Watch the Tension-Filled First Trailer for Netflix's 'Death Note'
"What they want is a god. So, let's give it to them."
Netflix has shared the highly anticipated first trailer for its adaptation of the classic manga Death Note, and it looks intense as hell. A lot of people are going to die in a lot of crazy, brutal ways.
The trailer, which hit the web on Thursday, shows the protagonist, Light Turner (Light Yagami in the original manga), coming across the titular Death Note — a book used by the gods of death to instantly kill any human whose name is written in the pages. Things escalate quickly from there, as Ryuk, the death god (or Shinigami) who originally owned the Death Note, encourages Light to use it. Ryuk is mostly hidden in the shadows in the initial trailer, but what we can see looks creepy, and since he’s voiced by Willem Dafoe he sounds utterly terrifying.
The spot goes on to show some of the devastation Light brings upon the world, as he’s refashioned himself into a god, using his instant-death powers to kill anybody he deems worth slaying. A secretive detective, L, is on a mission to find out who the mysterious person behind these bizarre deaths really is.
Netflix’s Death Note has been plagued by whitewashing accusations, since it changed the setting of the events from Japan to Seattle and swapped the races of the main characters. We’ll know the whole deal when the film premieres on the streaming service on August 25.
