Christopher Nolan fans have been eagerly anticipating the next trailer for his mind-bending thriller Tenet, but it’s a safe bet that none of them anticipated it would make its debut in Fortnite.
In a very surprising announcement on the hit video game’s Twitter page, Fortnite dropped the bombshell that the eagerly anticipated trailer will debut inside the new Party Royale mode starting at 8 PM EST and repeating every hour. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the online shooter, Party Royale is a recently added feature that essentially allows players a safe area to just hang out and goof around with friends. The area has already been used to host concerts from Deadmau5 and Steve Aoki, and now the giant theater screen will be used to debut a trailer for a major motion picture for the very first time. As for how Nolan feels about his prestige film being promoted in a video game… that will surely be a hot discussion for cinema buffs.
You can see the official Fortnite announcement below:
Grab a front row seat in Party Royale for a world premiere!
Catch the latest trailer for Christopher Nolan’s @TENETFilm at the top of every hour on the big screen starting at 8 PM ET.
ʇnO sunᴚ ǝɯı⊥ ǝɹoɟǝq ʇı ǝǝS pic.twitter.com/ZiNfxaRQ7U
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) May 21, 2020
Compounding the unusual venue for the new Tenet trailer is the fact that the movie’s release date is in flux right now. It’s currently set for a July 21 release date, but with Los Angeles still under lockdown for the next three months and most theater chains being shuttered across the country, there are significant doubts that Nolan’s latest will debut this summer. According to Deadline, there are tentative plans to shift Tenet to Wonder Woman 84‘s August release date, but most industry insiders view that as an extremely optimistic outcome. If theaters do manage to open that soon, they would only be able to seat half of their capacity, at best, and that’s if moviegoers are willing to risk potential exposure to the still ongoing pandemic.
In short, the chances of bringing in the much-needed box-office haul for a big-budget Nolan film look pretty unlikely for not just this summer, but the rest of 2020. This trailer debuting in Fortnite, though… that is definitely happening. It’s a strange year.
(Via Fortnite)