The Best Movie Trailers of 2022

This article is part of our 2022 Rewind. Follow along as we explore the best and most interesting movies, shows, performances, and more from this very strange year. In this entry, we explore the best movie trailers of 2022.

I’ve heard tell that there are monk-like individuals out there with the willpower to avoid movie trailers. Something about seeing a film with fresh eyes and not being spoiled, I hear. I commend such folks on their saint-like restraint… but I am a sinner. And given that you’re reading this, I suspect you are too. Personally speaking, I love a film that knows how to market itself almost as much as I hate films that suffer from the opposite affliction.

Some movie trailers made this list on their own terms, boasting an artistic finesse that did their feature-length equivalents a favor. Others are here because they took the internet by storm by mere virtue of the Big Name product they were promoting. And one trailer is here because it has a cocaine-snorting bear in it. I bet you’ll never guess what that movie is called.

Either way, sit back, relax, and enjoy this list of the movie trailers that caught our attention and got us hyped in 2022.

15. Men

With two certified bangers (Ex Machina and Annihilation) under his belt, whatever writer/director Alex Garland did next was going to have a lot of eyes on it. To boot, when folks learned that Jessie Buckley (who went mainstream in 2020 with I’m Thinking of Ending Things) was attached to Garland’s new project, audience interest became doubly piqued. Oh, and it’s called Men? That’s deranged. Where do we sign?

While Garland’s folk horror-indebted film ultimately turned out to be something of a mixed bag, the trailer did a great job of making us lean in closer to our screens thanks to its ambiguous premise.

14. Don’t Worry Darling

Before it became inundated with bad-faith rubbernecking, Don’t Worry Darling offered a laundry list of reasons for film fans to get excited. Fans of Olivia Wilde‘s directorial debut Blooksmart were no doubt thrilled to check out her sophomore effort. And with talents like the always-good Florence Pugh and pop star Harry Styles in leading roles, Twitter was ablaze long before the he-said-she-said got underway. From its sinisterly optimistic mid-century aesthetic to its Stepford Wives overtones, it was fascinating to see Wilde move to a more B-Movie indebted genre. We were all like Chris Pine says in the trailer, interested to see where she was going with this.

13. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

After Chadwick Boseman‘s passing, no one was sure if or how the Black Panther franchise was going to move forward. In the end, a sequel did persevere, with T’Challa’s younger sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) taking up the mantle. Adding to the intrigue, the sequel saw the arrival of a Marvel comic book mainstay, Namor (Tenoch Huerta), and Iron Man successor Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne).

From the trailer, it looked like the rich, saturated production design that made the first film stand out amongst its brethren was back. And as our own chief film critic Rob Hunter describes in more detail in his review, the film’s core themes of communal grief really felt like the right move forward when it came to processing the seismic loss of one of Marvel’s star players.

12. Cocaine Bear

I mean. What was I supposed to do? Not include a movie called “Cocaine Bear” on this list? While we have more than a couple punch-pulling artsy fartsy trailers on this list, the movies that promise to do what they say on the tin are equally deserving of praise. Especially when said tin is full of cocaine. As someone who’s had more real-life bear encounters than I’d care to admit, the idea of a bear hopped up on cocaine is frankly way scarier than any slasher villain could ever hope to be. Universal monsters now include the wolfman, the mummy, Dracula, and cocaine bear. Nice.

Also of note: I believe this posthumous release will mark Ray Liotta‘s final screen performance. So it’s our duty as film fans to keep an eye on this one.

11. M3GAN

A new entry in the ever-enduring killer doll horror sub-genre has arrived. Meet M3GAN. Directed by Gerard Johnstone, the man behind the very good and very funny Housebound, and produced by James Wan, M3GAN looks, for lack of a better term, absolutely bananapants. Allison Williams secures her spot in the genre with what appears to be a modern twist on the mad scientist. And just look at that robot’s dance moves. Who are you to deny what clearly looks like a great time at the movies?

10. The Banshees of Inisherin

After 2017’s divisive Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, British-Irish director Martin McDonagh finally got around to making the film that’s been on his back burner for 20 some-odd years. The trailer sets up the film’s hilariously simple premise: a man (Brendan Gleeson) decides he no longer likes his longtime friend (Colin Farrell), and will cut off one of his own fingers every time his ex-friend annoys him. Carter Burwell‘s score is a star player here, as is Jenny, the best on-screen donkey of 2022. All told: great stuff that may even turn the heads of those who were turned off by Three Billboards.

9. Bones and All

I am a simple woman. And a Canadian, no less. If you use Leonard Cohen’s “You Want It Darker” in your trailer, you will have my undivided attention. The Bones and All trailer doesn’t play its full hand, which is a positive: opting to entice viewers on the basis of its body-horror romance alone. Then again, a re-team of director Luca Guadagnino and Call Me By Your Name star Timothée Chalamet kind of sells itself.

8.  Crimes of the Future

The Crimes of the Future trailer was definitely geared toward a very specific person. Namely: me. Not only did the trailer announce the return of the Baron of Blood, David Cronenberg, to the sci-fi/body-horror genre he helped pioneer, but he was also doing so by revisiting one of his early independent films from over half a century ago. If it’s time to listen, we’re all ears. Just like that guy in the trailer.

7. Triangle of Sadness

Even as someone who wound up not loving Ruben Östlund‘s follow-up to The Square (which I do love), I have to recognize the power of this trailer. It gets its eat-the-rich thesis out in the open, features a killer needle drop, and highlights the best sequence in the film. Namely: the part where a luxury yacht full of revolting rich folks become violently seasick and vomit everywhere.

6. Avatar: The Way of Water

Hail to the king, baby. Director-who-never-loses James Cameron has been biding his time since 2009’s Avatar beat Titanic‘s box office record as the biggest money-maker of all time. Will Jimbo “fuck you” Cameron do it again? I’m not a betting woman, but yes. Based on this kick-ass trailer, the onslaught of overwhelmingly positive critical reactions post-embargo lift, and our own Rob Hunter’s glowing review, I’m going to go ahead and say it’s going to make a jillion dollars. Look at those whales! Look at those underwater shots. How can you not get excited about this level of cinematic spectacle?

5. Nope

Buzzing with innate hype given director’ Jordan Peele‘s track record (Get Out, Us), the Nope trailer was a veritable gift to anyone dangling off the edge of their seats to see what one of the most exciting voices in horror would cook up next. The trailer rightfully highlights Keke Palmer‘s performance and the secret spice behind the film’s horrifying monster (sound design). But it’s the details that really make this trailer hit a cut above the rest: the slow, descending text announcing Peele’s credit; the at the time unexpected presence of a chimpanzee, a clear thematic interest in Hollywood and filmmaking itself.

4. Pearl

Maybe it’s the House of 1000 Corpses apologist in me talking, but if your trailer features “I Wanna Be Loved by You,” I’m going to lean in. Director Ti West has carved out a space for himself as an accomplished pastiche artist, with Pearl‘s trailer bringing a horrific bent to Golden Age Hollywood. Whatever you ultimately thought about this unexpected prequel to X, you can’t deny that its announcement captured a super fun vibe that made it an easy sell to the screenshot-happy denizens of Twitter.

3. Tár

Written and directed by Todd Field — who some of you may know as the director of 2006’s Little Children and others may know as “the jazz pianist who tells Tom Cruise about the sex party in Eyes Wide Shut” — Tár has taken much of Film Twitter by storm. The first trailer for the film introduces us to the massive accomplishments of its titular character (Cate Blanchett) as well as its cold, clinical composition and remarkably intense sound design.

2. Everything Everywhere All At Once

How do you follow up a movie like Swiss Army Man? A film about a shipwrecked man whimsically befriending a farting corpse? By sending Michelle Yeoh through the multiverse, apparently. The trailer to Everything Everywhere All At Once assails us with a ton of information and insane imagery (hot dog fingers! a raccoon! kung-fu!). But given the intended maximalism of the film, the fact that this trailer is as lucid as it is is a damn miracle. It wears its silliness on its sleeve. And around these parts, we respect the hell out of that.

1. Top Gun: Maverick

Listen, we’ve seen the story of an old dog returning to his old stomping grounds to teach the next generation. But we’ve never seen it like this. Highlighting the unreal (but absolutely real) areal photography and giving us the skeleton of the film’s plot (including the more literal take on “legacy” sequel), the trailer for Top Gun: Maverick is like a cold beer at the end of a hard day. It felt like the triumphant announcement that, after the pandemic-induced isolation of 2020 and 2021, the movies were back.

Follow along with more of our 2022 Rewind!