'Rampage' First Look Is Here, Trailer Coming On Thursday [Updated]

Update: The first poster for Rampage has arrived and we've added it to the post below.

Looking at a new photo of Dwayne Johnson standing in the rubble of a destroyed city, you'd be forgiven for thinking he's on the set of San Andreas 2, the planned sequel to his earthquake disaster movie from 2015. But these new images are actually our first look at Rampage, a movie adaptation of the 1986 video game which – perhaps not coincidentally – reunites Johnson with San Andreas director Brad Peyton. Dwayne Johnson vs. giant monsters? Yep, safe to say this one's going to make some money.

Here are the Rampage first look photos from USA Today:

Seems like Johnson is working on his Spielberg face. He told the outlet:

"Even when I was a kid, when you watch these movies everyone is looking up at something and terrified. As a character, I loved that position where I'm looking up and there's nothing you can do but try to survive these three gigantic mutated monsters."

I'm slightly disappointed we don't have a good look at any of the monsters yet, but not too surprised: WETA Digital is working on the effects, and they've been known to work up until the last possible minute to make sure everything looks as good as possible before a film's release. When we do finally see the creatures – which could be as early as this Thursday, when the first trailer is scheduled to debut online – I also wouldn't be surprised if they look a little different in early footage than when the film debuts next year.

While the video game was pretty mindless – essentially, you play as one of three mutated monsters and your goal is just to destroy as many cities as possible – the movie actually has a plot:

Primatologist Davis Okoye (Johnson), a man who keeps people at a distance, shares an unshakable bond with George, the extraordinarily intelligent, silverback gorilla who has been in his care since birth. But a rogue genetic experiment gone awry transforms this gentle ape into a raging monster. To make matters worse, it's soon discovered there are other similarly altered alpha predators. As these newly created monsters tear across North America, destroying everything in their path, Okoye teams with a discredited genetic engineer (Naomie Harris) to secure an antidote, fighting his way through an ever-changing battlefield, not only to halt a global catastrophe but to save the fearsome creature that was once his friend.

A primatologist with a grenade launcher, huh? Sounds like this is going to be the new favorite movie of every actual primatologist in the world. It also sounds like the filmmakers are attempting to put a beating heart at the center of all of this chaos, but even as a big fan of Johnson's larger-than-life persona, I feel like there's a 50/50 chance that the relationship between his character and a gorilla could come off as incredibly goofy. Hopefully we'll have a better idea of how that plays on Thursday.

The big question now is: how are Johnson and Peyton ever going to reunite for San Andreas 2? Once you've made a movie about the destruction of cities by a 30-foot wolf, an oversized gorilla, and "a crocodile the size of a football field," destroying cities with natural disasters must seem tame and boring in comparison. Anyone else smelling a possible Geostorm/San Andreas crossover?

Rampage arrives in theaters on April 20, 2018.