I’d completely expected to be writing a note this week about how the COVID-19 pandemic has largely shut down trailer production, but it turns out, my assumption was wrong. While things have certainly slowed down, streaming services are almost singlehandedly keeping up the new releases. If anything, this is a great moment for them to debut a new show or series since everyone is stuck indoors.
That said, we’ll see how long this lasts. Productions are being shut down for health reasons, and it seems like every major movie coming out in the next couple of months is being delayed. So there may come a point where the backlog of content thins out. I certainly suspect it’ll be a bit before we see any trailers for tentpole films.
For now, it’s a great moment to catch up on some old movies you haven’t watched in a while or check out a show you never got around to. My wife and I are now nearly a season into The Sopranos, something we newly have the time to spend watching through. Other than the occasionally strange ’90s music choices, it’s pretty good.
Check out 11 trailers from this week and last week below.
Killing Eve
While I’ve heard that the show’s second season didn’t live up to its much-loved first run, this teaser for season three of Killing Eve looks wonderfully stylized, fun, and dramatic. The show returns April 12th.
#blackAF
Black-ish creator Kenya Barris has a new comedy series coming to Netflix about life as a successful black artist in Hollywood. Barris stars as a fictionalized version of himself, with Rashida Jones playing his wife. From just the first moment of this trailer, it seems like the show is off to a strong start. It debuts April 17th.
Tigertail
Master of None co-creator Alan Yang makes his feature debut with Tigertail, a beautifully shot film about a Taiwanese factory worker moving to America. It comes to Netflix on April 10th.
Upload
Greg Daniels, who led the US version of The Office, is back with a new sitcom for Amazon. Upload is about people who live in a digital “afterlife” after having their consciousness uploaded pre-death. So far, it mostly looks like an excuse to make some pretty low-hanging tech jokes (hilarious, there are in-app purchases…). The show debuts May 1st.
The Great
Hulu has a ridiculous looking period piece comedy coming up that stars Elle Fanning as Catherine the Great. It’s hard not to think of The Favourite while watching this, but that’s not a bad thing — the series comes from one of the film’s co-writers. The show debuts May 15th.
Defending Jacob
Chris Evans plays a father whose kid is accused of murder in this upcoming Apple TV Plus series. It’s based on a crime novel, and yeah… I just went ahead and read the entire synopsis on Wikipedia to find out if he did it or not. The show debuts April 24th.
Run
The basic premise of Run is super twee — two exes follow through on an old agreement to drop everything, reunite, and run away together if their lives get boring — but the actual execution looks surprisingly fun and lively. It comes out April 12th.
The Willoughbys
Netflix is turning Lois Lowry’s The Willoughbys into an animated film, and while it looks like the movie is filled with pretty conventional kids humor, the animation has an intricate stop motion-esque look to it. It comes out April 22nd.
Bad Education
Even though Netflix has made straight-to-streaming films a totally normal thing, I’m still a little skeptical about movies that go straight to HBO. But all that said: I’m very into this trailer for Bad Education, which is based on a real story about a beloved school leader whose years of theft starts to become exposed. It comes out April 25th.
Most Dangerous Game
I’m fully obsessed with watching Quibi trailers in a “let’s see just how much of a mess this is gonna be” kind of way. Most Dangerous Game is a movie “in chapters” up to 10 minutes long. There are two big stars in the lead, and despite my assumptions, it looks like a pretty altogether normal action movie. It comes to Quibi on April 6th, when the service launches.
Murder House Flip
Speaking of Quibi… here’s the trailer for what is likely its altogether most bonkers show. I absolutely hate that this is probably going to be its biggest hit.
