At what point would you start to worry about a film? When it's five months out from release date and there hasn't been a single trailer, teaser or scrap of official footage or promotion?

Let's not forget that Rogue One, the only other Star Wars spinoff so far, released its first teaser (officially) nine months before the film was released. The first trailer was released on April 7th, 2016 and the film itself was released on December 10th.

The Last Jedi, admittedly, had a shorter window - but a lot of that was most likely down to Rian Johnson's insistence that they be held back so as not to potentially give away spoilers of the story. In fact, both he and Adam Driver, AKA Kylo Ren, were in agreement.

So, the question we have to ask about Solo is why? The answer is Ron Howard's reshoots. Simple as that. Although there's no confirmed figure, the rumour mill puts it that Howard has been reshooting the film for four months - which is pretty substantial, to say the least. How this plays into marketing, however, is interesting.

Some teasers are pulled almost from the first week of filming, provided they're not CGI-intensive enough, whilst others only appear when they're in a more finished state. Some are even made when the film is locked in and waiting for scoring, so there's no real gauge to ascribe when the teaser arrives versus the finished state of the film.

Most reports put it that the teaser for Solo: A Star Wars Story will debut on Good Morning America this Monday, with a teaser for it debuting the Superbowl this Sunday. A deleted tweet from fan ticketing service 1iota seemed to let the proverbial cat out of the bag, but the fact that it's this close to release date - Solo: A Star Wars Story arrives in Irish cinemas on May 25th - seems pretty telling.

A film like Solo: A Star Wars Story - even with all the CGI and the like used in the film itself - doesn't normally leave it this late to show some footage, and the well-publicised turmoil in the production only adds weight to the narrative that the delayed trailer means there's last-minute scrambling to get something together.

At any rate, expect a full breakdown and analysis on the teaser / trailer / whatever when it hits - as well as some unhealthy discussions about Alden Ehrenreich's hairdo compared to Harrison Ford's.

 

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