Spoilers have become a fairly significant issue among huge film franchises, and studios routinely have to find ways to try and avoid spoilers, even in innocuous products like toys or via script leaks -- not all of which are successful. With that in mind, one of the biggest blockbusters of 2018 that's potentially ripe for spoilers is Joe and Anthony Russo's Avengers: Infinity War. The two directors went to great lengths to avoid spoilers, and now it seems they included numerous fake scenes in the script to help stave off such leakage. Vision actor Paul Bettany opened up in a recent interview and explained:
When I read the script there were fake scenes in it. I got the directors on the phone and they walked me through what were the fake scenes. They'd had three leaks already, so they'd written a script with lots of fake scenes. There were three Hero iPads that had the only real script on them.
It's no secret that Avengers: Infinity War is quite literally going to be one of the biggest movies of all time. Bringing together the most prominent ensemble of comic book heroes ever assembled, the sheer number of moving parts makes the film an easy target for leaks, which apparently happened three times in the past, per the Total Film interview. To combat this issue, Joe and Anthony Russo flooded the cast and crew with fake scripts and scenes, and only kept Infinity War's authentic screenplay on a trio of iPads. As a result, Paul Bettany needed Joe and Anthony Russo to walk him through the authenticity of certain scenes over the phone.
One thing not highlighted in Paul Bettany's remark is whether or not the folks behind Avengers: Infinity War actually filmed any fake scenes to include in the movie's marketing campaign. It's clear the directors wanted to prevent further leaks on a script level, but we still don't quite know how far they were willing to go once the cameras started rolling.
This method of actually adding fake scenes to the Avengers: Infinity War script seems like the next logical step after what the Russo Brothers have done to maintain the secrecy of their other Marvel Cinematic Universe projects. Specifically, the duo made headlines while working on Captain America: Civil War by not allowing the actors to take script pages home after a day of shooting. The performers used on a given day would shoot their respective scenes and turn them in at the end of the day.
In fact, that trend was seemingly continued with Spider-Man: Homecoming star Tom Holland in Infinity War, as the actor recently revealed that he was not allowed to get a script for the film because he couldn't keep a secret. Now, it also looks like they have taken things to the next level by purposely throwing fake scenes and story arcs to the performers.
No matter what, we will see all of Avengers: Infinity War's real scenes come together when the film finally premieres in theaters later this year on May 4. Until then, make sure to watch out for Ryan Coogler's Black Panther later this month on February 16.
