10 Trailers That Tease Missing Scenes In Superhero Movies

More or less every movie ever filmed had footage trimmed away before the final cut was deemed fit for public consumption, and the stuff that was given the chop usually surfaces at a later date, in one form or another.

Deleted scenes often wind up among the home media extras or crop up online, and sometimes even in the film's trailers. On many occasions, official teasers have promoted footage that was nowhere to be seen in the movie itself, and this seems to be happening a lot in the superhero genre these days.

Recent additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its DC counterpart are notable examples, but it's a cinematic quirk that predates either of those franchises. Indeed, eagle-eyed fans picked up on it during the days when Christopher Nolan was in charge of Batman, when Spider-Man was in Sam Raimi's hands, and even before that.

When a scene is polished up to the extent that it's of high enough quality to form part of the final product, that's usually an indication that it wasn't originally intended for deletion, only for last-minute reshoots to rejig the project. Often, these scenes turn up on Blu-ray discs, but some of them mysteriously never materialise.

Thor: Ragnarok's trailers teased an epic scrap between the thunder god protagonist and Cate Blanchett's Hela against a New York City backdrop which culminates in the destruction of Mjolnir, but the version of it in the final cut was radically altered.

While the outcome of the showdown was much the same, with the villainess shattering Thor's hammer, the setting was dramatically different, with the New York alleyway making way for the green fields of Norway.

Speaking to Digital Spy, Ragnarok director Taika Waititi explained that he moved this scene to Scandinavia because it was a more intimate setting for Odin's farewell with his sons, and also for pacing purposes.

"Well, here's the thing. Alleyways aren't cool. Fields are cool. Alright? Ask anyone. We originally shot some of that stuff [sic] in New York. What we wanted to do was, you know, have them go down to Earth and they see Doctor Strange and stuff. But it just felt too convenient that he was suddenly just down a road in an alley. And also everything up until then had been so fast-paced and all over the place. We wanted to go someplace peaceful."

Having the battle play out in Norway was probably for the best because if it had happened in New York, Waititi would have had a job on his hands explaining why the numerous other superheroes who reside there didn't rush to Thor's aid.