Thor: Love & Thunder Trailer Delay Hints At Post-No Way Home Strategy
Thor: Love and Thunder's trailer is still yet to be released, hinting at Marvel trying out a new marketing strategy that began with No Way Home.
Marvel Studios is yet to release a trailer for the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, hinting at a new marketing strategy that began with 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home. The release date for Thor: Love and Thunder is currently July 8th, 2022, 106 days away at the time of writing. Given this short gap, fans are eagerly awaiting a trailer for the next installment in the Thor franchise, and the MCU as a whole.
Marvel trailers tend not to leave fans wanting in terms of how far they are shown from the release of the film. Marvel Studios usually release the first looks of their films at an average of 169 days from release, as per an inquest by The Direct. The delay in the first Thor: Love and Thunder trailer release then, puts the wait time at officially the second shortest, following only The Incredible Hulk, a film that released its first trailer only 93 days before release. This delay, however, provides evidence to a potential new Marvel Studios strategy that began with Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Audiences across the world flooded to see Marvel Studios and Sony's most recent collaboration Spider-Man: No Way Home. When waiting for Marvel's renowned post-credit scene though, fans were treated to something different than the usual hint-laden clip: a trailer for the next MCU release Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This trailer then dropped online about 5 days after the theatrical release of No Way Home, identical to the version shown in theaters. This could hint at why the trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder is taking so long. With Doctor Strange 2 releasing in May 2022, Marvel could be implementing this new strategy across more movies than just No Way Home, opting to include the first look for Thor as an end-credits scene for Doctor Strange. Through this, Marvel could be banking on their all-but-guaranteed box-office success to market the next film in their slate, as with No Way Home and the trailer for Multiverse of Madness. While this strategy would leave only a short gap of 61 days between the release of Thor: Love and Thunder's first trailer and the release of the film, it is sure to build up more excitement for the film given the extra wait time and the linking together of Doctor Strange and Thor.
Another reason this strategy would work for Marvel is the avoidance of spoilers for future films. With Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness directly feeding off the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home, it made perfect sense for Marvel to hold off on the trailer until the post-credits of that film. This not only increased excitement due to the obvious story links between the two but saved Marvel from having to release a trailer that could potentially spoil the events of No Way Home before its release. The same could then be said for Thor: Love and Thunder. As so little is known about both Thor 4 and Doctor Strange 2 in terms of heavy spoilers, there is no telling how the events of the latter will affect the events of the former, meaning the release of the trailer would be best left for the ending of Doctor Strange to avoid potential spoilers.
As audiences have come to realize, Marvel Studios has a packed schedule. Due to this, Marvel may be hesitant to release trailers so close to other films, not wanting to take attention away from the next in the lineup. With this new marketing strategy, however, the audience's attention stays on the release of the current film, until the trailer is shown for the next as a post-credits. This is the optimal strategy for Marvel, allowing each film its time in the spotlight before moving on to the next all while linking their films directly through the cinema experience. The wait for the trailer of Thor: Love and Thunder only supports this strategy, proving that Marvel Studios could be switching up the tactics when concerning the heavily anticipated trailers of films in the ever-expanding MCU.