I still remember the first time that teaser dropped. It was late 2016, and the Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets trailer basically broke the internet for sci-fi nerds. Seriously. You had those shimmering, neon-soaked visuals of Alpha—the titular city—set to the first-ever licensed use of The Beatles’ "Nowhere Man" in a movie trailer. It felt like a fever dream. It felt like Luc Besson was finally giving us the spiritual successor to The Fifth Element that we’d been craving for two decades.
But then the movie actually came out in 2017. And, well, things got complicated.
Look, Besson is a visionary. Nobody denies that. He spent decades dreaming of adapting the French comic series Valérian and Laureline by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières. He even hired Mézières to do concept art for The Fifth Element back in the 90s, and the artist reportedly asked him, "Why are you doing this movie? You should be doing Valerian." But the technology wasn't there yet. Not until James Cameron released Avatar and proved you could build entire alien ecosystems that didn't look like painted cardboard.
The marketing masterclass that was the Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets trailer
Marketing is a tricky beast. Sometimes a trailer is just a highlight reel, but the Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets trailer was something else entirely—it was a promise. It promised a scope we hadn't seen since the Star Wars prequels, but with a distinctly European, psychedelic flair.
The editing was snappy. The colors were almost aggressive in their vibrancy. It showcased the "Big Market," a multi-dimensional bazaar that requires special goggles to see, and the Mül creatures, those ethereal, pearl-skinned beings that looked like they walked off a high-fashion runway in another galaxy.
When you watch that trailer, you don't see the script problems. You don't see the lack of chemistry between the leads. You just see pure, unadulterated imagination. It's the kind of 150-second clip that makes you believe cinema can still surprise you. Honestly, it’s one of the best-edited trailers of the last decade, regardless of how you feel about the final 137-minute film.
Why the Beatles track mattered so much
Getting a Beatles song for a trailer is nearly impossible. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are notoriously protective of that catalog. But Besson reportedly reached out to Paul personally. The song "Nowhere Man" wasn't just a cool background track; it was a thematic anchor. It suggested a story about identity and belonging in a vast, cold universe.
It gave the film a sense of prestige. It told the audience: "This isn't just another bargain-bin sci-fi flick. This is an event."
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The disconnect: What the trailer hid from us
Here is the thing about the Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets trailer: it leaned heavily on the world-building because the world-building is the film's strongest suit. What it couldn't hide forever was the casting.
Dane DeHaan is a fantastic actor. Go watch Chronicle or The Place Beyond the Pines. He’s moody, intense, and brilliant. But is he a cocky, space-faring interstellar agent with a Casanova complex? Not really. And Cara Delevingne, while she has the perfect "space princess" look, often felt like she was acting in a different movie than DeHaan.
The trailer featured quick cuts of their banter. In short bursts, it worked. You thought, "Oh, they're doing that Han and Leia bickering thing. Cool." But in the actual film, that bickering lasted for two hours and lacked the underlying warmth that makes those tropes work.
- The visuals: 10/10.
- The creature design: 10/10.
- The dialogue: Kinda rough.
- The plot: Sorta bloated.
We also have to talk about Rihanna. The trailer teased her "Bubble" character as this mysterious, transformative cabaret performer. Her sequence in the movie is actually one of the highlights, but it also feels like a twenty-minute detour that stops the main plot dead in its tracks. The trailer made it look like a seamless part of the journey. The reality was a bit more episodic.
The financial gamble of the century
People forget how much was on the line here. This wasn't a Disney movie. It wasn't a Warner Bros. production. This was produced by EuropaCorp, Besson’s own company, with a budget hovering around $200 million. It was the most expensive independent film ever made at the time.
To fund it, Besson had to sell the distribution rights to different territories all over the world before a single frame was shot. He was basically betting the entire house on the idea that global audiences wanted a weird, colorful French space opera.
The Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets trailer was the primary tool used to sell that dream to those distributors. It had to look like a billion dollars. And it did. It really did. But the North American box office was a disaster, pulling in only about $41 million. It performed better overseas, particularly in China, but not enough to justify the massive sequels Besson had already written.
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The Alpha concept: A city that actually makes sense
Despite the movie's flaws, the core concept of Alpha—the City of a Thousand Planets—is genius. It started as the International Space Station. Over centuries, more modules were added. Aliens from different systems showed up and plugged in their own ships. Eventually, it became too heavy for Earth's orbit and was pushed out into deep space.
It’s a giant, floating metaphor for multiculturalism.
The opening sequence of the movie (which was heavily featured in the first Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets trailer) perfectly illustrates this history. It’s a wordless montage set to David Bowie’s "Space Oddity." It shows decades of humans and aliens shaking hands. It’s optimistic. It’s beautiful. In those first five minutes, you really think you’re watching a masterpiece.
Understanding the "Valerian" legacy in 2026
It’s been years since the movie came out, and its reputation has shifted. It’s become a "cult" visual feast. If you turn off the sound and just look at the frames, it’s arguably one of the most beautiful films ever made.
There’s a specific kind of "Besson Weirdness" that Hollywood just doesn't produce anymore. Everything now is so scrubbed and tested by focus groups. Valerian is messy. It’s idiosyncratic. It features a sequence where a guy has to fish for a "melo" (a small lizard that poops out energy pearls) while wearing a giant diving suit. It’s bizarre.
But the Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets trailer remains a high-water mark for movie marketing. It managed to distill the purest essence of the source material—the wonder, the scale, and the sheer "otherness" of the galaxy—into a digestible format.
Why people are still searching for the trailer today
Most people look up the trailer now for one of two reasons:
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- They want to see the "Nowhere Man" edit because it's genuinely iconic.
- They are trying to remember the name of that "weird space movie with the Rihanna dance."
It serves as a reminder of what big-budget sci-fi can look like when it's not tied to a massive existing IP like Marvel or Star Wars. Even if the movie didn't quite stick the landing, the trailer represents a moment of pure potential.
Actionable ways to enjoy the Valerian universe
If you watched the Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets trailer and felt that spark of excitement, but the movie left you cold, don't give up on the franchise. There are better ways to experience this world.
First, go to the source. The original graphic novels, Valérian and Laureline, are widely available in English now. They are much more political, cynical, and clever than the film. The dynamic between the characters makes way more sense on the page. Start with The Empire of a Thousand Planets or Ambassador of the Shadows.
Second, if you're a tech nerd, look for the "making of" featurettes. The sheer amount of work that went into the 2,700+ VFX shots is staggering. Weta Digital and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) actually collaborated on this, which almost never happens. They had to create over 200 different alien species.
Finally, watch the movie again, but skip the first 20 minutes of "romance" setup. Jump straight to the arrival at Alpha. Treat it like a visual album rather than a narrative epic. When you view it through the lens of a high-budget art installation, it’s a lot more satisfying.
The Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets trailer gave us a glimpse into a vibrant, chaotic, and hopeful future. While the film struggled to carry the weight of that vision, the ambition alone makes it worth a second look. Just maybe keep the remote nearby so you can fast-forward through the awkward flirting.