Many of us will remember the first time we saw a trailer for the “Harry Potter” franchise. Settling down to the Warner Bros. family comedy, “See Spot Run,” which the trailer was attached to, the first glimpse of what would become the biggest franchise of all time was sneaked out, and people left the theater with one overwhelming impression: ‘”See Spot Run” was a piece of shit. Since then, clips have emerged every six months or so for the eight movies in the series, and we’ve watched those children grow up in front of our eyes in a series of two-to-three-minute snippets, in the form of Quicktime files, YouTube videos and sometimes even on the big-screen.
So it’s with a heavy heart that we report that the second and final trailer for part two of part seven of the franchise, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2” has debuted over at Apple, which means that the well is now officially dry. No longer will we thrill to the fast cutting and clouded title cards of the Warner Bros. marketing department! No longer will we gape at the brief glimpses of semi-completed visual effects set-pieces! No longer will we catch a fleeting look at the latest British character actor to join the cast, and try to remember which Mike Leigh film they were in! No longer will we be able to laugh uproariously when the ginger one makes a funny! Oh, that this too solid flesh would melt…
But it’s important not to dwell on what we’ve lost: instead, let’s think about what we’ve gained. In this case, two minutes and twenty-eight seconds of footage, which not only reminds us of the previous films, but also shows us the immediate future, in the most expansive look at the one long action sequence that seems to comprise ‘Deathly Hallows Pt. 2.’ And being on its deathbed doesn’t mean that the series of trailers are being shy: in fact, one of their final acts is to ruthlessly spoil at least one major character death.
The film itself will be released in only a month, on July 15th, but with the knowledge that no more trailers are to come, it’s hard to know why we should bother. The trailers are survived by a series of TV spots, and a teaser for whatever young adult franchise Warners desperately try to launch next year. Pay your respects by watching it below, or in HD over at Apple.
