Movie trailers stopped saying "In a world" because the line, and the deep-voiced narrator who delivered it, turned into a parody while studios found other ways to set up a story. Trailers now carry their information through on-screen title cards, the actors' own dialogue and music, and big franchise films need less explanation because audiences already know their worlds. A Globe and Mail review of more than 200 blockbuster trailers, published in May 2014, found that 1994 was the last year when all ten top-grossing films used a narrator in their trailers. Among 2013's top ten, only Frozen did.
Who made "In a world" famous in movie trailers?
Don LaFontaine, a Hollywood voice actor who narrated about 5,000 trailers, made "In a world" famous. When he died on 1 September 2008, NPR credited him with popularizing the catch phrase "In a world where...". He had started narrating trailers in the mid-1960s, when an announcer failed to turn up for a recording session, according to the Associated Press obituary.
The line was useful because a trailer has seconds to explain where the story takes place. LaFontaine told an interviewer in 2007, as the AP obituary quoted him, that trailers "have to very rapidly establish the world we are transporting them to". Opening with "In a world where..." did that in four words.
LaFontaine is credited with popularizing the phrase; who wrote it first is not clearly documented. Other narrators used it too. TIME's 2014 obituary of Hal Douglas, another prolific trailer voice, credits him with lines such as "In a world…" and "One man…". The two voices are easy to confuse: NPR's 2008 LaFontaine tribute carries a correction because it had played a trailer recorded by Douglas.
When did movie trailers stop using narrators?
Movie trailers moved away from narrators gradually, starting after the mid-1990s. The Globe and Mail's analysis of the debut theatrical trailers for each year's ten highest-grossing films found that 1994 was the last year every one of them used a narrator. In 2013 only Frozen did, and none of the most anticipated films of 2014, including Godzilla and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, used a narrator in its first trailer.
Industry figures described the same shift. In 2013, voice-over agent Dean Panaro told The Telegraph that around 80 per cent of trailers no longer had a narrator. That is his estimate, not a count.
LaFontaine's death in 2008 came long after the decline had started, so it marks the end of an era rather than causing it. The Globe and Mail figures also cover only blockbuster trailers, so they say less about smaller films or television advertising.
Why did the "In a world" trailer line become a joke?
"In a world" became a joke because it was used so often that it came to stand for every trailer cliché at once. Three moments show how far the parody went:
- 2002: Hal Douglas appeared on camera in the trailer for the documentary Comedian, reading tired trailer lines such as "in a world" over a sound mixer's objections before being fired. The Globe and Mail suggests he may have seen the change coming.
- 2006: LaFontaine spoofed his own style in a GEICO insurance commercial, which NPR and the AP both mentioned in his obituaries.
- 2013: Lake Bell's comedy In a World... followed voice actors competing to become the next LaFontaine. It won the screenwriting award at that year's Sundance Film Festival.
By 2013, Telegraph writer Horatia Harrod judged that the old narrator lines had "the stink of parody". That is a critic's judgment. The Globe and Mail's analysis likewise named overuse as one reason for the narrator's decline, alongside changes in how blockbusters are marketed.
What do movie trailers use instead of a narrator?
Movie trailers now use three main replacements for the narrator: title cards, dialogue and music. Title cards put short lines of text on screen. Marketers also use dialogue from the film or new scripts written for actors, according to the Globe and Mail; its 2014 example was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trailer built on a monologue by William Fichtner. The Telegraph reported in 2013 that trailers were being cut with music or dialogue from the film instead of a voice-over.
Music has since moved further forward. A 2025 Adweek profile of the Golden Trailer Awards describes today's trailers as music-heavy, and co-founder Monica Brady said they cut well to music because a familiar song helps viewers remember the film. The article also suggests TikTok influenced the style, which is an interpretation rather than a documented cause.
What made the movie trailer narrator unnecessary?
The narrator's job was to explain an unfamiliar world quickly, and the biggest films increasingly no longer needed that. The Globe and Mail pointed to franchises such as Harry Potter and comic-book adaptations, whose audiences are already experts on the story.
The way trailers are watched also changed. A trailer is rarely seen only once, in a cinema. Ryan Parsons, co-owner of the trailer site TrailerAddict, told the Globe and Mail in 2014 that marketers release dozens of previews and featurettes for a single film. Short formats compressed trailers further: in 2013, The Wolverine released a six-second trailer on Vine with 21 cuts and no narration.
Do any movie trailers still use a narrator?
Some trailers still use a narrator, but mainly as an exception. Frozen's trailer used one in 2013, and parody kept the voice in circulation: the 2012 comedy Ted used Patrick Stewart's narration as a bait-and-switch before revealing a foul-mouthed teddy bear, as the Globe and Mail described. Adweek wrote in 2025 that the grand LaFontaine-style voice-over had largely vanished. For how a trailer is built without one, see our guide to how movie trailers are made.
The narrated trailer also lives on outside cinema. yume's The Legend of You is a birthday video made like the trailer for a big show, with a narrator and trailer music telling one real person's story.