Somehow, Godzilla x Kong’s Biggest Spoilers Weren’t in the Trailers

It’s the ultimate marketing issue for a movie studio. You want people to see your new movie—so you tease something guaranteed to make them want to go. The problem is the filmmaker intended it to be a surprise. So, do you ruin the surprise in the trailers to ensure people go see the movie? Or do you save it so people who go have a better experience?

More often than not these days, studios choose the former. It’s the easier, safer move. But, for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, multiple major surprises were completely held out of trailers and director Adam Wingard was very happy about it.

“That was, initially, a conundrum for me because I know that some of the stuff we don’t show is some of our most impressive stuff from the movie,” the director told io9. “It’s exciting, though. I watch a lot of the reaction videos and stuff. And some people are like, ‘Oh, I’ve already seen the movie.’ It’s like, ‘No you haven’t seen the movie.’ And I think they’re going to be really pleasantly surprised when they realize, ‘Wow, the trailer seemed like it showed everything, but there’s so much left up its sleeve.’”

What specifically are we talking about? To reveal that, we have to get into spoilers.

There are two large spoilers in the movie, both of which are Titans not revealed in the trailers. The first is Shimo, an ice titan created for the movie who is the slave of the Skar King—and then there’s the big one, Mothra, who arrives to defend the Iwi people and teams up with Kong and Godzilla.

Now, to be fair, Shimo is *briefly* teased in the trailers. We see its eyes through lava and Kong deflecting some of its ice. However, since it’s a creature created for this movie and not one of the famous Toho ones, showing it would’ve created more questions than excitement. “What monster is that?” fans would have asked. By keeping it out, it drove speculation and anticipation.

Mothra, though, is the one that surely created more problems. The iconic flying creature is one of Godzilla’s most famous friends, and foes, and a quick shot of her wings in the trailer would have spawned a ton of additional excitement. But there’s nothing. It’s so surprising Mothra in the movie, in fact, that when the scene happens where Jia starts to unlock her, I fully didn’t expect her to show up. But she does and adds a nice extra layer to the final battle.

Were you surprised by the reveals? Was it wise to keep them out of the trailers? Let us know below.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is now in theaters.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.