It is a constant challenge for a cinematic beast like the vast, interconnected web of movies that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe to continuously spark new and prolonged interest in their products. The movie trailers of the MCU have gone down in history due to the way that they have garnered billion-dollar hype numerous times.
With how many great movies have been released over the course of the MCU, it can be incredibly difficult to decide which have been the very best entries. From the very beginning to inspiring hype for unknown characters to unveiling the biggest acquisition in the history of the MCU, the trailers are as much a part of the lore and history of this universe as the movies themselves.
7 Avengers: Age Of Ultron
While this movie is still considered one of the bigger failures of the MCU and the weakest of the four Avengers movies to date, it wasn’t for lack of hype leading into the movie’s release. Utilizing the terrifying version of “I’ve Got No Strings” from Pinocchio to build the excitement for James Spader’s villainous turn as Ultron, the initial teaser trailer had a lot going for it.
From Wanda and Pietro Maximoff being revealed as new characters to the appearance of the Hulkbuster suit built by Iron Man, Age of Ultron looked like a star sequel to The Avengers. It was massively helped by the foreshadowing nightmare shots the Avengers had. Shots like Captain America’s broken shield near the end were both momentous and terrifying.
6 Thor: Ragnarok
Phase three did a lot for the major MCU characters, but it is arguable that the biggest winner of the entire phase was Thor. An all-powerful God-like figure when he first appeared, Chris Hemsworth was truly let loose with his fantastic sense of humor after his first two solo outings were let-downs. Thor: Ragnarok’s first trailer immediately showcased a different style, and promised the Hulk would make a major appearance.
All of this suddenly lifted Ragnarok from the pack as far as fans were concerned, and made it seem like a much more major event. After Age of Ultron and Civil War, it was going to be difficult to get fans majorly hyped for anything else before Infinity War, but Ragnarok’s single, beautifully improvised line, “he’s a friend from work” left fans gagging for more, and Hela breaking Thor’s hammer was also a huge event moment. Add it all to the Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin and Marvel had an incredible trailer.
5 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Another teaser trailer, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever had a terrible and terribly difficult job on its hands following the real-world death of Chadwick Boseman. Leaving behind the characters that were formerly side characters in this franchise to lead it made for an emotionally-charged trailer, with No Woman, No Cry in the background, the women of Black Panther’s world were set in focus.
Shuri, Ramonda, Nakia, and Okoye were the face of this trailer as fans continued trying to guess who would take on the mantle of the Black Panther without T’Challa there to lead them. The attacks from Namor and uncertainty about the survival of Wakanda were punctuated by Ramonda’s furious, powerful speech which is heard throughout the trailer.
4 Guardians Of The Galaxy
The first trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy had to do an impossible job. It had to get fans excited about a movie that was coming out the same year as the major hit Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the last movie before the hugely anticipated Age of Ultron, directed by the guy who did Slither, featuring a team of characters that almost nobody had ever heard of.
With a great cast, a space opera style, and comedy that promised some of the most brilliantly fun moments the MCU had ever had up to that point, Guardians of the Galaxy’s first trailer was a triumph in creating hype out of nothing, ending with Hooked On A Feeling helped hook the audience on the idea of this movie and franchise being massive, and it remains one of the MCU’s biggest successes and hottest properties today.
3 Spider-Man: No Way Home
It’s been difficult for the MCU since Avengers: Endgame was released. Phase four was less successful critically and at the box office than previous entries, and cohesion hasn’t been a strong suit. However, the multiversal aspects that led to the possibility of Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire returning to the screen as Spider-Man was enough to bring levels of hype hardly seen in cinema history to No Way Home.
Without ever being shown in a trailer, the very idea that bled from fans seeing villains from previous Spider-Man franchises coming into the MCU was enough to fuel an internet breakage worth of speculation around what was going to occur in this movie. It was an unbelievable level of hype, probably more than every other phase four project was able to generate between them.
2 Captain America: Civil War
The second trailer for Captain America: Civil War promised everything fans could dream of. There was a concern for having this major inter-Avengers conflict so early in the MCU, but with Iron Man and Captain America having teams that squared off, the promise of so many heroes coming together on-screen, the introductions of Black Panther and, majorly, Spider-Man, and the promise of heroes like War Machine potentially suffering fatal consequences of the conflict, did everything it needed to and more.
Civil War remains one of the biggest and best MCU movies because of how much emotion the conflict between the two leads posed, and the final shot of Spider-Man’s first MCU appearance was the nail in the coffin that ensured fans were going to be on a level of hype for this movie even above that of Age of Ultron, which had been released less than a year prior.
1 Avengers: Infinity War
The pair of movies that were to conclude everything that the MCU had been leading to for ten years-worth of movies had nothing but hype from the audiences. Using that history to its advantage, Infinity War’s first trailer opened with the iconic Nick Fury lines about why the Avengers had been brought together being read by a variety of cast members.
Seeing so many superheroes in different shots as Thanos read out some of his most iconic lines in the franchise was bone-chilling and spine-tingling for fans. Then, the preparation of Wakanda as a major battle loomed there finished the job as shots of Thanos putting together the infinity stones promised the kind of grand-scale fight that every fan of the franchise had been dreaming of, ending with Thor meeting the Guardians was a final promise of the entire universe coming together to create something incredible.