'John Carter' Official Trailer Premieres

If you're a fan of John Carter, the Virginian hero from the Edgar Rice Burroughs' sci-fi Barsoom series, you're in for a treat. The first official theatrical trailer for the film John Carter, directed by Oscar-winner Andrew Stanton (WALL-E, Finding Nemo, A Bug's Life) and starring Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights), has been released, and it promises to be packed with action.

The story, written by Burroughs a century ago, follows Civil War vet and titular character John Carter through his adventures after he finds himself bizarrely placed on the surface of Mars. This is a highly fictionalized, early-20th century vision of Mars that more than 100 years of careful scientific study has managed to deromanticize — one filled with little green men, little red men, huge white ape-like creatures, and other strange beings, many of whom are locked in hostile battles with one another.

While the trailer may whet your appetite, don't expect to be spoon fed plot twists. Stanton believes in maintaining a healthy bit of mystery. "I can tell you who the cast is and what the places are, but I'm not going to connect all the dots," he said, reports Entertainment Weekly. "Why would anybody want to do that?"

The trailer may not give away too much of the plot, but it delivers an eyeful of the frequently shirtless Kitsch in one of his first big screen roles since he played the Cajun mutant Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

You can catch John Carter, also starring Mark Strong, Bryan Cranston, Willem Dafoe, and Thomas Hayden Church, in theaters on March 9, 2012.

Watch the trailer here: