Modern move trailers are terrible. We all know that most modern trailers ruin the film before you have even seen it. They give too much away, ruin surprises and even (sometimes) show some of the ending. The art of crafting a great movie trailer seems to have been lost. But, I have another issue about films being spoilt, and it seems to happen before so much as a teaser trailer has been shown. I’m talking about cast announcements.

Yeah, I get that studios want to get a good cast in place and tell people about it, but some cast announcements spoil what could be amazing surprises. Allow me to give you a couple of examples.

There’s a new Scream film coming next year, Mainstay of the franchise, Neve Campbell wasn’t in the previous flick. I can’t remember why, something to do with pay. Anyway, she is back for the new film and yeah, announcing her involvement really had to happen to get the fans back on side. I get that. But then, they decided to announce all sorts of other returning actors. They announced that David Arquette, Scott Foley and fan favourite, Matthew Lillard are all back too. The thing about those last three is that their characters died in previous instalments. How they are brought back is not yet known, nor does it really matter – because they’ve ruined it now. Surprise, Sidney? No, because the studio spoiled it months ago.

Why couldn’t they have kept that secret? Why make a big announcement that Matthew Lillard is back? That would’ve been such an amazing surprise if they had kept it under wraps. The Scream fans would’ve gone crazy seeing him return and not knowing about it beforehand. Again, it’s not just one surprise ruined, it’s several as a lot of unexpected actors are returning for Scream VII. Just announcing that Neve Campbell is back would’ve been enough to get the fans excited, then they could’ve had multiple surprises that blew the fans away while watching the film. But no, they’ve announced everyone and spoiled what could’ve been a multi-surprise.

Even Marvel/Disney have ruined surprises with cast announcements. Just a few days ago they did their (very loooooooooong and drawn out, 5.5 hours) Avengers: Doomsday cast reveal… and spoilt many a great surprise. Some actors were a given, but there are some genuine amazing surprises that have been ruined by the lengthy announcement. Why is the cast announcement longer than the film anyway?

Stop spoiling your films via the cast announcements like this and let the audience have a surprise. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, don’t watch cast announcements then. I don’t, you seriously don’t think I have better things to do than watch a 5.5 hour video for Avengers: Doomsday? The issue is that, once the cast has bee announced, all the websites begin reporting on it and you can’t avoid that. When you write a blog like this, you try to keep on top of news and to do that , you look through news feeds…and then you can’t help but see all of the places spoiling the spoilers. Do you know how to avoid this? Don’t make cast announcements that ruin the surprise to begin with.

Marvel/Disney did it months ago when they announced that Robert Downey Jr. was coming back to the MCU to play Dr Doom. Why didn’t they keep this a secret? Have you seen the audience reaction videos to Avengers: Endgame? If not, click here. Fans love this shit, they love sitting in the cinema and having that moment that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. They could’ve had one of those moments if RDJ playing Dr Doom had not been revealed. Imagine siting in the cinema and watching Avengers: Doomsday. Dr Doom has already had several scenes, but you have no idea who is playing him because of the mask. Then, halfway into the flick, the camera slowly moves into a close up of Dr Doom. the hands come up and take the mask off… it’s Robert Downey Jr.! The cinema would’ve exploded. Now, there’s no surprise.

Hollywood are wondering why people don’t go to the cinema as much anymore. Things like this don’t help. Why go to see a film on the big screen when the trailers and cast announcements are taking some of the movie magic away? Well, that and the stupidly high cost of a movie ticket these days. Stop spoiling your own films!