We Think The Thunderbolts* Trailer Spoiled Captain America: Brave New World

Movie trailers have one job: to give audiences a little taste of a new movie, just enough to convince them to pay their hard-earned money to see it in theaters. Sometimes, studios go a little too far, inadvertently creating trailers that give away a little too much of the movie. Some may even spoil the ending outright. By contrast, Marvel Studios will go to great lengths to avoid giving too many spoilers, even using CGI to hide characters, as they did for "Spider-Man: No Way Home."

Surprisingly, though, it seems Marvel may have slipped up with the Super Bowl trailer for their second 2025 release, "Thunderbolts*." The film is centered on a team of misfit anti-heroes who are recruited by the enigmatic Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) for a dangerous mission that somehow involves the super-powered Sentry (Lewis Pullman). But early in the trailer — its first line, in fact — de Fontaine makes a declaration that could have huge implications for the future of the MCU ... and possibly spoil Marvel's first film of 2025, "Captain America: Brave New World."

First appearing in "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," the character of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine seems to be a new, darker version of Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), seeking to assemble a superhero team to serve the government. In the opening scene of the Big Game Trailer for "Thunderbolts*," it seems de Fontaine is being brought before some political officials. She makes a bold statement that is taking some fans by surprise, declaring, "The Avengers aren't coming."

Last we saw them, in "Avengers: Endgame," the team was indeed disbanded, that's true. But we also know that the entire plot of the upcoming "Captain America: Brave New World" involves the newly installed President Ross (Harrison Ford) asking Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) to assemble a new team of Avengers. So if they aren't coming, as de Fontaine says, that would seem to suggest that Ross' plan to reform the team isn't successful. After all, if the Avengers are indeed out of action, what other reason could there be?

It certainly seems on its face like the Super Bowl trailer is spoiling the ending of "Captain America: Brave New World" — mainly the fact that the Avengers don't get reformed. Still, what if it actually means something else? Is there another possible explanation for why the Avengers "wouldn't be coming"? Well, a few possibilities present themselves, and most of them hinge on when in the movie that scene actually takes place.

While the assumption is that this scene is Valentina Allegra de Fontaine attempting to convince lawmakers that the Thunderbolts are necessary for the mission of the movie, it could also very well be a scene from the end of the movie. Perhaps, during the course of the film, we learn that the Avengers are off-world, and that's all she means by mentioning their absence. Alternatively, this scene could even take place before the events of "Brave New World." After all, we really don't know exactly when these two films take place in relation to each other; in fact, they may very well take place around the same time, as Bucky's (Sebastian Stan) role in "Thunderbolts*" could explain his conspicuous absence from Sam Wilson's orbit in "Brave New World."

Either way, we should know one way or the other when "Captain America: Brave New World" hits theaters February 14.