The Super Bowl is not your ordinary football game. It’s a global experience witnessed by more than 100 million people each year. From the game to the halftime show, the Super Bowl is the biggest marketing opportunity of the year, which is why companies spend millions on 30-second commercials. Major film studios also use the Super Bowl as a launching pad for their upcoming film slate.
The 2023 Super Bowl featured 12 new trailers for some of the year’s most-anticipated films. From Marvel and Lucasfilm to DC and Universal, almost every major studio unveiled new footage for a future movie. Below are the best trailers from the 2023 Super Bowl, ranked from 12 to 1.
12. The Super Mario Bros. Movie
The most unique trailer belongs to the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Movie, which wasn’t even a trailer at all. The 30-second commercial is a promo for Super Mario Bros. plumbing that features Mario (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s Chris Pratt) and his twin brother, Luigi (Mythic Quest’s Charlie Day).
In the commercial, the Mario brothers show off their plumbing skills as they work at the house of one of their customers. As their tagline reads, “We don’t make messes, we fix them.” Though not technically a trailer, the ambitious Super Bowl spot stands out during a game crowded with commercials.
11. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
As Chris Pine’s Edgin the Bard says to open the trailer, “We’re facing the greatest evils the world has ever known. We’re going to need a team.” Based on the tabletop role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is the story of how Edgin and his team of criminals attempt to save the world from destruction.
Edgin’s team features Michelle Rodriguez (The Fast Saga) as Holga the Barbarian, Regé-Jean Page (Bridgerton) Page as Xenk the Paladin, Justice Smith (Jurassic World Dominion) as Simon the Sorcerer, and Sophia Lillis (It) as Doric the Druid. The ragtag group of characters must retrieve a rare relic to complete their quest, but avoiding the wrong people and fire-breathing dragons will be challenging.
10. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
What drives the hero in you? That’s the question posed in the latest TV spot for Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, the seventh film in the Transformers series. Serving as the sequel to Bumblebee, Rise of the Beasts stars Anthony Ramos (In the Heights) as Noah, an electronics expert and former soldier, and Dominique Fishback (The Deuce) as Elena, an artifact researcher at a museum.
The new spot focuses on Noah’s car, Mirage (voiced by Pete Davidson), a silver-blue Porsche that doubles as an Autobot spy. Set in 1994, Rise of the Beasts introduces three new versions of Transformers: the Predacons, Maximals, and the Terrorcons. Like the films before it, Rise of the Beasts will be loud, explosive, and full of action.
9. 65
Over the past 30 years, the Jurassic Park franchise has cornered the market on dinosaurs. However, 65 presents a prehistoric adventure that could be a welcome addition to dinosaur films. Mills (Adam Driver of Marriage Story) is a pilot who crashes on an unknown planet that he soon learns is Earth 65 million years ago. In the crash, there is only one other survivor, a girl named Koa (Love and Monsters’ Ariana Greenblatt).
The duo must make their way across the planet for any chance at a rescue. However, they are the invasive species on the planet as dinosaurs are the top predators. Mills must somehow avoid these prehistoric creatures without dying, which might be hard considering one of those dinosaurs is a Tyrannosaurus rex.
8. Air
Ben Affleck (Gone Girl), Matt Damon (Stillwater), and the quest to sign Michael Jordan to a shoe contract may end up being a recipe for box-office success. In Air, Damon stars as Sonny Vaccaro, the soon-to-be-famous entrepreneur who went on to become a marketing giant. However, in 1984, Vaccaro was looking for his big break at Nike as a shoe salesman under the leadership of CEO Phil Knight (Affleck).
Vaccaro decides to take a risk and suggests that a young Michael Jordan should be the future of the Nike brand. Despite never having played a game in the NBA, Vaccaro believes that “Air Jordan” will be the future of sneakers, so he travels to North Carolina to convince Jordan’s parents (Black Adam‘s Viola Davis and The Woman King’s Julius Tennon) to sign with Nike. The rest is history, but how it came to be will be exciting to watch.
7. Fast X
With Dominic Toretto (Guardians of the Galaxy’s Vin Diesel), there are no friends. There’s only family, and that family is being threatened again in Fast X. Billed as the second-to-last film in the franchise, Fast X, has Dom and his crew face a new threat in the form of Dante Reyes (Aquaman’s Jason Momoa), the son of the Brazilian drug lord Hernan Reyes, who died at the hands of the Toretto patriarch and Brian O’Connor (Fast & Furious 6’s Paul Walker) at the end of Fast Five.
Dante intends to hit Dom where it hurts the most — his heart — as he teams up with Cipher (The Old Guard’s Charlize Theron) to kidnap Toretto’s young son, Brian Marcos (Leo Abelo Perry). Dom will need to rely on his crew one more time to save the family he’s fought tooth and nail to protect for over two decades.
6. Cocaine Bear
You do not need a degree in rocket science to figure out the plot of Cocaine Bear. Inspired by a true story, the film follows a black bear that stumbles upon a bag of cocaine in a Georgia forest. What does that black bear do? Well, the bear ingests the cocaine, and as you can probably guess, things go haywire.
A group of criminals, teens, townspeople, and tourists converge on the bear, but the coke-fueled bear wreaks havoc as it goes on a murderous spree. Directed by Elizabeth Banks (Pitch Perfect), the film looks as crazy as it sounds, but the action comedy is emerging into must-see territory.
5. Scream VI
If there are teens from Woodsboro who think they can hide from Ghostface, they need to think again, as the masked killer will find them. In Scream VI, the survivors from Scream V, including half-sisters Sam (Keep Breathing’s Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Wednesday’s Jenna Ortega) Carpenter, leave Woodsboro behind to start anew in New York City. However, a new Ghostface killer shows up in the Big Apple, targeting all the survivors from Woodsboro.
In the Super Bowl spot, Ghostface arrives at their New York City apartment, stalking the group as they attempt to cross a ladder between the two buildings. Let the mystery to unmask Ghostface begin!
4. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Harrison Ford (Shrinking) grabs his trademark hat and whip for the final time in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The trailer opens with Indy being confronted by Jürgen Voller (Hannibal’s Mads Mikkelsen), a former Nazi who once battled Dr. Jones on a train years prior. Set to the tune of the iconic theme song by John Williams (The Fabelmans), the trailer features a high-speed chase and grand set pieces, something that Indiana Jones fans have come to love and appreciate.
The final moments introduce Indy’s goddaughter, Helena Shaw (Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge). The reunion is short-lived as the duo jumps out of a burning plane, leaving their fate unknown.
3. Creed III
Training montages have become a standout of the Creed franchise. The Creed III Super Bowl spot highlighted the upcoming fight between former friends-turned-rivals Adonis Creed (Creed II’s Michael B. Jordan) and Damian Anderson (Devotion’s Jonathan Majors). From shadow boxing and wind sprints to rope climbs and sparring, Adonis and Damian are on a collision course that will end in the center of the ring.
After being released from a long prison sentence, Damian wants to prove to the world that he’s the next champion, and he’ll go through Adonis to do it. This has the potential to feature the best fight in the Creed franchise.
2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Before James Gunn officially closes the chapter on Marvel, he has one last sendoff in the form of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. After the events of Avengers: Endgame, Peter Quill (The Terminal List’s Chris Pratt) is still reeling from the loss of Gamora (Avatar’s Zoe Saldaña) and adjusting to the new Gamora, who hates his guts.
The Guardians are adjusting to life on Knowhere, but one of their own, Rocket (voiced by A Star Is Born’s Bradley Cooper), is kidnapped by his creator, the High Evolutionary (Peacemaker’s Chukwudi Iwuji), who plans to turn every creature into his own special race. Quill must rally the Guardians together for one final mission as they set off to reclaim Rocket and, in doing so, save the world.
1. The Flash
With all of the controversy surrounding Ezra Miller (Justice League), it’s refreshing to see some good news from The Flash in the form of an exciting new trailer. The long-awaited film about Barry Allen will finally see the light of day this summer. In the film, Allen travels back in time to prevent his mother’s murder. However, this alters Barry’s future, trapping him in a reality without superheroes as General Zod (George & Tammy’s Michael Shannon) threatens to annihilate the planet.
The Super Bowl trailer for The Flash features the return of Michael Keaton (Birdman) as Batman. Barry recruits Batman to rescue Supergirl (The Young and the Restless’s Sasha Calle), and then team up to fight Zod and save the world. The trailer also features two Flashes as Barry encounters another version of himself. James Gunn called The Flash one of the “greatest superhero movies ever made,” so we’ll see if that proves true this June.
