Will Smith is an enslaved man running his way to freedom in first Emancipation trailer

Apple has released the first full trailer for Emancipation, which stars Will Smith as an enslaved man trying to get back to his family.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua, the Apple Original Film is inspired by an infamous photo taken during the Civil War depicting a Black man with horrific scars on his back from beatings he endured as a slave.

The film is, notably, Smith's first since the slapping incident at the Oscars, which resulted in his being banned from the ceremony for the next 10 years. Emancipation, however, is already garnering Oscars buzz following a special screening last month in Washington, D.C.

"Throughout my career, I've turned down many films that were set in slavery," Smith said at the screening. "I never wanted to show us like that. And then this picture came along. And this is not a film about slavery. This is a film about freedom. This is a film about resilience. This is a film about faith."

Emancipation tells the story of Peter, a man who escapes from slavery, relying on his wits, unwavering faith, and deep love for his family to evade cold-blooded hunters and the unforgiving swamps of Louisiana on his quest for freedom, according to a press release. The film is inspired by the 1863 photo of "Whipped Peter," taken during a Union Army medical examination, that first appeared in Harper's Weekly.

At the D.C. screening, Smith referred to the photo, which provided Northerners with visual evidence of the brutality of slavery and inspired free Blacks to join the Union Army, as "the first viral image."

Fuqua especially wanted to tell the story of Whipped Peter as a reminder not to forget the past but to "have discussions about the past, so that we can move forward," he told Vanity Fair.

"Some young kids were born, the first president they saw was Barack Obama," Fuqua said. "If we start our history there that means we forget all the past. We forget about Martin Luther King. We forget about Malcolm X. We forget about all our great leaders in the past. Do we forget about Nelson Mandela? We've got to go back and we have to have discussions about the past, so that we can move forward, and so we can start healing."

Fuqua also hopes that people will look beyond the real-life drama surrounding Smith and focus on his performance and "all the real hard work that the whole crew did," noting that the film — as well as "400 years of slavery" — is "bigger than that moment."

Emancipation, written by William N. Collage and also starring Ben Foster and Charmaine Bingwa, will premiere in theaters on Dec. 2 and globally on Apple TV+ on Dec. 9. Watch the trailer above.

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