Hercules trailer: The Rock plays a reluctant Ancient Greek superhero

Hercules prepares for battle

A new trailer for the forthcoming Hercules film has been released, showing a different side to the Greek demigod.

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In the two-minute trailer, Hercules is revealed to be an unwilling hero, who wants to keep his “true identity” hidden from the world and lead a normal life - that is until the gods take his family from him.

Hercules then must save the world from that the descendants of Hades, the ancient Greek god of the underworld, wreaking havoc on the living.

The epic fantasy film is based on the Radical Comics character and stars semi-retired wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the lead role.

This is Johnson’s first big fantasy role since starring in 2002’s The Scorpion King and features the actor with long locks of hair and wielding a sword.

The trailer is reminiscent of Frank Miller’s 300 films and Thor, and there even appears to be a Gladiator reference thrown in when Hercules’ wife and children appear to be walking through a wheat field.

The hidden identity element appears to have been adopted from the superhero genre

Despite nearly every other ancient fantasy film over the past decade, the trailer has already attracted over 1.3 million views on YouTube since it was uploaded yesterday.

Admittedly, there are some impressive CGI and action sequences as well as a stellar cast which includes John Hurt, Rebecca Ferguson, Ian McShane and Rufus Sewall.

Hercules will be out in cinemas next month.