41 years on from the original, the first trailer for comedy sequel Spinal Tap 2 promises cheese, crypto, and a Paul McCartney cameo

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues I Official Trailer - YouTube

41 years after Spinal Tap first turned their amps up to 11, the veteran rockers return. Yep, the first trailer for Rob Reiner's long-awaited sequel to his classic mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap debuted at San Diego Comic Con today – and you can see it for yourself below.

The new film, This Is Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, reunites the surviving members of the beleaguered metal band – that's Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) – as they prepare to play their final concert, a for-one-night-only affair in New Orleans, some four decades after the events of the first film.

The trailer also hints at what the band's members have been up to in the ensuing four decades, namely: cheese-making, folk music, and shilling crypto. It also features a host of starry cameos, including the likes of Paul McCartney, Questlove, and Elton John.

For those not quite in on the joke, Spinal Tap are a fictional band who first appeared in 1979 on a sketch comedy pilot called The T.V. Show. Five years later Reiner made them the focus of his original This Is Spinal Tap movie – a satire of the excesses and cliches of rock music.

Over the years the film has become a beloved classic, particularly for anyone who has ever been in a band and can recognize the stereotypes that the movie is lovingly poking fun at. In the years since the film's release, however, the lines between fiction and reality have become increasingly blurred with the band members playing real gigs and releasing music under the Spinal Tap name – notably 1992's album, Break Like the Wind.

Will the new movie live up to the reputation of the original? We'll find out for sure later this year, with This Is Spinal Tap II: The End Continues releasing in theaters on September 12.

Keep track of all the latest news from this year's San Diego Comic Con with our regularly updated live blog. For more movies, check out our guide to the best Netflix movies and the best Disney Plus movies.

Will Salmon is the Streaming Editor for GamesRadar+. He has been writing about film, TV, comics, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he launched the scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for well over a decade. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places too.

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