The following contains spoilers for Shazam! Fury of the Gods, now playing in theaters.
In the comic book movie industry, trailers and digital marketing on the whole is a double-edged sword. In most cases, video clips are a great way to showcase what's to come. However, in an ever-evolving internet age where people crave content and studios don't mind putting out a lot for engagement, it can be overdone and feel tedious.
It's why Marvel Studios, for example, has pulled back teasing in order to preserve the element of surprise. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is an excellent case in point as evidenced by how it hid the identity of its new Panther. Sadly, this isn't a lesson Shazam! Fury of the Gods took heed of, with the clips released completely ruining the cinematic experience and freshness of the film.
Shazam 2's Trailers Spoil the Villains' Schemes
If a fan with a video editor compiled all the clips and trailers into a single file, they would pretty much have the entire movie. It's prevalent with the villains, beginning with Rachel Zegler's Anthea taking Freddy hostage with the other Daughters of Atlas. She's seen abducting him with Helen Mirren's Hespera, which renders her going undercover at school in the first act completely moot.
Additionally, the trailers spoil Lucy Liu's evil Kalypso getting the Shazam staff, using the weapon with her dragon, and activating the seed in the baseball field -- affirming she betrays Hespera, who tries to keep the staff to herself early on. To top it off, most of the finale with Billy beating up the dragon and then using the staff to ram it into Kalypso and the beast sells out how she's defeated. This is the entire final act, which makes it so weird the marketing team would be cool with all this packed in.
The creatives could have adopted the Marvel approach, scrubbing Anthea from clips or using edits without her and Kalypso, to preserve their duplicitous nature. This worked perfectly for hiding Hulk in Avengers: Infinity War and Spider-Man in the first set of Captain America: Civil War clips. Instead, by revealing these crucial scenes early, by the time Shazam! 2 reaches its halfway point, the viewer can figure out what's going to happen.
Shazam 2 Trailers Spoiled Major Heroic Surprises
Fury of the Gods also ruins heroic moments for the Marvel family, starting with Kalypso de-powering Mary (Grace Caroline Currey) and Billy having to catch her in midair. This is akin to Spider-Man catching Gwen Stacy being outed before the movie. Not to mention, other big beats such as Billy offering Shazam back his powers are revealed, which is a travesty as this is a very emotional, important part of the film that has Billy realizing he can be a hero on his own.
Even the Shazamily on their dark unicorns spells out how they're going to find their own monsters to combat Team Atlas. The worst offender, however, comes with the last TV spot having Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman cameo in a garden. It's not just a random moment. Instead, it foreshadows her being the last god alive who can charge the staff and resurrect a dead Billy after the Kalypso fight. Anyone who sees that spot would automatically know in theaters this is the burial spot where Diana's going to appear, and that Billy's end is as temporary as Shazam! 2's electrifying ending.
It's all pretty alarming because viewers want to discover things for the first time. That's the magic of cinema, after all, so fake footage, deleted scenes or just editing around glorious moments would help make trailers exciting while preserving what's to come. Unfortunately, Shazam! 2 doesn't follow this, creating something predictable for those who can piece together trailers like puzzles, hoping for a snapshot, not the entire final product.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is in theaters now.