Hi-yo Silver! The first TV spot for Walt Disney Pictures’ summer western spectacular The Lone Ranger has premiered during tonight’s Super Bowl and now it is available online for those of us – myself included – who don’t watch football to enjoy.

You can watch the 90-second spot here below.

The studio and director Gore Verbinski definitely put together a humdinger of a teaser here with plenty of action, mythologizing, and even a touch of light-hearted banter from stars Johnny Depp (as Tonto) and Armie Hammer (as the Ranger). The whole “yes-no-yes-no” bit at the end gets tiresome though. At least the focus is on Hammer’s character this time instead of the footage being all “Lookee at Johnny Depp with a bird on his hand and crap” and runaway locomotives, and Depp doesn’t look to be taking this stuff completely seriously. That is a relief.

The connection to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies is played up briefly because Disney is hoping the re-teaming of Depp and Verbinski will spawn another lucrative billion dollar franchise, or at the very least recoup its gargantuan budget with a tidy little profit perhaps. There are many people involving in the making of The Lone Ranger who are desperately hoping that come year’s end they will be able to say, in the words of the legendary comic genius Lenny Bruce, “Thank you, masked man!”

The Lone Ranger opens on July 3, 2013.

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