The first trailer for Eddington offers a chaotic first look at Ari Aster's upcoming A24 Western feature ahead of its premiere next month. The movie centers on the conflict between small-town sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) and local mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) in the fictional town of Eddington, New Mexico, but the first footage reveals that pressures from external factors will only intensify their personal and political standoff, including real-world issues such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The tagline that accompanied the trailer on social media read "Hindsight is 2020," referencing the tumultuous year that saw the onset of the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease and the widespread demonstrations protesting racial injustice and police brutality. "Of course, they keep looking at that lab in China. If you look at that lab in Wuhan," a voice narrates over the clips at the beginning of the trailer.