Trainspotting 2 International Trailer: Be Addicted to Something Else

2017 is set to be the year of belated sequels. Ridley Scott’s going back to the Xenomorph one more time for Alien: Covenant, a film that bridges the gap between Prometheus and the original Alien, while his other sci-fi masterpiece will also get a follow-up in the form Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049. Then you have Star Wars Episode VIII, which may only come two years after The Force Awakens, but has been dreamt about by fans since Return of the Jedi. And for action fans, there’s Vin Diesel’s return to his third most interesting franchise, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage. Before all of them, though, comes T2 Trainspotting.

There’s been the prospect of Trainspotting sequel ever since the first movie emerged as a smash hit in 1996, with director Danny Boyle and the cast never quite closing the door. After twenty-two years of prevaricating, however, it’s actually, really happening. The plot sees the core gang of Renton (Ewan McGregor), Sick Boy (Johnny Lee Miller), Spud (Ewen Bremner) and Begbie (Robert Carlyle) reunite in a story that, importantly, won’t be taking from Irvine Welsh’s sequel novel Porno (although that may provide inspiration for a proposed separate TV series).

The first T2 Trainspotting trailer arrived a few weeks ago (at the time of writing this), but already a second,  international preview has been released – one that offers some fresh new footage and will no doubt get Wolf Alice’s “Silk” once again stuck in your head. Check out said trailer, above.

This new preview follows a very similar structure to the first T2 trailer, with most of the action centred around the 21st Century update of the original Trainspotting‘s “Choose life” monologue, but with a few extended sequences. Most noteworthy is the mention early on of the original film’s third act, where the gang did a massive deal only for Renton to run off with most of the money – which clearly shows that bygones are yet to become bygones. There’s also an extended reunion between Sick Boy and Renton (misleadingly edited to look like Begbie in the trailer), which doesn’t go all that well, leading to an altercation involving a bar, a soda gun and, fittingly given we’re in Scotland, Irn Bru.

Although late-in-the-day sequels are a very hit-and-miss proposition, everything on T2 (not to be confused with Terminator 2: Judgement Day) is shaping up to be an honourable extension. Boyle returning and getting his core cast to come along with him got things off to a good start, but this looks to be actually advancing the characters and exploring what it means to be counter-culture in the modern day. The proof, of course, will be in the high itself.