Note: This article contains spoilers for Eternals.
Superhero movies are usually secretive ventures. Most movie studios handling said projects go to great lengths to keep them under wraps for audiences to be surprised when watching them for the first time. Despite this secrecy, there have been a few times in which significantly spoilery aspects of superhero films have been shared in their trailers — specifically, shots from their endings.
Movies like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Venom became infamous for this, but you may be surprised to learn that this has actually happened with many more comic-book movies. Most ending scenes included in trailers have, admittedly, been shown without context, but it's still a surprisingly wide-spread phenomenon.
Because of that, let's look at 11 trailers for superhero movies that showed their movies' endings:
11. Iron Man
Tony Stark outing himself as Iron Man in front of a crowd of reporters at the end of his first standalone film is, for many, one of the most memorable moments in the MCU. And with good reason. After all, it marks the culmination of Stark's movie-long journey toward becoming a better person...
Here's the thing, though: If you watched this Iron Man trailer before the film came out, you experienced part of that scene before going on said journey. With the MCU being an unknown property at the time and general audiences not having much expectations for the film, perhaps the people behind the marketing campaign saw nothing wrong with including bits of this sequence in Iron Man's promotional material.
10. Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 3 closed on a relatively quiet note when compared to most other Spidey films, with Mary Jane and Peter Parker dancing together. Similar to Iron Man, the ending represented the culmination of one of the movie's main storylines; nonetheless, it found its way into this trailer. To give some context to what happened (for those who haven't seen Spider-Man 3 in a while), the film saw Peter become increasingly violent due to the Venom symbiote attached to him.
Ultimately, his erratic behavior led him to strike Mary Jane during a bar fight. At the end of the movie, Peter went to visit M.J. at her place of work to ask for forgiveness. In response, she took his hand and started dancing with him before the movie came to a close. What was surprising about this instance is that the sequence wasn't used just once; it was actually featured in two different parts of the trailer.
9. Superman: The Movie
Not only did Superman: The Movie start the superhero-movie craze, it also originated the genre's occasional proclivity for spoiling endings in promotional material. As you can see here, the trailer's last shot is ironically also the film's final shot: The Man of Steel flies over Earth before flashing his charming smile at the camera.
To be fair, this brief inclusion didn't outright give the ending away since the footage had no context in terms of its place in the movie. Regardless, it's still the last shot of the film, which earns Superman: The Movie its place on this list.
8. X-Men: First Class
Being a prequel to the X-Men franchise, we knew going into First Class that Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr (a.k.a. Magneto) would not end up on the best of terms. However, this trailer gave us a peek into how exactly things would turn out for them. In the film's third act, Erik and Charles parted ways on pretty violent and tragic terms.
Afterward, Charles founded his school for mutants, while Erik put on his signature helmet and began his villainous career. His first act as a baddie? To rescue Emma Frost from captivity. Erik identified himself as "Magneto" to her, bringing the movie to a close. The trailer showed a brief shot of this scene, focusing on Magneto's back as he entered Frost's cell. While fleeting, it made it easy to understand where the characters would end up by the end of the film.
7. Spider-Man: Homecoming
This Homecoming trailer featured Spider-Man taking off his mask in his apartment with a smile on his face. Little did we know at the time that it was actually a version of the movie's final scene (more on that below). At the end of Homecoming, Peter returned home to find his Tony Stark-designed costume back in his possession. Excited, he put it on and then took off his mask, unaware that Aunt May was standing behind him, watching him in shock.
Naturally, the trailer didn't show the Aunt May reveal. Instead, it used an alternate version of the scene, evident by the fact that Tom Holland sported different hairstyles in the trailer and film versions. Taking that into consideration, the shot used in the trailer was probably taken from either a modified version of the sequence or one of the many takes that likely took place during filming.
6. Black Panther
Black Panther had a different kind of mid-credits scene. Instead of teasing a new superhero or threat to come, the scene focused on T'Challa revealing Wakanda's vast resources at a U.N. conference. The sequence signaled a new era for the country, which up until that point had remained largely hidden from the rest of the world.
The scene was shown in this teaser trailer, which was surprising given how secretive Marvel Studios is when it comes to its mid and post-credits stingers. Granted, visually, the sequence appeared to be part of Black Panther's main plot as opposed to a big secret, which is perhaps why it was included in the trailer.
5. Eternals
The first teaser for Eternals arrived in May of 2021, and it included the movie's closing scene. The film ended with its titular characters stopping the birth of the Celestial Tiamut, thus preventing the destruction of Earth. Unfortunately, breaking Celestial law did not come consequence-free. Following their battle, Sersi went on a walk with Dane Whitman.
During their stroll, the sky turned gray and became filled with thunder before Sersi (alongside Phastos and Kingo) was taken away by the Celestial Arishem for disobeying his directive to ensure Tiamut's birth. The shot of Sersi and Dane looking at the gray sky in the trailer is from right before the Eternal is abducted, and seconds before credits start rolling.
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
This case stands out among other entries on this list due to the fact that this trailer featured the movie's final scene with an added bit of deleted material. The trailer showed Sam Wilson standing behind Steve Rogers, asking him, "When do we start?" Rogers then replied, "We just did." The film closed with that scene.
In the final version, however, the sequence cut off right after Falcon asked what their next move would be. This could be considered more spoilery than other scenes on this list, specifically when watching the film. As the story unfolded, it became relatively easy to figure out that the sequence would at least be one of The Winter Soldier's final moments due to its scenery and characters' attire.
3. Green Lantern
Martin Campbell's superhero adventure put Hal Jordan through the wringer as he learned to become a superhero. Having finally gotten a hold of his powers and having defeated Parallax, the movie closed with Hal Jordan accepting his Green Lantern responsibilities and saying goodbye to Carol Ferris before flying away to look for trouble. The scene focused on Jordan flying into space, and it's that sequence that was briefly used in this trailer.
Now, it wouldn't be fair to say this constituted an outright spoiler. Green Lantern featured plenty of scenes of Hal using his powers, so the shot in question could have been assumed to have come from any of those sequences. As such, it would have likely been hard for anyone who had not watched the film to figure out they were getting its ending in the trailer.
2. Snake Eyes
This is arguably one of the most surprising entries on the list, as this trailer showed both the film's ending and post-credits scene. First, it revealed the movie's final scene, which involved Snake Eyes sliding down his helmet's visor before riding off on a motorcycle. Then, it showed the post-credits stinger, in which Tommy Arashikage named himself "Storm Shadow" in front of the Baroness.
While it's undoubtedly shocking for Snake Eyes' marketing campaign to have spoiled such crucial moments, it's also somewhat understandable. The scenes carried brand-recognizable imagery (Snake Eyes' costume) and dialogue (Storm Shadow's name), both of which had a chance at improving the movie's appeal for both G.I. Joe fans and audiences looking for a new superhero movie to watch.
1. The Amazing Spider-Man
By now, you've probably noticed that Spider-Man films have had a bit of a habit of spoiling their final scenes in trailers. The Amazing Spider-Man went a bit further, though, revealing its post-credits scene in this trailer. The brief moment featured a mysterious man shrouded in darkness approaching Doctor Connors in a cell, asking him if he had told "the boy about his father."
Watching the movie, audiences learned this was the post-credits scene, and that the mysterious man was the Gentleman (a little-known Spider-Man villain) questioning the former Lizard after his defeat. The trailer's inclusion of this moment was a significant spoiler at the time, as it gave away the main villain's fate long before the film was released.