Universal Pictures has released the final trailer for Dear Evan Hansen, the high school-set film based on the hit Broadway musical by Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek & Justin Paul. Directed by Stephen Chbosky and starring Ben Platt, who reprises his Tony Award-winning role, Dear Evan Hansen is slated for a September 24 release.
The over three-and-a-half minute-long trailer, set to the song "Waving Through a Window," covers what seems like the film’s entire plot. Evan Hansen, a high school student with Social Anxiety Disorder, finds himself entangled in an emotionally overwhelming situation when a fellow student named Connor dies by suicide. Connor's parents are led to believe that Evan was his only friend, inadvertently tying him and Connor to each other, and unleashing a wave of scrutiny that threatens to consume him.
The final trailer is bookended by critics' blurbs hailing the film for its empowering themes and emotional storytelling. Sandwiched between the acclaim is every attempt possible to remind you of other hit films that the people behind Dear Evan Hansen have been involved in. Songwriters Pasek & Paul previously composed original tracks for La La Land and The Greatest Showman, and Chbosky helmed The Perks of Being a Wallflower and the sleeper hit Wonder.
The critical reception, however, has been rather mixed. On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently sits at a 47% approval rating, based on 32 reviews. The final trailer arrives just a day after 20th Century Studios unveiled a new look at director Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, based on the classic Broadway musical of the same name by Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim. As you can probably tell, it’s a great time for movie musicals; besides West Side Story and Dear Evan Hansen, the fall season will also see the release of Tick, Tick... Boom! directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda in his feature directorial debut. Miranda has had a big year, with In the Heights and Vivo having already been released.
Dear Evan Hansen also features Kaitlyn Dever, Julianne Moore, Amy Adams, Amandla Stenberg, and others, and will be premiering in theaters on September 24. You can watch the final trailer here, and read the official plot synopsis down below:
The breathtaking, generation-defining Broadway phenomenon becomes a soaring cinematic event as Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award winner Ben Platt reprises his role as an anxious, isolated high schooler aching for understanding and belonging amid the chaos and cruelty of the social-media age. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Wonder), the film is written for the screen by the show’s Tony winner Steven Levenson with music and lyrics by the show’s Oscar, Grammy and Tony-winning songwriting team of Benj Pasek & Justin Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman).