Angelina Jolie is Back in Black in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Video

Sometimes the simplest promo ideas are the most effective. Hat’s off to whoever conceived of this new Maleficent: Mistress of Evil video. It’s just Angelina Jolie getting her hair and makeup done, in black and white, set to AC/DC’s “Back in Black.” It’s a time-lapse video, so we see a sped-up version of Jolie becoming the powerful fairy Maleficent in under a minute. The coup-de-grace is a moment after the large, horned headpiece is put on, Jolie slips in Maleficent’s fangs and smiles at the camera. While there are plenty of reasons to see Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Disney is wise enough to know that Jolie is the main attraction.

Check out the video here:

This is Jolie’s first return to acting since she directed and starred in 2015’s By the Sea. Mistress of Evil is, of course, the sequel to 2014’s smash hit Maleficent. That film introduced us to Jolie’s titular villain and gave us the other side of the Sleeping Beauty story. We finally learned why the “evil” Maleficent cursed her goddaughter, baby Aurora. By the end of Maleficent, however, the powerful fairy and her goddaughter had become allies, and Maleficent revealed herself to more misunderstood than evil. In Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, it seems our favorite horned fairy might be breaking bad again.

Here’s a quick synopsis: Wedding bells are chiming. Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson) has proposed to Maleficent’s beloved goddaughter, Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning). We learned from the first film that Maleficent has many a reason not to believe in true love. She initially tells Aurora she can’t marry him, but Aurora promises that Maleficent will see their love is true.

If Maleficent was going to budge (she does love Aurora, after all), her heart is once again turned icy by the arrival of Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer), Prince Phillip’s mother. Queen Ingrith and Maleficent do not hit it off. The Queen implies that Maleficent has gone against her nature (read; she’s evil) to raise Aurora, so now that her son is marrying Aurora, the young princess has a real mother now. Ouch. You can imagine how well this goes over.

Thus we have our set up. It’s Maleficent versus the Queen, with poor Aurora once again caught in the middle. We’ve also got Chiwetel Ejiofor‘s mysterious Conall in the mix, suggesting there will be a lot more to Mistress of Evil than the battle between two strong-willed women over Aurora’s fate.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil hits theaters on October 18, 2019. It’s directed by Joachim Ronning. The cast also includes Sam Riley, Ed Skrein, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, and Lesley Manville.

Featured image: Elle Fanning is Aurora and Angelina Jolie is Maleficent in Disney’s MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL. Courtesy Walt Disney Studios.