Forgotten Runes Wizard's Cult Trailer (2022)

Still from the Forgotten Runes Wizard's Cult TV trailer.

On May 4 2022, Magic Machine, in collaboration with animation studio Titmouse Inc., released a 100-second trailer for a planned flagship television show for the Forgotten Runes franchise.

Watch the trailer on Youtube

History

During the Wizard Wednesday that occurred on August 18 2021, Elf first announced that the initial animation project completed by a then-unnamed animation studio would be a 60-second animated TV trailer. The trailer was planned as a story-telling vehicle that could also be used to pitch a proposed TV show to distributors.

On September 8th 2021, Dotta held an informal Discord poll to determine whether the community would be interested in minted frames from the trailer, sold as an NFT at auction to provide funding to Magic Machine. Although a majority of responders voted "Yes," so far these have not materialized. On the same day, during Wizard Wednesday Dotta revealed that the trailer's production would cost between $100-200K. Elf talked about his process for writing the script and choosing which wizards would appear in the trailer - he determines what kind of wizard he needs first, then browses the collection to find one that fits.

On October 20th, 2021, Magic Machine announced that the Titmouse Inc. animation studio would be producing the TV trailer (and eventual show). This generated a lot of excitement among the community, since Titmouse has created numerous well-received animated shows that have been released on major streaming platforms.

On October 27th, 2021, during Wizard Wednesday, Elf announced that Titmouse had recently delivered a final cut of the animation, but that the trailer's production would be extended by two weeks because he demands exceptional quality from all Magic Machine content. Elf's goal was to replace a masterpiece that would stand the test of time.

On November 11th, 2021, Dotta revealed that the schedule for the trailer release was January 2022. On January 5th 2022, Dotta updated the estimated release to early March.

Starting in late January 2022, Magic Machine started releasing preview stills and snippets of animation from the trailer. On February 23rd, Dotta confirmed that the trailer would be released prior to the Forgotten Runes Warriors Guild collection drop.

On March 3rd 2022, Elf confirmed that the visuals for the trailer were completed, and sound was 95% done. On March 23rd, Bearsnake confirmed that the trailer was 100% complete, but would wait for the right moment to be released in the run-up to the Warriors mint, as part of the marketing plan. As a result, the actual trailer release would not occur until May 2022.

On April 6th 2022, Kristian Nairn was confirmed as the person doing voice-over narration for the trailer. Nairn is most well-known for playing the part of Hodor in the Game of Thrones television show, but is also a producer and DJ. Additionally, community member Sharkchild (Orbus) would play the voice of the Sacred Key Master (777) in the trailer.

On May 4th, the trailer was released on Youtube. Within 2 months, it had accrued over 875K views.

Additional References

Twitter analysis thread on the TV trailer (written by Kel 1/1)