’s spin on the age-old feud includes a brand new lineup of fresh faces. The Jets are comprised of Anybodys (Ezra Menas), Mouthpiece (Ben Cook), Action (Sean Harrison Jones), Riff (Mike Faist), and Baby John (Patrick Higgins). Meanwhile, the Sharks roster includes Bernardo (David Alvarez), Quique (Julius Anthony Rubio), Chago (Ricardo Zayas), Chino (Josh Andrés Rivera), Braulio (Sebastian Serra), and Pipo (Carlos Sánchez Falú).
There’s a lot of pressure in reimagining a tale as classic as the original West Side Story, so it took roughly a year for producers to settle on who should portray the two leads; they scooped up Elgort in in 2018 and eventually picked out Zegler as their Maria in early 2019. Also joining the cast is is Ariana DeBose as Anita, Ana Isabelle as Rosalia, Corey Stoll as Lieutenant Schrank, Brian d’Arcy James as Officer Krupke, Curtiss Cook as Abe, and original West Side Story star Rita Moreno in a new role (!) as Valentina.
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As previously reported, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner adapted the original 1957 Broadway musical by Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Jerome Robbins. Tony Award-winner Justin Peck choreographed the new musical numbers. Also joining the music team is conductor Gustavo Dudamel, composer David Newman, Tony Award-winning composer Jeanine Tesori, and music supervisor Matt Sullivan.
West Side Story was originally supposed to hit theaters last year, but it’s since been pushed back to December 10th, 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. To pass the time until then, revisit Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise’s 1961 masterpiece for comparison’s sake after the jump.
