'Tenet' IMAX Prologue Likely To Play Before 'The Rise Of Skywalker'

By Chris Evangelista/Nov. 27, 2019 11:30 am EST

The trend of Christopher Nolan movie prologue screenings continues with Tenet, Nolan's latest secretive film. Similar to what happened with The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises and Dunkirk, the opening sequence of Nolan's new movie is headed to IMAX movie screens – in front of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. That's bound to ensure the opening minutes of Nolan's new movie are seen by a huge audience – but don't expect the prologue to end up online.

Christopher Nolan loves prologues. The opening ten minutes of both The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises were both released to theaters before the respective films, and a short-film version of Dunkirk, with scenes from the first act of the film, was screened in front of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Now, Trailer Track reports a prologue for Tenet has been rated, and while it hasn't been officially confirmed, it's highly likely that this prologue is destined to play before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker when it opens on December 20.

You're probably already planning to see The Rise of Skywalker, and therefore bound to see this prologue, provided you head to an IMAX theater. However, if you want to skip Skywalker but still want to see this prologue, don't count on it showing up online (at least not officially). None of the other Nolan prologues ended up being released, because Nolan loves the theatrical experience.

Nolan also loves secrecy, and Tenet might be his most secretive film yet. We know the film stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Clémence Poésy, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh, and we know it's "an action epic evolving from the world of international espionage."

Beyond that...well, we have no idea. A teaser was released in theaters, but never made its way online. It looked visually striking but was very mysterious. Obviously the prologue is going to give us a much better idea of what's in store for the film when it opens July 17, 2020.