Releasing a film just isn’t simple anymore. There’s a huge checklist to be completed beforehand. Nowadays, press junkets are an absolute must to play up an audience, numerous public appearances have to be made to hype the release, and a whole slate of franchise merchandise is rolled out in stores to get the fans interested.
Action figures and toylines are the source of income many studios have turned to in recent years. The income they receive from this part of franchise media can potentially exceed the profits from box office receipts as well! So it’s for good reason that film developers invest a lot of resources into ensuring the toys are adequate for the customers.
However, due to the enormous potential in this aspect of media, developers can get overexcited and ruin part of the film’s story they are trying to tell. And we all know spoilers just ruin the entire viewing experience seeing that the emotional impact, that is necessary for the film to be well received critically, is wrenched away from our hands.
This overzealousness from the studios ends up giving away important plot points. Fans become privy to any twist that is sure to be coming their way. Maybe studios are well aware of this happening and hope to create more buzz from the reveals, or they have looked into the analytics and judged that the action figures would ultimately deliver better rewards than box office grosses would.
Regardless of the cause, these 20 action figures did completely spoil their movies.
20 Better Left Forgotten
The version of Deadpool seen in X-Men Origins: Wolverine will forever be poked fun at. This Deadpool is so notorious that a toy of him was even seen in the revamped film Deadpool, held by Deadpool himself!
Back in 2009, however, the Wolverine version was the only one we got, and was a source of chagrin for many. With the cast listing clearly stating Ryan Reynolds playing Wade Wilson, everyone expected Deadpool to show up. What no one expected was an abomination a shadow of the Merc’ with a Mouth.
Perhaps we were all in denial when our eyes first fell on the action figure of Deadpool featured in the Wolverine movie, but there was still hope we would get a faithful representation of the character, but it turned out this version was effectively spoiled with the release of the toy.
19 He Lives!
Justice League took great lengths in ensuring the resurrection of Superman was out of the question. In the promotion for the film, Superman was always referred to as gone while none of the trailers gave any hint of his inclusion save for flashbacks. Even pre-release press junkets barely had any appearances from actor Henry Cavil with the rest of the cast insisting Superman was no more.
It’s a shame, then, that merchandise didn’t quite get the memo of downplaying Superman’s return.
The superhero’s action figure was openly sold along with the rest of the team and even stated to be going up against the film’s antagonist Steppenwolf, leaving no doubt that Superman would return and battle alongside his friends in the movie.
18 The Crown Of Surtur
Mythological characters and settings guarantee good merchandise sales as they always have that cool and snazzy appearance which always looks great on a key-chain or on a shelf. The Marvel Cinematic universe has sold a lot of units involving artifacts depicted in its movies. The Thor films in particular are host to most of the series’ mythos and Thor: Ragnarok features a plethora of collectibles.
Surtur, the fire demon, is another cool being that Thor encounters, with his crown taken in the hero’s possession upon defeating him. The crown, however, is supposed to be an integral part of the plot, which plays a key role in the climax whereupon its union with the eternal flame rebirths Surtur once more.
You know where this is going. The fire demon’s crown was quickly released for sale, with some releases depicting Thor strapping it on his back as well, effectively giving away a big spoiler.
17 Lady Diana And The God Of War
The buzz surrounding the release of Wonder Woman has nothing to do with its story or the characters that would be present in it. The main points people were taking about were the fact that it was the first major female led superhero movie and whether it would continue the DC Extended Universe’s lackluster critical performance. It could be attributed to this reason for the release of the film’s character’s toy release and how there was no effort put into concealing Ares’ involvement.
The God of War ended up as the main antagonist.
This was widely expected once his figurine was put up for sale. After all, Diana and Ares are both Zeus’ children, and there had to be some sort of conflict between the two. There’s also the fact that the toy just looks really cool and young boys wouldn’t want to pass up on this easily.
16 The Movie, You Spoiled
The Star Wars sequel trilogy has to be given credit where it’s due. They could have revived huge fan favorites such as Darth Vader or Darth Sidious to guarantee even bigger box office receipts and media profits but stuck to establishing a new story and characters. This hasn’t applied to every aspect, though.
Master Yoda was a lovely surprise for fans upon his appearance in the new movie.
Unfortunately it wasn’t quite as shocking for most ardent Star Wars fans who were quick to find out action figures of the Jedi Master were being sold before the film’s release. It wasn’t even marketed as hype promotion as Yoda was visibly advertised under the Last Jedi banner.
15 The Antagonist Of Doctor Strange
Doctor Strange only became a huge hit for a few factors working in its favor, one of them was the popularity of the lead Benedict Cumberbatch, who is a draw by name, the other is the effective manner with which the Marvel Cinematic Universe has presented its stories.
The MCU has a tendency of adopting formerly lesser-known villains and introducing them to a wider audience.
Names that come to mind are Ronan, Iron Monger, Yellowjacket and Kaecilius. The latter one is the primary antagonist of Doctor Strange. However, before release there was scarcely a clue as to who the villain of the film would be. Toylines, though, gave away the reveal here as Kaecilius was aggressively promoted for sale, and we all knew that would only be happening if he had a big role to play.
14 The Indominus Rex
Jurassic World was a runaway success, owing to franchise nostalgia, with the film’s release coinciding with the first installment’s 22nd anniversary. Speculation was rife over which dinosaur would take center stage as the usual theme of the series had one dinosaur in particular taking the reins as the main antagonist.
The merchandise ensured we didn’t need to debate much over this point, however.
The Indominus Rex was already in stores, and its position as the villain of the film was no more a secret. What made this a letdown was that an important theme of the film was given away in that the Indominus Rex was a hybrid clone, rather than a factual creature the T-Rex had been. Thus, we knew Jurassic Park would deal with issues of tampering with cloning and its repercussions straight away.
13 Quicksilver Isn’t Sticking Around Too Long
In a reversal from the usual status quo of over-hyping superhero releases, this non-take charge attitude from the marketing department ultimately gave away the fate of one of the Avengers. As Age of Ultron was meant to be the biggest film of the year, merchandise was hot with every superhero featured. That is, every superhero meant to survive.
Quicksilver was notoriously underrepresented in franchise media leading up to the film’s release.
And as the character was supposed to be on an even keel with his sister, Scarlet Witch, the lackluster promotion made many fans aware that this superhero was not going to stick round for much long. Turns out that was the exact case.
Just goes to show, when studios try to play coy by shunning their usual manner of blatant promotion, something is definitely amiss.
12 UnMasked
The Phantasm isn’t one of the most popular villains in Batman’s rogue gallery, but the film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm has to be one of the more successful releases in Batman franchise media owing to the how well received Batman: The Animated Series was. Suffice to say, anticipation was rife for the film’s release, so it’s a shame the big reveal of the mysterious phantasm was so easily revealed.
In order to cash in on the pre-release hype, toylines had already been issued for sale based on the film, and who should we find staring right back at us from behind the packaging?
The Phantasm himself, or rather herself, as Andrea Beaumont was uncovered as the titular antagonist.
This meant that not only had the villain been seen without the mask, the twist in storyline was also divulged beforehand. It’s a shame, as the film does hold up well.
11 Age Of Spoilers
Avengers: Age of Ultron mostly dealt with the psychotic A.I. Ultron wanting to find a suitable replacement body for himself and the protagonists’ bid to stop the villain in his quest. However, many were able to correctly deduce that this would ultimately bring the character of Vision to the MCU as Ultron’s replacement body would instead be inhabited by J.A.R.V.I.S.
Those who weren’t as closely linked to the source material of the comics didn’t need to clunk their heads too much to figure out Vision’s involvement either as he was plain sight with the rest of the Avengers as part of their toy ensemble. Vision was even sold by his actual name, with no false marketing in place either.
10 The Bear Brothers
The cuter the toys are, the better they will sell. Animated movies take great lengths in ensuring the child characters featuring in the films are extra cute so as to generate excitement behind their toy releases. Pixar has done this very well with baby characters of Nemo, Dory, Boo, and others selling like hot cakes.
Usually, this is harmless to the storyline, but not in the case of Brave.
Brave’s plot was cast in shadow leading up to its release as it was not clear was the story was exactly about. There were whispers around it would involve humans turning into bears but that was unconfirmed, right up until pre-release merchandise was put on sale and we saw clearly the main protagonist’s family in bear form. Her brothers in particular were sold together in both their visages, and were appropriately as cute as one world expect.
9 Burning Up The Hype
Usually we find Toylines releasing characters on an individual basis, however, here we have an entire crucial scene spoiled for us in meticulous detail. The most famous scene from Toy Story 3 was the one where the gang are about to meet their end by the hands of an incinerator, showcasing the strength of their friendship as they willingly decide to embrace fate as a family. They are rescued, though, by the alien toys and all ends well.
This scene was heart wrenching to watch, and yet the impact was noticeably reduced as the entire unfolding was shown as part of a toy set that was meant to re-enact what we saw in the movie. Of course you’d be very gullible if you believed toys would perish in a children’s film but this merchandise easily spoiled how they would get out of the conundrum.
8 Falcon Joins The Avengers
The Avengers built up to its release with four years worth of earlier films in the shape of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger. Due to this, many didn’t expect the next movie to easily incorporate a bunch of new members by its end, and yet that is what happened.
In the last scene of Age of Ultron, we see new team members inducted, one of those being Sam Wilson AKA Falcon.
The character literally was made an Avenger in the final minute, but this reveal was openly shown before people even went to see the movie as his action figure was labelled as an Avenger upon release. Although Marvel may have hoped people would assume just about any superhero could be classified as part of the Avengers, fans knew this would be reflected within the story as well.
7 Count The Spoilers
Although we were well aware with where the Star Wars prequels were heading as far as the story was concerned, seeing as the films came out two decades after the original trilogy, there were a number of unfamiliar characters just waiting to be explored. It was good as far as maintaining interest was concerned as there was still room for plot twists to blindside us.
However, the biggest twist turned out to be in the manner of advertising when major character, and antagonist, Count Dooku was promoted in his true Sith Lord form during promotion. There was no attempt at any discretion either as the packaging clearly labelled Dooku as a Dark Lord. No wonder people complain about the prequel trilogy, not even the marketing made any sense.
6 So Much For The Twist
For animated films, toy merchandise makes up the bulk of the profits for the studios. Case in point is the Cars franchise that has never been well received by critics and has paled in comparison to other Pixar releases as far as box office receipts are concerned, but its toyline more than makes up for those faults.
Shrek, meanwhile, gets the best of both worlds with it films grossing around $3.5 billion, and most of them being well liked by the people and critics.
In order to cash in on this goodwill, Dreamworks has no qualms in spoiling big reveals.
In the first film, the mystery behind Princess Fiona’s curse is her transformation into an ogre, and this was unabashedly represented in a toy featuring the princess in both Human and Ogre form. To highlight this further, the toy could switch between both forms as well.
5 That’s A Shocker
In the lead up to the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Marvel was coy about any other popular Spider-Man antagonist showing up in the film other than the Vulture. This was perhaps due to the fact that multiple villains were not well received for Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Then it must have been a real pleasant surprise for viewers to find the Shocker present in the latest films. That is, those people who didn’t visit their local malls and find the villain’s toy staring right back.
Shocker’s inclusion in Spider-Man: Homecoming became a given for those who uncovered this as of the at point spoiler and there was only the formality remaining as to how this character would be involved in the storyline. Considering his role wasn’t all that too big, it may be why Marvel wasn’t too quiet with releasing Shocker’s toyline.
4 The Ogre Triplets
As stated before, studios love to capitalize on the cuter characters to sell merchandise for them. Most of the time, it doesn’t even matter if the characters in question are even featured in the movie. Case in point is Shrek The Third, which had only a brief cameo scene right at the end of the film for the titular’s protagonist’s children.
But as the birth of the triplets was an important plot point for the film, their reveal was a big spoiler for those waiting to see the movie. In the trailers leading up to the film it was hinted Shrek might be becoming a father but there was no indication he would have three kids on the trot.
Not only did we find this out through the toyline, we also saw what the kids would look like, along with the knowledge that it would be two boys and a girl.
3 A Giant Sized Reveal
You always want to raise the stakes when digging deeper into established characters. New evolutions are presented to keep the fans coming back for more. In superhero movies we regularly do witness this. Therefore, it was expected that some of the heroes in Captain America: Civil War would step up and showcase larger feats.
Ant-Man took these words by heart and put on a gigantic display, literally!
The hero fought off Iron Man’s team in his Giant form. He was instrumental in the fight. Too bad, though, that we all saw this coming beforehand. Marvel was well underway in putting out the latest toyline for the MCU. It held no shame in openly promoting Ant-Man in his Giant form. The figure is even placed in a position that is meant to highlight his grander scale as compared to the rest.
2 Here’s Baldy
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice basically did nothing right. Not in the film itself, nor with other franchise media. The version of Lex Luthor we got was jumpy. He was the farthest from faithful incarnation of the character. It’s still seen as among the worst parts of the movie. By the end, there was hope Lex would turn into the cold, meticulous version we all favor. He was finally back in bald form.
However, DC released Lex in prison garb that had lost the long locks featured in pre-release footage.
So there was no doubt that by the end of the film we would see Luthor brought behind bars. We knew that the eccentric hairstyle wouldn’t be around for much long. Even though the latter was welcome, we didn’t need to know that beforehand.
1 Kryptonite Guns Blazing
Let’s be real, or as real as one could get discussing comic book characters. Batman just can’t be a match for Superman unless The Dark Knight pulls some trick out of his sleeve. Superman is much too powerful for a normal human to fight and Batman needed a weakness to counter that.
Cue in some Kryptonite, the Kryptonian’s one true weakness.
But that wasn’t the biggest surprise the action figures gave away. The shocker was the fact that Batman would be wielding a gun. This was something unheard of the Caped Crusader to do! It was a huge spoiler. It gave away Batman putting away his morals and delving into much darker territory. All things considered, we knew that Batman would be looking to end Superman. But had marketing waited just a bit longer, the film would have impacted more had we seen Batman shooting his foe with a gun.
