Emma Stone’s queen of mean makes a fiery entrance in this first clip from Disney’s Cruella. In just one month’s time, the 101 Dalmatians prequel starring Stone as the evil Ms. DeVil launches in both theaters and on streaming and, to mark the occasion, the studio has revealed our first look at the movie. And just as we suspected, it proves that it’s going to be hard to hate this version of the iconic villainess.
The minute-long clip opens with Emma Thompson’s haughty Baroness, Cruella’s boss, turning heads at a swanky society ball, until the future dog kidnapper steals her thunder with a heck of an entrance, literally crashing the party as she sends champagne glasses smashing. “Do you have a light?” Stone asks someone before setting her white cloak on fire to reveal her red gown underneath. Going by the trailers, this might be where the antiheroine makes her debut public appearance as Cruella, complete with legendary black and white hair.
Initially, she’ll be going by Estella DeVil, a lowly employee at the Baroness’ fashion house in 1970s London, before her obsession to be top dog leads her down a dark path. Yes, as Twitter likes to point out, the film is essentially The Devil Wears Prada meets Joker. That’s a blend of influences we never expected to see and Stone’s clearly going to kill it in the role. So hopefully this’ll be one of Disney’s stronger reimaginings of their classic IPs.
I, Tonya‘s Craig Gillespie directs, with the cast also including Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, Emily Beecham, Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Mark Strong as the Baroness’ valet John, who features in this clip. Stone has been attached to the project since 2016, too, so we’ve been waiting a long time to see this one. And we’ll find out if Cruella lives up to the hype once it lands on the big screen and on Disney Plus Premier Access on May 28th.