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The best movie and show trailers for the week of June 21

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Lukas Gage in Smile.
Paramount Pictures

Unless the studios warn us ahead of time, it’s hard to predict which trailers will drop on any given day of the week. Fortunately, the best movie and show trailers for the week of June 21 have been very strong. But more so on the TV side than with films.

It’s not often that two different Batman-related series release videos in the same week. And HBO/Max is responsible for two out of the three shows represented here. It could have been a complete sweep for Max if Warner Bros. Discovery hadn’t dropped its next Batman animated series in the name of cutting the budget to make the company look good in the eyes of Wall Street.

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As for movies, only one film was significant enough to make the cut, and it’s a sequel to a horror flick that was originally made for Paramount+ before it went on to become a box offie sensation.

The Penguin

Colin Farrell in The Penguin.
Max

The sequel to The Batman won’t arrive until 2026, but Max will have the follow-up this fall with The Penguin. The trailer below firmly establishes that the show takes place after The Batman, because Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot (Colin Farrell) is using the chaos to take over the crime empire formerly held together by the late Carmine Falcone.

Oswald may not be the most popular guy among the mafia, yet his only real competition appears to be Carmine’s daughter, Sofia Falcone, as played by How I Met Your Mother‘s Cristin Milioti. Sophia wants her father’s throne, and she’s more than willing to fight Oswald in order to get it.

House of the Dragon

Matt Smith in House of the Dragon in a dark photo looking menacing.
Ollie Upton / HBO

Following the season 2 premiere, HBO released a new trailer for House of the Dragon that teases the upcoming episodes. Without giving away the ending to the season premiere, the Blacks have struck back at the Greens, and there are going to be dire consequences now that blood has been spilled by both sides.

The seven kingdoms of Westeros are being split in two by the warring members of the Targaryen family. And when they bring their dragons to the fight, death can be the only outcome.

Batman: Caped Crusader

Batman stands in a burning building in Batman: Caped Crusader.
Amazon

On August 1, a new chapter in the Dark Knight’s animated adventures will unfold on Prime Video, because Max wasn’t smart enough to hold on to DC’s signature character. Batman: Caped Crusader is a new cartoon set in the 1940s and is produced by The Batman director Matt Reeves and Batman: The Animated Series co-creator Bruce Timm.

While Prime Video hasn’t released a trailer yet, the video below reveals an impressive voice cast for the show, including Hamish Linklater as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Christina Ricci as Catwoman/Selina Kyle, Jamie Chung as Harley Quinn/Dr. Harleen Quinzel, and Diedrich Bader as Harvey Dent/Two-Face.

Smile 2

Naomi Scott looks on in terror in a scene from Smile 2.
Paramount Pictures

Ironically, there’s no one less likely to smile in Smile 2 than the star of the movie, Naomi Scott. She plays a pop star named Skye Riley, who is apparently very popular and famous… if not necessarily happy.

However, once Skye sees her friend, Louis (Dead Boy Detectives star Lukas Gage), overtaken by a curse, she’s doomed to be the next one to die with a grotesque smile on her face unless she can escape her fate. The one thing that Skye can’t escape because of her fame is her inevitable meltdown in public when the curse starts twisting what she can see into something nightmarish.

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Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…
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