Entertainment

That Leaked Avengers 4 Trailer Is Fake

I never thought I’d need to write a story to clarify this. But internet reaction to this short piece that’s gone viral in its own way has forced me to weigh in with my opinion. After all, you simply can’t sit out and do nothing but notice when that brief footage that’s grabbing all the attention happens to be from the upcoming Avengers 4 trailer.

That’s right. Over the past few days, a brief 20-second or so clipping has been making waves over the web. The clip, purported to be from an upcoming Avengers 4 trailer is recorded from a cellphone and makes the viewers believe that someone internally captured it from a screening and posted it online. It shows a damaged Infinity Gauntlet lying abandoned on Wakanda, followed by what looks like clay statues of Captain America and others engaging in combat poses, before the title reveals itself as Avengers: Annihilation. This is then followed by a One Last Time calling card and a May 2019 release which is when the trailer ends. Have a look at the footage below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuJnkTXVvo4

I must admit though the segment is well-edited. The choice of music definitely infuses chills and the one last time calling card evokes heavy sadness in suggesting that Avengers 4 might mark the end of an era, or even the end of the Avengers franchise. Yes, all that’s good except for one thing.

It’s probably a fake. Heck, it’s most certainly a fake.

There are multiple giveaways to cast doubt on its authenticity. Perhaps the biggest one is audience reactions to a trailer that has no chance of being screened anywhere. Consider this: the secrecy around Avengers 4 is so paramount that even the very title is not known to this date. And this is when the movie itself is mere months away from release. Do you honestly think the Russos would screen the trailer to an audience that has that sort of reaction and risk them recording it on their cellphones? Sure test screenings are a thing but I doubt this trailer is getting that treatment.

Next, the combat poses at the end look lifted from the credits sequence of Avengers: Age of Ultron. I can’t recall where the gauntlet scene is from, perhaps it’s a deleted Infinity War sequence or the uploader CGI-ed it which, given the computing resources available today isn’t difficult to imagine. The image below is from the said Age of Ultron sequence and you can see the parallels clearly.

Finally, the dialogue voice-over is meant to be in the voice of Thanos. But it sounds anything like the Mad Titan we know in the movies, almost as if the uploader recorded the dialogue themselves. Moreover, it’s highly unlikely Avengers 4 will ever get this sort of a short teaser, unless it’s a TV Spot or a trailer tease or the final few seconds of the trailer. It’s unimaginable for the crew to be working on TV Spots this early and trailer teases are not something that are traditionally done for the Avengers movies.

So where and why did this come from? This might have been a reaction to the leaked trailer descriptions that have begun doing the rounds now that Avengers 4 has wrapped filming entirely. And one of the shots in the leaked description is indeed a damaged Infinity Gauntlet. That said, the description itself concluded stating that the trailer doesn’t end with the title card display since the title is being kept under wraps. So it’s even harder to imagine it’ll end up casually on a “leaked trailer”.

In conclusion then? Sorry to burst your bubble of excitement folks but this one’s clearly a fake. We’ll have to wait a bit longer until the real trailer arrives, which should hopefully be within the next month or two.