Well, folks, we have it: After months of waiting, speculation, rumors, and demands, we’ve finally gotten our first look at Avengers 4, now known as Avengers: Endgame. As ever with these cryptic teasers, it’s a look that shows off a bunch of things… and yet, not a lot at the same time. Let’s go through and break it down.
Well, folks, we have it: After months of waiting, speculation, rumors, and demands, we’ve finally gotten our first look at Avengers 4, now known as Avengers: Endgame. As ever with these cryptic teasers, it’s a look that shows off a bunch of things… and yet, not a lot at the same time. Let’s go through and break it down.
The trailer opens with a distraught Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.)—gazing upon his battered Iron Man helmet as he sits on the deck of the Benatar, the ship of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Well, okay, former ship of the Guardians of the Galaxy, who are now basically down to Rocket (Bradley Cooper), who’s stuck on Earth, and Nebula (Karen Gillan), who…is actually seemingly on the Benatar with Tony at some point, we’ll get to that.
Tony is fiddling with the helmet for a grim purpose: he’s recording a final log, because his situation is pretty dire. He’s had no food or water for four days, and his oxygen is about to run out. The Benatar is drifting in space, and he’s seemingly all on his own. “When I drift off, I will dream about you. It’s always you,” he concludes, with the “you” presumably being Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Like I said, grim!
Marvel’s probably not gonna let the Russo Brothers kill Tony Stark off early on in this movie by having him asphyxiate alone out in the depths of space, so we can bet on him being rescued. The question is, by who?
The obvious choice would be Marvel’s new cosmic defender, the mighty Captain Marvel (Brie Larson)—who’d make sense to appear in the depths of space out of nowhere looking to help someone in need, and we know she’s on her way back to Earth thanks to Nick Fury’s (Samuel L. Jackson) beeper alert. But don’t forget that there’s actually still some Asgardians out there in space—we know Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and a few survivors from Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) attack on the refugee ship at the opening of Infinity War escaped (although there’s probably a few less of them now, thanks to the Snap). Suffice to say, hopeless at it seems, Tony’s got options.
After Thanos snaps away even the Marvel Studios banner—that rascal—we cut to the Mad Titan enjoying his “well-deserved” rest. While the planet he’s on hasn’t been officially named yet, the Russos have referred to it as “Titan 2,” a recreation of his ravaged homeworld. His armor being hung up as a scarecrow and Thanos suddenly becoming a dab hand at planting crops is actually a reference to an iconic shot from the comics, specifically the original 1991 miniseries by Jim Starlin and George Perez, Infinity Gauntlet:
At the climax of the series, after the power of the gauntlet had been ripped out of Thanos’ hands (Adam Warlock eventually becomes the wielder, to safeguard the cosmos), the Mad Titan had retired to an unknown world, humbled by his loss of power, to tend the soil and seemingly live out his days as a farmer. Just like that didn’t really stick in the comics, odds are that the MCU Thanos—who is still wearing the battered, burned-out Infinity Gauntlet—won’t be spending Endgame getting his Stardew Valley on.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, the surviving Avengers have relocated from Wakanda to Avengers HQ. Oh no, sad Steve Rogers (Chris Evans)! “Thanos did exactly what he said he was gonna do,” Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) adds over the shot of a weepy Cap.
