I know I’m in the minority when I say that I liked Kenneth Branagh’s 2017 adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express. It wasn’t perfect by any means and would almost certainly not age well on rewatch (part of my fondness for it is due to the relentlessly fun time I had at the cinema with a mate of mine. For some reason, Derek Jacobi’s line about leaving something unpleasant on Johnny Depp’s pillow hit just the right comedy note for both of us and we were laughing for minutes afterwards, drawing strange looks from our fellow patrons), but it was stylish and had a stellar cast.

At the end of that film, Branagh worked in a bit of a tease for a sequel based on Agatha Christie’s 1937 novel Death on the Nile. At the time, I wasn’t sure such a movie was going to materialise, but three years later, 20th Century Fo- I mean, 20th Century Studios has released a trailer, along with a pretty sexy poster.

The poster, of course, mirrors the one for Murder on the Orient Express in 2017:

Don’t you love a bit of poster-based synchronicity? Death‘s cast isn’t quite as good as Murder‘s, I will admit, with Gal Gadot (and I guess Armie Hammer?) being the only real star among them. Still, you don’t necessarily need a stacked cast to have a good film, and the trailer gives me a lot of hope, showcasing very stylish cinematography and what will hopefully be a thrilling story.

I get that new adaptations of these classic Christie stories aren’t for everyone (particularly as both have already been made into well-liked movies themselves), but I quite like the idea of adapting another one of her novels every few years. The traditional whodunit with a cast of big names is a product of a bygone era, so having movies like these (along with last year’s Knives Out and arguably the BBC TV show Sherlock) feels like a fun throwback and a good way to break up the monotony of other studio tentpoles, which can feel a bit samey.

Not to mention that Christopher Nolan’s plan to lead the way back into cinemas with Tenet seems to have worked, since this is due for a theatrical release in October. I hope it makes it.