#232 – Are Trailers & Leaks Spoiling the Best Marvel Movies?

Welcome back to Marvel Maniac and MCU After Show. This is your host, Eric Cicada, aka Mr. Honest, back with you for a slightly different type of episode, but I think it's warranted. I think this discussion is needed. At least I want to get it off of my chest a little bit. And as you can see by the title, it's pretty straightforward. Our movie trailers and leaks spoiling the best of our Marvel movies or just movies in general? For me, it's Marvel movies and I'll get into a little bit of why, but let's just start the conversation with I don't like spoilers. I don't think many people do. But I do think there's a certain comfort level of what fans want to see in their trailers. And there's a division in maybe who wants to see leaks and who wants to look left and right and everywhere and close their ears when they see anything about potential leaks or, you know, video that leaked anything along those lines. I'm more or less in that second camp and we'll talk a lot about why today if you like seeing like kind of spoilery things, leaks, like things that are going to happen in the movie via trailers, too much information, all that stuff. Marvelmaniacpod Gmail.com lay down your opinion. I'm definitely interested in hearing your side of this. So let's just start with have we accidentally made it impossible to be surprised by Marvel anymore? This isn't a rant against you, the fans, anyone out there. Like I said, the other side is important to me too. It's just something I've been thinking a lot about because I like going into movies spoiler free, big time. So we're not going to be talking about specific leaks. We will talk about like what, what is leaking from where, but we won't talk about anything related to the exact leak itself. No spoilers, just the culture surrounding all of this. So let's buckle in and let's talk a little bit about this phenomenon that's happening in movies right now. And I mean, this isn't the first year that we've gotten like way too revealing trailers. But for Marvel specifically, I want to talk about it. I think surprises matter. I think the magic of not knowing what's coming adds so much to your experience at the theater, especially if you're seeing these at the theater. Most Marvel fans do. I think Marvel does a great job of bringing people out of streaming out of their homes and into the theater where on opening weekend you could be in a packed theater and Be cheering alongside your fellow Marvel Maniacs. And I have seen most Marvel movies in theaters. Or Incredible Hulk with Edward Norton. I just missed that one. It was early on, and then I didn't get to see Wakanda forever, as you know. I was. That was at the end of a weird year for me. So I wasn't like necessarily on the schedule to go see that. But I did see it. Loved it. I bet I would have loved it more in theaters. So that's the thing. I think the magic of the movie going experience is what can happen, what's going to happen. And the sky's the limit just by knowing the title and the very little information you've seen. Walking into a movie with zero expectations. And then you can get a genuine reaction off of that instead of kind of going in with preconceived notions or wondering what this scene is going to revolve around. There's just these moments in the theater that become unforgettable because nobody saw them coming. In certain movies. And I'll say end game, Infinity War, like those two movies, we knew the audience was there. Everyone had been waiting for these movies for years. So their trailers were completely able to just give us a baseline knowledge of what was going to happen. Show us a little bit of Thanos, put in some dialogue and some clips in the trailer that aren't even going to make the actual movie. Like, Thanos has a line like that does put a smile on my face. Like in the first trailer. He never says that. There's also a cut of the. The heroes running together. Captain America, Giant Incredible Hulk, all the other heroes, Black Panther Red, running towards something in A four in the forest of Wakanda. We get nothing close to that. The closest we get to that is in the open field. And we don't have the Incredible Hulk. So they just literally put him in the trailer at that point to mess with us. Holy moly. Talk about a movie like Infinity War. Not knowing what you're getting coming in Titan. And where's this battle happening? Why are they fighting? We all know the basics, so the trailer didn't need to tell us much. Knew we were going to see that movie. And that's why the audience cheered when Thanos arrived on Titan, when Iron man dropped a building on him. Okay, I said no spoilers. I'm just kidding. You know, I think we most probably likely have seen it. And if you haven't, I mean, maybe you'll be convinced after this. I love those trailers because they didn't reveal much. They Just gave us the bare minimum of what we needed to know. To know the movie was going to involve Avengers. Awesome new villain for Endgame. Knowing that they're gonna try and do something to change what happened in Infinity War back to normal. The. The idea of not knowing is just so awesome once you're sitting in there waiting for that movie to start. I'm telling you, it's like my favorite thing. You only get to experience something for the first time, one time, okay? And I don't want to know if Red Hulk and Captain America are gonna be the end fight of the movie. And I don't want to see parts of that fight at all in the trailers to the movies. We're gonna move into part two when trailers cross the line. Okay? Trailers are supposed to sell movies, but sometimes they reveal big emotional beats, major action scenes, character reveals the third act spectacle. And this isn't throwing Marvel under the bus when I say this, but when they have less confidence in a movie's performance, they tend to give a lot more away in the trailers. Compare Infinity War's trailer to Captain America, Brave New World. That's my example for this point. Because I wasn't very much surprised by the end of Brave New World. The further I move away from it as a fan of this whole franchise, as a fan of Anthony Mackie as Captain America, I think he's a great Captain America. Movie was fun. What would make it more fun is maybe the looming threat of a red Hulk, the idea of a bigger monster fight type at the end, but not showing direct scenes from it. Especially in today's trailers, we get multiple versions. We get TV spots, international trailers. This is all going online too. So whether it's international or not, if there's new footage some of the fans want to discuss it. Features featurettes, social clips. Each one of these reveals just a little bit more. Until we have maybe like the whole movie figured out, you can assume that the hero is gonna save the day. Even with Infinity wars trying to throw us off with its trailer, we did not know that the bad guy was gonna win. He did. That's why that is a perfect example of what I like in my movie trailers. And I. I want to know how you feel about this. Are you somebody who watches these extra trailers and extra content so you don't feel fomo? I think a lot of people will see everything they can because it's either this or have it spoiled for me online. So might as well enjoy this new information on my own terms. Because the fanboy fanboys and Fangirls and the fans in general, they just want to chat about what's been revealed. It's very hard. Sometimes even toys for from the movie will leak. I remember Captain America Civil War 10 years ago. We were about maybe five months out, maybe a little less. And there was a spoiler in on Reddit. I don't know how I came across it. It was Giant Man, a toy for Giant man. And the fight with the Avengers when he's a. A big guy. I had no idea Paul Rub was going to blow up to the size of a freaking Tyrannosaurus rex. Okay, I didn't know that was going to happen. But then because of that toy leak, I knew that part. And that was one of the biggest, most shocking parts of the movie. It still hit for me though, because I put it in the back of my mind. I didn't ask myself how or when. I just expected something amazing to happen and I didn't let it ruin my experience. So a little bit different with Red Hulk and Captain America, Brave New World. And I keep bringing it up because if we didn't know there was a Hulk in that movie, if we did not know, that would have been insane to see Captain America fighting the red Hulk. I really want to nail that fact home that I think even Thor Ragnarok is great of a movie as it was. People came, people loved it, they expected the Hulk. Imagine seeing that movie in theaters and not knowing the Hulk was in it. It always has to do with the Hulk, doesn't it? There's a twist with the Hulk. He can only do a huge guest starring role. And imagine if the first time we knew that he was in that movie was him walking onto that battlefield and we hear he's a friend from work, from, from Thor. I, I mean, it would have made the movie like maybe even ten times more legendary. Now there's movie trailers that reveal too much, but there's also leaks. It's a whole culture. The Internet has changed things since 2008. Nobody has to actively even search for these spoilers anymore. Instead, for me, I'm all over the Internet. I'm chronically online. Okay, YouTube thumbnails. You know, some of my favorite YouTubers, they'll go, well, this trailer was leaked. And then put the thumbnail of a picture from said leaked trailer or, or seen or this is doomsday related. But I've seen this for other projects too, like Spider Man, Brand New Day. And I mean, we go back Fantastic Four, we knew a little bit too much. I. I wish I Didn't know about Galactus, but these are the things that are getting people in seats. And it's just a sad sign that Marvel's struggling a little bit more in that sense where they don't know if people will come if they don't show the crazy twist. And you don't know every twist, but you know mostly the shape of the movie before you're going into it. And that's what brings people in. And I mean that. That is good. People are coming to see the movies because it looks fun, but when it's the biggest twist of the movie, I don't know, it just feels half hearted. And I don't like that it bothers me. It's actually been bothering me a lot with Avengers Doomsday. I don't want to know anything about the plot of that movie. I've waited years. So have many other fans. And the fans who do partake in these leaks, I. I have all the respect for them. You know, if you want to know what's going to happen in this movie because of how long we've had to wait, we were supposed to have Kang Dynasty, you know, a year or two ago. Technically, if we're going by the original timeline, we haven't had an avengers movie since 2019. Kids are nine the year that movie came out and when they were born that year. I mean, come on, man, that's a long time to wait. So when people are kind of looking into these things, but the problem is it's blowing them up, reposting them, putting them in place like X or TikTok. Talking about literal spoilers of what you saw in comment sections and in your own personal algorithm recommendation that you can't even control. Because why wouldn't you be watching a lot of Marvel on YouTube? You're going to see stuff if it's leaked now. It's almost impossible to ignore. Some of the stuff that I've seen from for that movie, whether the leaks are true or not, I'd like to think that it's all a ruse and there's no leaks. Yeah, I've been trying to avoid details from Spider man and Doomsday. I don't want to know a thing. I don't want to know what it looks like even a little bit when Dr. Doom is talking to Loki. If that's to happen. I don't know if that's going to happen. That's an example from my brain. I didn't. Once again, I will not say anything about what I've seen by accident. About the. These future movies. I think it's one thing as a fan to kind of be drawn into watching these unreleased moments and moments from a movie that has six months to come out, that has so much work probably left to be done on the editing floor, and they're still piecing things together and how one thing should look and how visual effects should be. It's not what the movie is going to end up being, but you're still getting a piece of it. So you're going to have preconceived notions, and then maybe even something will not happen that you thought was going to happen because of these leaks. And you're just in a situation where you're let down. There's so many reasons, in my opinion, to not want to see this stuff. For me to scroll super fast, for me to not want to watch one of my favorite Marvel creators take on these new things, because they might as well talk about it. If it's out there and people are watching it, maybe people will come and talk to me and we'll. We'll discuss it together, because it's out there, and I get that. But I don't like it being shoved in my face. I hate it. And I only. I don't hate many things. I just hate being spoiled. Because these are more than movies. These are moments. These are memories. I still remember sitting in the theater for Infinity War, jaw dropped when Thanos beat the shit out of the Hulk at the beginning of the movie. Did we see any of that in the trailers? No, we had no idea. But that was one of the most killer openings to any Avenger movie. Maybe one of the best openings to any Marvel movie is in Infinity War. You all know, if you're a longtime listener, short time listener, I bring up this movie a lot because it's exactly what we need from an Avengers movie with such a big cast, such a big moving world with so many pieces floating around and coming together and breaking apart. It's. It's astronomically important to have a good experience and go on this amusement park ride, as Martin Scorsese would say. He doesn't call the MCU cinema. I call it cinema because we're going on these rides and we're also getting really great character work and culmination of character arcs that have started years ago or even a year ago. That's what I love about it. So are we a part of a problem in general? Are we the problem because we are the ones that click, right? We do it because we're excited. We do it because we love Marvel because we don't want to feel left out. And man, just having fomo. Fear of missing out. I don't want it. Nobody wants it. That's why we watch these things. It's nobody's fault individually, but collectively we've created a culture where people race to know everything before opening night. So my new philosophy I still watch movie trailers. Okay, I did watch the latest Brand New Day trailer. I think they gave away not, not too much at all. I feel like all the speculation is online with leaky spoilers. Spoilery leaks. Let's get a a counter of how many times I've said leaks in this episode. But I don't want to watch a second or third one if a trailer come any more trailers, come on. I don't want to see them any more TV spots. I don't want to watch breakdown videos. I want to be surprised. I don't want to endlessly speculate. I want to dream of what the poss are and then from there I want to go see the movie and have a magical escape into the mcu. I want opening night to feel like opening night again. And I'm sorry, one more time. Red Hulk could have been done better. Now he's never coming back. I think he would have been a fan favorite if we never knew about the appearance. I can go in to a lot of these movies and give you a lot of examples of things we necessarily didn't need to know from trailers. Especially Marvel trailers that now I think they're doing a lot more damage than they are good. How much do you actually want to know before buying your ticket? Marvelmaniacpodmail.com Let me ask you a couple more questions. Do you watch every trailer or do you just try and cut it off after one? Do you avoid them completely? Like, where do you draw the line? Let's talk about it. Email me marvelmaniacpod Gmail.com and you know, I can rant about this all day. I'm unbelievably looking at the counter on the timer on my podcast. It's 18 minutes in. I didn't want to talk about it too much and I don't want to sound like I'm complaining. And if you are one of those people who just lives for the moment, you know, and you want to see what the movie's all about. You want to taste, you can, you can handle a three minute leaked scene. More power to you. There's nothing in my mind that says that is wrong. But personally for me and others who feel like me. I wish there was a better way to control that happening. And I'm gonna speculate that Marvel Meta leaked that scene themselves because deep down Avengers Doomsday being a flop would be the worst thing ever for not only the MCU but but for Disney where they just put out Mandalorian and Grogu and it didn't do well and that was a big expensive movie to make. The fans already know what they want and I think the creators are honed in enough on what the fans want to not have to try and sell them on something that they were already gonna buy anyways. If the shawarma scene was leaked, if anything in Adventures was leaked. The movie was so powerful the first time I saw it and it's because the trailer gave us just enough. The big fight in New York was just we knew it was gonna happen. We didn't know how it was gonna get there. Again, I'm gonna say it one more time. Leave message marvelmaniacpodgmail.com or even better, join our Discord server. That's in the description of this episode in the notes. You can talk about this all we want as long as you remain spoiler free. You can talk about why you don't mind them, but don't talk about what's going to happen unless you know how to tag spoilers and block out that text. I don't know how to do that, but join our Discord. We're growing. We're starting to get some more people and it would be great to have you there. Rate this show. Give it five stars or a thumbs up. Leave a review. It could be read on the show. It goes a long way. I know you're out there. Thank you so much for listening to Marvel Maniac and MCU after show. This is your Host Eric Cicada, aka Ms. Are honest and until brand new day next month, no more leaks. Avengers disassemble.