Bart the Bad Guy

Numerous Springfield citizens watch Vindicators Crystal War, the new film in a Marble Cinematic Universe superhero franchise called Vindicators. When the film ends on a cliffhanger in which the villain kills the film's heroes, the audience is shocked and saddened by the bleak cliffhanger. They eagerly anticipate the concluding sequel which doesn't come out for a year, much to their impatience.

Eleven months later and one month before the release of Vindicators Crystal War 2: Resurgence, Milhouse is injured while Bart attempts a YouTube stunt. One of the stars of Vindicators, Australian actor Glen Tangier who plays the superhero Airshot, mistakes Bart for Milhouse while visiting him at the hospital and passes out drunk. Bart hijacks his laptop where he finds and views a cut of the unreleased final Vindicators film that night. With knowledge of the film's key moments and plot reveals, Bart decides to visit Comic Book Guy to exchange the spoilers for an expensive comic book. However, Comic Book Guy instead gives away all of his products so he doesn't get the film spoiled for himself. Realizing the power he has, armed with the film's spoilers, Bart decides to blackmail the town by threatening to spoil the ending of the film. When he attempts to blackmail his father, Homer tells Bart that he is immune to his spoiler power because he doesn't care about the Vindicators films. Instead, Bart lets Homer in on the deal, allowing him to scam free beer from Moe. Bart also exploits Lisa by giving her a chance to dance with Airshot (played by Tangier) at a school dance. After realizing that his power will mean nothing when the film finally opens in theaters, Bart's blackmailing escalates.

Milhouse berates Bart for stealing his visit from Airshot before Bart is kidnapped by the Marble film studio, who has been made aware of Bart's blackmailing and knowledge of the spoilers. Using virtual reality, the studio executives make him believe that his spoilers will actually kill the film's heroes in their universe if he leaks them. Bart refuses to reveal the spoilers to the film's villain to save the heroes, satisfying the studio executives. As a result, Bart stops blackmailing the town, and he succeeds in not spoiling the film until it finally premieres. However, the first Springfield audience to see the film in the theater inadvertently spoils the film on social media.

In October 2019, it was reported that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige would guest star as an alien supervillain named Chinnos.[2] The same month, a first look was shown of the characters played by directors Anthony and Joe Russo.[3] In January 2020, another first look was shown of the characters played by Cobie Smulders and Taran Killam.[4] In February 2020, executive producer Matt Selman unveiled a promotional poster for the episode.[5]

The film franchise in the episode is a parody of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, overseen by guest star Kevin Feige.[6] The films involved in the episode's plot are parodies of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which were directed by guest stars Anthony and Joe Russo and which featured guest star Cobie Smulders.[5][6][7]

• "Bart the Bad Guy" at IMDb