A big day for Ari Aster fanatics as a trailer and release date for his upcoming film Eddington have arrived. The feature, written by the Hereditary filmmaker, explores the fictitious town named Eddington, New Mexico, in May 2020 and centers around a conflict between Eddington’s sheriff, Joe Cross, played by Joaquin Phoenix, and Mayor Ted Garcia, portrayed by Pedro Pascal. The rest of the ensemble cast is made up of Luke Grimes, Deidre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, Austin Butler, and Emma Stone. Today on their YouTube account, A24 debuted the first official trailer for Eddington along with a release date of July 18, 2025.
The trailer, which is just around a minute long, takes the form of an Instagram scroll. The background noise at first is a voice, seemingly on the radio, explaining conspiracy theories, heavily implied about COVID-19, before they go on to talk about different topics as an unseen person browses through numerous videos on social media. The first video is of Phoenix’s Joe Cross speaking to the press, stating, “If you value your life, you should think twice because the people of Eddington like guns.” A quick scroll to the next video showcases Austin Butler’s character in a colorful background, preaching with a microphone in hand, yelling with passion, “Your pain is not a coincidence. You are not a coincidence. We are not a coincidence.” The third video is of Emma Stone looking somber and in a bedroom, saying, “And I am speaking now to deny my husband’s announcement yesterday, which was false.”
With that, the videos are broken up by contemporary trends that are similar to our social media platforms; the background noise is now a news reporter stating, “Eddington, New Mexico, despite its meager population, is quickly being co-opted in online circles.” A fourth video is shown quickly after, with Pedro Pascal’s Ted Garcia telling the town of Eddington that “I’m ready to continue leading our town and fighting the pandemic and the racial and economic,” but his voice trails off as the unseen person quickly scrolls to the next video.
The final voice is presented by the account of CNN, an actual multi-news network, that shows Joe Cross getting swarmed by protestors and evidently pushing the one holding the phone camera. The caption of the video reads, “‘Law and Order’ Sheriff Assaults Protestor In Town Rocked By Murders.” The music grows louder as the video refocuses on Joe Cross, clearly with him yelling, “It was an accident! I am trying to explain.” The music reaches its final peak, and the trailer breaks out of its social media form to reveal the person who was scrolling through all these posts, Joe Cross. The camera lingers on him lying down and looking at his phone with a blank expression on his face. The trailer ends with the title, Eddington, flashing on the screen accompanied by the film’s ominous score.
It will be interesting to see how Aster will portray this tumultuous plot inside a self-described Western black comedy. Aster is well-known for his grief-centered horror features, Hereditary and Midsommar. He did explore a new genre with his 2023 film, Beau Is Afraid, which is a tragicomic odyssey of sorts and stars Phoenix as the title character. It did not receive as strong of an acclaim as its predecessors, but Eddington seems to take on another form entirely.
It will be exciting to see what Aster does with the Western genre and if the town of Eddington is big enough for both him and Phoenix.
