The first Kong: Skull Island trailer starring Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson and Brie Larson premiered during San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday.
Hiddleston explained that the premise of the film is that a group of explorers, military men and a war photographer visit Skull Island to help map out the area for NASA in the 1970s. They arrive to find that they are very much not alone. It’s an origin story of sorts.
“There’s so much CG in movies these days, audiences can tell when they’re fake,” says director Jordan Vogt-Roberts. That’s why they shot in Vietnam, Hawaii and Australia among other places to create the titular Skull Island. “The majority of what you’re looking at is real.”
It wasn’t easy, said the actors. “In the swamps in Vietnam we were up to our waist in swamp water getting to know each other very well, and there are things that can crawl into warm spaces,” said Hiddleston.
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Write to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com