’Tis the season for the HBO/Max establishment to offer us a teaser reel of all its upcoming shows, from the coming soon to the coming sometime next year. The “soon” shows are ones we’ve seen more of already—like the Batman spinoff The Penguin, which arrives next month—but there are some enticing first glimpses in this video of things like the It prequel It: Welcome to Derry and, of course, the second season of The Last of Us.
The prestige zombie show is saved for last, here, and serves as a powerful (and very brief) reminder of what happened at the end of season one: “What did you do?” Catherine O’Hara asks, before it cuts to a series of scenes of violence and infected and screaming, with quick looks at Isabela Merced as Dina and Jeffrey Wright as Isaac. The only other dialogue comes from Joel (Pedro Pascal), face closed off, tearing up, as he answers, “I saved her.” Oof.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms gets just a few scenes, but already looks a bit lighter than its ponderous Westerosi sibling shows. It: Welcome to Derry offers the line, “This ain’t America. This is Derry,” and a character with a very creepy grin, seen through a window. Dune: Prophecy has a full trailer, so these quick scenes don’t add much to our knowledge of it yet.
Of course there’s also Creature Commandos and a new season of Harley Quinn—and there’s also a very brief (too brief!) look at The Franchise, a series about the crew of a superhero movie, which comes from Sam Mendes (Penny Dreadful), showrunner Jon Brown (Succession), and producer Armando Iannucci (Veep).
The Penguin arrives September 19th, Dune: Prophecy and Harley Quinn in November, and Creature Commandos in December; The Franchise is coming soon, and the rest are all next year.
