Watching the first Cars 3 teaser trailer, it looked as if Disney Pixar's upbeat animation series was going down a dark new direction. During the trailer, we saw Lightning McQueen get caught up in a horrifying accident, which was followed by the message "from this moment, everything will change." This left us with the feeling that the tone of Cars 3 would be the equivalent to The Empire Strikes Back in the popular Pixar series.

Watch the video closely, however, and you could spot several electric vehicles stalking McQueen's slipstream, acting as a clever visual metaphor for the future direction of the auto industry. A second trailer has just dropped for Disney-Pixar's Cars 3, and while it doesn't feature any new footage of the movie, it introduces us to several new characters.

The NASCAR-inspired lead character Lightning McQueen, of course, needs no introduction, having starred in every Cars film to date. According to a revealing interview with Entertainment Weekly, McQueen will be joined by new antagonist Jackson Storm voiced by Armie Hammer, portrayed as a mean, technologically advanced machine that represents developments in the auto industry since the first Cars movie way back in in 2006. Jackson will be powered by an 850-hp V8, with a top speed of 214 mph and a 0-60 mph time of 3.6 seconds, so McQueen may have met his match. It looks as if Jackson is the hybrid car that featured in the first trailer, an ode to the hybrid hypercars that are starting to gain prominence in the real world.

The second new character to star in Cars 3 will be Cruz Ramirez, a more compassionate car voiced by Cristela Alonzo who acts as McQueen's trainer. Lightning McQueen, on the other hand, will apparently lose his trademark confidence and question his ability to continue racing, which sounds like an interesting plot thread that gives the characters more depth. Cars 3 will be roaring into cinemas on June 16.