Plastered all over the city, posters for Avengers: Infinity War are somewhat of a marvel (sorry) themselves, squeezing in a crammed cast of superheroes alongside the film’s supervillian Thanos to set the tone for the Marvel Cinematic Universe showdown.
But as the film opens to audiences in Hong Kong today, some movie-goers at a cinema in China, where the film opens next month, found themselves a little confused when someone strange appeared amid the crowd of characters, and we’re not talking about a magical former high flying surgeon.
A promotional poster used by movie theatre in Zhejiang province’s Ningbo city, featured Chinese actress Jing Tian who, while a prominent actress known for roles in The Great Wall, Kong: Skull Island, and Pacific Rim Uprising, definitely does not feature in the Marvel epic.
It turns out that the poster in question was not an official poster for the movie, but a photoshopped copy that was posted onto China’s version of Imdb, Douban, as a joke, hk01 reports.
The sneaky prank, however, slipped up the Ningbo cinema, who took the image as the real deal.
Though the original doctored poster appears to have been removed from Douban, snaps of Tian looking over Thanos’ shoulder are circulating around Chinese social media as are other, less subtle, alterations to the Avengers line-up.
And because this is a comic book movie, the tale wouldn’t be complete without an origins story, which in this case began on March 28 when a Weibo account called Soap Video posted a series of photoshopped posters and film stills under the caption: “A brand new movie concept: The Jing Tian universe.”
In the photoshopped posters, Jing can be seen preparing to gun down the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, sitting on the scales of justice with Wonder Woman in DC Comics’ Justice League, and trying to count to three in the Shape of Water.
The movie house where the photoshopped poster was found publicly acknowledged the mix-up on their Weibo account on Monday with the caption “giving you a laugh.” Even Jing responded to the mix-up on her Weibo account by posting “hahahahaha.”
The photoshopped stills appear to be, in part, poking fun at the China-Hollywood co-productions and the lengths Hollywood studios will go to have their films shown in China.
Common tactics to milk the Chinese market cash cow, include inserting positive Chinese story elements into the plot, product placement, filming in China, and hiring a certain number of Chinese actors either as lead roles or cameos.
Although the Avengers mishap seems a genuine oops, China watchers have noted that inserting Chinese actors into movie posters for films they have no role in does happen.
According Sixth Tone, the Chinese version of the poster for Kingsman: The Golden Circle featured Wang Junkai, the lead singer of popular teen boy band TFBoys, as a “promotion ambassador” to encourage Chinese audiences to watch the film.
The marketing ploy appeared to work as it was reported that online, music and movie reviewers said Wang was the main reason they bought a ticket to see Kingsman.
