First 'Elvis' trailer reveals Austin Butler as the King of Rock and Roll: 'Oscar campaign starts now

Ethan Alter

Austin Butler as Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's new biopic (Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures)

When it comes to big-screen superheroes, Baz Luhrmann is here to show you that there's nobody bigger than Elvis Presley. The just-released first trailer for the Australian director's highly-anticipated musical biopic presents Presley's rocket-like trajectory toward musical superstardom as a Superman-like origin story with Austin Butler playing the King of Rock and Roll instead of the Man of Steel. (Watch the trailer below.)

Early on in the three-minute teaser, young Elvis is glimpsed reading a Captain Marvel comic, and then running around with a hand-sewn lightning bolt on his own chest. And when he steps up to rock the mic for the first time as an adult, he blows the audience back with his super-powered sound. It certainly makes a big impression on the man watching quietly in the back: Col. Tom Parker, played by Tom Hanks. "In that moment, I watched that skinny boy transform into a superhero," he notes in a broad Southern twang.

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