Trailers of the Week: ‘Shaft,’ ‘Dumbo,’ ‘Child’s Play’

What’s shakin’ regarding our brand new trailers this week? We’ve got the return of Disney’s airborne pachyderm; the return of a Stephen King fan-favorite and a pint-sized slasher-flick icon; and the return of one of Blaxploitation mother ”¦ sorry, we’re now being told by a trio of back-up singers to shut our mouth. (Does Hollywood have any new ideas? No. No, it does not.) To be fair, there’s also a peek of a fresh animated franchise that’s coming soon to a theater new you. Here’s your weekly trailer round-up.

Child’s Play
Welcome back, Chuck! Everyone’s favorite two-foot tall plastic killer returns for a reboot, now terrorizing a young man (Gabriel Bateman) and his mom (Aubrey Plaza). We have no idea whether this is going to be the least bit good, but 50 bonus points for an ingenious use of the theme from The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (“People, let me tell you about my beeeeeeeeest friennnnnd ”¦”) and 10,000 bonus points for including Brian Tyree Henry. Opens June 21st.

Dumbo
It’s a nice, slightly more extended look at this live-action take on the Disney animated classic, coming straight “from the imagination of Tim Burton.” We meet a few more of the surrounding circus folk, get a better sense of Lil’ Dumbo’s massive earspan, a tad more Michael-Keaton-being-evil and an overall sense of what the Alice in Wonderland director is bringing to the table here. It hits theaters on March 29th.

Pet Sematary
Stephen King’s genuinely unnerving 1983 novel has already been adapted for the screen once, and folks seem to be up in arms about some of the changes this new version is applying to the source material. We’ll let you see the trailer’s reveal of the switcheroo ”” and regardless, we’re still curious to see how this 2019 take on a family, a tragedy and burial ground that doesn’t exactly count as a “final” resting place will play out. Due date: April 5th.

Shaft
It’s a Shaft for all seasons! One John Shaft Jr. (Jessie T. Usher) shows up at the doorstep of his Pops, i.e. Samuel L. Jackson’s John Shaft from the 2000 remake of the ’70s Blaxploitation classic. Soon, father and son are getting involved in gunplay and fisticuffs (“Are there no nonviolent people in Harlem?!” the kid asks after getting socked in the jaw). Then guess who else shows up? Richard Roundtree, a.k.a. Original Recipe Shaft! Holy shit, we have ourselves a Shaftiverse!!! (Technically this movie should be called Shafts, but, er, that sounds a tad nasty.) Also Regina Hall shows up as Junior’s mother, and you know how we feel about Regina Hall. Opens June 14th.

Wonder Park
Suburban kids make their own amusement park with a few planks, some shopping carts and good old-fashioned moxie and verve. Then the head “engineer” of this endeavor stumbles across an actual abandoned theme park in the woods near her house ”” and apparently it’s overrun with “chimpanzombies”? Also some talking animals show up and the trailer tells us that “if you can imagine it, you can ride it,” which translates to a rollercoaster known as the “Skyflinger” and a fish carousel. Jennifer Garner, Matthew Broderick, Kenan Thompson, John Oliver, Mila Kunis and Ken Jeong lend their voices. Your kids will love it. Hopefully. March 15th.