The wait for the Avengers: Endgame trailer was about as long and painful as it gets, though the unexplained absence of the Spider-Man: Far From Home preview might be giving it a run for its money. At least the Endgame trailer remained mysterious right up until its reveal, whereas Far From Home has been screened to convention attendees in Brazil, meaning we know that it’s out there, but we’re not allowed to see it. Then came the authoritative stories from ‘insiders’ claiming they had the scoop on when it could drop, all of which (as usual) proved complete bunkum.
So, if it’s out there (and has apparently been rated for release), where is it and why have they held it back? Well, there’s a couple of theories spinning around at the moment. One is that Marvel wants to maximize the amount of hype they get from the Endgame trailer. After all, the last Captain Marvel preview only got a few days of discussion before everyone switched gears to talking about the Infinity War sequel, and right now, they want the conversation to be all Endgame, all the time.
Also in relation to Endgame, there’s a chance that they don’t want to pre-empt that film too much by hyping up Spider-Man’s next movie while he’s still dead in the MCU. The thing is though, they’re going to have to drop a trailer at some point before the fourth Avengers pic, so if this were their tactic, then they’d just be kicking the can down the road.
Of course, there’s one more thing to consider here, and that’s that this is a Sony co-production, which leads me into what I think is most likely. My bet is that with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse picking up rave reviews and outperforming box office projections, they don’t want to kill its momentum by already talking up the next Spidey film.
Into the Spider-Verse is a pretty high concept pic to explain, and it’s to Sony’s credit that they’ve treated it no differently than any other Spider-Man film by giving it a wide release and plenty of promotion. In fact, the movie’s doing so well that it’s looking like it’s going to spawn its own mini-cinematic universe (which would mean there will be no less than three Spidey-related cinematic universes going on).
Despite this, I still think it’s likely we’ll see the Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer sooner rather than later. Maybe Sony and Marvel have a Christmas Day surprise up their sleeves? Let’s hope so.
