As predicted, this weekend’s upcoming Super Bowl in the United States is opening the floodgates for movie trailers and other film and series spots. Although, this year a chunk of the teasers seem to be hitting the Internet before the football clash. Below, you’ll find the first movies out the gate.

Film

The hands-down biggie of the reveals is the first trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which has already racked up over 200 million views (and counting) online.

Notable for finally bringing Marvel Comics’ first superhero family into the MCU (after Fox clung to the character rights for years), First Steps will likely include a multiverse element, but is otherwise set in a retro-futuristic 1960s, where Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) struggle with new powers gained after an experimental space mission goes wrong. Complicating matters is the world-ending threat of Galactus (Ralph Ineson), whose arrival on Earth is preceded by the appearance of his herald, the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner).

The Fantastic Four: First Steps lands in cinemas from 25 July.

As a sidenote, Marvel has denied the use of AI in its new Fantastic Four poster set, despite people pointing out missing fingers, strange poster text, duplicated figures and incorrect use of period technology.

The last two movies in the series were mediocre at best, but you can’t keep a profitable dinosaur franchise down. So, coming 2 July this year is Jurassic World Rebirth.

With Rogue One and The Creator’s Gareth Edwards behind the camera, Rebirth is set five years after Jurassic World Dominion, and sees dinosaurs once more confined to a small territory at the equator. However, humans can’t leave them alone, especially with vital medical research at stake, and an extraction team, which comprises the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali’s characters, head off to the island research facility for the original Jurassic Park, inhabited by creatures deemed too dangerous for a theme park.

Jurassic World Rebirth apparently promises to lean once more in more of a horror direction.

Finally, for families, and nostalgic 80s kids, there’s Smurfs. Clearly drawing inspiration from the hit Trolls movies, this big screen Smurfs reboot dials up its music content and even features Rihanna as the voice of lone female Smurf, Smurfette.

As for the plot, when Papa Smurf (John Goodman) is taken by evil wizards Razamel and Gargamel, Smurfette leads her fellow Smurfs on a rescue mission that takes them from the forest to the real world (including Paris) to save him. Some of the other celebrities contributing their voices to this mix of animation and live-action are James Corden, Nick Offerman, Daniel Levy, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Octavia Spencer, Hannah Waddingham, Maya Erskine, and Kurt Russell.

Smurfs is in cinemas from 18 July 2025.

Series

The ordering of a pilot episode means very little as many a series has never progressed past that point. However, Hulu has just given a thumbs up to a Buffy the Vampire Slayer revival. Although the new series won’t centre on Buffy (expect a new generation slayer), Sarah Michelle Gellar is expected to have a recurring role. The creator of the beloved Nineties and Noughties original, Joss Whedon, will not be involved, having been accused of toxic on-set behaviour over the past few years.

Want to know what to expect from The Last of Us Season 2? Entertainment Weekly ran this exclusive preview of the HBO and Max series, based on the Naughty Dog dystopian survival game, which returns in April (including to Showmax in South Africa). Three notable pieces of info for people who don’t want to dive into the in-depth article:

  • Season 2 picks up five years after the events of Season 1.
  • While it was initially expected that the series would wrap in three seasons, with an adaptation of game sequel The Last of Us: Part II spread over Season 2 and 3, that is likely no longer the case. If the showrunners get their way, the series will continue by exploring fresh storylines and side characters.
  • Kaitlyn Dever, who plays the controversial figure of Abby in Season 2, will not feature the muscular physique of the character as she appeared in the game.

Finally, the article provides a fresh set of images from The Last of Us S2. Explore the thread below.