How Spider-Man 2 Can Be Marketed Without Spoiling Avengers 4

With a number of fan-favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe heroes dying in the climax of Avengers: Infinity War, it's no surprise the studio is doing everything possible to keep Avengers 4 under wraps. From the overall story to the roles of the characters themselves, literally everything is a big mystery in the wake of Thanos erasing half of all life in the galaxy, and with good reason - what's the fun in knowing who will be resurrected in the next film, especially when it's a year away?

But with the Infinity War sequel not arriving until May 2019, there's a potential hiccup in Disney's marketing plans thanks to Sony's Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel. The latter not only kicks off the MCU's Phase Four, according to Marvel studios president Kevin Feige, it literally starts just mere moments after the fourth Avengers movie ends.

What makes things so tricky is Homecoming 2 is out only a few months later in July 2019, which means that for Sony to fully market its movie for this targeted timeframe, there's an overlap period which could see key plot points about Avengers 4 spoiled in the process.

Peter Parker's (Tom Holland) shocking demise remains one of Infinity War's biggest talking points, thanks in part to the Homecoming sequel being greenlit way before Thanos killed the arachnid hero, leaving fans assuming he'd be safe from death's touch. And while there's no doubt he'll be coming back to life, Marvel and Sony need to work out a marketing strategy to avoid ruining his finale in Avengers 4, especially considering their ad campaigns seem destined to overlap. Disney has many heroes to market, from Avengers to the Guardians of the Galaxy to Doctor Strange to Black Panther, but Spidey is the main focus of Sony's franchise, which means it may be super tricky to release trailers that don't spoil anything from the Infinity War sequel.

This creates the issue of Sony revealing details which Marvel Studios and the Russo brothers may well want to be kept secret, such as the fate of Aunt May, Ned and the rest of Peter's inner-circle we met in Homecoming. By revealing its hand too early, Sony's marketing would take away from the guessing game as to how New York ends up surviving not just Thanos' genocide, but Doctor Strange's end-game.

In other words, the Homecoming 2 marketing, by its very nature, will offer us a peek behind the curtain, a preview that's truly unavoidable. But will it inevitably take away from the Avengers 4 experience of those who don't want to know the details of the fate of our friendly neighborhood wall-crawler until the movie's closing scenes?

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The best option we see is for Sony to run a minimal, bare-bones campaign to start, before ramping things up in the wake of Avengers 4. Spider-Man is a huge brand, after all, made even more popular by the record-breaking Infinity War, and Sony can piggyback on Avengers 4's marketing easily enough, marketing that will also be trying to spoil as little as possible.

However, the studio might want to exercise caution given what happened to Solo: A Star Wars Story. Disney implemented just about five months of marketing for the latest Lucasfilm project, and it's been a disappointment at the box office.

If Sony decides to not take such a risk, and ends up giving away some minor Avengers 4 information by launching the Homecoming sequel marketing before Avengers 4 hits theaters, well -- you have to understand. Ultimately, it's Sony's prerogative to lure fans into its Spider-Man universe, however studio executives see fit. Fans may want to be surprised in the closing moments Avengers 4, but whether we want to admit it or not, Sony has to market its movie as a separate product, even though it's connected to the MCU.

Another possible solution, is to take the approach of deliberately obscuring the ad campaign, an approach films like Cloverfield, Ex Machina, Annihilation and A Quiet Place adopted to keep their wider narratives hidden during the commercial marketing phase. Sony could also lean more heavily into at viral campaigns or employ the strategy of misdirection, something Infinity War accomplished with fake footage of the Hulk, and Deadpool 2 achieved via fake shots of X-Force in action.

Sony won't have Homecoming 2 secrets spoiled when Avengers 4 starts marketing; it'll be the other way around. Hopefully Disney is working with Sony to structure a clear path on how to make Spidey's second chapter appealing without spoiling how Peter's little pocket of the MCU will be positioned in the aftermath of Avengers 4. With a Round 2 against Thanos coming up next year, we definitely want to be just as stunned as Infinity War left us, whether it's before, during or after the fight against the Mad Titan.

Hitting theaters in 2019, the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel is directed by Jon Watts and will star Tom Holland as Peter Parker.