Michael Bay's COVID Movie Trailer Is Here And No One Wants It

The trailer for Songbird, Michael Bay’s upcoming COVID movie, has arrived and the internet has major thoughts about it

It has been less than a year since COVID-19 started ravaging the planet, and we are still in the middle of it, living in the devastation of our “new normal” every single day. Most of us aren’t spending our leisure time drowning our sorrows in end-of-the-world, doomsday type of movies, because let’s be real: We just can’t handle it right now. However, for whatever reason, blockbuster film producer and director Michael Bay decided to not waste any time before jumping on the pandemic movie concept and has already filmed a movie about coronavirus mutation basically decimating the planet. After the trailer arrived this week, the internet had major thoughts that can basically boil down to two words: No, thanks!

Songbird, starring KJ Apa, Sofia Carson, Demi Moore, and Bradley Whitford, is basically a worst-case pandemic scenario that hits way too close to home — and it is the movie that absolutely nobody wanted. The film, directed by Adam Mason and co-produced by Bay, is supposed to take place in 2024, four years into a pandemic that has killed off 110 million people worldwide. The virus is dubbed COVID-23, a brain-infecting offshoot of the virus currently spreading around the world, obviously much more infectious and deadly… but still COVID. Couldn’t they have at least changed the name?

The movie is centered on Nico (Apa), who is immune to the virus, and Sara (Carson), a couple in a socially distant romance. After Sara is exposed to the virus, Nico must brave the apocalyptic and dystopian city of Los Angeles before she is taken away by armed guards to “quarantine camp.”

While it definitely follows the structure of Bay’s other blockbuster doomsday movies — love story, fast cars/motorcycles, misogynistic boy-saves-girl theme, and death — the internet was not impressed this time. Predictably, the reaction to the trailer pretty unanimously echoed a “too soon” vibe.

“It’s nice that the arts still offer us an escape from the oppressive terror of modern life,” Irish journalist Jack Horgan-Jones snarkily tweeted.

“This is quite literally the last thing I would ever want to watch after living through 2020,” added another person.

“Making a ‘dystopian horror movie’ about a horror that is real and happening RIGHT NOW is so tone deaf. And so not what people need. So many people have lost jobs, livelihoods and loved ones due to COVID, and everyone’s life has been severely effected. Bad, bad, bad move,” one user pointed out. “Like it’s not even over yet and people are gripping at the chance to make a horror movie about it. Jesus CHRIST.”

Others felt like it was a slap in the face to healthcare workers.

“I can’t judge the movie bc I haven’t seen it, but the trailer plays on people’s fears about the pandemic and being forced into obeying martial law,” added one pragmatic soul. “We are already seeing those fears play out in anti maskers at the expense of the most vulnerable. this is in such poor taste.”

While there is no release date as of yet — or if it will even be released in the theaters, because, um, we are still in the midst of a deadly pandemic killing people every day — you will have to wait patiently for the release of Songbird. Or, you can just watch the news if you want to be freaked out. Us? We will be watching reruns of Schitt’s Creek and Tiger King.