Speculation - but no hard spoilers - for Spider-Man: Homecoming.

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Are the Spider-Man: Homecoming trailers, TV spots and surrounding marketing blitz actually spoiling the movie? The movie should be one of the most anticipated of the summer. It marks Spider-Man's official solo entrance into the MCU after a historic studio deal and character-perfect supporting introduction in Captain America: Civil War, promising to finally do justice to a character who's cinematic output for the last decade has varied from misguided to misanthropic. Production-wise, it's barely put a step wrong, with an interesting indie choice behind the camera and cast of superhero vets and the best teen actors, led by former ballet dancer and all round Peter Parker Tom Holland.

Yet with the release of every new poster, TV spot, or international trailer variant the hype somehow seems to reduce. Sony's spoiling us, and not in the proverbial lavish sense.

Things started out looking pretty strong. The first pair of teasers, released back in November, elegantly introduced the dominance of Peter's school life and positioned Iron Man as a key father figure without giving away much in terms of actual plot, all capped with an "only in the MCU" shot of Spidey and Shellhead flying through New York (although as we'll see that was problematic by itself). But the fact that there were two trailers with a lot of different footage should have been an early clue of how obscenely blanket the marketing would become, with every day seemingly bringing new merchandise or artwork or, failing that, unsubstantiated rumor. Or Iron Man. There's been so much of Robert Downey, Jr. some people have taken to calling the movie Iron Man 4 (and even the man himself has pointed out the ridiculousness of it). This eventually gets tired, especially when a campaign hits its peak well over a month before release (this is why Wonder Woman's oft-criticized marketing was sly genius), but also plainly means that they're giving up way too much.

We first noticed something was up when the second trailer hit. On the face of it, that was a pretty solid piece of marketing that expanded the various elements established in the first teasers to give them a bit more narrative context. But as we dug deeper, it became worryingly apparent that this was actually a beat-for-beat breakdown of the superhero side of the plot, taking Peter from Civil War aftershock through early vigilantism, escalation, Vulture entanglement, losing his Stark suit and an epic final battle above the skies of New York in a homemade costume. That was almost three months ago, with so much more material since coming along to fill in the limited gaps (the Washington set piece, for example, clearly comes in the early second act).

Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Homecoming

Of course, there is a question of whether there really is that much to spoil in the first place. By all accounts Homecoming looks set to be a pretty standard 2017 superhero film - that's not a knock, rather that it's hitting the usual character beats with a few twists along the way. We're just worried that said surprises are the likes of Captain America's recurring cameo, things that will feel overdone when the movie arrives.

There is the sometimes strong logic behind film advertising that's seemingly run amok. When Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice's third trailer revealed Doomsday and in doing so gave up pretty much the entire final act premise, it was actually damage control; that the Superman killer was in the film had been leaked repeatedly and, so as to not make it a box office-damaging spoiler (it's better to be told something officially than have it ruined by rumor), WB simply showed their hand. However, it still led to Zack Snyder stating he "isn't just the third act." Yes, there was a little more - Superman's death mainly - but hardly enough given we're talking a 150-minute film.

It's just unlikely there's more to Homecoming than we've seen. Indeed, it has been claimed by RDJ that "Marvel keeps an element of surprise", although that seems more like damage control. Based on everything shown, while there may be certain small surprises we haven't seen, the sheer amount of footage means the broad scale is known. And, besides, to refute Downey Jr., this definitely isn't the typical Marvel mystery machine.

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Spider-Man Homecoming - Fake Avengers

It's Sony's Fault, Not Marvel's

Spoiler-ific trailers aren't uncommon in big blockbuster fare, but such an approach is when you're dealing with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There's exceptions (see: Avengers: Age of Ultron) but trailers for Marvel Studios films tend to be incredibly restrained and honed on maintaining the in-cinema experience: Iron Man 3 hid anything even hinting at the Mandarin twist, Civil War lacked anything approaching the movie's true substance, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 made first act antagonist Ayesha look like the big bad. But we must remember that Spider-Man: Homecoming isn't Marvel.

Let's clear up any confusion about the Sony-Marvel deal behind Spider-Man, which is a lot simpler than the dialogue around it suggests: Sony retains its full claim to the character but Marvel is allowed to use him in team-ups in exchange for Sony-produced solo movies becoming a part of the MCU fold. Financially, each studio funds, distributes, and takes the profit for those respective projects; Sony got nothing from Civil War and Marvel has no direct financial stake in Homecoming (although they will reap a lot from merchandise, something that exists separate from movie rights). What the whole deal works on is associated gains - the power the MCU connection gives to a questionable franchise and how Spider-Man accentuates the MCU.

So while Marvel has been heavily involved in the development of Homecoming (again, associated gains), it's still very much a Sony production, which carries over to the advertising. And therein lies the root of the spoilers.

Sony just isn't the best at marketing its movies. The studio has taken a lot of knocks recently, with a long list of failed franchise starters leading to terrible losses, but with its marketing, it doesn't help itself. Various sources of hate aside, Ghostbusters' first trailer was generic, pandering and didn't really represent the finished product, while the handling of Life buried what could have been a major sleeper hit. The first trailer for the incomparable Baby Driver is a mini-masterpiece, so Sony is capable of good things, but in general, there's an overall lack of confidence and a general slant towards the hard sell.

The Vulture and Doc Ock suits in The in Amazing Spider-Man 2.

The epitome of this was The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The film itself was confused in whether it was a straight sequel, a Dark Knight character study, a faithful comic adaptation or a shared universe springboard, and the marketing only upped that, throwing everything out in a desperate attempt to get people invested in the Spider-Verse but really just highlighting what a mess it was.

The real problem, though, was that out of desperation for a $1 billion hit, Sony simply gave up so much of the plot in an attempt to lure people in. It was so ridiculous that 25-minute fan edits of the film (including some deleted scenes) were made before the movie even came out, telling told the story in its entirety, right through to the final shot. Like Homecoming's marketing, it started strong but didn't know when to stop.

That's bad enough, but the manipulative way some of the footage was used got excruciating. It became decided partway through the campaign that the main interest was in how the film set up The Sinister Six and so pretty much every moment that alluded the villain Avengers was put in the trailers. However, all these teases were (relatively) subtle and forward-thinking, so Sony was essentially selling a movie on its Easter eggs selling another movie. Needless to say, that's not cool.

While the actual filmmaking style appears to have changed this time, Sony is still following a very similar tact with Homecoming; after all, they're still pursuing a Spider-Man-less Spider-Man shared universe (maybe?), so clearly Sony hasn't learned from its mistakes. And that's especially true of the biggest flaw of The Amazing Spider-Man 2's trailers.

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Spider-Man Homecoming Iron Man Spidey

They've Probably Spoiled The Final Scene

By far the most reviled part of Sony's handling of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was the Rhino fight. Paul Giamatti's Aleksei Sytsevich was put at the forefront of the advertising, with most trailers ending on the moment of him rampaging up against a manhole cover-wielding Spidey, teasing an epic showdown in the movie proper. However, not only was this moment the final scene, that moment of impact was the very last shot. It was intended as a promise of Spider-Man returning to full prominence in Part 3 after a minor Dark Knight Rises-esque slump, but had been sold as part of the movie itself and so fell completely flat.

In all this talk of spoilers, many have taken solace in the fact that, at the very least, Sony hasn't done anything so brazen - but we're not so sure. In fact, we suspect they gave away the final shot (or scene) of Homecoming in the very first trailers. Both initial teasers ended on Iron Man and Spider-Man flying through New York, an image that's featured heavily in print marketing since as well. At first it was a promise of the pair fighting together, but now knowing their broad arcs it has to come at the end.

For all the talk about Homecoming being a de facto Iron Man 4, by the footage we've actually seen he won't be in the movie that much; he returns Peter to Queens, wards him off fighting Vulture, meets up with him a couple more times, then helps him out on the Staten Island ferry where he asks for the advanced suit back and isn't seen for the rest of the main story. He may return in the final battle, although we've not actually got any hard evidence this is the case (just posters alluding to it).

There's nowhere in all that where a moment of the duo flying through Manhattan would fit - at every point Tony's trying to be a responsible father figure curbing Peter's Avengers aspirations. The most logical explanation, then, is that it comes at the end, after Parker's proven his mettle and is returned the suit (something teased by the soundtrack) - ergo, the final scene.

Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark Iron Man Confronts Tom Holland as Peter Parker in Spider-Man Homecoming

Giving away later moments in a film is always detrimental as it subconsciously alters audiences expectation on the journey, and in terms of spoiling the journey of this particular film knowing that Iron Man and Spidey find a common ground eight months in advance is pretty startling.

So, yes, the Spider-Man: Homecoming trailers appear to be as spoilerific as perceived. It's always possible there's a major element of the movie Sony hasn't given up, but that sort of false hope and presumption that "they haven't shown everything" is trotted out with every campaign of this sort and rarely proves to be true.

Sony's marketing may increase awareness, but it works against the hype it should be building. Let's just hope that the emotional weight of Jon Watts' film is strong enough to weather the fact we all know exactly what's going to happen. Spidey needs this.

NEXT: Spider-Man: Homecoming Novel Offers Donald Glover Character Details

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