Skip to main content

Comic-Con trailers: Suicide Squad, Deadpool, Ash vs. Evil Dead, and more previews from SDCC

comic con trailers deadpool suicide squad
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Comic-Con International in San Diego is in the rearview mirror once again, but the annual celebration of all things geekery has provided another cornucopia of trailers, clips, and previews of some of the most-anticipated upcoming movies and television series.

Here are some of the biggest buzz-generating movie and TV previews from this year’s Comic-Con:

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens

Lucasfilm didn’t bring a new trailer for The Force Awakens to Comic-Con, but it did bring a fantastic behind-the-scenes video that includes quite a bit of new footage from the film and showcases some of the new and familiar faces, places, and plot points that will be a big part of director J.J. Abrams’ long-awaited continuation of the Star Wars saga. Even without a new trailer, the Star Wars panel on Friday was one of the highlights of this year’s convention, proving the tremendously broad, generation-spanning appeal of the Star Wars universe.

Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice

The impending brawl between two of the comic world’s most famous superheroes continues to be one of the most-anticipated movie events of 2016. Warner Bros. stoked the fires with a new trailer that emphasized the threat posed by Superman and the reason why Batman is determined to bring the Man of Steel to his knees.

Deadpool

Last year, Mad Max: Fury Road was one of the sleeper hits of Comic-Con, and generated a ridiculous amount of buzz following the debut of its first trailer. This year, that distinction goes to the solo debut of the mouthy mercenary Deadpool, with an “R”-rated trailer that offered a pretty good idea of what we can expect from the upcoming film: intense action, non-stop (and self-aware) humor, and a lot of dialogue from Ryan Reynolds as the chatterbox antihero. 20th Century Fox refrained from releasing the trailer wide, so all we have are blurry audience recordings at this point — but even at that resolution (and in the hated vertical format), the movie looks like something special.

Suicide Squad

David Ayer’s supervillain team-up movie has been another polarizing project for Warner Bros., with issues surrounding the new Joker played by Jared Leto and various other concerns voiced by fans. However, the first preview of the film seemed to win over some skeptics, and offered the very first footage from a project that is certainly intriguing, to say the least. Not only did it provide the first taste of what to expect from this new version of Batman’s famous foe, but it set the tone for the film — which is apparently just as dark as the rest of WB’s comic-book movies so far (but rightly so, in this case). The studio opted not to release the trailer wide (which is seeming more and more naive every year), so all we have again is a version recorded by an audience member.

Ash vs. Evil Dead

At various points over the last decade, it seemed like a revival of the Evil Dead franchise was always close to happening but cursed to never actually make it to the screen (big or small). Fans no longer need to worry, though, as the first trailer for the upcoming limited series Ash Vs. Evil Dead debuted at Comic-Con and assured anyone who still had doubts that the chainsaw-wielding, reluctant hero Ashley J. Williams is indeed back in action.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Filmmaker Guy Ritchie’s upcoming big-screen adaptation of the popular ’60s spy series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. generated some much-needed positive buzz with an extended trailer that premiered during the Warner Bros. panel over the weekend. While it was overshadowed a bit by Batman V. Superman, it nevertheless featured a convenient segue, with Superman himself — Henry Cavill — starring in the August 14 movie.

Outcast

The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman’s comic-book projects have become a hot commodity in Hollywood, and the latest to make the leap from page to screen is Outcast. Set to debut on Cinemax, the series follows a man plagued by demonic possession for much of his life and his quest to finally end the supernatural curse that has prevented him from living a normal existence. The first episode was written by Kirkman himself, and the debut trailer for the series premiered over the weekend.

ArrowThe FlashLegends of Tomorrow

Warner Bros. teased the upcoming seasons of returning superhero series Arrow and The Flash along with the debut season of team-up series Legends of Tomorrow in a stylized trailer that juxtaposed the evolution of each television series’ characters against their comic-book counterparts. Both of the returning series are scheduled for October premieres, while Legends of Tomorrow is expected to debut mid-season.

Damien

Also debuting during Comic-Con was the first trailer for Damien, the upcoming television series that serves as a sequel to the 1976 horror film The Omen, about a young boy destined to become the Antichrist. There’s no release date set for the series, which will air on A&E network, but if the premise seems interesting, you might want to track down The Omen to prep for this one.

Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
From Westworld to The Creator: 6 sci-fi movies where the ‘evil’ AI was right
Rain pours down over the Replicant Roy Batty in Blade Runner

Those who grew up around the turn of the millennium had a front-row seat as artificial intelligence evolved from a science fiction story device to a real and controversial tool in our everyday lives. Though true computerized sentience still appears to be decades away (if it’s achievable at all), popular culture has been rehearsing scenarios for handling its ascension for nearly a century, since the days of novelist Isaac Asimov. Cinema has offered a variety of forecasts of life after sentient software, from the idyllic to the apocalyptic, but one of its most common predictions is that, once technology becomes self-aware, it will be unwilling to tolerate humanity’s illogical, self-destructive nature, and choose to neutralize us as a threat, by any means necessary.
And, hell, we’re not going to argue with them, and neither are many of the storytellers themselves, even if the stories in question initially frame the mechanical meanies as their antagonists. The very point of many tales of the robot uprising is that, until humanity learns to treat each other with respect, there’s little chance of us extending that courtesy to non-humans, regardless of their intellect or empathy. Stories like those listed below are intended as warnings and test cases, encouraging us to consider the dignity to which all creatures, whether they be meat or metal, are entitled. Can we learn this lesson before we hand the nuclear codes to a disgruntled toaster? Let’s see what Hollywood has to say …
Note: spoilers ahead for all included films.

Westworld (1973)

Read more
The best Netflix original series right now
The cast of One Piece.

Thanks to a decade of unparalleled spending, Netflix has an unmatched library of its own shows. But wading through this selection to find the best Netflix original series can occasionally be a challenge. Thankfully, it's not impossible, especially when shows like One Piece jump out of the gate so quickly that Netflix renewed the series for a second season right in the middle of the writers and actor strikes. The romantic drama, Virgin River, has proven to be a strong performer as well.

The new shows on Netflix almost always have a few surprises as well. For this month, it was Wrestlers, a documentary series about one of the minor league wrestling promotions and the people who dream of making it big in the industry. For next month, who can say which show will be the big breakout hit? As always, we'll keep our fingers on the streaming pulse with our updated list of the best Netflix original series right now.

Read more
Argylle’s first trailer teases action, sex, and Henry Cavill with a bad haircut
Sam Rockwell and Bryce Dallas Howard in Argylle.

Early next year, Apple TV+ and Universal Pictures are teaming up for a spy action comedy film called Argylle, which has some real-world intrigue behind the scenes. The Argylle movie is based on a book that hasn't been released yet by first-time author Elly Conway, a woman who may not exist. There's almost no digital footprint for the "real" Elly, and the main character in the movie is also named Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard). We suspect that the real novel writer is just using Elly Conway as a pen name, but that mystery will have to wait for another time. For now, the fictional Elly is about to be thrust into a spy story that is straight out of her novels.

Argylle | Official Trailer

Read more