It struck midnight, and Taylor Swift hasn’t looked back. The perennial pop star and songwriter unleashed Midnights, her 10th studio album, onto the world. But as with anything Swift, Midnights isn’t just an album — it’s a visual album.
The 11-time Grammy winner appeared during the third quarter of Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football last night (October 20) to share an aptly teased teaser trailer. The announcement was “Midnights Music Movies.”
As seen during #TNFonPrime
#Midnights coming soon
pic.twitter.com/58XolHJDKJ
— NFL On Prime Video (@NFLonPrime) October 21, 2022
“Hey, it’s Taylor,” Swift said on the broadcast, introducing the trailer. “I just wanted to first of all say thank you so much to Amazon for giving me an opportunity to show you guys a first-look teaser trailer of the secret projects that I’ve been working on for a really long time. Those projects are the ‘Midnights Music Movies,’ the music videos that I’ve made for this album to sort of explore visually the world of this record. And I love storytelling. I love songwriting. I love writing videos. I love directing them. And this was a really fun opportunity to work again with the cinematographer Rina Yang, who was my collaborator on the All Too Well 10-minute short film.”
Swift expressed satisfaction in stretching her creativity to “do different things this time around,” including co-star with bona fide actors. At the 50-second trailer’s end, credits rolled revealing that her co-stars were Jack Antonoff, Laith Ashley, Mike Birbiglia, Laura Dern (!), John Early, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Alana Haim, Danielle Haim, Este Haim, Pat McGrath, and Dita Von Teese.
HQ of Taylor Swift MIDNIGHTS MUSIC MOVIES. #TSMIDNIGHTS pic.twitter.com/UJtwEijeiu
— Taylor Swift Updates (@SwiftNYC) October 21, 2022
It began with “Anti-Hero” this morning (October 21), directed and written by Swift. The glimmering track finds Swift examining her pitfalls — both externally perceived and internally felt — and the video is a satire on her growing old with nobody but her oversized clone and cats until her funeral, where her estranged children bicker over Swift not leaving them anything in her will. Swift’s adult children are hilariously played by comedian Birbiglia, Early (30 Rock, Search Party), and Ellis (It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia). It might be worth noting Early’s past on 30 Rock, and the fact Swift perhaps cast him specifically in the “Anti-Hero” video because of the line in the second verse, “Sometimes, I feel like everybody is a sexy baby.”
Watch the video below.
Midnights is out now via Republic. Get it here.