'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Trailer Coming This Monday [Updated]
Update: It turns out that everyone was one day off. It now looks like the Solo trailer will debut on Good Morning America this Monday, February 5. Our original article follows.
"Where's the Solo trailer?" has been the resounding question in the sci-fi fan community for the past few months. The Star Wars standalone film is merely four months away from release, and we haven't heard a peep out of Lucasfilm or Disney — highly unusual for a tentpole film in one of the biggest franchises in the world.
Solo: A Star Wars Story has had a troubled journey to the big screen and the silence around the film is just as concerning as the behind-the-scenes tales of production woes. But new reports suggest that we finally have a (probable) release date for the Solo trailer: the Super Bowl.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Solo: A Star Wars Story trailer is expected to drop during Super Bowl LII, kicking off the Star Wars film's four-month marketing campaign. The Super Bowl is one of the most viewed events of the year, with more than 100 million eyes trained on the championship football game. It is also a famously expensive place to advertise – 30-second commercials can cost up to $5 million a pop.
According to industry insiders, Disney and Lucasfilm have been waiting until Star Wars: The Last Jedi was largely done with its theatrical run, leaving Solo to swoop in just as Star Wars hype was beginning to die off. This is an unusual tactic, but it's not too far off from the roll-out for Rogue One's first teaser trailer, which debuted four months after the premiere of The Force Awakens.
But the situation was less dire for Rogue One — its trailer still came eight months before the movie's release. The months between the debut of the Solo trailer (which is still unconfirmed by Disney and Lucasfilm) and the film's release is half that time...which doesn't inspire much confidence in a film that was left reeling after its first two directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, were fired and replaced halfway through production. Despite that, Solo has maintained its May release date, now with Ron Howard at the helm.
The film stars Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo, and Paul Bettany.
Here is the official synopsis for Solo: A Star Wars Story:
Board the Millennium Falcon and journey to a galaxy far, far away in Solo: A Star Wars Story, an all-new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga's most unlikely heroes.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is set to fly into theaters on May 25, 2018.