5 Clever Ways Productions Prevented Spoiler Leaks
Ah, the duality of fan — you might be dying to know what happens next, but you may very well literally crucify anyone who tells you. Unable to care for themselves, it’s a franchise’s responsibility to protect fans, so they take increasingly elaborate and sneaky measures to prevent spoilers from leaking in the first place.
‘The White Lotus’ Wrote Six Different Endings
An NDA and the promise of future gigs used to be enough to ensure that what happens on set stays on set, but apparently, much like its characters, the crew of The White Lotus cannot be trusted. As a result, the show’s writers distributed six different versions of the script for the Season Three finale, so if a PA accidentally left one in a Starbucks bathroom, there was only a 15 percent chance it mattered.
‘Game of Thrones’ Filmed Fake Scenes
If you think writing fake scenes is hard, imagine actually filming them. The paparazzi were so hot on the Game of Thrones production’s trail during the filming of the final season that they were forced to employ a variety of subterfuge tactics, up to and including filming entire fake scenes to confuse them. This was confirmed after the series finale aired without Cersei Lannister and Jon Snow ever meeting, as depicted in a scene captured by paparazzi.
‘Star Wars’ Printed Scripts on Dark Red Paper
As the first installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, The Force Awakens was already insanely hyped, but it turned out that it also contained a scene so shocking that we’re still honestly kind of afraid to talk about it. You know the one. Obviously, under no circumstances could it get out, so producers printed scripts on dark red paper so if anyone tried to photocopy it, it would just come out black. There was also probably a Macbeth-y psychological effect to it.
‘El Camino’ Told Passersby They Were Shooting a ‘Breaking Bad’ Tour Commercial
It was essential to keep Bryan Cranston’s cameo in a flashback scene of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie a secret because, you know, he was supposed to be dead, but it was pretty tricky. It required parking the character’s bullet-speckled RV outside a cafe “smack dab in the middle of Albuquerque,” whose residents know exactly what that means, so when they started sniffing around, the production crew explained that they were shooting a commercial for a Breaking Bad-themed tour of the city. They even handed out brochures, insisting, “You should really take it. It’s a lot of fun!”
‘Money Heist’ Hijacked Potential Leakers
For the premier of the Spanish Netflix drama Money Heist’s final season, the show’s publicity firm invited 100 fans to fly to Madrid for an exclusive screening. What they didn’t tell them was that the screening would actually take place on the plane, and they were being held hostage for the five hours it took for the rest of the world to watch the first five episodes of the season to prevent the most excited viewers from livetweeting or otherwise spilling any beans. Sure, it was at least half publicity stunt, but kidnapping always gets an A for effort.
