The clock is officially ticking, counting down the months until the long anticipated follow-up to 2010’s colorful Alice in Wonderland opens in theaters.
Disney has just released a new teaser for Alice Through the Looking Glass, featuring the voice of the late actor Alan Rickman in the role of the Blue Caterpillar.
“You’ve been gone too long, Alice,” the British actor intones ominously, as Alice is depicted encounter various surprises on her journey to save the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp). “There are matters that cannot be neglected. Hurry.”
Featuring a returning cast of beloved characters – among them Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Stephen Fry as the Chesire Cat, Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit and Anne Hathaway as the White Queen – the new spot also reveals a look at comedian Sacha Baron Cohen stepping as a half-clock, half-human figure named Time.
The James Bobin-directed sequel picks up three years after Alice in Wonderland, and features Alice (Mia Wasikowska) — newly returned from her adventures in Asia — and her quest to rescue the Mad Hatter from a heartbreaking end against the pressures of a ticking Chronosphere, a device that powers all of time itself.
“She faces that moment that a lot of young adults do in their 20s, which is that the way you spend your time is really important of what you’re going to accomplish in your life,” producer Suzanne Todd told EW in an interview late last year. “She has to face this decision of what she’s going to do with the rest of her life.”
And while fans of the original will notice that the 30-second spot takes up a tone that’s slightly more upbeat than Tim Burton’s original film (after all, Dobbin directed The Muppets and Muppets Most Wanted movies) , Alice remains as independent as ever.
“What I’m hoping our [first] movie did was root into this moment of female empowerment,” shares Todd. “Hopefully now we’ve made that an even richer experience for people who love Alice.”
Alice Through the Looking Glass is scheduled to hit theaters on May 27, 2016. Check out the new spot featuring Rickman’s voiceover above.
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