Marvel Keeps Spoiling Post-Credits Scenes In Trailers

Screen Rant

Why Does Marvel Keep Spoiling Its Post-Credits Scenes In Trailers?

By Cooper Hood

Published Jul 8, 2018

Marvel's marketing has started included some major spoilers, and Ant-Man and The Wasp is the latest example to include post-credits scene in trailers.

Warning: This post contains SPOILERS for Ant-Man and The Wasp.

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Marvel has developed a trend of spoiling their post-credits scenes recently, and Ant-Man and The Wasp is just the latest example. From the very first Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Marvel Studios has made sure to include one or two post-credits scenes to tease fans of what is coming next. Even when they aren't used to set up future films, they've been used to add one final joke. While fans often theorize what these scenes will be, Marvel's marketing has actually spoiled a few of the more recent ones.

The mid-credits scene for Ant-Man and The Wasp was a shocker, as Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) became the latest victims of Thanos' snap from Avengers: Infinity War. When the post-credits scene came around though, it featured a giant ant - who had been programmed to mimic Scott Lang's daily routine - playing the drums. The scene takes place post-snap, but is something we've already seen. In the middle of the second trailer for Ant-Man and The Wasp, this scene is actually briefly shown. It was used at the time for a quick comedic beat in the trailer, but turns out to have been part of the post-credits.

The weird thing is, this isn't the first time Marvel's included a post-credits scene in the actual marketing. Black Panther's mid-credits scene featured T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) addressing the UN, opening up Wakanda's doors for the betterment of the world. This scene was shown in the middle of the teaser trailer for Black Panther, but there is a brief explanation for why they'd show it. Director Ryan Coogler revealed the UN meeting was originally the actual ending of Black Panther and not part of the post-credits.

Those are the two biggest examples of Marvel using post-credits scenes in the marketing for the actual movie, but some of the other recent ones look to be last minute additions. The first Ant-Man didn't even bother filming a post-credits scene, and instead just lifted a scene straight out of Captain America: Civil War. Then the next year, Doctor Strange did the same thing by including part of Strange's appearance in Thor: Ragnarok. They work for the purpose of teasing what is next for these characters, but may just go to show that some of these aren't as planned out or set in stone as many would expect. That said, there's also films like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 that have very specific teases for what is coming next.

At the end of the day, this is likely more of a strange coincidence then a pattern of things to come. The more monumental the post-credits scenes are, the lesser chance Marvel puts them in the actual marketing. With Captain Marvel and Avengers 4 sure to have a few big teases, those ones should be safe. But, as the MCU continues to move forward, hopefully whatever is resulting in scenes from the post-credits to be shown in the marketing can be fixed.