Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer Reveals First Look Photos of Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr. and More

As the holidays approach, it’s time to close the book on the year 2022, and start looking ahead to the year in entertainment coming in 2023. One of the most highly-anticipated movies of 2023 will be the next film by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer. As the title may imply, the film is a biopic about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientist whose research was key in helping America develop the atomic bomb. While Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy star Cillian Murphy will be starring as Oppenheimer, the film also comes with one of the most stacked casts we’ve ever seen – an today we’re getting some first looks at them!

Oppenheimer will also star Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place) as scientist and wife Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer; Gary Oldman as President Harry S. Truman; Matt Damon as Pentagon founder and Manhattan Project military liaison Lt. General Leslie Groves; Robert Downey Jr. as businessman and Atomic Energy Commission leader and chair, Lewis Strauss; Florence Pugh (Black Widow) as the communist-leaning physician Jean Tatlock, who was one of Oppenheimer’s lovers; with other famous scientists/physicists being playing by the likes of Josh Hartnett (The Faculty), Matthew Modine (Stranger Things), Josh Peck (Drake & Josh), Devon Bostick (Diary of a Wimpy Kid), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo), David Krumholtz (Numb3rs), and Michael Angarano (Will & Grace). In addition to that ensemble, Rami Malek (No Time to Die), Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems), Dane DeHaan (Chronicle), Kenneth Branagh (Dunkirk), David Dastmalchian (Ant-Man), Jack Quaid (The Boys), Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty), Casey Affleck (Gone Baby Gone), James D’Aarcy (Agent Carter) and Matthias Schweighöfer (Army of the Dead) will also appear in the film. 

Thanks to Total Film Magazine we are now at least getting looks at Murphy and Blunt in a dramatic scene; Murphy in several scenes meant to mimic old newsreels and TV; Nolan at work on set, and Robert Downey Jr. about as unrecognizable as we’ve ever seen him, as Lewis Strauss. It is a curious thing to see the Oppenheimer images: the first Oppenheimer teaser trailer seemed to tease it would be entirely a black-and-white film; however, now some of these new images have us wondering if that’s truly the case, or if the film will dovetail between black-and-white and color sections, reflecting both different eras of time and the evolution of film technology to include color pictures.

The former case (changing color palettes for different time periods) was a key hinge in Nolan’s breakout mystery-drama-thriller Memento back in 2000, so it would be interesting to see him go back to it. Oppenheimer could very well move unlike most biopics, non-linearly across time, to examine how seemingly small moments and choices can reshape the world and our lives. 

Oppenheimer has a release date of July 21, 2023.