With Black Panther: Wakanda Forever having seen release, the next great holiday season blockbuster promises, somewhat refreshingly, not to be a Marvel property—and while it is a sequel, it has been some thirteen years in the making. Just as important as what its trailer does do is what it doesn’t do. Namely, its resolute focus on sensorial immersion is coupled with an insistence on not over-explaining or otherwise spoiling plot details. This results in a trailer that handily achieves its goal of reacquainting the world with the most successful blockbuster film franchise of all time.

The trailer opens with a six second micro-teaser—replete with release info—for those who don’t have 2’20” to spare, The trailer proper starts with an opening hearkening back to trailers of old—the “in a world” schtick of Don LaFontaine, this time spun as “on a bitter, cold Christmas Eve” in horror mode. Foreboding strings in a minor key amplify the tension, only to be cut through a “rug pull” at 0:26 with the first of many comedic one-liners strewn throughout the trailer. By 0:39, with the fake-out revealed, the music takes a turn to much jazzier fare as the narrative continues to unfold, and as we come to understand the plot seems to centre on a kind of contemporary retelling of A Christmas Carol.

As surely as the seasons, come November we are firmly in the grips of trailers promoting this holiday season’s films—among them, Disney Plus’s nostalgia-infused pitch to those who remember the 90s, and the Santa Clause franchise in particular.

Making a quick comparison between the trailer for the series’ debut back in 2019 and the current offering by writer-director Rian Johnson (Looper, Brick; Star Wars Episode VII: The Last Jedi), there is a bit of an aural link, though perhaps not an obvious one. Both trailers start with the same note, but in this latter instalment everything is bigger and brighter: a mildly dilapidated mansion is traded up for a private Greek island with sun to spare and a single piano is replaced by thrumming strings. At 0:13 the director’s title card is prominently placed, featuring what sounds like the click of a camera synched to the music. At 0:22 a single, reverberant piano note is used—a well-trodden trope, but at least appropriately placed to signal the arrival of the recurring and central figure of the series, detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig), sporting his trademark Foghorn Leghorn-esque Kentucky accent.

As we approach the holiday season, trailers for next year’s films are coming through—not least of which being Marvel’s first 2023 entry, Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Coming to you from Blumhouse productions (Halloween) and directed by James Wan (the Saw series), M3GAN is a new horror outing and a welcome attempt at novelty in a horror film landscape where sequels and reboots are often the norm.

We last covered the much-anticipated Black Panther sequel in July, highlighting how it cleverly used a mix of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright”. Now, as we get close to the November 11th release, we’re treated to another (and likely final) glimpse and listen before its release.

After a lifetime of telling others’ stories through film, The Fabelmans promises to be a truly special project for Steven Spielberg as he sets out to tell his own (albeit in a decidedly fictionalized manner). It’s a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale set in post-war Arizona—likely shot at the Vasquez Rocks, in particular—that serves as an ode to filmmaking itself.

With Damien Chazelle directing (LaLa Land, Whiplash), it comes as little surprise that Babylon would have such an intense musical focus for its trailer, which certainly has been making the rounds at the Toronto International Film Festival. Justin Hurwitz returns as composer, helping to cement their reputation as a special collaborative partnership. Every so often, an auteur director will have longtime collaborators, especially in music; Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann, James Cameron and James Horner, or Tim Burton and Danny Elfman all spring to mind as easy examples of such a phenomenon. With Babylon, Chazelle and Hurwitz surely enter such a category (as if there were any doubt).

The (not so) secret to the trailer for Disney’s Secret Invasion, the latest in a steady drumbeat of Marvel Cinematic Universe-based TV series to hit the streaming platform, is in the sound design. For the first twenty seconds or so, a monologue directed at Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is interrupted only by the occasional ominous, appropriately unidentifiable sound—such as the low-fidelity blare at 0:18 as Fury exits what looks like a spacecraft, or the diegetic closing of a huge metal door at 0:23, interacting somewhat with the dialogue (a closing door as she speaks of Fury’s avoidance). The off-screen voice of Maria Hill appears in frame at 0:30; the sounds pause for a moment as Fury delivers his first line: “yeah, well, this is different”.

Arriving on Netflix through the mind of Tim Burton, the series WEDNESDAY focuses on the titular, deadpan daughter of television’s most adoringly reviled family.

Written and directed by James Gray (Little Odessa, Ad Astra) and having premiered earlier this year at Cannes, Armageddon Time is a period drama strongly inspired by Gray’s own coming of age. It focuses on the experience of a Jewish-American child, Paul (Banks Repeta), who finds himself at odds with racist parents and educators over his friendship with Johnny (Jaylin Webb). Anthony Hopkins, meanwhile, plays the role of both Paul’s grandfather and a compassionate conscience.

Between a preponderance of franchise movies coming out in this coming holiday season, with Avatar: The Way of Water and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in the lead, at least one film with a two-part title promises something relatively fresh. The latest Dungeons and Dragons is Paramount Pictures’ reboot of the prior trilogy (2000-2012), and promises a mix of action and comedic flair, leading off with the star power of Chris Pine, perhaps not unlike what Dwayne Johnson was able to do with the Jumanji franchise.

Among other San Diego Comic Con unveilings, the fourth instalment of the venerated John Wick series began its trailer campaign with a minute-long teaser that focuses squarely where it should: the action, with Keanu Reeves’ starring role at its centre.

Andor’s trailer definitely diverges sonically from previous Star Wars fare; not only does it follow from the recently concluded Obi-Wan Kenobi series, but it also tells a story centring on much lesser-known characters. These factors probably contribute to a musical backdrop that almost necessarily deviates from the series’ classic musical themes. While the composer for the series is Nicholas Britell (who composed the much-lauded theme for Succession, among other things), epic music composer Rok Nardin takes the reins for the trailer, using “Quantum Field”, a piece yet to be published.

As the Marvel Cinematic Universe unfolds in its Phase Four plan to reset and introduce characters, surely none of these resets resonates so much as it does for the Black Panther franchise, which faces the untimely passing of its lead, Chadwick Boseman. In light of this, the trailer opens with a cover of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” (1974). The song acts in a sense as a direct bridge to the audience, in recognition of what everyone knows—the mantle of Black Panther must be passed in this film. It becomes as much, if not more, a tribute to Boseman as it prepares the viewer for the coming narrative.

Directed by Jessica M. Thompson (The Light of the Moon) and starring Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones, Furious 7), The Invitation looks to be fairly standard horror fare courtesy of Sony Pictures.

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Black Adam is Warner Bros.’ latest foray into the DC Universe. While employing a fairly standard epic music treatment for a superhero film, the choice of licensed music does play into the plot.

The trailer leverages two musical themes from the original show’s music, originally composed by Ramin Djawadi: the main theme and the House Targaryen theme. This is evident from the outset, with its distinctive rising semitones in its melodic arc as the most conspicuous aspect of the first forty seconds. The addition of epic percussion and a large choir to the theme reinforces the greater focus on the dragons—entirely apt, as a prequel that centers on the titular beasts and the Targaryens’ historical ties to them.

The teaser trailer starts with an ambient tone, on a single note: for those who know it’s a trailer for Pinocchio, the use of “When You Wish Upon a Star” (originally by Cliff Edwards, 1939) is all but a given. The trick is when exactly to release that dose of nostalgia, and this trailer’s edit is suave in taking its time before unloading the goods. We can do a quick call back to the scene with the mechanical clocks at 0:16 (and note how the sound arrives before the image), as well as a little arpeggiated flourish from time to time, but otherwise the scene is simply awash in synth—Glow, composed by Richard Canavan of Audiomachine in collaboration with Harry Lightfoot (Top Gun: Maverick, Encanto, and others) effectively sets the scene.