Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer Gets Explosive New Poster

A new poster has been released for Oppenheimer. The latest feature film from acclaimed director Christopher Nolan, the film serves as a biopic for J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist best known for his role in the “Manhattan Project” that led to the creation of the worl’s first nuclear weapon. The new poster for Oppenheimer as Cillian Murphy stands front and center as Oppenheimer with an explosive atomic bomb showcased in the background. Also on display is the release date of July 21, 2023. You can view the full poster below.

Nolan wrote and directed the film, also serving as a producer alongside Emma Thomas and Charles Roven. Along with Murphy in the lead, the movie also stars Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place), Matt Damon (Air), Robert Downey Jr. (Sr.), Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody), Florence Pugh (Black Widow), Benny Safdie (Are You There, Go? It’s Me, Margaret.), Michael Angarano (This Is Us), Josh Hartnett (Pearl Harbor), and Kenneth Branagh (Death on the Nile). Other cast members are DeHaan (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets), Dylan Arnold (Halloween), David Krumholtz (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story), and Matthew Modine (The Dark Knight Rises).

“He’s so understated and self-deprecating and, in his very English manner, just said, ‘Listen, I’ve written this script, it’s about Oppenheimer. I’d like you to be my Oppenheimer.’ It was a great day,” Murphy recently said of getting the role, via the Associated Press. “I have always said publicly and privately, to Chris, that if I’m available and you want me to be in a movie, I’m there. I don’t really care about the size of the part. But deep down, secretly, I was desperate to play a lead for him.”

It’s the first time Murphy has led the cast for a Nolan movie, but not the first time they have worked together. Murphy previously played the supporting character of the Scarecrow in Batman Begins, going on to make special appearances in the sequels The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. The actor has also appeared in supporting roles in the Nolan-helmed movies Inception and Dunkirk.

Related: Cillian Murphy Was Eager to Take on Lead Role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer Comes to Theaters This Summer

The movie, which takes inspiration from the book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, has been generating great interest with Nolan fans. That includes famous fan Jordan Peele, who named Oppenheimer as his most anticipated release of the year. Nolan has also made headlines for the movie due to his decision to use practical effects for an atomic bomb scene, despite how much cheaper and easier it would have been to use CGI. But for Nolan, the filmmaker was looking to make the film as authentic as possible.

“I think recreating the Trinity test without the use of computer graphics was a huge challenge to take on,” Nolan notes, via Total Film. “Andrew Jackson – my visual effects supervisor, I got him on board early on – was looking at how we could do a lot of the visual elements of the film practically, from representing quantum dynamics and quantum physics to the Trinity test itself, to recreating, with my team, Los Alamos up on a mesa in New Mexico in extraordinary weather, a lot of which was needed for the film, in terms of the very harsh conditions out there – there were huge practical challenges.”

Oppenheimer will arrive in movie theaters on July 21, 2023, scheduled to open against Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie. You can view a trailer for Oppenheimer below.