Why Those Avengers: Infinity War Trailer Scenes Weren't In The Movie

Avengers: Infinity War co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo were super secretive about the super-sized superhero film leading up to its release, leaving fans to obsess over each and every detail included in the pre-launch trailers and TV spots. The entire Marvel fandom was hyped for one moment in particular: the electrifying ensemble shot that featured several heroes running towards the camera during what appeared to be battle set in Wakanda. Bizarrely, that scene — plus a few others shown in trailer footage — never showed up in Infinity War. So what happened? Surely there's a reason the trailers lied to us, right?

As it happens, it was all a carefully crafted ruse by the Russos, who wanted to intentionally misdirect audiences so they would still be surprised when they saw the film. 

Speaking on Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast, Joe Russo explained that he and Anthony Russo stitched together moments from different scenes to create that now-infamous tracking shot. 

"We use all the material that we have at our disposal to create a trailer. We look at the trailer as a very different experience than the movie, and I think audiences are so predictive now that you have to be very smart about how you craft a trailer because an audience can watch a trailer and basically tell you what's gonna happen in the film. We consume too much content," he stated. "So at our disposal are lots of different shots that aren't in the movie that we can manipulate through CG to tell a story that we want to tell specifically for the purpose of the trailer and not for the film."

Anthony Russo added that the charging-forward sequence was never actually in Avengers: Infinity War in the first place. "That shot that you're referencing was never in the movie in the version that you saw," the director explained. "It was never even created for the movie in that version. It was literally created in that version for the trailer."

Another thing missing from the final version of Infinity War was Thanos (Josh Brolin) stating, "Fun isn't something one considers when balancing the universe, but this does put a smile on my face." That line line wasn't a misdirect, though, as Joe Russo explained it was meant to be in the film but was altered in post-production. 

"That was a scripted line for the movie that we replaced with another line that we thought was a little more specific to the storytelling with Gamora. I think he used to say that on Knowhere to Gamora when he emerged from the Reality Cloak as the aether exposed him," Russo said. "And I think we changed it to something that was a little more specific to the storytelling."

These sneaky bursts of slight deceit may have frustrated some fans, but for others, they were a breath of fresh air from trailers and marketing materials that often spoil films before they even arrive in theaters. One thing we can all agree on, however, is that when the first trailer for Avengers 4 rolls out, we should take everything shown in it with a pinch of skepticism.