Agatha All Along Funko leaks are part of a really annoying trend 

Marvel, what’s the deal with Funko Pops! spoiling your shows and movies? (Excuse me for starting an article by doing a bad Jerry Seinfeld impression, but it’s a serious question.)

Perhaps it’s just me, but does anyone else find it nearly impossible to watch a Marvel movie or TV show without it being spoiled for you somehow? Hands down, people spoiling stuff online is one of the most annoying things about being a Marvel fan these days (It’s a hard life, I know). 

Seriously, it’s the same pattern for every release. Time and time again, overzealous Marvel zombies on social media carelessly share spoilers out of clueless enthusiasm, or you get more malicious trolls deliberately trying to ruin things for other fans.

Obviously, and thankfully, you can avoid these spoilers staying offline on the day of release but that’s actually harder than it sounds in 2024. Even worse, though, there’s a new wildly irritating trend developing that makes it difficult for even the most dedicated spoiler-phobe to stay unspoiled.

It was Agatha all along…

Marvel/Disney

More and more, we’re seeing tie-in merchandise spoil the big reveals from upcoming Marvel movies and shows. At the time of writing, the most recent offender was Funko Pops!, which revealed the identity of two major characters in Agatha All Along (we’re not going to publish the spoilers here because my momma didn’t raise no hypocrite). Still, the big-headed hunks of ugly plastic are hardly the only offenders.

In the past, we’ve had a LEGO set spoil the Giant-Man reveal in Civil War, a toy axe spoiled the reveal Groot was involved in the forging of Stormbreaker, and action figure announcements have let slip the debut of characters like Vision and Rescue. Perhaps the worst offender of all, though, is the McDonald’s tie-in toys, which is how we got our first look at Harrison Ford’s Red Hulk.

Yep, that’s right, our first look at one of the most eagerly anticipated Marvel supervillains came in the form of a deformed plushie who looks more like Joseph Merrick than Harrison Ford. I know this is hardly the greatest injustice in the world, and merchandising and blockbusters go together like burgers and fries, but I do think we’ve reached a tipping point in recent years.

Back in the day (the mid-2000s), these types of leaks were mainly confined to forums and blogs. Nowadays, with the rise of social media (and the aforementioned weaponization by d*cks online), it’s easier and easier to accidentally stumble across these types of spoilers. 

It’s all part of the plan…

That’s literally what happened to me this morning after watching the new episode of Agatha. I clicked the hashtag to check what people were talking about and got about eight bajillion tweets spoiling the show for me. It’s tiresome, and you don’t have to be a marketing genius to deal with the problem; just don’t package toys with spoilers on them or time your releases to be after the film or show is out.

But ultimately, I think that’s the dark secret at the heart of this issue – well, that and the fact I hid a reference to the Dark Lord Mephisto at the beginning of the article that you probably didn’t catch. Spoilers are now considered a marketing tool.

Why do you think Shawn Levy was able to get away with sharing illegal rips of Deadpool & Wolverine online (It. Is. Illegal!), or Ryan Reynolds took most of the extended Deadpool 3 cast on stage at Comiccon before the film’s release? The people selling this movie don’t think you care about spoilers; they expect you to hunt them out. 

And that’s kind of sad. Think of how you felt at the end of Infinity War or the triumph during the hero’s return in Endgame. Do you never want to feel that again, to feel like you’re part of a defining moment in pop culture? I know I do, and I don’t want it stolen from me by a tie-in box of cornflakes.