Over the past couple of years it has become quiet commonplace for trailers to feature footage that doesn’t show up in the final movie, be it down to reshoots and cuts, or simply to provide “trailer money shots” such as Jyn Erso staring down the TIE Fighter in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story or Spider-Man swinging through the streets of New York alongside Iron Man in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Well, it appears that the shot of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes running through Wakanda – perhaps the main image from the Avengers: Infinity War marketing campaign – falls into the latter camp. Speaking at the Smithsonian (via Comic Book), directors Joe and Anthony Russo revealed that the shot was a deliberate misdirect in order to prevent fans from guessing how the ending plays out, particularly with regards to the Hulk.
“We have to be careful with the character of Banner,” said Joe. “Because if every time he’s in trouble Hulk saves him, Hulk becomes the hero and he becomes whiny. We wanted to force Banner to be the hero.”
We’ve seen a couple of toys showing the Hulk bursting out of the Hulkbuster suit, prompting speculation that the sequence was cut from the movie [check out the images here and here]. However, as the Russos reveal above, the Hulk never appeared in Wakanda, so perhaps these toys were based on some early concept art?
The brothers also shrugged off a comment about whether we should expect to see the Hulk back in Avengers 4, but given that it has been said on multiple occasions that Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War and the untitled sequel will serve as a kind of three-movie arc for Banner and his alter-ego, one would have to assume the Green Goliath will be making an appearance next year.
Meanwhile, talking to the Happy Sad Confused Podcast, Anthony Russo confirmed that the shot was created specifically for the trailer, stating that: “That shot that you’re referencing was never in the movie in the version that you saw. It was never even created for the movie in that version. It was literally created in that version for the trailer.”
“We use all the material that we have at our disposal to create a trailer,” explains Joe. “We look at the trailer as a very different experience than the movie, and I think audiences are so predictive now that you have to be very smart about how you craft a trailer because an audience can watch a trailer and basically tell you what’s gonna happen in the film. We consume too much content. So at our disposal are lots of different shots that aren’t in the movie that we can manipulate through CG to tell a story that we want to tell specifically for the purpose of the trailer and not for the film.”
Were you disappointed this scene didn’t feature in Infinity War? What are your thoughts on shots being created specifically for trailers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…
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An unprecedented cinematic journey ten years in the making and spanning the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War” brings to the screen the ultimate, deadliest showdown of all time. The Avengers and their Super Hero allies must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe.
Avengers: Infinity War stars Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), Mark Ruffalo (Hulk), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther), Tom Holland (Spider-Man), Sebastian Stan (Winter Soldier), Anthony Mackie (Falcon), Paul Bettany (Vision), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), Don Cheadle (War Machine), Josh Brolin (Thanos), Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange), Benedict Wong (Wong), Chris Pratt (Star-Lord), Zoe Saldana (Gamora), Dave Bautista (Drax), Bradley Cooper (Rocket), Sean Gunn (Rocket), Vin Diesel (Groot), Karen Gillan (Nebula), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Cobie Smulders (Maria Hill), Benicio Del Toro (The Collector), Danai Gurira (Okoye), Letitia Wright (Shuri), Winston Duke (M’Baku), Terry Notary (Cull Obsidian), Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (Ebony Maw), Carrie Coon (Proxima Midnight), Michael James Shaw (Corvus Glaive) and Peter Dinklage (Eitri).
