Last week San Diego Comic-Con wrapped up, and in its wake lies a treasure trove of trailers for the next year of big-league film and television. Although we didn’t get an appearance by Warner Bros—and, consequently, no Wonder Woman 1984 or Dune—we did get even representation from the cable network landscape and the world of streaming alike, with promo by The CW, HBO, TBA, Amazon, and Netflix each garnering attention, among others. Here’s our annual trek down Hall H, with—as always—an ear towards the musical element.

With Knives Out, writer/director Rian Johnson shows that his bona fide blockbuster outing with Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the exception that proves the rule: here, we are back into the familiar auteur stylings of Looper or Brick. An ensemble cast, classically styled whodunit plot, and a standout soundtrack ground Johnson’s next filmic foray.

It’s hard to say exactly what is driving the current spate of musical biopics that seems to be taking hold of Hollywood and never letting go, but the team at Trailaurality is all for it. This go around we have Judy, which, as the unadorned title may suggest, is less bombastic than it is contemplative.

HBO’s upcoming comedy about a family of televangelists is a mildly political skewering of this American phenomenon. Starring Danny McBride and premiering August 18th, the trailer pairs a classic song with comedic trailer editing techniques to showcase the uniqueness of its satire.

After an original TV series running 1976-1981 and a film revival franchise with entries in 2000 and 2003, Charlie’s Angels returns to theatres this year with a reboot. Elizabeth Banks takes the helm as director, with Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska taking up the mantle as the eponymous angels.

An adaptation of the 2012 novel by Maria Semple, Cate Blanchett stars as Bernadette Fox in this eponymously-titled Richard Linklater film. After a decidedly obscure first trailer, the second trailer for Where’d You Go, Bernadette offers much more in the way of exposition and musical accompaniment that effectively imparts the reasoning behind its billing as “a mysterious comedy.”

Another series that enjoys occasional resurgence (Rambo III was released 1998; Rambo IV, 2008), the trailer for Rambo V recently dropped and with it the use of a recent popular song that itself balances old and new with a judicious blend of hip hop and country. Throughout the trailer we hear a movie that celebrates what can be called at this point its heritage, while also serving the action and aesthetics of 2019.

On May 29th, the 20th annual Golden Trailer Awards were held at the Ace Theatre in Downtown LA. Once again, we learned that Trailaurality covered many of the trailers that would go on to be recognized for their excellence, not least due to the role that music and sound plays in their narrative power (though the GTA officially has only two awards exclusively devoted to music).

The Terminator franchise has returned to the hands of producer James Cameron, and along with this change, we get to see Linda Hamilton reprising her role as Sarah Connor. This back-to-basics approach reminds one of last year’s Halloween reboot, which similarly simplified the plot line while bringing back the key, original actors to reprise their role (in the case of Halloween, Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode).

Quentin Tarantino is at this point one of a certain old guard of Hollywood auteurs—popular enough to be casually mentioned by surname, like Spielberg or Kubrick. “It’s a Tarantino movie” is all a studio needs to say to carry a movie—even one such as Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, seemingly borne of a challenge to pack as many A-list actors as possible into a coherent script, taking on Hollywood itself as its subject matter. 

The Secret Life of Pets 2 is the plainly-titled sequel to 2016’s original film, both produced by Illumination Entertainment (best known for the Despicable Me series, and others). Whereas earlier trailers in the campaign for The Secret Life of Pets 2 were built around minute-long “character trailers” that are in essence designed to for quick social sharing and splicing into gifs, here is a trailer in a more conventional sense—a narrative-driven affair that does include some humour, but leans into feel-good, family fare.

With a semi-autobiographical screenplay and direction by Lulu Wang, The Farewell is a family dramedy starring rapper-come-actress Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians, Ocean’s 8) and a top pick at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. 

The latest (and final) trailer for director Michael Dougherty’s take on the Godzilla mythos has arrived, with Alloy Tracks supplying their epic take on “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” 

Although it is framed as a teaser ten days out from its theatrical release, Marvel has really released a two and a half minute trailer that looks forward to the culmination of its cinematic universe ideas much as it provides a sweeping retrospective of its successful 11-year (thus far) run in film production. 

After forty-two years, Disney is dangling the promise of closure to this storied saga. While there is perhaps unsurprisingly nothing truly new on offer as the myriad narrative threads on this franchise begin to tie themselves neatly (for now, at least), the trailer does hold interest through a carefully executed aural procedure of anticipation, epic exposition, and a surprising—yet narratively satisfying—ending.

On paper, it’s an absurdist theatrical challenge: humanize the Joker—the one DC universe villain who comes off as more of a force of nature, void of empathy, perhaps than any other. By the same token, Warner Brothers knows the opportunity inherent in forging a compelling cinematic backstory for one of the silver screen’s most mesmerizing super villains.

As the comments section on the YouTube video embedded above suggests, it’s likely this fourth filmic entry in the Toy Story franchise, going for nearly twenty-five years, might appeal at least as much to teenagers and adults who saw the first one in 1995 as it will to today’s kids.