Ever since we all collectively walked out of the theater after seeing Avengers: Infinity War, heads hung in sorrow, emotionally drained, and looking for hope. We’ve all been waiting to know what was next from the Avengers franchise. We didn’t even know the name of that next chapter until Friday when we finally got not only the name, but the first teaser trailer for Avengers: Endgame.
But, now that we’ve gotten that tiny little glimpse into Avengers: Endgame, in a lot of ways, we’re more in the dark than we were before we saw it. Ultimately, it’s better to have more questions going into a movie than less, so this is a good problem to have. We’ve been hearing a lot of different complaints if Marvel had blown the entire plot in the trailer. But for now, let’s take a look at a few questions brought up by the new Avengers: Endgame teaser trailer.
10. What Role Will Thanos Play?
Honestly, Avengers: Infinity War was a Thanos movie. He was the main focus, he drove the plot, he had a goal, and eventually SPOILER he achieved it. The last time we saw the mad Titan, played by Josh Brolin, he had just snapped half of the universe out of existence using the Infinity Gauntlet. He had previously retired to some distant planet to “watch the sunrise on a grateful universe” as he had predicted to Doctor Strange. But, in the Endgame trailer, we only see him walking through fields of alien plants, and his armor posted up as a scarecrow (a reference to the Infinity Gauntlet and Infinity War comics). So what will be his role in this film? Will it be round two between the Avengers and Thanos, or is there still more to be revealed?
9. Where Is Everyone Else?
In the Avengers: Endgame teaser, we see Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Bruce Banner, and Hawkeye, some of the only heroes to survive Thanos’ snap. We even see a brief shot of Nebula! But they weren’t the only survivors. At the end of Avengers: Infinity War, both War Machine and Rocket Raccoon were still alive, but they don’t appear at all in the Endgame teaser. Where are they? What are they up to now that so many of those they know and love have ceased to exist?
8. What’s Happening In Wakanda?
The big, climactic battle of Avengers: Infinity War took place in Wakanda, which has become a major focus in the MCU since Chadwick Boseman’s King T’Challa, the Black Panther, went public with his country’s advanced technology. But T’Challa was one of the unfortunate victims of Thanos’ snap! And as we learned from the Avengers: Endgame trailer, his younger sister Shuri is counted among the missing.
So with the royal family of Wakanda gone, who’s running the place?
Could it be M’Baku, the leader of the Jabari tribe in Wakanda, played by Winston Duke? He appeared to survive the snap at the end of Infinity War. Or perhaps Okoye, played by Danai Gurira, who led the Wakandan Dora Milaje is in control? Perhaps even the two of them are fighting for control of the country? This leads to an even more important question: What do we have to do to see a movie made about that?!?
7. Why’s Hawkeye So Moody?
Poor Hawkeye, he’s clearly in a bad way. So bad in fact, that it appears that he’s abandoned his Hawkeye persona and is going by Ronin now. So what could drive the expert archer, played by Jeremy Renner, to this dark turn? The easy answer would be that he lost his family, or at least a portion of them, to Thanos’ snap. But that could be too obvious. Marvel likes to keep people guessing, and they often like to distract us with red herrings in advertising to keep us from guessing the truth. There may be more to Clint Barton’s new goth phase than we think.
6. How Did Ant-Man Get Out Of The Quantum Realm?
When last we saw Scott Lang, he had traveled into the quantum realm during the mid-credits scene for Ant-Man and the Wasp. He was waiting for Hank Pym, Janet Pym, and Hope Van Dyne to pull him back out, but all three were turned to dust by Thanos’ snap. This left Ant-Man stranded in the quantum realm and assumed missing by the rest of the world. So, it was quite a surprise to see him driving up to the front gate of the Avengers’ base at the end of the Avengers: Endgame teaser. How did Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man escape the quantum realm, and will that play a role in the Avengers’ plan to defeat Thanos?
5. How Will Captain Marvel Play Into The Film?
A few days before we got the Avengers: Endgame teaser, we got our second trailer for Marvel’s next film, Captain Marvel. The post-credits scene from Avengers: Infinity War showed Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury managing to send a signal off to Captain Marvel, played by Brie Larson, before Fury disappeared from Thanos’ snap. March’s Captain Marvel is going to show how the titular hero and a younger Nick Fury in the 1990’s met, teamed up, and formed a bond together, leading Fury to call for her at the end of Infinity War. But, Captain Marvel doesn’t appear at all in the Endgame teaser, so what exactly will she be doing? How big a role will she even have?
4. How Will Iron Man Get Rescued?
Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark barely survived Avengers: Infinity War. He didn’t disappear from the snap, but he did get impaled by Thanos in their final battle before the Mad Titan achieved his mission.
When the Avengers: Endgame teaser opens, we see Stark adrift on what appears to be the Guardians of the Galaxy’s ship in deep space. He records a final video message to Pepper Potts, explaining that he’s run out of food and water and about to exhaust his supply of oxygen. This doesn’t bode well for the Armored Avenger, but it’s probably a safe bet that Iron Man won’t go out by something as anticlimactic as that. Surely, he’s going to make it to the final battle (wherever and whatever that ends up being), but how? Will Marvel use this as an opportunity to introduce some new cosmic characters like the Nova Corps? Or, wishful thinking, now that Fox will be absorbed by Disney, could this be how they introduce us to the Silver Surfer?
3. Is Thor in Prison?
By the end of Avengers: Infinity War, Thor had a fancy new hammer name Stormbreaker and was kicking the absolute crap out of Thanos’ forces. He even buried that new hammer deep in the chest of the Mad Titan himself. But, as we learned from Thanos, Thor “should have gone for the head,” and Thanos was still able to snap half of life out of existence with the Infinity Gauntlet. Now, the only shot we see of Chris Hemsworth’s God of Thunder in the Avengers: Endgame trailer is a brief shot of him sitting in some sort of chamber with oddly textured walls. He’s behind glass, wearing street clothes, sans hammer… What’s going on, God of Thunder? Where’s your cape? Where’s your hammer?
2. Was The Title ‘Avengers: Endgame’ Really Worth The Hype?
One of the things that Marvel loves is their secrets. We haven’t known a thing about Avengers: Endgame until now. We didn’t even know the title! At a fan event several months ago, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo said that the title to Avengers 4 was a spoiler for Infinity War. We assumed the Russo’s were right about this being a spoiler, but as Thor himself put it so well in Thor: Ragnarok, “Is he though?”.
Okay, so in Infinity War after Thanos got the Time Stone, Doctor Strange told Iron Man that, “We’re in the endgame now.” Okay, sure. We get it. Strange saw 14,000,605 possible futures resulting from their battle with Thanos and only one ended in their victory. So we can assume that if “We’re in the endgame…” and the title of the new film is Avengers: Endgame, then things are going according to Strange’s plan.
But really, was that worth over seven months of speculation? Some of which actually ending up on the correct title? Doesn’t holding off on the title for all that time—only for it to end up online—cheapen the reveal a bit? Would it really have been that much of a spoiler to release that title two or three months after the release of Infinity War?
1. What Happened To That Sweet Captain America Beard, And How Will We Live Without It?
Emotions are running high in the Avengers: Endgame teaser. Our heroes have lost a lot, but no loss is nearly as complete and soul-shattering as that of Captain America’s beautiful, glorious beard. Cap actor Chris Evans grew the beard for Avengers: Infinity War, as Captain America has been on the run for some time and let his facial hair go. Fans were enthusiastic. to say the least.
But sadly, all good things have to come to an end, and apparently, that includes Captain America’s magnificent facial hair.
The Avengers: Endgame teaser showed us a Cap whose face is baby smooth. He appears to have kept the longer hair that he had in Infinity War, but his beard seems to have been the last casualty of the film.
Perhaps, just after the camera cut on Cap for the last time in Avengers: Infinity War, that wonderful, resplendent facial hair disappeared the final, tragic victim of Thanos’ infamous snap. Now the only question we have left is: how do we carry on without it? RIP, Cap-Beard.
