With only one DC movie due out this year, James Wan’s Aquaman is expected to receive a pretty big marketing push from Warner Bros. leading up to its December release. While it is still very early, so far we’ve only seen a couple official photos of Arthur Curry and Mera in action.
The movie is eight months away, so it isn’t unusual for the film to not yet have a trailer. However, based on how DC movies have been marketed in the past few years, this definitely stands out from the norm.
For context, eight months prior to the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, we had already seen two trailers. Comic-Con trailers for Wonder Woman and Suicide Squad were both released about a year before the premiere of both films, but it’s understandable why WB didn’t want to release a teaser for Aquaman while Justice League was still in theatres.
However, the first proper trailers for both these movies came out seven months before the films hit cinemas. This could be the formula that Aquaman decides to follow, even though debuting the trailer close to the release of Avengers: Infinity War could be a risky move.
While having the Aquaman teaser play in theatres during Infinity War’s opening weekend could help increase awareness for the movie, the studio might be better served by releasing it when they can get more attention from media outlets.
There have been lots of rumors about when we can expect the trailer to drop, ranging from this week at WonderCon to San Diego Comic-Con in July. While DC has a history of saving big reveals for SDCC, the studio might be hesitant about waiting until five months before Aquaman’s release date.
Considering the furor over Solo: A Star Wars Story’s trailer release only three months before the movie's premiere, Warner Bros. runs the risk of having fans think there is something horribly wrong with the movie if they wait that long to show us the first trailer.
So if the trailer is released before Comic-Con, we should be seeing it pretty soon. Since we can assume that DC is going to use their time in Hall H to promote Aquaman, they probably don’t want to debut their first two trailers too close together for fear of fatigue.
This was one of the issues with Justice League’s marketing, as the first trailer debuted over a year before the movie’s release, and some fans thought the series of subsequent trailers felt a bit exhausting. Of course, one way to avoid this is to not release an Aquaman trailer at Comic-Con, but instead reveal some other news, like a Shazam! sneak peek, or some concrete details on Matt Reeves’ Batman movie.
This is a decent option, but the opportunity to wow Hall H with our first look at the movie is too good to pass up. No matter when the trailer is released, the film’s marketing is going to face some challenges, so it’s best to go with the date that presents the biggest possible stage. As long as the film is adequately teased between now and July, DC should be able to keep any real panic about the film’s quality from spreading.
The Comic-Con option might be complicated by recent reports of poor test screenings, but we’ve seen that rumors like this often lack substance. Keeping the Aquaman trailer for Comic-Con would be a remarkable showing of restraint from Warner Bros., and it could end up paying dividends.