The all-female ‘Ocean’s 8’ trailer drops at just the right time

Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Elahe Izadi.

Almost one year ago, Rihanna shared a casual subway scene on Instagram. She sat surrounded by Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Sarah Paulson, Mindy Kaling and Awkwafina. It signaled the start of a slow promotional burn for the all-female installment of the “Ocean’s” heist movie franchise.

Now, anxious fans have something more to hold them over until the movie’s June 8 release date. The trailer for “Ocean’s 8” dropped today.

Starring Sandra Bullock as Debbie Ocean, the movie follows eight women from all walks of life as they attempt to pull off a job at the Met Gala, where they apparently want to steal the very-expensive jewelry worn by Anne Hathaway’s character.

Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna, Sarah Paulson, Mindy Kaling and Awkwafina star in the all-female reboot. (Video: Warner Bros. Pictures)

The trailer has already generated plenty of excitement on social media. It’s release is especially well-timed in today’s climate, in which women are increasingly speaking out and being heard about the sexism they’ve experienced in their personal lives and in the workplace.

This year, major studio releases that featured women — onscreen and behind the camera — went on to be huge successes. “Wonder Woman” is currently 2017’s second highest-grossing movie, and “Girls Trip” is the year’s biggest live-action comedy hit. Both movies also earned high marks from audiences and critics alike.

Bullock, who also produced “Ocean’s 8,” told Entertainment Weekly she doesn’t want the film to be “just for women.”

“This is not a man-hating,” Bullock said. “We love the men. There’s men in this movie. We love them. But this one heist needs women.”

Still, the trailer’s YouTube comments section is starting to fill up with the same kind of negativity aimed at 2016’s “Ghostbusters.” Not long after the trailer went online for the comedy, which starred Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones, it had received nearly double the number of dislikes than likes on YouTube. The comments’ section clearly showed that the fact the remake starred women was the reason for many of those “thumbs down” clicks.

“They did put them through hell. And I’m still trying to figure out why,” Bullock told EW about the “Ghostbusters” backlash. “Forget what the final product was! There were four or five of the most talented comediennes in that film. Everyone should’ve just taken a breath and said, ‘let’s see what happens.’ It doesn’t take just five people to make a movie. It’s pretty much like around 300. So I keep reminding everybody, if you hate my film remember there’s another 299 people all around me.”