In anticipation of the release of Avengers: Endgame on Thursday, Phoebe Walker analyses the main trailer for the film.
Marvel has proven over the course of its cinematic universe that it is unafraid to take risks. Infinity War directors, The Russo Brothers, took this risk-taking level to the extreme as characters (who the audience presumed would live) began to disintegrate before their very eyes, dispelling all fan-theories as to what would happen in the films sequel. This trailer foreshadows the sheer volume of twists and turns that Endgame will have our heroes winding down that they can forego, what some fans consider to be major events.
The trailer opens with our band of original heroes wallowing in survivor’s guilt, planning missions to undo Thanos’ snap because, as Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) surmises, they ‘owe this to everybody who is not in this room to try’. Avengers: Infinity War unusually made the bad guy the victor of the film, and the Avengers, as a result, are obviously suffering from their loss.
The first of the big reveals is that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) make it back to Earth, despite Tony’s bleak outlook in the first trailer. The trailer sees Tony reunite with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Nebula with Rocket, the only two surviving Guardians. But perhaps the biggest moment in the trailer is the reunion of Tony Stark and Captain America (Chris Evans) who seem to have realised the scale of what they are facing, thus choosing to set their Civil War differences aside. The key moment is when Tony asks if Cap trusts him and Cap says he does (cue the fandom exploding into tears as their two leaders join together). For the first time, with these two together, plus the original Avengers, and some new faces to the team such as Captain Marvel, Rocket, Nebula and Ant-Man, it seems possible for our Avengers to triumph and restore balance to the universe. However at the end the Mad Titan himself shows up and snaps our hope away that all of these heroes will make it through unscathed; the armour that he symbolically removed in the opening scene of Infinity War is now back, showing that whilst he fears the Avengers, he is not going down without a fight. That’s not to say that our heroes won’t back down either; after all the plan is to do whatever it takes…
Image Courtesy of Marvel Studios