Cats trailer: Idris Elba takes centre stage, but viewers still left 'horrified' by 'weird' new clip

Harry Fletcher19 November 2019

The latest trailer for Cats has been revealed, and the movie looks like it'll be just as bonkers as the first clip suggested.

After the first release, branded “terrifying” and “nightmarish” over the summer, viewers might have expected some changes to be made, as they were for the upcoming Sonic film. Not so.

The new clip does, however, offer a closer look at some of what's involved – after playing a peripheral role in the first trailer, Idris Elba’s Macavity now takes centre stage. We see him skulking in the shadows, talking with Judi Dench's ​Old Deuteronomy about having "plenty of soul" and confronting Francesca Hayward's Victoria. "Going to the ball?" he asks her, "Could get dangerous."

The film, directed by Tom Hooper and based on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s iconic musical, sees Elba star alongside the likes of Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson and Ian McKellen.

There's also more of James Corden’s Bushtopher Jones – who has come in for particular criticism online – and Rebel Wilson’s Jennyanydots.

No-one, though, gets off lightly on Twitter. The early reaction has been decidedly negative, with viewers criticising the "weird" clip.

While the early footage hasn't gone down too well, star Francesca Hayward has dismissed the criticism.

She told Standard Online: “It takes time maybe, for people to wrap their heads around the whole thing. Maybe they are comments from people who haven’t seen the musical."

Time will tell. Tonight will be a memory too, and a new day will begin...

Cats is released in cinemas on December 20.

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