History Main / SpoilerOpening

** The closing credits and {{Episode Title Card}}s have an emphasis on Steven driving his car which rather overtly hint at [[spoiler:Steven [[ButNowItMustGo moving out]] of Beach City at the end of the series]]. The show's creator has even stated that, while the framing of original series was set in the present, for ''Future'' it's always set after the end.

* The second intro for ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' shows Connie [[WeaponAcrossTheShoulder carrying]] [[{{BFS}} Rose's sword]], spoiling that she'd be trained as a swordfighter (which happens in the intro's debut episode) and that it would become her usual weapon (which happens ten episodes later).

Overlaps with ForegoneConclusion. Compare TrailersAlwaysSpoil. Contrast NotNamedInOpeningCredits, when the credits omit an actor's name and maintain the surprise. See also FirstEpisodeSpoiler, which can often fall prey to this, though that can be averted with any of the above methods or just using a TitleOnlyOpening for that episode.

* EvolvingCredits: updating the opening as events transpire in-series
* Shaping their opening credits to merely have depictions which {{foreshadow|ing}} upcoming events

* or shaping their opening credits to merely have depictions which {{foreshadow|ing}} upcoming events

** This happens again in the last season when the Opening changed, spoiling Warmonga well before her episode appearance. Once more her episode is written as if we're not supposed to have any idea who this ''other'' green skin lady who's helping Drakken who isn't Shego was.
* The ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperheroes'' pilot "Man Of Tomorrow" had spoilers in the opening credits, showing Timber Wolf who wouldn't be making an appearance until the next episode.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' every four episodes of seasons 3 and 4 had an opening sequence using clips from those four episodes. Naturally plot developments like Enzo's TimeSkip, the Saucy Mare's web armor, and Mainframe in ruins are spoiled. Averted with the Creator/{{Toonami}} broadcast, which replaced those openings with customized ones.
* The opening credits for ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays'' features the Saturdays being charged by a quartet of villains. While one of them, Piecemeal, shows up relatively early in episode 4, the others are Eterno, a one-shot villain who doesn't show up for several more episodes, Rani Naga, who also doesn't appear until almost the end of the season, and Shoji Fuzen, who appears in episode 3, but is wearing blue samurai armor he won't don until many episodes later.
* The second intro for ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' shows Connie [[WeaponAcrossTheShoulder carrying]] [[{{BFS}} Rose's sword]], spoiling that she'd be trained as a sword fighter (which happens in the intro's debut episode) and that it would become her usual weapon (which happens ten episodes later).

** The Japanese opening of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' spoils Longarm being a Decepticon, Blackarachnia commanding the Dinobots, and Starscream's Allspark fragment and clones. However, there's also so much stuff that [[BaitAndSwitchCredits simply doesn't happen]] that it's hard for a new viewer to tell what's important and what isn't.

** The team isn't completely assembled in story before episode 6 but the intro shows the whole team since episode 1.

* The opening narration of ''Film/{{Hop}}'' spoils the fact that the main human character becomes the first human Easter Bunny. This concept isn't introduced untill a little before the climax, after a movie of basically nothing happening.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hilda}}'': The season 1 opening sequence features multiple characters that would not make their debut till later (sometimes even as late as the second last episode). Jorgen, the Great Raven, the Vittra, a ghost, the Black Hound, Tontu; they're all there from episode 1.

* An animated FunnyAnimal version of ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfOliverTwist'' features a montage of all the plot points from an episode, from beginning to ending, put just before the episode begins.
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''. Just pay attention to the first 5 seconds of the opening, and you will get spoiled with one of the biggest plot twist in the whole series-The fact that Ooo is actually the remains of Earth after a giant nuclear war.

* In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', the intro features a few blink-and-you'll-miss-it spoilers, such as Lil Gideon Gleeful and two separate appearances by Bill Cipher. One of the latter, at least, is a brief sketch of him on paper covered in cryptic gibberish that's easy to write off unless you know what's going on, but the second is a full-screen image that shows up in a momentary but jarring fashion just as the show's name is onscreen, making it fairly noticeable and creepy.

* The Boomerang description for the ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'' episode "The Worm Turns" spoils the reason Booker stopped chasing worms: [[spoiler: his life was saved by one]].

** SpoilerOpening/{{Bleach}}

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* Disney's ''Disney/RobinHood'' did this by ''showing detached scenes from the movie's plot points in the opening credits''. Every relevant character in the movie is shown with an animation of them solo from various important parts of the movie, and the animations for the rest of the credits is from ''the climax''.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

--> I've finished my war book now... It begins like this:
--> ''Listen:''
--> ''Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.''
--> It ends like this:
--> ''Poo-tee-weet?''
* The cover of the third book of Literature/TheIcewindDaleTrilogy shows the heroes fighting demons in Tartarus, which only happens at the very end of the book. Also, Bruenor is shown on the cover, who was thought dead in the previous book and makes a surprising return in this book.
* MyBrotherSamIsDead. Guess who dies at the very end of the book.

* The first page of ''[[Literature/ArtemisFowl The Last Guardian]]'' says (at the bottom, in Gnommish): The Last Will and Testament of Artemis Fowl.
* If you're reading one of Edward Rutherford's multi-generation historical novels (''Sarum'', ''London'', etc), don't even glance at the family tree at the front of the book until you've read the whole thing: it'll spoil who has kids with whom, etc.
* ''They Both Die at the End''. And they do.
* In an in-Verse example, the elaborate [=LARP=] Games of the ''Literature/DreamPark'' series are nearly always preceded by a formal recitation of the rules of play. One such rule commonly stipulates how many lost points a player can reclaim if, having been "killed out", they return "from the grave" as a zombie, ''tornrait'', or other undead. Which, naturally, prematurely reveals that there '''are''' undead as part of the Game's internal mythos and plotline.

[[folder:Theater]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]
* ''Webcomic/GrimTrigger'': Volume one's opening sequence spoils Tage and Hunter working together. The first two credits also spoil Lodin and Proxy joining them.

[[folder: Web Original ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* The opening credits for ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', and later ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', would show (sometimes spoileriffic) scenes from that particular episode.

* The ''WesternAnimation/LegionOfSuperheroes'' pilot "Man Of Tomorrow" had spoilers in the opening credits, showing Timber Wolf who wouldn't be making an appearance until the next episode.
* Taken UpToEleven with the series pilot of WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}, which gave away the entire episode plot.
* ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible''
** Lord Monty a.k.a. Monkey Fist appears in the opening theme from the very first episode onwards, however his first appearance was not until episode 13, where it was written as if Monty turning out to be the bad guy was a big twist.
** This happens again in the last season when the Opening changed, spoiling Warmonga well before her episode appearance. Once more her episode is written as if we're not supposed to have any idea who this ''other'' green skin lady who's helping Drakken who isn't Shego was.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' has the Japanese dub opening sequences, the 3rd opening being the biggest example, as it spoils the ending for the season two finale ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E25ACanterlotWeddingPart1 A Canterlot]] [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E26ACanterlotWeddingPart2 Wedding]]''.
* The intro for ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' is comprised of scenes from the show's PilotMovie, which causes problems when you're watching it as a five-part episode.
* ''WesternAnimation/ExoSquad'': The opening narration talks about a war between the Neo-Sapiens and the Humans... a war which only STARTS in the sixth episode. This is made all the more confusing by the fact that that a Human/Neo-Sapien war took place in the show's backstory (but not the war the opening narration shows clips of).
* The intro to ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' shows all of the X-Men gathered together and shows them off by name, despite the fact that half of them don't show up for several episodes. The most notable case is Rogue, who is introduced early on as a character, but keeps her allegiance uncertain until halfway through the season.

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama''
** The theme song of ''Action'' featured Courtney, who came back halfway through to the surprise of the castmates and (maybe) Chris. However, the flipbook itself had no intention of this ever being a spoiler.
** The leaked theme song for ''World Tour'' confirmed Ezekiel's participation in the season.
* The Japanese opening of ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' spoils Longarm being a Decepticon, Blackarachnia commanding the Dinobots, and Starscream's Allspark fragment and clones. However, there's also so much stuff that [[BaitAndSwitchCredits simply doesn't happen]] that it's hard for a new viewer to tell what's important and what isn't.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles''
** The opening of ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'' season 5: Fast Forward, spoils that Darius Dun, initially a minor supporting character, is the BigBad (he is seen looming over all the other villains).
** Despite being introduced as Shredder's lieutenants, Chris Bradford and Xever are strangely absent from the intro of ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)]]''. Instead, Shredder is shown standing with the [[{{Mutant}} mutants]] Dogpound and Fishface. No prizes for guessing what's going to happen to Bradford and Xever.
* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice''
** One episode has the team helped out by an arrow fired from the shadows. When they confront Green Arrow and accuse him of babysitting them and he proves it wasn't his arrow, they assume his sidekick, Speedy, is ready to join the team after storming out in the pilot. Yeah ... or maybe it's the female archer who appears in the opening credits of the show as a team member despite having not appeared in the actual show yet at that point.
** The team isn't completely assembled in story before episode 6 but the intro shows the whole team since episode 1.
** Right before the show's logo is viewed, each ''Young Justice'' episode's opening contains a quick display of clips which previews events that occur later in whichever episode is airing at the moment which is at least less spoilery because of the rapid speed the images flash on the screen.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' every four episodes of seasons 3 and 4 had an opening sequence using clips from those four episodes. Naturally plot developments like Enzo's TimeSkip, the Saucy Mare's web armor, and Mainframe in ruins are spoiled. Averted with the Creator/{{Toonami}} broadcast, which replaced those openings with customized ones.
* The opening credits for ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays'' features the Saturdays being charged by a quartet of villains. While one of them, Piecemeal, shows up relatively early in episode 4, the others are Eterno, a one-shot villain who doesn't show up for several more episodes, Rani Naga, who also doesn't appear until almost the end of the season, and Shoji Fuzen, who appears in episode 3, but is wearing blue samurai armor he won't don until many episodes later.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime''. Just pay attention to the first 5 seconds of the opening, and you will get spoiled with one of the biggest plot twist in the whole series-The fact that Ooo is actually the remains of Earth after a giant nuclear war.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes'' shows in its original intro that Captain America survived getting thrown into an icy sea, negating the attempts that Cap's debut episode made to make his fate seem ambiguous. It also shows Hank Pym becoming Giant-Man, an ability he doesn't demonstrate until his second appearance (chronologically speaking) Additionally, episodes set before the founding of the Avengers show eight members in the intro's TeamShot, revealing that Hawkeye won't remain an enemy of the heroes for long. The recaps attached to season two episodes also spoil the returns of certain antagonists by showing their previous appearances.
* In ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', the intro features a few blink-and-you'll-miss-it spoilers, such as Lil Gideon Gleeful and two separate appearances by Bill Cipher. One of the latter, at least, is a brief sketch of him on paper covered in cryptic gibberish that's easy to write off unless you know what's going on, but the second is a full-screen image that shows up in a momentary but jarring fashion just as the show's name is onscreen, making it fairly noticeable and creepy.

* The second intro for ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' shows Connie [[WeaponAcrossTheShoulder carrying]] [[{{BFS}} Rose's sword]], spoiling that she'd be trained as a sword fighter (which happens in the intro's debut episode) and that it would become her usually weapon (which happens ten episodes later).

* [[BigBad Megatron]] is presumed dead at the end of the five-episode opening arc for ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime''. While the odds of a ''Transformers'' outing killing off Megatron that early were already ''low'', the opening credits then bump them down to ''nonexistent'' by prominently featuring Megatron.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hilda}}'': The season 1 opening sequence features multiple characters that would not make their debut till later (sometimes even as late as the second last episode). Jorgen, the Great Raven, the Vittra, a ghost, the Black Hound, Tontu; they're all there from episode 1.

* In an in-Verse example, the elaborate LiveActionRolePlaying Games of the ''Literature/DreamPark'' series are nearly always preceded by a formal recitation of the rules of play. One such rule commonly stipulates how many lost points a player can reclaim if, having been "killed out", they return "from the grave" as a zombie, ''tornrait'', or other undead. Which, naturally, prematurely reveals that there '''are''' undead as part of the Game's internal mythos and plotline.

** It takes several episodes before the titular military team is formed, and there is much angst on the protagonist's part as she wonders who she will be partnered with...which is all well and good, except for the part where three other girls are prominently depicted in the intro, even fighting alongside her in one scene. (The other characters aren't given half so much screentime.) The DVD cover also spoils this plot point, describing Ruby's teammates in detail and showing them in a suitably badass pose.

** The Volume 4 opening spoils the fact that Sun is the hooded figure stalking Blake on the ship in "Of Runaways And Stowaways", the fact that Qrow has been watching over Team RNJR/JNNR in "Family", and the fact that the two faunus Corsac and Fennec that debut in "Menagerie" are in league with Adam.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''
** It not only gives away its central philosophy in the very title (notable since Part 1 of the two-part series premiere was a {{deconstruction}} of [[MyLittlePony the show's parent franchise]] and [[GirlShowGhetto other such "little girl shows"]]), but summarizes the main protagonist's [[CharacterDevelopment character arc]] over the course of said premiere in the first few lines of its theme song.
-->'''[[TheHero Twilight Sparkle]]:''' ''I used to wonder what friendship could be / Until you all shared its magic with me.''
** The Japanese dub opening sequences, however, runs with the trope; the 3rd opening spoils the ''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E25ACanterlotWeddingPart1 Canterlot]] [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E26ACanterlotWeddingPart2 Wedding]]''.

** Episodes will often open with a recap of ''anything from an earlier episode that is related to the current one in any way''; if scenes from the episode "Jet" shows up in the recap, don't be surprised about the character Jet suddenly showing up in the episode. The Order of the White Lotus was given obvious importance extremely early because of this, for one example.

** An alternate opening narration for the first episode averts this trope, as Katara gives more information on the war and the Avatar but doesn't mention Aang because she hasn't met him yet. Before long, though, the opposite problem develops, as the narration becomes wildly outdated by the end of season 1.

* ''SpoilerOpening'': The opening shows all the main characters, even ones that won't make their debut untill a few episodes in, like Little Cato.

* Anyone who can't guess the ending of ''Film/PennAndTellerGetKilled'' should really work on their deduction skills.

** When ''Film/{{Rambo}}'' was shown in 2008, Creator/SylvesterStalone showed the alternate ending of the first movie where Rambo died during the making-of documentary. The Rambo sequels were also mentioned in the preshow.

** Thankfully, this has gotten less frequent, possibly due to the complaints they've received. Many events nowadays either put the bonus content after the movie (such as the ''Series/DoctorWho'' 50th Anniversary special and ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant''), use clips that don't spoil much of the movie (such as ''WesternAnimation/TeamHotWheelsOriginOfAwesome'', which used clips from the first 20 minutes, which were already available for free on [=YouTube=]), use no clips at all (Some examples include the 2015 showings of ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''Film/{{Grease}}'', or for that matter anything else screened under the "TCM Big Screen Classics" banner, which have introductions by Creator/TurnerClassicMovies hosts that don't spoil anything, but instead reveal tidbits about the movie you are about to watch - such as how ''Oz'' was not very successful in its initial run, but was VindicatedByHistory many years later when it was first shown on TV) or interview the cast (such as ''Music/OneDirection: Where We Are'' and ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF''[[note]]which was not mainly distributed by Fathom Events, but rather Funimation Films; only a select number of theaters had the film distributed by Fathom[[/note]]).

* The opening pages of ''Webcomic/ReversedStar'' show Icaruss and Evangeline fighting together in a war, which makes the fact that he will eventually reach her a ForgoneConclusion. Most of the dramatic tension instead comes from how he does it, and how he and Evangeline become the people that they are by that point.

* In ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' every four episodes of season 3 had an opening sequence using clips from those four episodes. Naturally plot developments like Enzo's TimeSkip, the Saucy Mare's web armor, and Mainframe in ruins are spoiled. Averted with the Creator/{{Toonami}} broadcast, which replaced those openings with customized ones.

** Thankfully, this has gotten less frequent, possibly due to the complaints they've received. Many events nowadays either put the bonus content after the movie (such as the ''Series/DoctorWho'' 50th Anniversary special and ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant''), use clips that don't spoil much of the movie (such as ''WesternAnimation/TeamHotWheelsOriginOfAwesome'', which used clips from the first 20 minutes, which were already available for free on YouTube), use no clips at all (Some examples include the 2015 showings of ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''Film/{{Grease}}'', or for that matter anything else screened under the "TCM Big Screen Classics" banner, which have introductions by Creator/TurnerClassicMovies hosts that don't spoil anything, but instead reveal tidbits about the movie you are about to watch - such as how ''Oz'' was not very successful in its initial run, but was VindicatedByHistory many years later when it was first shown on TV) or interview the cast (such as ''Music/OneDirection: Where We Are'' and ''Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF''[[note]]which was not mainly distributed by Fathom Events, but rather Funimation Films; only a select number of theaters had the film distributed by Fathom[[/note]]).