Did the First ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Poster Tease the Plot of the Movie?

Before Avengers: Infinity War hit theaters, there was a lot of secrecy around details of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Well before opening night there was talk of fake scripts, false sense, and even some actors -- most notably Tom Holland -- not even knowing who they were fighting at times. Once footage from the movie began screening, the directors even took to social media asking people not to spoil the movie for others so that everyone would go into the epic as blind as possible.

But for all the efforts towards secrecy and spoiler prevention, was the plot of Infinity War right in front of us the whole time, going as far back as San Diego Comic-Con last year? One fan on Reddit thinks so.

Posting to the Marvel Studios subreddit, one fan has pointed out what they claim are all of the clues on the full Infinity War poster that was revealed at last year's San Diego Comic-Con. There are seven points that the fan focuses on and while some of them are a little bit of a stretch -- specifically points four and five that allude the battle in Wakanda and the heroes disintegrating to ashes -- once you've seen the clues you can't really unsee them.

[SPOILERS] Who'd have thought that you can see the whole plot in the very first official Infinity War poster! from r/marvelstudios

As you can see, there are some big details here from the movie. Thanos has the completed Infinity Gauntlet, Thor has both eyes -- he was down to one after Thor: Ragnarok, Gamora is separated from the rest of the Guardians. The fan also points out that the number of surviving heroes is equal on both sides of the poster, making it "perfectly balanced" in keeping with Thanos' galactically genocidal goals. It's interesting to look at and wonder about it all, now that Infinity War is in theaters.

And yet, that part is somewhat critical to the idea of this poster revealing the plot of the movie: it makes sense once you've seen the movie. Without seeing Infinity War, many of these details don't have the same weight. One could even argue that character placement on the poster relates more to the colors emitted from the Infinity Stones than anything else, which would explain why Drax and Star-Lord are on one side in the red/purple section and Gamora in the green area. There are also a few details that don't exactly fit with the idea of subtle spoilers, too. Mantis is also separated from the rest of the Guardians in the poster. If the poster is arranged by color, that makes sense as her costume is green but plot-wise, it doesn't fit. Mantis is with Star-Lord and Drax during the battle on Titan. She's kind of integral to the hero's plan to stop Thanos.

There's also the curious grouping in the top right of the poster to consider as well. At no point in Infinity War does Spider-Man interact with Black Panther or Bucky, but the biggest thing in that upper right corner? Hawkeye. That's right, the one Avenger who appears in not one other poster or piece of marketing for Avengers: Infinity War is tucked right up in that corner. His presence on this first poster is clearly not a clue to the film's plot as the character doesn't appear in the film at all -- it's mentioned that after the events of Captain America: Civil War he cut a deal and is at home on his farm with his family. Why he's on this poster? That's anyone's guess, though we do know that the footage of the Hulk seen in trailers and teasers for the film was a deliberate misdirect so it's possible that Hawkeye on the poster is the same thing, a specific plant to keep people from figuring out the movie in advance.

If the details on this first poster really were intentional and are clues to the movie's plot -- well done. We didn't spot them and were devastated when we saw Infinity War. If they happen to be just really interesting coincidences? Well done in that regard, too. It's a fantastic poster that did the one thing that it was absolutely supposed to do and that's get us all excited for the biggest MCU film yet. One thing we know for sure now, though, is that when we see the first art for Avengers 4? We might just be taking a closer look to see what we can figure out. After all, May 2019 is a long time to wait to find out the ultimate fate of our favorite heroes. We'll take all the clues we can get.

Avengers: Infinity War is in theaters now. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6th, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.

Do you think this first Infinity War poster contained major plot clues or do you think they are just coincidence? What's the deal with Hawkeye? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!