How Will Smith Wants His Netflix Thriller to Change the Way You Think About Race

To say David Ayer's upcoming Netflix movie is ambitious would be an understatement. Bright, which won't hit the streaming network until Dec. 22, is a fantasy thriller with the grit of a rated-R cop movie like Ayer's End of Watch, only interwoven with themes pulled straight out of Lord of the Rings. The film takes place in a world where creatures like orcs and elves live and work side by side with humans, which results in a rigid hierarchy forming among the races: chic and beautiful elves at the top, humans somewhere in the middle, and orcs at the bottom.

Will Smith stars as LAPD police officer Daryl Ward, a human, who finds his work life suddenly much more complicated when he's partnered with "diversity hire" Nick Jakoby (Joel Edgerton), an orc. Ward is openly angry about Jakoby's arrival at first, a situation that Smith found fascinating as a black man.

"It's such a bizarre world. Joel [Edgerton] plays the first orc on the LAPD. It felt really great to be an African American police officer and have them find somebody else [for me to] be racist against," he joked during a panel for Bright at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday. "You're never on that side of racism when you're black. Like, 'Listen, man, I don't want no orcs in my car!'"

Tackling race in film is nothing new, but having those themes featured so prominently in a fantasy film (which reportedly cost Netflix $100 million) is a risk, one that both Ayer and the cast acknowledged the difficulties of navigating. Ayer explained that he hopes by showcasing racism in Bright's fantastical universe, it might open a few minds to real-life issues, and Smith noted that the director wasn't "delicate" about examining the harsh realities of the movie's themes.

"It's great to have this size of a spectacular world, but then to really narrow the story down to something as simple and human as a foolish prejudice is really beautiful," Smith said. "It's such a beautiful snapshot of our world without hammering on it too much. To see all of the layers in people and all of the different issues . . . at the end of the day everyone is really just trying to have a good life."