M. Night Shyamalan's Old Trailer Teased For Super Bowl

M. Night Shyamalan is teasing the trailer for his new film Old by not-so-subtly hinting that we could see the trailer debut during the 2021 Super Bowl this weekend. Shyamalan appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon where he gave fans his biggest tease ever for one of his films: a two-second clip from Old that shows a relatively young couple coming upon a secluded beach location with some big waves rolling in. The woman says to the man, "Wow, I just got chills," before it cuts. As Shyamalan Explained to Fallon, he had originally decided on a one-second clip of Old to share but doubled it to give his fans more of what they want.

In terms of when we'll be getting an actual full trailer for Old: M. Night Shyamalan told Fallon (and fans) that "You might see something soon. This weekend-ish..." When Fallon and his Roots Crew band mentioned Super Bowl LV, Shyamalan demurred with "I don't know what's happening this weekend, but something this weekend, yeah."

Like so many of M. Night Shyamalan's films, Old is listed as having its "Plot kept under wraps," in any synopsis breakdown. The cryptic teaser poster for Old shows an hourglass filled with inky black substance; as that substance falls, it takes on the shape of human bodies, landing in a jumbled pile at the bottom of the hourglass. The tagline for the film reads "It's Only A Matter Of Time", which is plenty ominous, hinting at a possibly world-ending event. The poster refers to Old as "A New Trip From Writer/Director M. Night Shyamalan", which is equally curious in its terminology.

Rumors have pointed to Old being an adaptation of the French graphic novel Sandcastle, by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters. That story sees a group of different people (young couple, a family, tourists, and a refugee) who all come to the same beautiful beach cove for a perfect day. That happy scene is shattered when the body of a dead woman washes up onshore. After that the people on the beach start rapidly aging every half-hour, unable to escape the strange place they've wandered into. That certainly seems in line with the small bit of footage Shyamalan showed.

While the teases are intriguing, there are some red flags hanging over Old that Shyamalan's critics may be quick to pounce on. First of all, the last time Shyamalan took on the idea of some kind of global calamity or inevitable consequence for humanity was in The Happening, which was arguably his most criticized movie (before The Last Airbender came along). Speaking of Last Airbender: Shyamalan will be shooting Old on 35mm film, a format he only used once before, to shoot The Last Airbender. Still, that's a more superstitious cause for concern than an actual reason to worry, but still...

Look for the trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's Old during Super Bowl 2021.