I’m stuck in a weird spot when it comes to movies and TV, these days. On one hand, the constant churn of remakes, reboots, franchise movies, and sequels often feels like it comes at the expense of original storytelling. But on the other, I am unabashedly looking forward to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, I’m really enjoying The Acolyte, and I’m sorry, but I’m the reason Nintendo just keeps remaking games, and I will continue to be. (Also, I feel I must apologize to my friends and family in advance for my absence when Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is released.)
Thankfully, the trailers that showed up this week look as promising as any of the best of those.
Deadpool & Wolverine
It’s another Deadpool & Wolverine trailer; what am I going to do, not watch it five times and then tell you about it? This one almost doesn’t have anything we haven’t had before. Almost, that is, until it reveals that Tyler Mane will reprise his role as Sabretooth from the first X-Men film. We’ve got just under a month to go before the movie’s July 26th release.
Batman: The Caped Crusader
Things were looking dicey for Batman: Caped Crusader after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger and the show’s move to Amazon Studios. But it finally got a release date (August 1st) and, now, a trailer full of every bit of the dark, 1940s-era art deco style that creator Bruce Timm’s 1990s series was dripping with.
Actor Hamish Linklater’s Batman voice was shown off in a teaser earlier this month, clearly nodding at the late Kevin Conroy’s portrayal of the character. In it, he listed the show’s stellar cast, which includes Christina Ricci, Jamie Chung, Diedrich Bader, John DiMaggio, Minnie Driver, and Mckenna Grace.
Nosferatu
Nosferatu’s first teaser trailer offers only a dim look at the vampire known as Count Orlok, once played by Max Schreck in the 1922 silent horror film the movie is a remake of. But it does a great job setting the mood for the grim remake of Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, itself an unofficial retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Starring Willem Dafoe, Lily Rose-Depp, and Bill Skarsgård, the Robert Eggers movie is due to hit theaters, merrily, on December 25th.
Heretic
It feels like Hugh Grant’s been having a moment lately. His turn as the Mr. Reed, a man who traps two young Mormon missionaries come to spread the gospel to him, seems just as compellingly off-brand as his portrayals of Lofty the Oompa Loompa in Wonka and the con artist Forge Fitzwilliam in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Heretic also bucks the retread trend of the other trailers from this week by being its own story. It’s written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the team behind A Quiet Place.