Will Smith and Joel Edgerton Play Good Cop, Orc Cop in New Images From David Ayer’s ‘Bright’ 

Netflix has been on a real tear lately, releasing trailers and sneak peeks at several of their upcoming Original releases, including Bright — the gritty fantasy cop drama from director David Ayer, in which Will Smith plays an officer paired with an orc (yes, really) played by Joel Edgerton. Following last week’s debut of the first teaser, new image and details have arrived to shed a little more light on this strange movie.

The official Facebook page for Bright shared three new images from the film, featuring Smith (with a mustache) and Edgerton (with 10 pounds of orc makeup) in what is certainly a much more serious film than that plot description (ORCS) suggests:

The actors also spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the film, which doesn’t seem to be light on socially relevant metaphor. Here’s how Edgerton describes his role:

I am the first orc, under a diversity program, to be allowed into the police force. I’m under investigation already for an incident that involved an orc who should have been apprehended but managed to escape. The feeling is that I looked after my own kind first and neglected to do my job as a result.

Smith adds:

[Edgerton’s character] has to make it go right, or other orcs won’t have a shot. So he’s taking on the social responsibility of being a good cop, with the weight of his people on his shoulders… I’m getting ridiculed by other members of the police force. In their interpretation, I’m giving him a fair shot, and I should really just be trying to get him off of the force.

So it’s like Zootopia but with orcs and from the director of End of Watch. (Oh, and written by Max Landis.)

Here’s the official synopsis:

Set in an alternate present-day where humans, orcs, elves and fairies have been coexisting since the beginning of time, this action-thriller directed by David Ayer (Suicide Squad, End of Watch, writer of Training Day) follows two cops from very different backgrounds. Ward, a human (Will Smith), and Jakoby, an orc (Joel Edgerton), embark on a routine night patrol that will alter the future of their world as they know it. Battling both their own personal differences as well as an onslaught of enemies, they must work together to protect a young female elf and a thought-to-be-forgotten relic, which in the wrong hands could destroy everything.

Bright also stars Noomi Rapace, Edgar Ramírez, Lucy Fry and Ike Barinholtz, and arrives on Netflix in December.