'West Side Story' Debuts Dazzling First Trailer Starring Ansel Elgort: Watch

The highly anticipated musical film adaptation's first trailer aired during the 2021 Oscars.

Stay cool, boy! West Side Story has released its first trailer for the highly anticipated Steven Spielberg film, and it's set to be a heartbreakingly tragic return to the classic musical. 

The film's first trailer was released during Sunday's Academy Awards and features Ansel Elgort in the lead role of Tony and newcomer Rachel Zegler as Maria. 

The film also stars Rita Moreno as Valentina and musical up-and-comer Ariana DeBose, who recently starred in the film adaptation of Prom, as Anita. Moreno played Anita in the 1961 film adaptation, which starred Natalie Wood as Maria and Richard Beymer as Tony. 

The movie was filmed in the summer of 2019 across Manhattan. 

“The film is a love letter to New York City, celebrating its diversity, celebrating the beauty of the streets, celebrating the possibility that people felt when they came to the city. That's the thing I really love about it,” DeBose previously told ET. “That energy was palpable on set.”

The story of the star-crossed lovers is based off the classic Shakespeare play Romeo & Juliet, and was first a Broadway musical in 1957. It follows the love story between Tony and Maria, whose friends are a part of rival street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. 

The newest film was originally slated to hit theaters in December 2020, but due to the COVID pandemic, it has been pushed back to Dec. 10, 2021. 

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