‘Oppenheimer’ Teaser: Cillian Murphy’s The ‘Man Who Moved The Earth’ – Hollywood Life

‘Oppenheimer’ Teaser: Cillian Murphy Is The ‘Man Who Moved the Earth’

Cillian Murphy plays the 'father of the atomic bomb' that ended World War II in the first teaser trailer for 'Oppenheimer.'

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The first teaser of Christopher Nolan‘s upcoming film Oppenheimer was released on July 28. The teaser trailer features Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the leaders of the Manhattan Project, which created the first nuclear weapons during World War II.

Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer. (Universal)

The teaser features little actual Oppenheimer, but we do hear plenty of the characters. “This is your moment,” Oppenheimer’s wife, played by Emily Blunt, says. One person tells Oppenheimer that “you gave them the power to destroy themselves,” while another calls him “most important man who ever lived.”

The trailer ends with a brief black-and-white glimpse of Cillian as Oppenheimer. Robert Downey Jr., who plays U.S. Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss declares that Oppenheimer is the “man who moved the earth.”

The A-list cast also includes Matt Damon as US Army Corps of Engineers officer Leslie Groves, and Florence Pugh as Oppenheimer’s lover, Jean Tatlock. Rami Malek, Jack Quaid, Matthew Modine, and Josh Hartnett also star.

Set for release on July 21, 2023, Oppenheimer marks the fourth collaboration between Cillian and the director. Cillian previously starred in Nolan’s films Batman BeginsInception, and Dunkirk. This is the first time that Cillian has had the lead role in a Nolan-directed project.

“I’ll always turn up for Chris, whatever the size of the part,” Cillian told Variety in February 2022. “Chris will call me up and I’m there. Isn’t it wonderful that filmmakers are still making challenging, demanding films within the studio system, shot on film? I think he’s flying the flag. Him, Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino are fantastic filmmakers making interesting work on a massive scale.”

Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy & Robert Downey Jr. star in ‘Oppenheimer.’ (Dave Allocca/StarPix/Shutterstock / Can Nguyen/Shutterstock)

Cillian also previously shared that he did “an awful lot of reading” to prepare for his role in Oppenheimer. “I’m interested in the man and what [inventing the atomic bomb] does to the individual,” he told The Guardian. “The mechanics of it, that’s not really for me — I don’t have the intellectual capability to understand them, but these contradictory characters are fascinating.”