When Marvel Studios began releasing character posters for Avengers: Age of Ultron a few months ago, the first promotional one-sheet in the series featured the entire team and a lengthy list of credits, including the confirmation of some key returning support characters and a very familiar composer in Danny Elfman.
At the time, it had only been announced that Brian Tyler (Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World) was composing on Avengers 2 and the late addition of Elfman had some fans thinking that maybe, just maybe, he could be providing music for a potential special appearance of a certain friendly neighborhood Spider-Man since he scored Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man movie trilogy.
He's not, of course, but it was a wonderful idea based on hope. Elfman is simply helping on the main theme and some other work, but Marvel and Sony did overcome the odds and form an agreement that will see them share the Spider-Man film license and fold the property - officially - into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That happened just two months ago, long after principal photography was completed on Joss Whedon's Avengers sequel, but not too late to find a creative way to at least tease Spidey in some way in Avengers 2.
It seems like the perfect opportunity for Marvel to craft a fun post-credits button teasing Spider-Man at the end of Age of Ultron. Why wouldn't they use their biggest movie (and Avengers 2 is tracking for the biggest box office opening ever) to date to tease a major addition/change to the franchise, right?
Appearing on a brand new and totally unofficial YouTube channel yesterday came the video above - a leaked post-credits scene from Avengers: Age of Ultron featuring Peter Parker in the Spider-Man costume being witty while on the side of skyscraper, with Avengers Tower in the background.
It's not real.
Peter Parker, who we know is going to be 15-16 when he enters the MCU next year (in Captain America: Civil War) and gets his own solo movie in summer 2017, hasn't been cast yet, so that's one obvious clue to the clip not being authentic since it features someone voicing the character. Outside of that and some not-quite-right animation of Spidey, this fabricated sequence is very well crafted. The creators of it got the credits mostly correct although they're using an older Dolby Digital logo, and they even added in a credit for Spider-Man creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko as a nice touch.
The timing of its release is also perfect given the international release of Age of Ultron later this week and the onslaught of high profile trailers releasing over the last few days, some of them leaking early (Fantastic Four and Batman V Superman). We know however, from Avengers 2 writer-director Joss Whedon and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, that there will not be a post-credits scene attached to Avengers: Age of Ultron. Instead, there is only a mid-credits button before the full credits roll. That one we know about and it's definitely not this.
If it were real of course, Disney and Marvel would be quick to take it down, especially pre-release. Still, it's strange that Disney and Marvel didn't do something similar to this on their own. In the meantime, check out this other fan-made video, featuring one of the Avengers 2 trailers with Spider-Man added.
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More: Spider-Man Was Always A Part of Marvel’s Phase 3 Plans
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Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron stars Robert Downey Jr., who returns as Iron Man, along with Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk. Together with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and with the additional support of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine, Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill and Stellan Skarsgård as Erik Selvig, the team must reassemble to defeat James Spader as Ultron, a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction. Along the way, they confront two mysterious and powerful newcomers, Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen, and Pietro Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and meet an old friend in a new form when Paul Bettany becomes Vision.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron releases in theaters on May 1 2015, followed by Ant-Man on July 17 2015, Captain America: Civil War on May 6 2016, Doctor Strange on November 4 2016, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on May 5 2017, Spider-Man on July 28, 2017, Thor: Ragnarok on November 3 2017, Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1 on May 4 2018, Black Panther on July 6 2018, Captain Marvel on November 2 2018, Avengers: Infinity War - Part 2 on May 3 2019 and Inhumans on July 12, 2019.