Earlier this week, almost 5 minutes of footage from Avengers: Endgame leaked online, sending fans fleeing from social media for fear of catching a glimpse of this spoiler-heavy content. But seeing how Marvel Studios has been doing such a good job at keeping a lid on things up to this point, some fans have started to theorize that the recent leak was no accident.
While the internet has offered a few variations on this idea, the gist of the speculation is that the famously spoiler-conscious Russo Brothers filmed fake scenes and let them leak, in order to throw off the fans. And to the the theory’s credit, Mark Ruffalo admitted just a couple of days ago to shooting an alternate ending of Avengers: Infinity War where Bruce Banner dies.
But while it’s one thing to film fake content, it’s another to put all the time and money into actually finishing those sequences in post. And it must be said that those leaked scenes look extraordinarily expensive for a mere diversion.
What’s more, given the film’s phenomenal pre-sales, it’s doubtful that Marvel would even have anything gain from “tricking” fans into thinking they know some major plot details. After all, one of the key strategies of the movie’s marketing seems to be creating a sense of intriguing mystery around the film. And leaking fake footage to make us believe we know what’s going to happen seems completely at odds with this approach.
In other words, as much as fans may wish every spoiler had been kept under wraps until the pic’s release, it feels safe to assume that the newly surfaced scenes are the real deal. But whether or not you actually choose to watch the leaks, you can bet that Marvel will still have a few secrets left to unveil when Avengers: Endgame hits theaters on April 26th.