The very first Avengers: Endgame trailer released in December made it seem like Tony Stark might die in space. The Super Bowl TV spot in February then showed him and Nebula welding, probably working on some way to save themselves.
Now, with the latest full trailer released Thursday, we get the full-on spoiler that Tony Stark survives his space adventure and makes it back to Earth. There, they team up with the rest of the heroes to build some cool white suits and then … do something!
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has previously implied that all of these trailers might feature only footage from the first 15 minutes or so of the movie, and that still seems plausible.
It might go like this: Captain Marvel arrives on Earth, Tony and Nebula land on Earth (the night-time scene), then they all spend months or years preparing for an attack on Thanos and/or a time-traveling adventure to rewrite history.
Or maybe that’s what Marvel Studios wants us all to think.
As totally awesome as it is to see Steve Rogers and Tony Stark marching together to do some serious Avenging — akin to Hulk running alongside other heroes at the Battle of Wakanda (never happened!) — plenty of fans online think Tony Stark being on Earth is a total takeout, mainly because if not, that feels like too big a spoiler.
Also check out our theory about how that Hulk shot could still happen: Unused ‘Infinity War’ Shots Actually Could Happen in ‘Avengers: Endgame’
But is Tony making it to Earth really that big a big spoiler? It’s definitely a hugely important plot point, but is anybody in the universe actually surprised by Stark making it home? He does say in the trailer he was hoping to pull off one last surprise. (More evidence, by the way, that he’s going to die later in the film.)
It wouldn’t be the first time Marvel misled its fans with trailers or other marketing materials. From Yondu on the Infinity War set to Thor having two eyeballs in the Ragnarok trailer, Marvel has made a practice of using incorrect visual elements to froth up the marketing for its upcoming movies.
They’ve done it so many times, in fact, that plenty of us don’t trust a single damn thing we see anymore.
Maybe Marvel filmed a bunch of scenes for the explicit purpose of putting them in the trailer only for the final cut to show something totally different?
Tony Stark dying in space would be a truly bold move for Avengers: Endgame, and while we do think it’s far more likely he’ll sacrifice himself in the climactic final battle later in the movie, the fact remains that we can’t trust Marvel Studio trailers anymore.
But is that really a bad thing? In a time when Reddit leaks and fan theories threaten to spoil big movies like this on a daily basis, it’s more fun for everyone to be lightly misled by a really exciting trailer so as to preserve legitimate surprises for when we actually see the movie.
I’ll take a fake trailer any day if it means I can enjoy the biggest, most shocking moments from Avengers: Endgame when I finally see it in theaters.
Avengers: Endgame will be released in theaters on April 26, 2019.
