The A24 film from Ex Machina and 28 Days Later filmmaker Alex Garland, action-drama Civil War, depicts a new-future United States where 19 states have seceded from the Union, while much of the rest of the country is ruled by a tyrannical three-term president (played by Nick Offerman, recently seen in the acclaimed third episode of The Last of Us), who has ordered air strikes against the rebelling “Western Forces”.

It follows a team of journalists travelling across the territories during this Second American Civil War, as they struggle to survive and document this time of dystopian dictatorship and extremist militias. Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Jesse Plemons and Sonoya Mizuno star in what’s been described as an “adrenaline-fuelled trill ride”.

“The Western forces of Texas and California are welcome back to these United States as soon as their illegal secessionist government is deposed,” Offerman’s President declares in a White House address, in the newly-released second trailer. Alex Garland both writes and directs the pic, which stands as A24’s most expensive project to date.

In an interview promoting Men, Garland previously described Civil War as a companion piece to the Jessie Buckley-starrer, and said it is “set at an indeterminate point in the future – just far enough ahead for me to add a conceit — and serves as a sci-fi allegory for our currently polarized predicament”.

Civil War releases in cinemas April 12th, 2024. Watch the second trailer below: