Matthew Moorey gives a rundown of the trailers and teasers this year’s Super Bowl had to offer.
The Super Bowl is a key date on many calendars, and of course most of the interest is in the bit where some men throw a ball (and each other) around, but for us film fanatics, there’s the teasers and trailers. So here we are. In the past, the half time show has introduced the world to the likes of Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi but Super Bowl LIII (53?) has, for some, been a fairly quiet one. Star Wars IX, Stranger Things and Game of Thrones (unless you’re counting that Bud light ad) all failed to show up, leaving us with only a few teaser trailers to mull over. But while a lot of people might be feeling underwhelmed with this year’s offerings, I’m not-so-quietly hyped up over a certain 28 seconds…
It wasn’t even 30 seconds, but the big game teaser for the long awaited ‘Avengers: Endgame’ dropped. It’s got to the point where even the mention of the word ‘Endgame’ triggers a great wave of excitement. With the secrets of the plot under very very tight wraps, it’s unsurprising we haven’t been shown much, even if the film’s release is less than three months way. The beginning of the teaser showed a series of images of all the heroes who perished in the previous film, just to remind us of the heartbreak. In the main footage of the teaser we get our first look at the world following the Thanos snap, or ‘the decimation’ as it has been officially named, as well as the remaining heroes. As the Marvel trailers have garnered a reputation for, well, deception, many fans are speculating what the teaser footage might be hiding. In the past, heroes have either been added or removed from group shots to mislead. So inevitably, one shot outside of Avengers HQ where there’s a gap between the assembled heroes has led to speculation as to who might have been edited out for this trailer. All questions will be answered on the film’s release on 26th April, but UK fans will be a bit luckier as it comes out a day early on the 25th here. The excitement is building!
Elsewhere, we caught our first look at ‘Toy Story 4’, which is to be released on the 21st June. The beloved animated film series is returning for a fourth outing, but I’m not sure how I feel about this considering I still haven’t recovered from the trauma of ‘Toy Story 3’. In the brief clip we hear the familiar sound of ‘You’ve got a friend in me’ as the gang of toys visit an amusement park.
Four 10-15 second teasers from director Guillermo Del Toro’s new project ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’ were revealed, and they honestly look petrifying. Each of the four clips gives us a glimpse at a different horror, and 10 seconds was enough to haunt my dreams forever, thank you very much. No definite release date has been given, just the rough August 2019.
Sticking with horror, an ‘Us’ teaser was played, but it didn’t reveal anything that wasn’t already shown in the previously released full length trailer. Staring Lupita Nyong’o, Elizabeth Moss and Winston Duke, it follows a family who are attacked by their creepy and evil doppelgangers, and it set to be released on the 22nd March.
Teasers for ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ and animated family film ‘Wonder Park’ were also shown. The Alita teaser simply shows a tad more of Mahershala Ali’s character in James Cameron and Robert Rodrigues’ CGI-fest, but since the Super Bowl the film has been released. ‘Wonder Park’ shows the adventure of a young girl as she comes across the amusement park of her dreams and must save and rebuild the park alongside her new animal friends (because what is an animated film without animals?).
Captain Marvel, the first Marvel superhero film with a female lead, also debuted a teaser with the tagline ‘Higher, Further, Faster’, showing Brie Larson in action as Carol Danvers. Jude Law, Ben Mendelsohn and a ‘de-aged’ Samuel L. Jackson, are also shown. Captain Marvel will be released on the 8th March, as the final MCU film before ‘Avengers: Endgame’.
In the TV department, there were teasers for ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 3, Amazon Prime original ‘Hanna’, CBS show ‘Million Dollar Mile’, Netflix’s documentary ‘Our Planet’, and a Super Bowl-related promo for Jordan Peele’s reboot of the classic sci-fi show ‘The Twilight Zone’. ‘Millions Dollar Mile’ is set for 27th March, while ‘The Twilight Zone’ and ‘Our Planet’ will be premiered on 1st and 5th April respectively. ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is yet to have a confirmed release and the ‘Hanna’ pilot was available 24 hours after the Super Bowl.
Matthew Moorey
Image Courtesy of Marvel Studios