Try And Figure Out What’s Going On In The First ‘Ghost in the Shell’ Teasers

Most of the chatter surrounding the upcoming adaptation of Ghost in the Shell has centered around the casting of Scarlett Johansson as a character who, in the original comic, was Japanese. The claims of whitewashing tried to be explained away by certain defenders (screenwriter Max Landis does a pretty good job of it), but it was poisonous for a very expensive science fiction movie. Looking to reclaim that narrative, Paramount has released five moody teasers for the cyberpunk thriller; they aired during last night’s Mr. Robot finale.

The unconventional promos—each one lasts about ten seconds—give us a pretty good sense of the dystopian noir atmospherics that director Rupert Sanders is going for. We get our first look at Scarlett Johansson’s character, The Major (original name, Major Motoko Kusanagi), a cyborg police officer in 2029 tracking down a mysterious hacker known as The Laughing Man (played by Michael Pitt). The teasers are purposely cryptic, and audiences who know nothing about the original manga series might be led to believe that they’re watching clips for a movie about a woman who’s being haunted by the spirit of a snail. We assure you that is not the case. Ghost in the Shell hits theaters on March 31 of next year, and you can watch all the teasers in sequence below.