New footage from CinemaCon shows a look at Weapons. Weapons is an upcoming horror film about the disappearance of small-town high school students. It features a leading cast including Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, June Diane Raphael, Austin Abrams, and Benedict Wong. Weapons is written and directed by Zach Cregger, who is best known for his work directing the well-regarded 2022 horror movie Barbarian. The film is set to come out later this year, moving up from its original 2026 timeline.

At Warner Bros. CinemaCon panel, where ScreenRant was in attendance, footage for Weapons was revealed. The footage begins with a school-day setting, where one teacher notices that none of her students are in class. After showing images of parents arguing, the scene transitions into a series of horrific sH๏τs, including screaming and more. The trailer ends with a teasing line where a kid says “This is where the story really starts” and an image of a clown in the woods is shown. Check out the full footage description below:

Opens up on kids going to school, with one teacher noticing that none of her kids were in class. A voice-over from a kid says, “At 2:17 in the morning, every kid woke up, got out of bed, walked downstairs, and went into the dark…and they never came back.”

We then see parents arguing, police investigating, and other sH๏τs. Then the same teacher going back into that class and seeing every missing kid with their head down in the dark.

After a bunch of random horror sH๏τs (people screaming, stabbing themselves, etc.), the teaser wraps up on a door opening in the dark, and the kid saying, “This is where the story really starts.” Then it ends with someone in the woods, noticing a clown waving to him.

What This Means For Weapons

The Footage Hints At How The Disappearances Are Discovered

This footage description focuses heavily on the disappeared children, perhaps indicating how citizens first discover that the kids have vanished. Kids not showing up to school in large numbers, especially in a small town, would be the source of suspicion, as it certainly seems to be in Weapons. With the police looking into these cases, it seems that Weapons will feature an investigation plot. This is likely to be crosscut with a glimpse into what is going on with the children, as evidenced by the creepy clown waving.

More broadly, the fact that Warner Bros. is releasing footage of Weapons at CinemaCon seems like further proof that it is coming soon after some shakeups. Last month, the studio announced some changes to their release calendar, which included shifting up Cregger’s film from January 16, 2026 to August 8, 2025. It took the spot that was previously occupied by the Paul Thomas Anderson film One Battle After Another, which moved from August 8 to September 26 of this year.

Our Take On The Weapons Footage

How Will It Stand Out From Other Creepy Clowns?

As more plot news and eventually a trailer is released for Weapons, I will be interested to see how the film sets itself apart from other horror films. Over the years, the genre has had its fair share of creepy clowns, from Stephen King’s Pennywise to the Terrifier series with Art the Clown. How heavily the clowns factor into the Barbarian follow-up’s plot is yet to be revealed, but there is enough media wherein clowns terrorize children that the film will have to work to differentiate itself.

Source: Warner Bros.