‘Sauron’s eye bores a hole and the rest of him slithers in’
‘The Rings of Power’ goes bigger with final trailer before Season 2 premieres. PLUS: ‘Kraven the Hunter’ gets a new trailer, and ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ writers talk RDJ.
Welcome to another summer edition of Popculturology. It’s almost time for the newsletter’s summer break (seriously, the newsletter will be off for a week after next Friday’s edition), but there’s still a ton to talk about now.
Before we get to this week’s news, I need to track down the Oreos that taste like Coca-Cola and Coke Zero that tastes like Oreos ...
Drip, drip, drip ...
I’ve never been a fan of convention culture, the idea that some fans are more deserving than others when it comes to seeing a new trailer for a movie just because they have the time and money (or luxury due to their job) to travel to something like San Diego Comic-Con.
To me, a movie trailer — a commercial for a product that a studio hopes you’ll give them your money to watch — shouldn’t be a privilege, so I’ll always cheer when one of them ends up online thanks to someone with a cellphone camera and the guts to make a risky choice.
The first trailer for Marvel Studio’s Thunderbolts* was the latest convention trailer to wind up online this way. (A quick search on Twitter should send you in the right direction.) Disney has been stingy with info about this one, even down to being coy about the meaning behind the asterisk in the film’s title.
It’s a shame since the first trailer for Thunderbolts* is fantastic.
It’s just what the studio needs to introduce audiences to — and sell them on — a movie that pulls together a hodgepodge of characters from previous MCU movies and shows like Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova and Wyatt Russell’s John Walker. Was a leaked version of a finished trailer really how Marvel Studios wanted to unveil Thunderbolts*?
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NEWS, NOTES & TRAILERS
“I am the one keeping the storm at bay”
I love this new trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Sure, it’s been cool to hate on this show, but I enjoyed the crap out of the first season.
Everything we’ve seen from the upcoming second season makes me think the show’s creative team has figured out how to fix any of its previous issues — Theo, the character who I can’t figure out if he’s 8 or 28, is all but nonexistent in this latest trailer — and go further into the lore of Middle-earth.
The Rings of Power and House of the Dragon debuted their freshman seasons simultaneously, with viewers and critics constantly comparing the two. (I’m even guilty of that myself.) With House of the Dragon’s second season now wrapped up, The Rings of Power gets a chance to not only have the fantasy TV spotlight to itself, it gets to tell its story in the aftermath of House of the Dragon’s ho-hum season finale.
