Fox’s Cosmos Trailer Is The Coolest Thing That Will Exist Until Fox’s Cosmos Airs
Tune in for more star stuff.
Just a quick note that you may want to watch this on the biggest screen you can, with the highest definition available. You won’t be disappointed.
There is only one thing wrong with the above trailer, and it pains me to say those words. It’s when Fox’s name shows up before the logo for the National Geographic Channel. It completely took me out of the clip, and even when NatGeo’s name did come up and restored a modicum of due respect for the project, it was over. These are just dumb words falling out of my mouth, currently agape because Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, just in its trailer alone, has already exceeded some of my expectations for this upcoming series, an ethereal sequel to Carl Sagan’s landmark universe-exploring PBS documentary series from 1980. In fact, my one mouth spawned its own separate mouth, Queen Alien style, and it is also hanging down past my chin.
Set to launch in spring 2014, Fox and Nat Geo will air this new 13-part series, which is hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, another genius whose public appeal stands far above the popularity level and accessibility of your average astrophysicist. Carl Sagan’s widow, Ann Druyan, also assisted the production, and Seth MacFarlane, who I’ll credit with creating American Dad over the other stuff, used his ties with Fox to get the series produced. We’ve tipped our hat to him for this in the past, but that was before we knew how spectacular this trailer looked, even without really saying anything at all. I mean, five percent of me is worried how prominent cool images are, while barely any information is stated.
But that’s part of the point, and it’s a solid way to bring in people who didn’t know they were capable of getting both emotional and turned on by science and space. “There’s never been a more important time for Cosmos to re-emerge than right now,” MacFarlane said at last week’s Comic-Con panel, where the trailer was unveiled. “I want to make this so entertaining, and so flashy, and so exciting that people who have no interest in science will watch just because it’s a spectacle.”
The Spaceship of the Imagination is back and is traveling around in the colorful CGI nirvana of outer space. I apologize if I keep referring to the stars even when there are clearly Earthbound aspects, but I’m so invested in the actual cosmos side of things. As well as looking out, the series will also be looking inwards, down to the molecular level. I hardly have to tell you readers that we’re on the extreme edges of what is known of science, at least in some ways, so I cannot wait to see all of the expansive nooks and crannies that deGrasse Tyson explores. Especially when it looks like non-CGI animation will be used as well.
Solar flares, hallways with lights at the end of them, cave paintings. These guys are going everywhere and back. And the production, editing, and musical arrangement work in harmony. I’m not sure I’ll be able to take any movie trailers I watch for the rest of the year seriously, because everything we’ll see in this series is real. Reality is out there, man.
So just in case the headline didn’t make it clear, this trailer is the epitome of what 2014 needs to deliver. Tell people about this show. Show them this trailer. Get them excited. We cannot have Fox bail on this one due to low ratings.
Care to watch the trailer without a voiceover? It’s below.
