Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated wartime biopic Oppenheimer is officially a year out, and to mark the occasion Universal Pictures has released the first poster art. The somber epic will tell the tale of the renowned theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, and the hand he played in the development of the devastating atomic bomb. His involvement in the undertaking earned Oppenheimer the title "father of the atomic bomb."

Released early on July 21, exactly a year out from the film's expected 100-day theatrical release, the first-look key art for Nolan's Oppenheimer is, at a glance, humbling. Darkly silhouetted by the consequences of what has transpired, Cillian Murphy, who plays the titular scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, is standing in a dapper suit, casually flicking away the ashes of his cigarette. The blowback of a massive explosion lifts his coat in a fiery breeze, as he stands alone when the smoke begins to clear. Over the top of the poster in concise lettering beneath the title, the release date is centered with the words, "The world forever changes."

Listed over the title are some of Nolan's heaviest hitters in a cast that is brimming with Oscar-winners. Listed with frequent Nolan-collaborator Murphy on the brand-new poster are Emily Blunt, who will play opposite Murphy as Oppenheimer's wife Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer; Matt Damon as Lieutenant General Leslie R. Groves, the man designated to head the Manhattan Project; Robert Downey Jr. as Navy representative Lewis Strauss, who later turned on Oppenheimer, and Florence Pugh who will play the role of Jean Tatlock, a Communist Party member who later became involved with Oppenheimer during his marriage to Katherine. The cast also features Benny Safdie, Jack Quaid, Kenneth Branagh, Gary Oldman, Rami Malek, Dane DeHaan, Olivia Thirlby and many more.

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Image via Universal Pictures

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A quote from Oppenheimer:

"We waited until the blast had passed, walked out of the shelter and then it was entirely solemn. We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent."

Nolan's screenplay, which he wrote based off of Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer, will chronicle the involvement of the scientist and professor who was selected to head the secretive Manhattan Project at the Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico. It was under Oppenheimer's hand that this weapon of mass destruction was helmed, and a frightening amount of power was placed in the palms of the U.S. Nolan's picture will likely cover the tragic aftermath of the destruction of the Japanese cities Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Oppenheimer will mark Nolan's first film in over two decades to not be produced with Warner Bros. After the bidding war Universal Pictures will produce, as well as Nolan and his partner Emma Thomas.

Check out the first Oppenheimer poster art below, and a video on J. Robert Oppenheimer:

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