With Marvel growing more ambitious every year, fans have started digging deeper into each film, television series and trailers to try and piece together the events of new projects before they’ve even been released. Some theories completely miss the mark, while others are much closer to what Marvel Studios has intended for the characters, making it increasingly more difficult for viewers to be surprised.
In order to preserve the shock value for their movies, the MCU has started altering their project trailers to steer fans in the wrong direction. Some trailer lies are merely scrapped ideas and unfinished scenes, while others are intentionally crafted with the intent to keep things hidden.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Serving as one of the most recent examples, the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer featured a scene where Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is facing off alone, against three separate villains. In the actual movie, Holland, Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire were all in this shot, a lie that was easily spotted by fans before the film’s release because of the awkward angle Lizard was jumping at in the trailer.
Marvel scrubbed Garfield and Maguire from the trailer’s footage in an attempt to conceal one of the biggest collabs in MCU history, even though fans were convinced all three Spider-Man would make an appearance at some point. All 3 Spider-Men were in this final fight, fans were right all along and Marvel was unable to pull off their deception.
Avengers: Infinity War
The Avengers: Infinity War trailer included some of the most notable lies in the franchise and is what led a lot of people to start taking closer looks at the differences between trailers and films. The trailer included a scene where all of Marvel’s heroes were changing at something (presumably Thanos) while running in slow motion.
Although the heroes did face off against the Mad Titan, Bruce Banner never went full Hulk in the movie, as was seen in the trailer. A big part of Banner’s story during the Infinity Saga was that he was having trouble finding balance between himself and his green counterpart, especially after the events of Thor: Ragnarok, where he spent so many years as the Hulk he actually lost track of time.
Even though Marvel Studios scrapped the epic scene from the trailer, making the decision not to have Bruce turn back into the Hulk was probably for the best, since it worked better for his individual storyline.
Avengers: Infinity War (Again)
On the topic of Avengers: Infinity War, one of the scenes that got fans excited upon its release was the scene where Captain America held back Thanos on his own. The trailer showed viewers the Infinity Gauntlet, which only had the Space Stone and the Power Stone.
In the actual film, the shot looks much different, because Thanos’ gauntlet has every stone, except the one in Vision’s head. The trailer most likely edited out the rest of the Infinity Stones to try and convince fans that Thanos’ quest for power wasn’t going as planned and that the Avengers would be able to stop him.
In hindsight, this decision makes sense, because Infinity War was the first MCU movie where the heroes tasted real defeat. Up until this point, every Marvel movie had a relatively satisfying ending, with the heroes ending up on top. The Infinity Stone trailer fake out was most likely included to keep fans on the edge of their seats when Thanos won and half the characters viewers had grown to love were dusted, with nothing more than a single snap.
Thor: Ragnarok
The Thor: Ragnarok trailer included a clip of Valkyrie sliding along the Asgard bridge, with two daggers in her hands. The city is clearly visible behind her, yet there's no evidence of anything wrong.
The actual scene from the movie includes the same scene, however Valkyrie isn't holding her daggers and Asgard is burning down behind her. Like Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel probably chose to rework the scene during the movie to avoid spoiling anything for fans. Both the viewers and Thor were counting on the God of Thunder to prevent Ragnarok and save his home. Evidently, that was never the plan, since the destruction of Asgard developed Thor’s character by forcing him to mature, and furthered his story in the MCU.
Avengers: Endgame
Avengers: Endgame is still one of the MCU’s biggest projects ever created, in terms of production and box office earnings. Marvel Studios was very careful to avoid spoiling anything major and even included scenes in the trailers that never made it to the film. There are two scenes with Natasha in particular that got fans talking.
The first scene in the trial that was cut from the movie depicted Natasha practicing her shooting, in what appears to be a gun range the Avengers put inside their home base. The second is a moment of affection between her and Clint, on the ship they took to get to Vormir.
The exclusion of the second scene was more impactful, now that fans know Vormir was the last time Natasha and Clint were ever together. If fans were able to see the scene from the trailer play out on the big screen, it would have certainly made Natasha’s sacrifice even more heartbreaking, since she gave her life in order to save Clint’s