It was the American philosopher Meek Mill who said, “If you don’t know where you make your mistakes, that’s your worst mistake: not knowing where your mistakes are at.” To err, as they say, is human. Sometimes you forget a loved one’s birthday. Sometimes you make the wrong turn and wind up lost on your way to a work meeting. Sometimes you slip up and blow the twist ending to a multi-billion dollar film franchise, the secrets spreading like wildfire in the bitter cyber-jungle of pseudo-journalism known as the blogosphere. The point is, everybody makes mistakes.
It's tough out there for a star. They’re doing a thousand press junkets on little sleep, answering the same questions from Entertainment Weekly to Horse & Hound. You can’t blame them if, through bloodshot eyes and an overtired mind, they miss a curve ball, forget the studio approved answers, and let slip a secret. If anything, it’s on us for craving these spoilers, asking these actors to be the gatekeepers of mystery, but jabbing them at every term in the hope of an early peek at the next big scoop. So are we all going to stop jumping on every accidental reveal an actor gives us? Absolutely not! Spoil Thor 4 and give us the clicks, Chris Hemsworth! We need to know!
15 JACKMAN SPOILS LOGAN
Logan proved to be a high point in the X-Men franchise; one of best reviewed movies of its year, the first superhero movie to get an Oscar nomination for screenplay, and a perfect swan song for its lead actor, Hugh Jackman. Jackman wasn’t shy about this being his final outing as the titular mutant, nor was Fox being particularly ambiguous about its endgame when it announced the film’s R-rating, nor when it introduced the first footage to the world to the tune of a weary Johnny Cash.
Nevertheless, spoiler-fearing fans were enraged when Jackman acknowledged something in an interview!
He told Entertainment Weekly that Wolverine meets his end by sacrificing himself for someone else; in this case, the Cub to his Lone Wolf, Laura Kinney. Despite the core story being a tale as old as time, some fans felt Jackman “ruined” the poignant ending, rather than leaving open the idea that Logan could end with Wolvie retiring to a café in Italy.
14 DOWNEY PLAYS PAPARAZZI
Loose lips may sink ships, but an off-handed tweet can spoil a movie. Yes, in 2018 social media isn’t just able to ruin friendships or trade relations with well-respected nations; it can also ruin movie twists. Marvel tries valiantly to ward off every would-be paparazzo who can guess its filming locations, and even when a stray set photo does hit the web, it rarely shows anything new, as Feige and co. know how to hide the goods.
Of course, they can control just about every element of production, but not the whims of the irascible and impulsive heart of their cinematic universe, Robert Downey Jr. No doubt Marvel loves that its mega-star absolutely loves the franchise he helped build, but surely it would have preferred he hadn’t fired off this on-set selfie showing the as-yet unrevealed new threads for Benedict Cumberbatch’s Dr. Strange from Infinity War.
13 RUFFALO LIVESTREAMS RAGNAROK
Apparently, even within the inner circle of the MCU, some cast members are known not to be able to keep a secret, one of whom is apparently Mark Ruffalo. This might be surprising to some of us, who imagine that between all his charitable and intellectual pursuits, the man behind Doctor Banner simply wouldn’t have the time to dive into the nitty-gritty of spoilers with some journalists.
Ruffalo forgot to turn off the stream, allowing eager viewers to hear the first 10 minutes of the film!
And in fairness to Mark, he doesn’t. His mind is on other things. In fact, his mind is so focused on getting people access to renewable energy and clean drinking water that he didn’t notice that he also gave eager fans early access to Thor: Ragnarok. After live-streaming his pre-show appearance at the premiere of the third Thor movie, Ruffalo simply forgot to turn off the stream, allowing eager viewers to hear the first 10 minutes of the film from the Oscar-nominee’s pocket.
12 ELIZABETH DEBICKI LEAKS HER DEBUT
Elizabeth Debicki is no stranger to acting alongside superhero actors, from Spider-Man (The Great Gatsby) to Loki (The Night Manager) to Superman and the Lone Ranger (The Man From U.N.C.L.E). Yet, for her first turn in a superhero movie, Debicki wasn’t fully prepared for how ravenous audiences are for any hint of a plot, particularly in those films centered around the less-familiar Guardians of the Galaxy.
When asked about her character Ayesha in the then-unreleased Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 at San Diego Comic Con, Debicki gave a seemingly studio-approved description of where her character is at the very start of the film, as leader of the Sovereign, who hires the Guardians. However, she went on to reveal that relations with the heroes go sour, and that both the character’s personality and her appearance change by the end of the film.
11 A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST
Said Taghmaoui may not be a well-known name, but he’s a familiar face to blockbuster fans, showing up in major motion pictures like G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra and Conan the Barbarian. His casting in the hotly anticipated Wonder Woman, however, propelled him into a new stratosphere of fan fame, especially since he gave the internet its first real look at Steve Trevor and the world of World War 1 in Wonder Woman.
Coming from a cinematic universe whose last two entries were divisive and disappointing, and a character whose last live-action solo outing, the 2011 Adrienne Palicki pilot, can generously be called a dumpster fire, one can’t blame hungry Wonder Woman fans for wondering what could await them. Then again, we can’t blame Said for not expecting that his simple set photo of he and Chris Pine in costume would start the firestorm it did online, until WB took it down.
10 EYES FORWARD
Prequels can be a precarious thing, as George Lucas and Peter Jackson can attest. Much as modern audiences may crave answers to every question, rarely are those explanations as satisfying as what we’d dreamed up in our own minds. Did we really need Legolas in the Hobbit trilogy? Did Anakin need to be the one to build C-3PO?
We get why fans were dismayed by Samuel L. Jackson’s reveal of a character detail in the upcoming Captain Marvel.
All this to say that, while it may seem like an extreme overreaction, we get why fans were dismayed by Samuel L. Jackson’s reveal of a character detail in the upcoming Captain Marvel. Of course, it had already been revealed that the hotly anticipated Captain Marvel film would be set in the ‘90, bBut when Jackson told the AV Club that Nick Fury would have both eyes in the prequel film, some fans began to fret that we were staring down the barrel of some very hokey, face scarred through force lightning type explanation for the eye-patch.
9 TOM HOLLAND TALKS TRILOGY
Every day there’s some new talk of an Eternals movie, or bringing Ms. Marvel into the fold, but Kevin Feige plays it close to the chest. Outside of the grandiose display that revealed to the world the timeline from Captain America: Civil War to the untitled Avengers 4, little has come to light that’s revealed further plans, save the additions of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Even then, almost nothing has been officially confirmed past the “finale” of Avengers 4, as Marvel waits to unveil Phase 4 in the appropriately grand manner. We’re gonna go out on a limb and guess that the limber lips of Spider-Man star Tom Holland weren’t the platform they intended for the big reveal. Still, the infamous leaker let slip to AlloCine that there were indeed firm plans in place for a trilogy of Spider-Man films once the Mad Titan Thanos is subdued.
8 THE ROCK SAYS...
Twenty years ago it would have seemed absurd to suggest that the acting career of The Rock would amount to more than a flash in the pan. Yet, after a string of hits and a lot of hustle, it seems The Rock has the freedom to do whatever he wants. Fight a giant monkey? Sure. Jump from a skyscraper? Why not? Spill the beans on a superhero role well before any official announcement is made?
The Rock does as he pleases.
To be fair to Mr. Johnson, he never said flat out that he’d been cast as Black Adam in a then-unannounced Shazam movie. It was clear The Rock was told to keep it under-wraps, and he paid that instruction the most minimal of regard. In an interview with Total Film, Mr. Johnson coyly teased his DC role, dropping every imaginable hint at what world he’ll be entering into.
7 PEPPER POTTS’ FANCY PANTS
Plenty of us are riding the Infinity War hype train hard, looking ahead only so far as Ant-Man and The Wasp. Maybe, at most, searching for scraps of Captain Marvel spoilers as they come. No one has even begun to imagine what secrets the as-of-this-writing untitled Avengers 4 may hold. Yet, one spoiler was under our noses already, had we been willing to sift through articles on $2000 spirit-animal rings and healing stickers.
MCU staple Gwyneth Paltrow has been in the game as long as Robert Downey Jr, and even donned a suit once herself, yet no one ever thinks to check her social media for spoilers. If they had, they would have spotted a seemingly innocuous set photo of the star receiving a foot massage. Upon close inspection, however, we see the actress’ legs in very peculiar pants, sporting the traditional mo-cap design.
6 TOMMY LITTLE TELLS A SECRET
Of course, not all spoilers are the fault of the film’s stars. Sometimes an interviewer lets slip a little too much, and our valiant heroes are forced to sit there, smile, and change the subject. Such was seemingly the case when Thor: Ragnarok stars Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth appeared on Australia’s The Project.
When the host, Tommy Little, made mention that Cate Blanchett played Thor’s sister, Ruffalo attempted to let it blow over, but Hemsworth wasn’t having it.
The 12 Strong star slammed his hands on the table, chastising the host for revealing more than he should have, and asking producers if the show was live or if they could rewind and start over. The incident blew over, but by that point, the proverbial cat (or Cate) was out of the bag.
5 DC TEASES, THEN DISAPPOINTS
The DCEU shocked the nerd world when it dropped the Comic Con mic with the epic announcement of Batman vs. Superman. When it subsequently dropped the ball with the actual film Batman vs. Superman, it seemed impossible that some devoted fans could be won back by the franchise. That was until one fateful Tuesday in 2016, when Ben Affleck tweeted out the first footage of Joe Manganiello as Deathstroke the Terminator.
Fans were floored, and immediately anticipation grew for what would come of the character. Would he be the main antagonist of Ben Affleck’s solo Batman movie? A surprise ally in Justice League? A menacing presence in Flashpoint? Ultimately, this enticing tease led to a letdown. A quick glimpse of Deathstroke on the deck of a boat, and the DCEU dead in the water.
4 HATHAWAY GIVES THE THIRD ACT AWAY
Hathaway’s gotten a bad rap the last few years, and that’s hardly fair. She’s a stellar actress of immense talent, capable of tackling any role. From Colossal to Catwoman, Anne Hathaway can handle anything. Anything, it seems, except the off-handed remarks of the legendary David Letterman.
Catwoman became a deer in the headlights.
Back when Letterman still hosted The Late Show, Hathaway appeared on the program to promote the final installment of Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. During their discussion, Letterman, who likely hadn’t even seen the film, made a joke about Batman dying at the end, and suddenly Catwoman became a deer in the headlights. She panicked and tried valiantly to cover, while Letterman seemed concerned he might have actually stumbled on to something. Sure, he didn’t predict the actual ending of Bruce Wayne’s story, but he may have guessed a better one.
3 TOM HOLLAND “LEAKS” THE POSTER
After Tom Holland’s infamous reveal of the intended Spider-Man trilogy, and the eagerness with which he shares any info he can, his inability to keep a secret became sort of a running joke within the MCU, and Mark Ruffalo quickly joined him as persona-non-gabber after his Ragnarok leak. So when Marvel wanted to playfully “leak” its Infinity War poster, they knew exactly what to do.
In a video posted to Holland’s social media, he reveals a package sent to him by Ruffalo that he intends to open live on air. From the box, he produces the official poster for Avengers: Infinity War, marveling at its glory and turning it to the camera, before noticing a very obvious note imploring Holland not to show the poster to anyone. Sure, the suspension of disbelief required to think the “leak” aspect was genuine is immense, but it’s a testament to the spoilerific ways of Holland and Ruffalo that we can’t outright rule it out.
2 WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Sebastian Stan is one of the most underutilized components of the MCU so far. After his supporting role in First Avenger, he’s ultimately little more than a stoic, brainwashed weapon in the other Captain America installments. That's a shame, since Stan has such a great range (check out I, Tonya or The Bronze), and one of the most light and playful personalities of the entire cast.
Of course, that irreverence and playfulness can get him into trouble.
Sure, comic book fans have been pegging Steve’s eventual turn to the moniker of Nomad ever since he dropped his shield at the end of Civil War, but during an autograph signing, Stan confirmed it. Next to an image of a bearded Cap, Stan not-so-subtly drew a speech bubble and wrote “I am Nomad!” With no real way to spin that, Marvel presumably placed Stan back in cryostasis and once again wiped his mind.
1 THE GRANDADDY OF ALL SPOILERS
There had been some superhero movies before Tim Burton’s Batman (notably the Superman franchise), but there had never been a film remotely like Tim Burton’s Batman. People were going to other films solely to see the brooding, shadowy trailer. Bus stop glass was being broken so people could steal the minimalist poster. Excitement was abound in 1989 about the mysterious, dark take on the Dark Knight.
Of course, just because fans were ready for their interests going mainstream doesn’t mean the mainstream was ready for fans. Though now stars are signed to NDAs and expect internet death if they so much as breathe a word, it was a different world when Michael Keaton appeared on David Letterman and casually revealed the controversial and game-changing twist that, in this film, it was The Joker who actually kills Bruce Wayne’s parents in Crime Alley.