10 Times Marvel Trailers Lied To You

Top 10 Times Marvel Trailers Lied to You

If you like dissecting movie trailers, be warned: they may be messing with you. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Times Marvel Trailers Lied to You.

For this list, we’ll be looking at some of the most prominent and noticeable scenes and moments from MCU movie trailers that didn’t wind up making it into the final film. We’ll also be looking at scenes that were included, but had noticeably been changed. For the record, we’re not complaining, we get that Marvel wants to avoid spoilers, and we can appreciate that. It’s just interesting to spot the differences!

#10: Spidey's Missing Legs
“Avengers: Infinity War” (2018)

When it comes to a movie as highly anticipated -not to mention shrouded in secrecy- as “Avengers: Infinity War”, you can expect fans to go over every second of the trailers with a fine-tooth comb - and that’s led to people taking note of a number of differences from the final film. Though it seems kind of unnecessary, the good people at Marvel seemingly felt that exposure to Spidey’s new suit should be kept to a minimum. While his upgraded duds did make an appearance in the second trailer, the “iron spider” legs weren’t shown. It’s basically the same scene, Parker just gained four extra limbs between the trailer and film. Oh, that and he’s also saving Mantis. So yeah, pretty different in the end!

#9: “Me Eat People”
“Ant-Man and the Wasp” (2018)

One of the things that makes the MCU work so well is how it balances dramatic moments with plenty of humor. While the Avengers and their allies have all been known to crack wise in their own way, it’s safe to say that, thanks to the comedic chops of actor Paul Rudd, Ant-Man is the biggest joker of the bunch. In keeping with his trademark sense of humor, one of the short tv spots released in the lead-up to the Ant-Man sequel featured this hilarious line: Pushing his Giant-Man abilities to new heights, Lang has a little fun with the old, cannibalistic giant trope. It was a great little gag, so we’re still not sure why they ultimately changed the dialogue.

#8: Revengers Assemble
“Thor: Ragnarok” (2017)

Thor’s third solo outing -arguably more of a buddy-cop picture with Hulk- promised big things in its various trailers. Thankfully, it more than delivered. While we got all the laughs, action and colorful visuals we expected, there’s one shot in particular that the finished film did fail to deliver. In the first trailer, we saw Hulk, Valkyrie, Thor, and Loki standing in a straight line across the Bifröst Bridge, ready to do battle. Though an epic throwdown did occur there, this moment never did. Hulk was way too busy duking it out with Fenris to ever pose dramatically. Though they never truly “assembled”, the Revengers kicked butt nonetheless.

#7: More Hank & Janet
“Ant-Man and the Wasp” (2018)

When it was first announced that the MCU version of Ant-Man would be Scott Lang, many fans were understandably disappointed to have Hank Pym’s time largely skipped over. With the second trailer for “Ant-Man and the Wasp” however, it seemed as if we’d actually be getting a bit more screen time with Hank in his prime - and with Janet no less! To be fair, most people didn’t even realize, but eagle-eyed viewers noticed that in this particular scene, both Ant-Man and Wasp are wearing retro suits - suggesting that it was, in fact, a flashback to Hank and Janet’s own crimefighting days. Ultimately, these scenes were left on the cutting room floor for the sake of a more focused narrative.

#6: The Wrong Heir in the Throne Room
“Black Panther” (2018)

Like we said, the architects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe really go to extreme lengths to avoid spoiling any major plot points when they release a trailer. As this example proves, sometimes the changes they make in the name of secrecy feel downright obsessive. In this blink and you’ll miss it shot, we see a person who appears to be T’Challa, from behind, approaching the throne of Wakanda. Of course, the shot of his face a split second before helps to solidify this connection. In the actual film, however, this shot is of a victorious Killmonger claiming the throne as his own. They clearly edited his appearance for the trailer as to not give away this crucial moment in the plot. Real sneaky Marvel!

#5: A Change of Scenery for the Family Reunion
“Thor: Ragnarok” (2017)

The third Thor film took us to some very interesting places, like Surtur’s hellish realm Muspelheim, and the alien planet Sakaar. One place we didn’t end up is this back-alley location where Hela destroy Thor’s beloved hammer in the trailer. In the actual film, this important scene instead occurs on a cliffside field in Norway. According to VFX supervisor Jake Morrison, the location swap was a real last minute decision, but given that this is where Odin says farewell, we think director Taika Waititi made the right call.

#4: A Few Stones Short of a Spoiler
“Avengers: Infinity War” (2018)

Spider-Man having extra mechanical limbs or not is a pretty minor change. Had Marvel not altered Thanos’ gauntlet for the trailers, however, then many of the key shots they used would have given away a lot about the movie. Yes, it seemed inevitable that Thanos would manage to collect all of the infinity stones eventually, but getting confirmation of that in the trailer would have detracted from the actual viewing experience. As fans were quick to take note of when the trailer dropped, Thanos seemed to only be in possession of two stones when he faced Captain America. So… maybe Cap’s got a chance, right? Wrong! By the time we got to this scene in the film, Thanos had 4 out of 5 stones.

#3: Thor's Eye
“Thor: Ragnarok” (2017)

With the notable exception of War Machine, up until “Avengers: Infinity War,” most of our various heroes had, for the most part, managed to avoid serious, permanent bodily-harm across their superheroic exploits. As such, Thor straight up losing an eye was a big deal when it happened. Understandably, the good folks running the MCU wanted to keep this secret for the actual film, and so it was removed in the trailers, even from shots that occur post-injury in the finished film. Since Thor is already glowing with energy in this particular shot, we imagine that the VFX department didn’t have to put in too much overtime to give the god of thunder two eyes in the trailer.

#2: Tony & Peter Do NYC
“Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017)

Spidey’s first solo outing as part of the MCU was a total blast. With that being said, while most of the changes discussed today were for the sake of avoiding spoilers - and thus felt justifiable- this discrepancy is more disappointing. Arguably one of the coolest shots in the entire trailer, this short teaser of Spidey and Iron Man swinging/flying through NYC together had us anxiously awaiting the full scene. But it never came! Unfortunately, as it’s since been revealed, this shot was never intended for the movie, but rather specifically for the trailer to get people pumped about Spidey and Iron Man working together. Thankfully, the movie didn’t really need it.

#1: A Hulk in Wakanda
“Avengers: Infinity War” (2018)

This is without a doubt the biggest discrepancy between a Marvel trailer and film to date. This trailer promised us a Hulk on the battlefield of Wakanda and instead, we got Bruce Banner in a Hulkbuster armor. While we appreciate the arc that they were crafting for the character, as well as the evolution of the Banner/Hulk dynamic, it was more than a little misleading to straight up insert him in a scene where he would never show up. When asked about it, the Russo brothers owned the decision, calling it intentional misdirection for the sake of keeping the plot point of Banner’s “performance issues” a secret. We accept, albeit begrudgingly. But we better get twice as much Hulk moving forward to make up for it!