David Pierdomenico
The hottest topics on the internet right now are the title and trailer reveal for the upcoming Avengers 4. And why shouldn’t they be? After the massive cliffhanger that was the Infinity War ending, fans have been eagerly awaiting to know how this chapter of the MCU will come to a close. After all, it’s been leading to this ever since the first Iron Man back in 2008. While film trailers are often one of the best marketing tools studios have, this may be the one exception; where fans might actually be better off without a trailer.
The Whole Point of Trailers
Long before IMDB, social media, or the internet in general, trailers were the only real way the viewing audience had to know about what films were being released. And they changed a great deal over time. Some of the earliest ones simply had a narrator recite the entire plot. But later they became more nuanced. Older millennials have fond memories of the 90’s trailer trope which had the iconic Don LaFontaine (RIP 1940-2008) say, “In a world where…” However, even that went out of style, to the point that trailers can now feel almost like music videos or short films.
While trailers don’t need to let audiences know what’s coming out, they still serve an important marketing purpose. Every time one drops for a popular film, it’s trending on social media in mere seconds. However, as mentioned previously, Avengers 4 might be the one exception. Its buzz has been building ever since the credits rolled on Infinity War. No trailer is going to build any more anticipation, or fuel any more fan theories than there already are. The fans are already counting the days until its release date.
They Often Show Too Much
One of the downsides of some trailers is that they’re developed by marketing departments rather than directors, writers, or producers. So this can result in misleading trailers (like how Drive was advertised as a Fast and Furious type action thriller), or even worse, it can result in far too much information about the plot being divulged. For example, the trailer for Terminator 2: Judgement Day revealed that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character was now the hero, when this was meant to a plot twist at the end of Act 1. The entire twist ending for 2005’s The Island was given away by its trailer.
Now to be fair, Marvel did an excellent job at not revealing very much in their original Infinity War advertisements. But knowing anything about the plot or characters of Avengers 4 would give away something that happened after that breathtaking end. And it would seem unwise of Marvel to have their fans go into this next film with any preexisting knowledge about the story or how the heroes save the day. We want to be completely surprised by what happens.
Marvel’s Best Solution
But as we all of course know, there’s no way that Marvel and Disney would fail to release a trailer for one of their properties. However, what if instead of a traditional trailer, they released something else entirely? It could go a little something like this: a simple 30-60 second video of directors Joe and Anthony Russo talking directly to the fans and telling them that their film has so many great scenes, but they don’t want to spoil any of them. Then at the end, they could finally reveal the official title of Avengers 4 so as to give fans something to process.
This would create even more anticipation by creating a sense of, “This movie is so special, you can’t even see footage yet. You’ll just have to come to the theater opening night!” Feel free to use this idea Marvel. It’s honestly the very best trailer we could get a film this anxiously awaited!
