Last week was a good week for Marvel fans. Not only did we get another Captain Marvel trailer, and second hand accounts of Spider-Man: Far From Home's first teaser, but Avengers 4 itself (now officially known as Avengers: Endgame) debuted online with the Avengers 4 trailer. Other than the big reveal of the Avengers 4 title, the two and a half minute teaser was a surprisingly subdued, non-eventful look at the final film in Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Look a little closer, however, and you can spot a handful of interesting, important details dotted throughout, the implications of which could be huge for the future of Earth's Mightiest Heroes as we know them. Here's nine of the biggest things we spotted from the Avengers 4 trailer, with massive spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War included.
1. Pepper, meet Rescue
“Just for the record, being adrift in space with zero promise of rescue is more fun than it sounds,” cracks Tony, as he records one final message to Pepper from aboard what appears to be the Milano (more on that later). But why doesn’t he use the word “help” instead of “rescue”? Come to think of it, that word sounds awfully familiar…
Flash back to a few months ago, when Gwyneth Paltrow (who plays Pepper Potts) posted a selfie in full superhero getup on Instagram, prompting rumours that she’d be turning into the character’s vigilante alter ego in Avengers 4. And guess what that character’s called? Yep, it’s Rescue. The fact that Tony uses her superhero name when talking to her is surely no coincidence.
2. An unlikely pairing
While it looks slightly different to its heydey from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, the consensus seems to be that it is indeed the Benatar - The Guardian’s spaceship - which Tony Stark is seen aboard at the trailer’s beginning. And while they don’t share the screen at any point, it looks as though he’s travelling with Nebula, after the two were left grieving and defeated on Titan, following their fight with Thanos.
At one point, we might infer that Nebula is consoling Stark with a gentle hand placed on his shoulder, though this could be someone or something else entirely. Regardless, It’s almost certain that the pair will somehow escape the depths of space before the ship’s oxygen levels run out, but who will be the one to save them? Captain Marvel, perhaps?
3. Of course there’s a reference to the comic books
A lot of the internet is fawning over that ominous shot of Thanos’ battle armour from the Endgame trailer, but this image looks awfully similar to the comic panel seen in Infinity War #1, where the mad titan props the armour up as a makeshift scarecrow following his fight with the Avengers.
Is this shot taken during Thanos’ retirement to his agrarian planet from the Avengers: Infinity War ending, or are we looking at a post Thanos world entirely, where only his armour remains as a warning to those who try to attack Earth again? The Russos probably won’t be spilling the beans on that particular question anytime soon...
4. Hawkeye is back... or is he?
After mysteriously staying absent from Avengers: Infinity War, Jeremy Renner’s wisecracking bowman Hawkeye finally makes his return to the world of superheroes in Endgame. He’s glimpsed here dealing with some bad guys in what appears to be Japan, as Black Widow looks on, but wait? Is that a katana? And what the heck is he wearing?
This is, of course, Ronin - the vigilante that Hawkeye eventually becomes in the Marvel comic books, after he’s forced to go underground following the enacting the Sokovia Accords. The fact that Cap’s voiceover mentions losing family precisely when Clint shows up in the trailer suggests his wife and children from Avengers: Age of Ultron may not have survived the Snap, which would explain why he’s back in action here. Question is, what good is Ronin against a mad titan like Thanos?
5. Shuri and The Snap
One important scene from the trailer shows Bruce Banner looking on in disbelief as a series of names pop up across the screen. Scott Lang: Missing, Peter Parker: Missing, Shuri: Missing… wait, what? Shuri got dusted?!
This will come as a surprise to those who remembers Angela Bassett (who plays Shuri’s mother in Black Panther) state that the character survived Thanos’ decimation during an interview, but the Endgame trailer seems to suggest otherwise. What’s more curious is the fact that she’s classified as missing, rather than dead, as if the Avengers believe that they’ve merely been transported somewhere rather than killed off outright. Hmmm….
6. An unexpected cameo
We’re not sure whether Steve Rogers’ current love interest, Sharon Carter, survived the dusting or not but, either way, Cap clearly still has feelings for her great aunt and his former love, Peggy Carter. We know this because he has a picture of her stowed away in his compass, which we briefly glimpse during the Endgame trailer.
Of course, Peggy is very much dead at this point, having passed away as an elderly woman during the events of Captain America: Civil War, but perhaps another flashback scene could provide a cameo opportunity for Hayley Atwell?
7. Luis’ van lives!
Sure, half of humanity is gone, but at least Luis’ van remains alive and intact, seen at the very end of the trailer as Scott Lang is banging on the door to Avengers HQ in New York. Scott presumably drove all the way from San Francisco the East coast in that dodgy old banger, which means this encounter take place at least a few days after the decimation itself.
More importantly, anyone who’s seen the Ant-Man and the Wasp ending will know that this van carries the transporter that allows Scott to enter the Quantum Realm, which could be very useful for travelling through time and space to retrieve those pesky Infinity stones back from Thanos. That’s right, you heard it here first; Luis’ van could be the key to restoring humanity itself.
8. “We met in Germany, at the airport?”
Scott Lang’s appearance in the Avengers: Endgame trailer is the only vaguely light-hearted moment of the entire thing, and features a not so subtle reference to the events of Civil War. No, Ant-Man and Steve Rogers didn’t just bump into each other during a shared layover at Munich, but the airport Scott mentions is the same one where Iron Man, Cap, Black Panther, and almost half the MCU battled it out over the Sokovia Accords that would bring them all under the jurisdiction of the United Nations. And if you haven’t seen Civil War yet, why not? It’s one of the best Marvel movies of all time, so go and change that. Right now.
9. The Endgame logo may just have spoiled the ending
At face value, the way in which the Marvel Studios logo is dusted away could just be seen as a cheeky reference to the Avengers: Infinity War ending, and nothing more. But look closer. At the end, the logo for Avengers: Endgame looks like it's being reverse dusted, with the crumbling parts coming together to restore the iconic A to its former glory.
If one of the surviving Avengers manages to grab the time stone from Thanos, this could be the exact same process that sees every dusting victim brought back into existence. But the Russo’s aren’t cheeky enough to reveal that key plot point just from their logo, right? Surely not…
For more predictions about all things Avengers shaped, check out our thoughts on what the Avengers 4 ending might look like, and the Avengers 4 theories doing the rounds online.
