Let’s rank all the new fantasy and sci-fi trailers from CCXP!

5. Halo season 2

Is it insane that I’m ranking Paramount+’s Halo trailer over The Boys? Maybe, but I’d be lying if I said this trailer didn’t get me a lot more excited. The Boys may be an unquestionably better show, but in my opinion Halo season 2 had the better trailer.

Season 1 of the sci-fi action show based on the beloved Halo video game series had its ups and downs; generally, it seems to have alienated a lot of the diehard video game fans while roping in some of us newbies who don’t care overmuch whether the Master Chief takes off his helmet or shows his butt cheeks. But despite any potential rough patches, the trailer for season 2 gave me chills. It paints a very tense picture of an alien invasion of a major human planet, Reach. Even just in the trailer, the devastation is immense.

Of course, Master Chief and the rest of his Spartan super-soldier companions are mixing it up right in the thickest of the fighting against the alien Covenant forces. If the season can live up to how breathtaking the trailer is, we could be in for a major leap forward in quality for Halo in season 2.

The Halo trailer also gains a few extra points for giving us a hard release date for the season, and  it’s sooner than expected! Halo season 2 premieres on Paramount+ on February 8, 2024.

4. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Switching over to movies for a minute, Legendary Pictures’ Monsterverse franchise debuted a first look at its next movie: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Sure, Godzilla Minus One may be crushing it at the box office as we speak, but one can never have too many kaiju films on the horizon.

This one will see Godzilla and Kong team up to fight another giant ape kaiju which seemingly lives in the center of the Earth. These movies are all about the spectacle, and from the looks of things The New Empire will have plenty. From the dizzying shot of Pterodactyls flying across the subterranean landscape to Godzilla breaking out of the ice, to the menacing new orange ape kaiju there’s a lot to sink our teeth into in this trailer.

There’s still plenty of mystery though. What’s the deal with the new human culture that seems to live down in the hollow Earth? Is this new ape related to Kong in some way? And how does one get down to this hidden world in the center of the planet?

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire premieres sometime in 2024.