We are only about halfway through 2017, but it already looks like the awards season this year could be in for a bit of a shakeup. Get Out, a horror thriller, has a legitimate shot at some huge awards, comic book movies like Logan and maybe Wonder Woman could be eyeing Best Picture nominations and Edgar Wright's Baby Driver could be looking to clean up as well. Now it looks like Guillermo Del Toro could be making his Oscar bid. We have our first trailer for his upcoming fairytale movie The Shape of Water, and boy is it something else.

Fox Searchlight finally released the first teaser trailer for The Shape of Water today, just on the heels of San Diego Comic-Con 2017, a place that tends to give Guillermo Del Toro a lot of love. Since Fox Searchlight tends to distribute a lot of awards-friendly movies, and since this movie has been given a very awards-friendly release date of December 8, 2017, it is starting to feel like this could be something very special. As for the trailer itself? Further evidence that this could be Del Toro's best movie in years. It is gorgeous, touching, wholly original and has his DNA all over it. And when it arrives in theaters, it will have an R-Rated touch of beastly gore hanging over it.

In The Shape of Water, which is described as an "otherworldly fairy tale set against the backdrop of Cold War era America," follows Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a lonely mute woman who works in the hidden high-security government laboratory as a janitor. She is trapped in a life of silence and isolation. Elisa's life is changed forever when she and a co-worker discover a secret classified experiment; a strange fishman (Doug Jones) that the government is keeping locked up and intends to experiment on. Elisa eventually forms a bond with the creature which leads to a conflict as the people she works for are not as concerned with this creature's well-being as she is.

This feels like the kind of thing that only a guy like Guillermo Del Toro could do and be taken seriously. As silly as the idea of a love story between a fish man and a mute woman may sound, it just looks so genuine in the trailer. Not to mention that The Shape of Water has assembled a truly outstanding cast. Aside from the underrated Sally Hawkins and the underappreciated Doug Jones, the movie also features Oscar winners Michael Shannon and Octavia Spencer, as well as Oscar-nominee Richard Jenkins, who provides the excellent voiceover in the trailer, with Michael Stuhlberg and David Hewlett also along for the ride. If the Academy Awards had a Best Ensemble award, this would already be a strong contender. And we must remember, this movie is the reason Del Toro didn't return to direct Pacific Rim 2.

Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth got some love from the Academy in 2007, but The Shape of Water, if it lives up to this trailer and cast, could be looking at more than just a little love. We'll have to see how the rest of 2017 shapes up, but this is one you are definitely going to want to keep your eyes peeled for later this year. Be sure to check out the first trailer for The Shape of Water for yourself below.