10 Times Studios Spoiled Their Own Movies

Filmmakers spend months, even years, coming up with that perfect plot twist that will make the viewers gasp in shock and immediately want to rewatch the whole thing like a detective with a popcorn addiction. But before the movie comes out, the studio’s marketing team is supposed to “sell” it to us using things like promo images, trailers, toys, and other merchandise, and sometimes, intentionally or not, they spoil the whole movie.

1. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

Most fans already suspected that Palpatine and Darth Sidious were the same guy, but the prequels still tried to play it like a big, dramatic reveal. Regrettably, a toy line prematurely released a figure featuring interchangeable Palpatine and Sidious heads. Nothing says “mystery” like a product that’s basically a spoiler with packaging.

2. Maleficent

Classic fairy tale villains reimagined sounds like an awesome idea with some potential twists and turns along the way. That is, until the merch treats the main “villain” (in this case, Maleficent) like she’s the inspirational hero of the year. When your collectible figurines and branding scream “She’s actually not evil at all!” the surprise twist becomes a straight line that everyone saw coming from a mile away.

3. Planet of the Apes (1968)

Planet of the Apes has one of cinema’s most famous plot twists: the planet the astronauts landed on was actually Earth all along. But leave it to the official poster to be extremely helpful and feature an iconic Earth-related monument. If you stare at it for more than five seconds, your brain starts doing the math and connecting the dots. Even though the plot twist got spoiled, the movie is still a 10/10.

4. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

This franchise already had enough going on with all the repeating characters and concepts, but then the merch department took things to a whole different level. Credence’s identity and family lineage were set up perfectly for a huge reveal, except character descriptions and merch materials spelled out the twist before people could put 2 and 2 together by themselves. Imagine being spoiled by a random collectible card. That has to feel awful.