(Pop Culture) Editorial #4 - Why Marvel Should Release Infinity War Trailer

(Pop Culture) Editorial #4 - Why Marvel Should Release Infinity War Trailer

Listen. I know that revealing too much before a film comes out is a fatal mistake. I even wrote an entire editorial on why marketing is so important. THAT BEING SAID. This is different. And now, I promise that this is not because I am a huge fan. I have thought about this, long and hard. And I believe, seriously, that Marvel should have released SOME footage to the public, be it 30 seconds or a minute and a half. Here's why.

An Event

Let's look at what this film is. This is Infinity War. This is the film of films. This is, like Marvel has been saying, the culmination of everything that has happened thus far in the MCU. This is what I like to call, an event film. This is a once in a while kind of movie that really can't be hyped more and can't be replicated. 

Let me take you back to 2014, where another event film was coming the next year. It was called Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This was a once in a life time kind of film and hype because of the fact that this film was the return to Star Wars with the original cast back. And when did Disney release their first teaser? December of 2014. One. Year. In. Advance. 

Star Wars and Marvel are completely different, granted. But Infinity War is 10 months away. If you look back at the very first teaser for The Force Awakens, it's barely anything. It's a shot of Finn (who we didn't even know his name at the time), the cross guard lightsaber, and the Falcon.

What I'm saying is, for normal films, yes you don't release a trailer for it until about 7 months before, which is about September-November range for Ragnarok in this case. BUT. This is an event film, and I believe that they should release something for Infinity War, especially since they have shot the entire movie barring reshoots. 

Short Footage - How Do They Do It?

Then the question becomes, how do they do it? The answer - keep it short.

Look back at the Force Awakens teaser. It was barely a minute, and there were only about ten shots in the entire trailer. That's literally all we need. Literally, ten shots, 50 seconds, and everyone will be satisfied. Here's my pitch. 

Opening shot of a silhouette of the back of Thanos standing on a moon facing a sun.

Shot of the Milano zooming through the sky, with a quick shot of Thor and Rocket at the cockpit, staring off into space, maybe with Groot or Gamora in the background. 

Shot of Black Panther and Bucky standing on the edge of a cliff with a Wakandan army, ready for battle, with a large cloud passing over the sky. 

Shot of Spider-Man swinging through the sky with his Iron Spider suit, perhaps in space? Or maybe in New York still. 

Shot of Loki with the Tesseract in a huge pile of rubble and debris. 

Shot of Tony and Steve maybe, or shot of Tony and Bruce, standing side by side battered and bruised, Tony in half of his armor, the other half being ripped off. 

Shot of Thanos walking down an explosion and punching, kicking, and fighting the Avengers. 

Fade to black.

Fade in shot of five or six heroes, like Doctor Strange, Star Lord, Iron Man, Nebula, and Spider-Man, standing in front of Thanos, who turns and smirks before fade to black. 

Cut to Logo.

It's literally that simple. Accompany that with a voice over of Josh Brolin as Thanos narrating his hunger for death and Infinity stones, and you have yourself a bomb teaser that reveals absolutely nothing. And I know they have these shots based on what they showed at SDCC and D23 and based on the fact that they're done shooting. 

Satisfaction

This will do a few things. What this will do is keep the focus on Marvel. Right now, the focus is very split between Justice League and Thor. Both movies have released solid, exciting teasers/trailers/sneak peaks. And that's all both films have released. This, in essence makes them even.

What would push Marvel Studios ahead? Releasing an Infinity War teaser. This, in effect, gives them something to match that Justice League trailer. While Thor looks phenomenal, it's not a Justice League/Avengers type-film, but with Infinity War matching Justice League, PLUS Ragnarok, Marvel would look to push ahead.

Plus, I understand that people at SDCC spent time and money to get there, but Disney and Marvel have already kept it secret at D23, and Comic-Con is the time to get your film hyped, so releasing a trailer would not be unusual. 

In Short...

Granted. I just wrote an article about why they should release the trailer, but there are good reasons why they didn't, and I understand that. That being said - there are plenty more reasons in my mind, (and I am not film executive so maybe there are many things I don't know about) that do point to releasing a short teaser during SDCC. Not the full footage shown at SDCC, but perhaps a short trailer in the vein of Force Awakens. But alas, we'll have to wait until Marvel is ready to unveil it to the world.