WARNING: Huge spoilers ahead for Avengers: Infinity War! You really shouldn't read on until you see the film. Consider yourself warned.
It is fascinating how the rise of the blockbuster age has coincided with the rise of social media and a spoiler-phobic public. At a time when films have never been bigger or more hyped, like Avengers: Infinity War, the dangers of being spoiled ahead of time are at their greatest. You can institute a social media blackout and cut yourself off from the world until you make it into the safety of the theater, but sometimes, dread them, run from them, and spoilers still arrive. Such was the case for a packed theater about to watch Infinity War when a spoiler came from star Tom Holland himself in classic Tom Holland fashion. Take a look:
Tom Holland delivers spoilers like Spider-Man delivers quips, and one of the only Avengers with a secret identity continues to prove how bad he is at keeping secrets. The Twitter video isn't super clear and it's a bit muffled, but when The Russo Brothers introduce Tom Holland to a special screening at the ArcLight Hollywood, the young actor jumps out and says "I'm alive!" which, spoiler alert, he is decidedly not at the end of the film. He later asks the audience if they have already seen Infinity War or are about to, only to find out that he has just revealed a key facet of the movie. He realizes his mistake and is warned not to spoil anything, something co-star Benedict Cumberbatch has continually had to stop him from doing.
This is wild because the host of the screening even warns the audience ahead of time about not spoiling the film for people seeing it after them. Tom Holland really is a fan though, and he just seems to get so excited about his role, the MCU and the fandom that he forgets to stay buttoned up. Also given his penchant for letting cats out of bags, he probably should have been told before coming onstage whether or not the audience had seen the film yet. Alluding to this spoiler ahead of time is definitely not ideal, especially considering that for many people, the death of the young hero is the knockout blow after a series of emotional gut punches at the end of the film as Thanos snaps his fingers and wipes out half our heroes and the universe.
With fans expecting plenty of death ahead of Infinity War, the audience in this screening could have thought that he was joking or trying to misdirect them as many actors have done in the leadup to this film. Spidey was also one of the characters we thought was safe so hopefully the majority of the audience didn't take this seriously and it didn't ruin anything for them. The method of Spider-Man's death was still a surprise, and even knowing it's coming ahead of time probably did little to dull the sadness at seeing a scared Peter Parker pleading with Tony Stark, not wanting to go.
This just goes to show two things: that you can never be completely safe from spoilers and Tom Holland will probably have a non-speaking role during all future MCU promotional events. Avengers: Infinity War is in theaters now and just had the biggest opening weekend ever. After you've seen the film, which you totally should have if you're reading this article, come back and check out all of our spoilerific coverage looking at Infinity War from all angles and what it means for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
