It's official. After years of rumour, speculation, and mad fan theories about the Avengers 4 title, Marvel has confirmed the sequel to Avengers: Infinity War is called Avengers: Endgame. The Avengers 4 trailer, apart from outright spoiling the Avengers: Infinity War ending, doesn't give away a whole lot of details, but the Endgame moniker is more than enough to go on for some healthy predictions about what to expect from the superhero ensemble follow up.
But what does the Endgame part of the Avengers 4 title precisely entail for our superhero team? And might the fatalistic associations of that word bring about even more big screen deaths for some of our favourite characters? Avengers: Endgame isn't out till April next year, crucially after the release of Captain Marvel in March, and I'm sure we'll learn more story details in the weeks and months to come, but here's our best estimates as to what the new Avengers 4 title tells us.
For one thing, it all sounds pretty ominous. We’ve heard talk about Avengers 4 funeral scenes, as well as the expectation of more than one big death coming our way. That’s a given. But, in terms of the MCU, Avengers: Endgame is also going to be the end of Phase 3. If nothing else, it’s a nice little wink and a nod towards that, and the fact that some of the the old guard will be inevitably leaving to make room for new heroes.
It's also the phrase Doctor Strange uses at the end of the battle with Thanos on Titan in Infinity War, soberly telling Tony Stark that: "There was no other way [to defeat him]. We're in the endgame now." The winning theory right now is that Strange, upon foreseeing every possible outcome of the war, recognised the only way to win was to, in a sense, lose, by letting Thanos acquire all the Infinity Stones and complete his quest to halve the universe's population.
The endgame he's thus referring to is the last ditch effort by the surviving Avengers to somehow undo Thanos' dastardly work, and while we reckon that involves some time-wimey retconning courtesy of Ant-Man's ability to enter the quantum realm, the specifics of that plan remain somewhat unclear. That said, that first trailer definitely shows Captain America and Black Widow up to something, so the fight with Thanos clearly isn't over just yet.
It's also worth noting that Avengers: Endgame isn't out till April next year, crucially after the release of Captain Marvel in March, which will definitely have an impact given what happened in the Avengers: Infinity War post-credits scene. With that in mind, it's best not too get too carried away with the theorising, and patiently wait for Marvel itself to prepare us for what's to come. The last thing anyone wants is to be spoiled by our own hypothesis, as vindicating as it might feel.
Are there any more clues hidden away in what the cast have had to say about the Avengers 4 ending? There's only one way to find out...
