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{{trope}}
So, you're watching a new movie and you [[Hey,
Well, it may be because he was effectively [[
Usually used purposefully to prevent spoilers. Chinese releases often minimize the appearance of black actors, even ''main characters'', in previews due to negative reception by Chinese cinema-goers. The typical result is that anyone who absorbs the movie through [[Popcultural Osmosis]] will not know the character exists.
This trope is named after the aptly named "Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film" who failed to appear in ''[[Monty Python and
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== Anime ==▼
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Kiryuu Michiru and Kiryuu Kaoru of ''[[Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star]]'' are the [[Dark Magical Girl]] [[Evil Counterpart
* While introducing most of the [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] in the series, the ''[[Baccano
** The same thing happens in the [[Post Episode Trailer]] of episode 8. Episode nine is titled "Claire Stanfield Successfully Completes the Mission", but most of the clips in the trailer focus on Rachel, which helps to hide Claire's identity again. {{spoiler|And once again, he does make a small appearance in the trailer -- his is the face shown right at the start of it covered in shadows and blood. Yeah, he's like that.}}
*** The focus on Rachel becomes another bit of [[Fridge Brilliance]] when you realize that the withholding of Rachel's name up to that point combined with {{spoiler|Claire's [[Gender Blender Name]]}} make it easy for new viewers to assume that Rachel ''is'' the Claire in the episode title.
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* ADV Films' trailer for ''[[Cyber Team in Akihabara]]'' almost completely leaves out the Divas (arguably one of the more [[Fan Service|memorable]] elements of the series): the main character's Diva form only appears briefly, and the character's voiceover doesn't make note of it at all.
==
* Inverted and parodied in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!:
* The Emperor in ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''. He's been treated more kindly since the prequels came out, but the original promotion of ''Jedi'' in 1983 seemed to go out of its way to ignore his existence. He didn't show up on any of the posters (in fact, one poster shows his throne room ''without his chair'') and the trailers only ever showed Darth Vader or Jabba the Hutt when a word like "evil" or "villain" was mentioned. Presumably, the marketing department wanted to continue portraying Darth Vader as the [[Big Bad]] and the existence of the Emperor kind of got in the way.
** Reversed with the ''[[Revenge of the Sith]]'' marketing, which did feature a heavy emphasis on the Emperor, despite it being a spoiler that nice-guy Palpatine is actually a Sith Lord, or that he becomes the evil Emperor (although those familiar with the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Expanded Universe]] had [[It Was His Sled|long ago claimed it as fact to their friends and the 'net]]...). Similarly reversed in the same marketing campaign with Darth Vader, who became THE posterchild for the film, despite only actually showing up in his classic appearance for two short scenes at the end (one of which [[Big No|is infamous]]).
* Anthony Mackie in ''[[The Adjustment Bureau]]'' has third billing, but you wouldn't know he's in the film from its advertising.
* Nathaniel in ''[[Enchanted]]''. The trailer shows Giselle, Prince Edward and Queen Narissa come out of the manhole and then goes on to show several [[Fish Out of Water]] scenes with ''only'' them. This despite the fact that Nathaniel is pursuing Giselle through New York for most of the movie and Narissa herself comes through only at the end.
** Possibly because if the audience did see him, they'd shout out "Hey, what's [[Hey,
* [[Charlize Theron]]'s character in ''[[Hancock]]'' was completely absent from the original trailers, as was any indication that Hancock was not a {{spoiler|one of a kind superhero.}} Thus, when the ads for the DVD came out showing her and her role, many people who hadn't seen the movie thought it looked like a completely different movie.
* Mr. Blue from ''[[Reservoir Dogs]]'' is conspicuously absent from most posters, some of which even say 'Five men...' instead of six. Also, Joe and Nice Guy Eddie (because they don't fit the naming convention) often aren't in posters that contain much more minor characters, Mr. Brown and sometimes Blue, who do fit.
** The original UK quad not only has Mr. Blue on the poster, but Nice Guy Eddie as well (wearing the trademark suit that the other characters wear rather than the tracksuit he wears throughout the film). The only character not seen on this poster is Joe.
* A deliberate example is {{spoiler|Kevin Spacey}} as the killer in ''[[Se7en]]'', who was excluded from all promotional material and even the opening credits to avoid [[Narrowed It Down to
** {{spoiler|Spacey}} himself ''insisted'' on the anonymity prior to the film's release. He made no mention of his involvement with the film until after it was released. The producers had wanted him to have top billing. Dedication to his craft indeed.
** He eventually does get top billing in the end credits, but that's pretty consistent since it's about as far from the advertising stage as you can get.
* There is very little footage of Ozymandias in any of the trailers for the film adaptation of ''[[Watchmen (
* In the movie ''Earthquake'', there is a scene in a bar where a drunk is talking, and it turns out to be Walter Matthau, but because of contractual obligations, they can't refer to him directly, so in the credits he's called Walter Matuschanskayasky. This spawned its own [http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/matthau.asp urban legend].
* Vidia in ''[[Disney Fairies]]'', especially in regards to the ''Tinker Bell'' movie. Although she is the main antagonist in the movie and an antisocial [[Anti
* Frollo from Disney's ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Disney film)|The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'' doesn't appear on the DVD cover and is not mentioned in the plot synopsis on the back, yet he has the most screen time of any villain in the [[Disney Animated Canon]].
** Disney shows Frollo off very little in general, but it's not [[Disneyfication|hard to]] [[Complete Monster|see why.]]
* Many trailers of ''[[The Dark Knight]]'' went to great lengths to avoid mentioning that Harvey Dent became Two-Face in that movie, leading many fans to assume he was being set up as the [[Big Bad]] of the next one.
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* Norrington from ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]''. After all, who wants to see a stuffy British officer in a movie about [[Pirates]]? Other than the fangirls, that is. He was downplayed in the first three films, yet served as a secondary/important villain in the first two, and had a [[Heel Face Turn]] in the third.
** One actor's appearance in the second film was given away by IMDB, of all places, which listed him in the cast credits. He has roughly 10 seconds of screen time in that film. {{spoiler|It's Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa, who was resurrected at the end of the second film, to the surprise of even the second film's main actors.}}
* Elmer Fudd in ''[[Looney Tunes: Back in Action
* Though Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Poster: [http://www.impawards.com/2000/scary_movie.html the film poster] for ''[[Scary Movie]]'' doesn't feature protagonist Cindy Campbell - probably because then-unknown [[Anna Faris]] wouldn't attract as many moviegoers as co-star Shannon Elizabeth. The DVD [http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5123WET5P4L._SS500_.jpg tries to fix it].
** Inverted for ''Scary Movie 4'' via [[Covers Always Lie]]: [[King Kong]] appears on the poster for that movie, though this is purely an act of [[Executive Meddling]].
* Did anyone know [[Edward Norton]]'s in ''[[Kingdom of Heaven]]''? He plays a near-unrecognizable victim of leprosy who spends most of the movie wearing a large metal mask, so this example may be at least partially justified.
* The T-800 in ''[[Terminator]] Salvation''. Particularly that he has Schwarzenegger's face.
* Both viable candidates for the role of protagonist in ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]''
** Hans Landa may be the character that appears most in the film, but that's just because he's the antagonist to all of the multiple protagonists. He, himself, is most definitely not a protagonist. Also both Bridget and Shoshanna do appear in the trailers, though, yes, are entirely eclipsed by Aldo.
* [[Amanda Seyfried]] ''is'' billed prominently in the ads for ''[[Jennifer's Body]]'', but the entire focus of the advertising campaign was put on [[Megan Fox]] (she was the only person who appeared in the posters), making it look as though Seyfried's character was only a supporting role, as opposed to the film's protagonist. Although slasher movie promotion traditionally focuses its marketing on the monster, and not on the victims that are technically the protagonists.
* The DVD cover of ''[[
* Alex, the character in ''[[The Big Chill]]'' who commits suicide, is only seen with slit wrists. All of his scenes in the movie that were performed by [[Kevin Costner]], were dropped from the film.
* [[Kick
** Also, [[Nicolas Cage]].
* ''[[Transformers:
** The characters featured on the poster and in the trailer are almost entirely the ''new'' characters introduced in this
* Because of his political life, the poster for ''[[The Expendables]]'' doesn't mention [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]].
** Well, it was just a two minute cameo.
** And both he and [[Bruce Willis]] ''were'' mentioned on the British posters, even though they both appear in the same cameo and aren't mentioned on the movie's credits!
* For the advertising of the 2009 ''[[Star Trek]]'' film, McCoy seemed to get little attention at all despite being the third piece of the Holy Trinity of Trek. Instead, they seemed to give all his advertisement time to [[Zoe
** [[Leonard Nimoy]] was also left out of the trailers and the posters. Of course, the whole point was that his appearance was supposed to be a surprise.
* While Dileep Rao appeared in the group poster, had one line in the trailer, most people didn't know he was in ''[[Inception]]'', because his name failed to appear in the billing. This was despite the fact that he was the Chemist, without which the entire heist that Cobb planned would have been impossible. More than one fan felt that he got shafted.
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** Not all that unexpected. She wasn't really a star yet when [[Talladega Nights]] was released, she didn't get famous until [[Enchanted]] came out a year later.
* In the sequel to ''[[Boondock Saints]]'', {{spoiler|[[Willem Dafoe]]'s character is mentioned early on as having died recently. As it turned out, he [[Faking the Dead|faked his own death]], but we don't find this out until nearly the very end of the movie. Not only did they avoid putting Dafoe in any promotional material, but they made a big deal of how they had wanted him to return for the sequel but he had declined, making the quick early reference to his death look like [[McLeaned|their cheap way out of not having his character in the movie]].}}
* The original trailer and promotional material for ''[[Tron
* Tim Burton's ''[[Alice in Wonderland (
* ''[[
* [[Nicole Kidman]] has been left off of all marketing on ''Just Go With It'' due to her current status as box office poison. Rather, more of the focus has been placed on newcomer Brooklyn Decker.
* Another case of 'Sir Not Appearing On This Poster' is ''[[The Dilemma]]''. One would not even know that it is an ensemble film with [[Jennifer Connelly]], [[Winona Ryder]], [[Queen Latifah]] and [[Channing Tatum]] in the cast (instead, the poster just shows [[Vince Vaughn]] and [[Kevin James]] grinning).
* Probably because she's played by not-a-name actress Greta Gerwig, the trailer for the [[Russell Brand]]-led ''[[Arthur (
* ''[[Blades of Glory]]'' tended to overlook the Van Waldenbergs in their advertisements. This was despite them being the main villains and [[Love Interest]] of the movie and all three being played by relatively well-known and funny actors.
** In an even stranger case, some TV and online ads left out Jon Heder despite being the film's second billed actor.
* Brian Cox in ''[[
** Especially since he also fits the bill (i.e. Retired Extremely Dangerous), even though he's not actually retired.
* [[Jack Nicholson]] had a prominent role in ''[[Broadcast News]]'', but he didn't want to be credited because he didn't want to divert the attention from the eventual Academy Award nominated trio of [[Holly Hunter]], [[William Hurt]] and [[Albert Brooks]].
* [[Bill Murray]] originally never appeared in any of the original trailers of ''[[Tootsie]]''. Only when the film hit premium cable and video stores did subsequent trailers depict his character.
* All of the promotional material for ''[[Thor (
* [[Kevin Bacon]] is barely in any of the promotional materials for ''[[X
** A reversal of this occurs in the trailer for Crazy, Stupid Love. Bacon appears at the very end of the trailer but no mention is made of what his role in the film is.
* For some reason, the ads for ''[[Bad Teacher]]'' focus on just [[Cameron Diaz]] and Jason Segel and leave out [[Justin Timberlake]] entirely.
* [[Paul Giamatti]] wasn't shown in the trailers for ''[[The Hangover]] Part II'' despite being the biggest name in the film.
* [[Robin Williams]] ''wanted'' his animated character Genie to be underemphasized in promotions for ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', because he had done the voicework for less money than usual for someone of his stature, and didn't want them to disproportionately profit from it. However, Disney did not follow the contract he made with them, and the use of celebrity voices in animated films became an industry staple from about that point onward.
* Inverted with ''Takers''; [[Zoe
* Chris Messina is in none of the trailers for ''[[Devil]]'', despite being the star of the film. Instead, the main focus is placed on the action in the elevator and its cast of unknowns and character actors.
* Inversion: while it may not be a person per-say, the USS Voyager from ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' is almost a character on its show. She appeared in several teaser trailers for ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]'' (which is based on [[Star Trek:
* The trailers and promotional media for ''[[Transformers: Dark of the Moon]]'' made it seem as Shockwave was the film's main villain. Then again, it must have helped {{spoiler|Sentinel Prime's [[Face Heel Turn]]}} to become a twist (the character only appeared in the teaser trailer, with no clear indication of who he was).
** What's interesting about the teaser trailer is that {{spoiler|Sentinel Prime}} sports a golden body armor, but in the film his armor is red. This may have either been because they were still unsure about {{spoiler|Sentinel's}} appearance or that they deliberately re-colored him to keep his identity ambiguous.
* [[Bryan Cranston]] is possibly the king of this trope. He is nowhere to be seen in the trailers for ''[[Larry Crowne]]'', ''[[Contagion]]'', ''[[Drive (
* [[James Woods]] was notably absent from the trailer for 1992's ''Straight Talk'' despite being the main male character and second only to [[Dolly Parton]] in the credits.
* Although [[Hayden Panettiere]] is actually ''billed'' in the trailer (and on the posters) for the 2011 US release of ''Fireflies In The Garden'' - along with [[Ryan Reynolds]] (the film's star), Willem Dafoe, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Watson and [[Julia Roberts]] - and does have a fairly large supporting role in the film itself, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDq2i5naiEk if you blink at the 1:48 mark, you'll miss her in the trailer]. This may have something to do with the film having been made when she was somewhat younger than she is now (the movie was filmed in 2007).
* Inverted in Resnais' ''Not on the lips''. The trailer features André Dussolier, a regular Resnais cast, ranting about not being in this particular Resnais movie.
* The [[A Worldwide Punomenon|trailers]] for ''[[Cars|Cars 2]]'' for some reason actually do not show Miles Axlerod anywhere at all, making Professor Z look like the film's [[Big Bad]]. {{spoiler|In the actual movie, Axlerod is the [[Big Bad]], and Professor Z is [[The Dragon]].}}
* Despite appearing in the teaser that played after ''[[
** Speaking of the teaser, while every other member of the Avengers were shown, the [[Hulk]] was absent. Bruce Banner appeared in a few shots, though. This is likely due to the fact that the movie wasn't finished filming by that point and the special effects were not ready.
** In both the teaser and the first full trailer, [[The Mighty Thor|Loki's]] mystery-army is absent, although there are several shots of people reacting to it coming to Earth, making it all the more mysterious. This was likely done on purpose to continue the speculation surrounding it.
* ''[[Bridesmaids]]'' is a pretty extreme case of [[Trailers Always Lie]] anyway, but almost all of the ads leave out Chris O'Dowd as the main [[Love Interest]] in the film.
* Sort of happens in ''New Year's Eve''. Depending on the commercial, [[Sarah Jessica Parker]]'s part was downplayed. Also, there are so many characters and cameos in the movie (because of the [[All
* ''[[American Hustle]]'' takes it one step further, even leaving the part of Victor Tellegio uncredited. The actor not mentioned? {{spoiler|Robert De Niro.}}
* The trailers for ''[[Inside Out]]'' purposefully left out Bing Bong, one of the most important characters of the movie.
* On ''[[
▲== Live Action TV ==
▲* On ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' in the 1980s, The Master would often be disguised in his plots against the Doctor. Since the show was serialized at the time, it would often be the case that the disguise hadn't been revealed to the audience prior to the end of part one. As a result, a pseudonym would be used in the credits for actor Anthony Ainley.
** {{spoiler|Rory}} was omitted from the trailer and cast list for the 2010 season finale {{spoiler|to keep his resurrection a secret.}}
* The trailer for season 4 of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' curiously leaves out any scenes of {{spoiler|Mohinder}}, despite being rather long and featuring every other main character prominently (plus several new ones) and the actor confirming that he's returning. This gives the overall impression he's ''not'' part of the season.
** He appeared eventually, {{spoiler|dead three months before the start of the events of the new season. [[Unexplained Recovery|He got better]].}}
* Beth is missing from most promos and team shots of ''[[Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior]]'', and even from the [[Backdoor Pilot]].
== Professional Wrestling ==▼
* Justified when a pay-per-view event is supposed to have a [[Shocking Swerve|big surprise ending]]. Take [[WWE]]'s 2008 ''Royal Rumble'', for instance: [[Randy Orton]], [[Jeff Hardy]], [[Edge]], [[Rey Mysterio Jr]], [[Chris Jericho]], [[John Bradshaw Layfield]], [[Ric Flair]], and Montel Vontavious Porter were promoted as the stars of the show. In retrospect, however, the big scene-stealer at ''that'' event proved to be {{spoiler|[[John Cena]], who won the Rumble match despite}} '' {{spoiler|nobody}}'' {{spoiler|expecting him to even show up}}!▼
▲== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
▲* Justified when a pay-per-view event is supposed to have a [[Shocking Swerve|big surprise ending]]. Take [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]]'s 2008 ''Royal Rumble'', for instance: [[Randy Orton]], [[Jeff Hardy]], [[Edge]], [[Rey Mysterio, Jr.]], [[Chris Jericho]], [[John Bradshaw Layfield]], [[Ric Flair]], and Montel Vontavious Porter were promoted as the stars of the show. In retrospect, however, the big scene-stealer at ''that'' event proved to be {{spoiler|[[John Cena]], who won the Rumble match despite
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'', all the pre-release screenshot either leave out Raiden as a main character or replace him with Snake, which [[Replacement Scrappy|made many, many people mad once they played the game and realized that they weren't playing as Snake]]. Raiden's appearance was dictated by a focus group in order to attract more teenage girls, who didn't like playing as old men. Then they decided not to market Raiden's existence at all. It's easy to see why Hideo Kojima is considered the greatest troll to ever live.
* Auto in ''[[Mega Man (
** ''[[Mega Man Powered Up]]'', a [[Video Game Remake|remake]] of a game that had only six Robot Masters, promoted the fact that there are two new bosses added to the game, while in reality there were actually ''three'' new bosses. Granted, the unmentioned boss was a [[Warmup Boss]] that doesn't even show up in the [[Boss Rush]] challenges, but still...
* When ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]. Brawl'' was first revealed, the normal form of [[Metroid|Samus]] that has been in the previous two games appeared briefly to perform her Final Smash. Apart from her character artwork, no other media featuring Samus in this form was released until the Smash Bros. Dojo finally put up her profile. Take a look at [https://web.archive.org/web/20120111054908/http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/movies/movie02.html this movie], which was released between the first movie and the Dojo update in question. Do you see any trace of Samus in a Power Suit anywhere? Didn't think so.
** Relatedly, when the Dojo was relaunched in May 2007, Snake was not featured anywhere on the site, with the exception of E3 and Nintendo World 2006 videos. This means that new media of Snake was not released until Konami decided to show off footage of Snake in ''Brawl'' in a conference.
* The only ''[[Elite Beat Agents]]'' seen in advertising (and ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'') were J, Derek, Morris, and Commander Kahn. Who would have guessed that there would still be Agent Spin, Agent Chieftain, and the Elite Beat Divas squad?
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** The novelizations of the games run with this, focusing on the past characters and completely ignoring the {{spoiler|Animus and Desmond}}, even changing a few scenes ({{spoiler|like Minerva calling Desmond by name}}) to focus on the ''assassin'' part of the franchise.
* For the longest time, Garrus Vakarian was this for ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''. He wasn't shown in any videos or screenshots outside of when you meet him on Omega for the first time. {{spoiler|This to preserve the surprise that he gets half his face blown off shortly after you recruit him}}. While he's since been shown in screenshots for subsequent DLC... he still doesn't have an official biography on the official website, ''despite the game being out for nearly 10 months''.
** Many players of both games did not even know female Shepard existed. She is not featured in any of the trailers, promotional material, documentation or game box. Fortunately for FemShep fans, this is changing. Recent news indicates that [[
* Despite being an important character in the ''[[
** Speaking of ''Dark Dawn'', Rief didn't make any appearance in the early promo art. Probably justified: two characters in said image were redesigned before the game's release, proving that Camelot hadn't finished the characters yet when they released that art.
* Advertising for ''[[
* Japanese previews of ''[[Fire Emblem Tellius
== [[Web Original]] ==▼
▲== Web Original ==
* Played ridiculously straight in ''[[Chaos Fighters]]: Chemical Warriors-KIMIA'' when only ''2'' protagonists were mentioned in the trailer post out of the ''more than 10'' characters who exist in the web serial.
* Inverted (or arguably just played straight, considering Monty Python) by the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!:
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The week that ''[[Scooby Doo|Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics]]'' premiered, TV Guide's print ad showed Jeannie (from her 1973 CBS cartoon) and [[Josie and
* The promotions for the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "Neutopia" got a lot of mileage out of the [[Gender Bender|gender bent]] Planet Express crew, though what wasn't shown was their gender''less'' forms beforehand. A bunch of minor characters also get subjected to the gender changes, but their forms aren't shown either.
* DVD covers for ''[[
* Despite being portrayed as being major characters in the show's plot, neither Lugnut nor Sari Sumdac appear in the Japanese opening for ''[[Transformers Animated]]''.
* The first trailer for [[Dreamworks Animation]]'s ''[[The Guardians of Childhood|Rise of the Guardians]]'' is missing [[Jack Frost]], intended as the film's viewpoint character. In fact, it's apparently to the point where Jack has been edited out of shots he appears in the actual film, presumably to focus on getting across the premise of a Holiday flavored superhero team.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Coming Attractions]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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