Star Wars: Will We See A Solo Superbowl Trailer?
Maybe don't hold your breath...
With the Super Bowl coming fast over the horizon, we'll soon be seeing new trailers for some 2018's biggest movies (as well as Fifty Shades Freed). There's already confirmation of some spots, with Mission Impossible: Fallout, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Skyscraper all on the slate and Black Panther's team-up with Lexus there too.
But the question is: what else will we see and will it include a first look at Star Wars anthology film Solo?
While Fox, Warner Bros and Sony are all sitting this year out (meaning no looks at Deadpool 2, X-Men: Dark Phoenix or Venom), Disney are turning up, with an expected slot going to Incredibles 2 and more Black Panther material. So what about Ron Howard's prequel?
In the past, LucasFilm have avoided buying the expensive air slots (which cost $5m for 30 seconds) - at least since Disney bought the company out - so it wouldn't be entirely unprecedented for them to skip the prestigious event. But this is a different situation with rising anxiety about the lack of any publicity just four months out from release - particularly given the difficulty in the film's road to completion.
The Last Jedi didn't show any Super Bowl footage, obviously, but the first trailer still came out more than eight months before the December release date, so it wasn't as necessary. With that context, not having a single bit of promotional material (aside from what Howard has tweeted) is slightly worrying.
Could that mean we'll see Solo's first look around the big match? It would be a hell of a way to announce the belated start of the film's marketing campaign, and more prestigious than just dropping it ahead of Black Panther. With the Winter Olympics offering another big marketing opportunity, you'd think it can't be long before Disney finally go for it.
The fact that we're even having to debate this so close to release is just weird.