Welcome back to Wonderland, Alice Kingsleigh.
Five years after the release of Alice in Wonderland, Walt Disney Studios released the first trailer for its sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Thursday. Upon her return, Alice (Mia Wasikowska) meets old friends and foes, like Tarrant Hightopp, the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) and Iracebeth of Crims, the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), and she also meets a new enemy: Time (Sacha Baron Cohen). Alice's return was foretold before she knew it would come to pass: "When the day becomes the night / And the sky becomes the sea / When the clock strikes heavy / And there's no time for tea / And in our darkest hour / Before my final rhyme / She will come back home to Wonderland / And turn back the hands of Time."
During her journey, Alice discovers she must stop Time in order to save the Mad Hatter. "Time is a he?" she asks. Indeed, but as Mirana of Marmoreal, the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), warns, "He is not someone you want as your enemy."
The fantasy film is based on author Lewis Carroll's second Alice novel, 1871's Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. In addition to Baron Cohen, Bonham Carter, Depp, Hathaway and Wasikowska, the cast also includes Matt Lucas as Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Returning voice actors include Stephen Fry as Cheshire, the Cheshire Cat; Alan Rickman as Absolem, the Blue Caterpillar; Michael Sheen as Nivens McTwisp, the White Rabbit; Timothy Spall as Bayard, the Bloodhound; Paul Whitehouse as Thackery Earwicket, the March Hare; and Barbara Windsor as Mallymkun, the Dormouse. Newcomers include Rhys Ifans as Zanik Hightopp, the Mad Hatter's father; and Ed Speelers as James Harcourt. Toby Jones also voices Wilkins, and John Sessions voices Humpty Dumpty.
Directed by James Bobin (The Muppets) from a script by Linda Wolverton (Maleficent), Alice Through the Looking Glass opens in theaters on May 27, 2016.
Nostalgic for Alice in Wonderland? Depp and Tim Burton talked all about it in 2010: