The Legend of Tarzan First Images: Alexander Skarsgard and Margot Robbie

(Photo: Jonathan Olley)

Ever since the Golden Age of Hollywood, Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan has been adapted to the screen, but next summer's The Legend of Tarzan will bring a new spin to the character.

Legend begins with Tarzan (portrayed by True Blood's Alexander Skarsgard) out of the jungle, as John Clayton III, a decade stripped from his jungle home and completely established in British upperclass. He is sent by Parliament as an emissary to return to the Congo, where his now wife Jane (Margot Robbie), and old friends face a great danger.

Speaking to USA Today, Skarsgard talked about how the story was reversed and hasn't been explored before with Tarzan on screen. "It's almost the opposite of the classic tale, where it's about taming the beast," he said. "This is about a man who's holding back and slowly as you peel off the layers, he reverts back to a more animalistic state and lets that side of his personality out."

(Photo: Jonathan Olley)

Skarsgård worked with choreographer Wayne McGregor to determine the movements and posture of a man who carries himself as an "upper-crust Englishman" yet embraces his feral spirit once more when he returns to the Congo.

"He works mostly with the best contemporary ballet dancers in the world, so it was quite unusual for him to work with somebody like me who can't touch their toes," Skarsgård said.

The film also stars Djimon Hounsou as Chief Mbonga, Samuel L. Jackson as the real-life figure George Washington Williams and the ever-charismatic Christoph Waltz as the Belgian antagonist Captain Leon Rom.

The Legend of Tarzan will swing into theaters on July 1, 2016.