Trailers of the Week: Dark Phoenix, Creed II, Fantastic Beasts

In this weeks batch o trailers, we get a sneak previews of: a superheroine going dark (very dark); Michael B. Jordan getting the eye of the tiger; the next Harry Potter side franchise and a new Transformers spin-offs; and the final season of House of Cards before the Netflix show comes tumbling down to a close.

Bumblebee
Girl (Hailee Steinfeld) meets robot. Robot turn into car. Car go vroom. Other robots turn into jets, etc. Things go boom. This Transformers spin-off isnt rocket science, people. It barely looks like a movie. Opens Dec. 25th, a.k.a. Christmas, because there was no coal left to put in your stocking.

Creed II
Ah yes, the trailer as training montage. The second official promo clip for this follow-up to the stellar 2015 Michael B. Jordan joint finds our man hitting the heavy bag (literally) and getting called out on TV by none other than Viktor Drago, a.k.a. Ivan Dragos son. Yes, this time its personal; cue a lot of eye-of-the-tiger fortitude, advice from Sylvester Stallones Rocky Balboa and loads of sparring/speedwork/sweating. It hits theaters on Nov. 21, i.e. not soon enough for us.

Dark Phoenix
You dont kick off your trailer with a dirge-like cover of the Doors The End unless youre going to bring some serious doom and gloom, and this first look at the latest X-men joint mining a classic comics storyline involving Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) going a little power-mad suggests weve got a superhero bleak-buster on our hands. The usual X-suspects (Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy, Nicolas Hoult) are present and accounted for; Jessica Chastain joins as a side villain who were assuming is the Hellfire Clubs White Queen, but its all TBD still. It was supposed to open on Feb. 14 (because what says Valentines Day more than a mutant gone crazy?); Fox has now moved it to June 7th.

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Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Young Dumbledore! Johnny Depp in dripping-with-evil mode, with a bitchin platinum do! Ladies turning into snakes! Blue flames and flying things and sea monsters and Zoe Kravitz with a sultry accent! So many spells and CGI! The final trailer for the second of J.K. Rowlings Potter-prequel trilogy looks like its edging toward darkness in the same manner that the Harry & Co. series did. If nothing else, this is one compelling sneak preview. Opens Nov. 16th.

House of Cards: The Final Season
It runs a little under a minute, but the final teaser of Netflixs political drama which, perhaps youve heard, has had a wee bit of drama go on behind the scenes crams a lot of info into its compact frame. My first 100 days as President have been difficult, says new commander-in-chief Claire Underwood (Robin Wright), before we hear her describe her husbands death, see Greg Kinnear yell at her, see her model some serious Tammy-Faye-Baker-level mascara mishaps and are assured that whatever her late spouse told us the last five years dont believe it. The end begins on Nov. 2nd.

Mid90s
Whos up for a kinder, gentler Kids, relocated to Hell-Ay and directed by Jonah Hill? The Moneyball actors directorial debut is not some sort of Apatovian romp, but a look back at a SoCal kid named Stevie (Sunny Suljic, of Killing of a Scared Deer and House With a Clock in Its Walls fame) and the crew of skaterats he runs with during the titles time period. Also starring Lucas Hedges, because God forbid theres a movie this fall he does not show up in; seriously, 2018 is the Autumn of the Hedgeaissance. Opens Oct. 19th.

Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2
The first trailer for Disneys sequel played up the meta-comedy (So many princesses! So much intercorporate snark!); Trailer No. 2 emphasizes the new movies action sequences, with Ralph (John C. Reilly), Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) and a racer named Shank (Gal Gadot) whizzing around a whole new virtual world. Dont worry, theres still a Rick-roll gag and some Dark Net digs. Opens Nov. 21st.