The early teaser footage of Da Vinci’s Demons wasn’t all that exciting. But the first full trailer is. The upcoming Starz drama series stars Tom Riley as the famed artist and inventor, elevated into a super-hero character with some help from writer David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight).

“He’s kind of super-hero-y anyway,” Goyer told critics at the network’s press tour session in Pasadena on Saturday morning. “[Some have said that] aside from Christ he’s the most recognizable figure in the world  … my approach wasn’t entirely dissimilar to [writing] Batman or Superman … He had an incredible life, we didn’t have to embellish as much as you’d think.” Goyer goes on to point out there’s some similarities between Da Vinci and Batman, that both had issues with their parents and, he says, at one point something “horrific” happened to Da Vinci in a cave.

In addition to releasing the Starz announced the series will premiere on Friday, April 12 (continuing Starz’ strategy of trying to carve out a popular premium cable slot on Friday nights, while rivals like Showtime, AMC and HBO fight it out on Sunday nights). Here’s the trailer: