When it comes to marketing a movie, the trailer is perhaps the most crucial part of the whole process. If you're able to generate enough hype by just showing a few clips and the general tone of your movie, you're bound to create a pop culture phenomenon. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is no stranger to breaking the Internet with their trailers, a formula that they've been able to master since they got their start with Iron Man in 2008.
MCU trailers can range from exciting and upbeat like that of the aforementioned Iron Man, to emotionally weighty and dark like that of Avengers: Infinty War. Fans are accustomed to going wild over these trailers, which rarely fail to get everyone pumped about the next superhero adventure.
10 'Iron Man' (2008) — Teaser Trailer
The one that started it all still remains one of the best movies in the MCU. Iron Man revived Robert Downey Jr.'s career, kickstarted the highest-grossing movie franchise of all time, and proved that superhero movies were here to stay. To get to that point, it needed to have trailers that got people excited – and that it certainly did.
The undeniably 2000s-ish feel of the teaser trailer is an utter delight. It does a perfect job of introducing Tony Stark as a character, making viewers excited for the main conflict of the story, and showing the sheer scale of the action. It's a cool, thrilling, hard rock teaser through and through.
9 'Marvel's The Avengers' (2012) — Trailer 2
It wasn't until Marvel's The Avengers came out as the explosive finale of the MCU's Phase 1 that fans really started to realize what this cinematic universe was capable of being and doing. It was the first movie to bring together the heroes that it had taken years to carefully set up, and the result has aged beautifully.
The movie's second trailer is easily the best. For those unfamiliar with the story, it was the perfect introduction to the massive scale of the crossover. For those fully aware of what the team up of these characters entailed, it couldn't possibly have gotten them more excited.
8 'Iron Man 3' (2013) — Official Trailer
By 2013, Iron Man was already one of the most popular characters in any major movie franchise. Iron Man 3 took the bold decision of stripping Tony Stark of his suit and placing him in the most vulnerable state fans had seen him in up to that point, and although the result wasn't to everyone's liking, it certainly made for an interesting standalone film for the hero.
From the brooding music and darker tone of the official trailer, audiences knew that this threequel would be more serious than any previous entry in the franchise. The moment Iron Man's armory started to explode, everyone realized that game-changing things were going to ensue.
7 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' (2022) — Official Teaser
With Chadwick Boseman's passing, Marvel fans were waiting with heavy hearts to see how the franchise would move forward without the legendary actor. The answer was Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, a sensitive and emotional story about grief and acceptance, with a change of leads that was handled with surprising smoothness.
Great use of music, tear-inducing clips, and visually staggering shots all made Wakanda Forever instantly exciting even for those who don't typically enjoy the usual superhero movie fare. The trailer functions as a story in itself, with a perfect balance of gut-wrenching moments, contemplative beauty, and nail-biting action.
6 'Thor: Ragnarok' (2017) —Teaser Trailer
Of all the main characters of Marvel, the one most in need of a rebrand in 2017 was probably Thor (Chris Hemsworth). The task fell on the shoulders of Thor: Ragnarok, and it certainly delivered. The film is one of the funniest and most entertaining MCU outings, with some of the MCU's best cinematography and incredibly fun characters.
Loyal viewers were able to tell right away that everyone's hammer-wielding superhero would become a much more lighthearted character, while still keeping the gravitas that made him so compelling before. The great use of Led Zeppelin, the intriguing introduction of Cate Blanchett's Hela, and the abundance of exciting and colorful scenes all made this an event to be hyped about.
5 'Avengers: Infinity War' (2018) — Official Trailer
You might argue that Avengers: Infinity Warwas one of the most hyped-up pop culture events in cinema's history, perhaps only surpassed by a certain other movie starring Marvel's biggest superhero team. Darker, bigger, and longer than any other MCU installment before it, it was (and still is) one of the highest points of the superhero genre.
Though its false advertisement was cause for controversy, it would be crazy to pretend that the movie's official trailer wasn't one of the biggest Internet sensations ever. All of the heroes that were canonically alive up to that point were present in Infinity War, making it the most ambitious crossover that the silver screen had seen so far.
4 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' (2015) — Teaser Trailer
By the time Avengers: Age of Ultron came out, audiences around the world were already fully aware of what the MCU could do with such massive crossover movies, which made it one of the most anticipated releases of its time. The result hasn't aged well with many fans, but others defend it as an underrated gem.
The film's teaser trailer made it look like a bleak, gritty movie with an unprecedentedly serious tone and the potential for many tragic scenes. Although the final outcome didn't quite live up to the promised darkness of the story, it certainly showed some of the titular hero team's lowest points and most desperate moments.
3 'Captain America: Civil War' (2016) — Official Trailer #2
By the time 2016 came around, fans had only watched the MCU's heroes fight together against forces far greater than themselves, with some cracks beginning to form in their alliances and friendships. Captain America: Civil War was when those cracks finally came apart, displaying the true motives of cinema's favorite superheroes, which resulted in a cinematic event that broke the box office.
Civil War's second trailer did a fantastic job at introducing the ideological conflicts at the core of the movie's narrative, generating the online sensation of people choosing whether they aligned with Captain America's (Chris Evans) argument or Iron Man's. The very first look at the MCU's Spider-Man (played by Tom Holland) was the perfect cherry on top.
2 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' (2021) — Official Teaser Trailer
The rumors around Spider-Man: No Way Home and its unprecedented multiversal shenanigans made it an incredibly exciting film for fans of the Wall-Crawler. Peter Parker's journey in the MCU up to that point had been one of the most fun character arcs in the franchise, and it was evident that this threequel would bring that arc to its boiling point.
If anything, the movie's teaser trailer did a masterful job of saving its biggest surprises for the movie theater. Even then, it also generated an amount of excitement in fans that perhaps no other of the web-slinger's adventures had before, showing massive-sized set pieces, interesting conflicts, and classic supervillains from Spidey's past outings.
1 'Avengers: Endgame' (2019) — Official Trailer
There's a good reason why Avengers: Endgame is the second highest-grossing film of all time. It's the largest, most ambitious movie that the MCU has made thus far. Everyone who had become at least slightly invested in this franchise by the time it came out fondly remembers the excitement that they felt watching every major Marvel hero come together to fend off Thanos (Josh Brolin) one last time.
Offering a pressing reminder of everything that was at stake and poignantly reminding fans that "part of the journey is the end", the trailer broke the Internet at the time that it came out, and one can still feel the same excitement from watching it all these years later. However you feel about the actual Endgame, you can't deny that its fantastic official trailer made everyone incredibly excited about what was to come.
NEXT:The Most Popular MCU Movies, Ranked by Box Office Earnings
