

Thanks to the success of Guardians of the Galaxy, blockbuster sci-fi adventures can be trippy again. Bulbous monsters, sparkly outfits, zero-G hairstyles, starscapes that look like 1970s prog rock album covers—it's all cool now. And that means, strangely, that the world is finally ready for a movie based on the 1960s comic book that started the psychedelic sci-fi craze in the first place.

That's what you'll see in this first full-length trailer for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, the tale of Valerian and Laureline, two spacio-temporal agents hired to guard the universe's only intergalactic library in the insanely colorful cosmopolis Alpha. The film is directed by The Fifth Element mastermind Luc Besson, whose most recent movie was the transhumanist hit Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson. As for Valerian's plot, there's some kind of vague menace threatening not just the future of knowledge, but all of space-time.

The story looks fun, but the backstory is downright fascinating. Director Besson has been obsessed with the original French comic Valérian et Laureline for almost his entire career. Created in 1967 by French literature professor Pierre Christin and illustrated by Jean-Claude Mézières, the comic tackled social and philosophical issues with a strong dose of mid-century radicalism. What made it unique was the combination of political commentary with Mézières' crazy, colorful art. Mézières was a close friend of Jean Giraud, known as influential sci-fi comic creator Moebius. Both Mézières and Giraud's work were the immediate forerunners of the sexy/otherworldly style found in Métal Hurlant (Heavy Metal) magazine.

When Besson wanted to create the bizarre, shiny future in The Fifth Element, he hired Mézières as a concept artist. Other Hollywood concept designers, including Doug Chiang who worked on The Phantom Menace, have also talked about the influence of Mézières' work. Basically, the style and structure of Valérian et Laureline influenced fantastical art and storytelling for decades without most of the English-speaking world realizing it.

Some critics are worried that the burning originality of the comic will be lost on generations of people who grew up on the pop culture it influenced. That's possible, but now might also be the perfect time for people to rediscover Valérian et Laureline. Books and comics often pave the way for movies and television, introducing new themes and ideas decades before they hit the mainstream.

How closely Besson's movie will follow the comic, which ran until 2010, is not clear. In the comic, Valérian comes from the 28th century, but his partner Laureline is a peasant girl from 11th century France whom he trains to be a spacio-temporal agent. At first, she's a sidekick, but later becomes his equal. Going by what we see in this trailer, she's definitely reached the equal phase or maybe surpassed it.

What's funny is that it's not as if sci-fi audiences had to become more fancy or sophisticated to appreciate Valérian et Laureline—in many ways, the story represents a nostalgic return to Silver Age science fiction, when creators combined swashbuckling 1950s storytelling with 1960s countercultural ideas. This trailer for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets feels oddly innocent after decades of monochrome dystopias. So, is the world ready for some original retro futurism? We're about to find out.

Valerian hits theaters in the States on July 21 and the UK on August 4.

Listing image by STX Entertainment