Directors Joe and Anthony Russo admit to manipulating footage in trailers to throw off fans from guessing Avengers: Endgame's plot. The filmmakers team up with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely for the fourth time in the MCU to deliver the culmination of the 22-film arc that the franchise has been treading since 2008's Iron Man. Details are still scant with regard to story specifics for the Phase 3 capper, which is by design to preserve the secrecy surrounding the blockbuster.

So far, Marvel Studios has released three previews for Endgame - two full trailers and one spot that aired during the Super Bowl. But despite seeing a good amount of footage, it's still extremely difficult to gauge what's exactly going to happen in the film. It doesn't help that with the way things were left off in Avengers: Infinity War, there's a myriad of possibilities that Avengers 4 can shake out. Now, it'll be much trickier to decipher what's going to happen in the Avengers' upcoming bout against Thanos (Josh Brolin) with the Russos admitting that not everything in the official trailers are actually in the movie.

Related: Marvel Marketing VP Asks If Avengers: Endgame Should Have Any More Trailers

In the latest issue of Empire Magazine (via ComingSoon.net), the Russos open up about crafting a measured marketing campaign for Endgame. During the conversation, Joe reveals that they “use all the material that we have at our disposal to create a trailer. 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." He adds that with the flurry of footage they came up with during production, they're able to use some shots exclusively for the trailers.

“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.”

Avengers Infinity War Trailer Screenshot

This is not surprising considering that the Russos have a history of removing pivotal elements in trailer shots so as not to spoil the full scene in the film. In Captain America: Civil War's initial Team Iron Man reveal in the Super Bowl spot, they edited out Spider-Man in the line-up. They implemented a similar ploy in Infinity War when the iconic running shot of the Avengers not only lied about the Hulk partaking in the battle, the specific scene didn't happen at all in the movie. Additionally, given that they even considered not doing any traditional marketing for the film, it only means that they'll do almost everything to preserve the film's secrecy. That said, it's a nice change to actually admit to doing the same scheme to Endgame.

The Russos' admission, if anything, adds another layer to this whole guessing game that the public has been playing with Marvel Studios involving Avengers: Endgame. Now, on top of trying to piece together the full film based on what's revealed on the trailers, fans also need to distinguish which shots are fake and/or misleading. From purely a storytelling perspective, the less people know about the film when they go to theaters, the better. Infinity War's ending had that impact because no one was expecting the snap to kill newer heroes (granted that they'll all come back), and it's safe to assume that the Russos are going to attempt to top themselves in the sequel.

More: Captain Marvel's After-Credits Scene Proves Avengers: Endgame Trailer Lies

Source: Empire (via ComingSoon.net)

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