Trailer for Sir Kenneth Branagh’s “Cinderella” premieres!

We’ve all been waiting a long time for the trailer of Sir Kenneth Branagh’s (Gilderoy Lockhart) live action Cinderella – and it’s finally here! Previously, we’ve only been teased with a picture of a glass slipper. Yesterday, a small teaser trailer was released, which you can see here. Today, however, the full length trailer was premiered on Good Morning America!

Watch it below:

Branagh, who has directed the film, took part in a Q&A with the Globe and Mail this week, where he spoke about making the film. In the interview, he spoke about why he took on the project:

I suppose I became intrigued about understanding why Cinderella had this endurance as a myth, so that in itself was fascinating. Why is it that we so definitely identify with her, that she’s the audience’s representative par excellence? That we want to be on that journey with her? It’s as if – if Cinderella is validated, if her story of hardship overcome, is successful, somehow it speaks to all of us and suggests that it can happen in our own lives, whatever the challenges. And fairy tales are literally fabulous, aren’t they?

He also spoke about the time period for the film and the roots that he is returning to:

I’m going to go back to the source, so it won’t be Cinderella in the 21st century, in modern clothes, etc. It will be in what you might call the actual period, or a sense of what people might think was the actual period, and work from there to see if that becomes the way to entirely recreate and re-energize from the inside what it is about this story that appeals so strongly.

Branagh further spoke about the lightness in the film:

In fact, I felt we were being a little revolutionary – I felt we were doing a film unashamedly about goodness. Disney at one point picked up on this and said, yeah, goodness as a superpower. And yes, maybe that’s true, but it’s also trying to access that quality without seeming self-righteous or pious, or too-good-to-be-true. I think Cinderella, in Chris Weitz’s screenplay, can be funny and sexy and smart and kind, but she can turn the other cheek. She can, through knowing herself as she does, be totally at peace with these qualities. And I would call that real strength.

On the character, Kenneth said,

In this case, Cinderella has no sense of self-pity, no sense of being any kind of victim. She makes her own choices; she doesn’t indulge in her own pain or regard her own hardships. She doesn’t dismiss them – her life is challenging, no question – but she doesn’t regard them as any worse or any more important than anyone else’s. She looks outward with compassion. She feels sadness when life comes around, but she is not disposed to be melancholy or tragic. She wants to enjoy the time she has.

Read the full interview here. See some of the official posters for the film, featuring Lily James, who is playing Cinderella, below. Lily currently stars in Downton Abbey, alongside Dame Maggie Smith (Professor Minerva McGonagall).

Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange) also stars in the film and is seen in the trailer as the fairy godmother.

Find out more about the film here. Cinderella is due to be released on March 13, 2015, in the US and April 3 in the UK.

What do you think of the trailer? How excited are you to see the film when it comes out next year? Let us know in the comments!