Everything We Learned in Our Latest Look at Avengers: Endgame – Gizmodo

The new trailer for Avengers: Endgame is here, and it’s brought a friend in the form of the current queen of the box office, Carol Danvers. But it’s also given us the teeniest of new glimpses at the ultimate culmination of the Avengers’ grand battle against Thanos. Here’s what we managed to spot amidst the ruins.

The trailer opens nostalgically, with footage from the film that started all this off in the first place: Iron Man. Flashing back to past movies is something this trailer leans on heavily in order to avoid actually showing us too much.

But is it just nostalgia or perhaps a hint to the timey-wimey rumors that have dogged Endgame for a while? Reports long ago gave us pictures of what appeared to be new footage shot around The Avengers’ Battle of New York sequences, with implications of time-travel (or even the BARF simulation tech from Captain America: Civil War) being the reason for it.

Anyway, the narration over it from Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr. is new): “God, seems like a thousand years ago… I fought my way out of that cave, became Iron Man…realized I loved you.” This is presumably all part of the message we saw Tony recording aboard the Benatar in the first trailer, about to run out of air, and preparing to say goodbye to Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), as we get a bit more old footage from the original Iron Man and Iron Man 3.

As Tony continues to ponder what could’ve been—the chance to pull off one last surprise win—before his inevitable rescue, we get an extended shot of him looking out of the Benatar’s viewport. The question still remains, who gets Tony back to Earth, like we see him later in this trailer? Is it Nebula (Karen Gillan), who we know at least at some point is on the ship with him, or is it Captain Marvel (Brie Larson)? Although honestly, it seems like Captain Marvel’s post-credits Endgame sequence implied that she arrives to hunt down Fury’s pager message in a pretty sharpish manner. No time to pick up a genius playboy billionaire philanthropist on the way?

Anyway, now it’s Steve Rogers’ (Chris Evans) turn to get the nostalgic brooding treatment! He not only gets old footage from what some may call the best Captain America movie, The First Avenger—other opinions are available, and also wrong—but he also gets old voiceover: the aged Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) in The Winter Soldier, telling Steve “The world has changed…and none of us can go back. All we can do is our best. And sometimes, the best that we can do is to start over.” Peggy, or at least the memory of her—after all, she passed away during the events of Civil War—has played a big part in what we’ve seen of Cap’s arc in Endgame so far, which has lead to idle hope or speculation that, should this be Evans’ last time behind the shield, he gets to end it reunited with his true love.

Peggy’s narration continues, but we move on to another Avenger, and we get a painful glimpse into the past of Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), flashing back to him teaching a young girl—who is presumably his daughter from Age of Ultron, albeit grown up slightly—the tools of his trade. It’s either set up for the fact that Hawkeye might have lost her and the rest of his family during Thanos’ snap, or, perhaps, a cheeky comic book hint to the passing down of the Hawkeye mantle. In the comics, it was Kate Bishop who became Hawkeye (after Clint disappeared following his death and revival post-House of M), but she had no relation to him.

As in the comics, at the time he instead became the masked hero Ronin, an element we knew Endgame was incorporating. We get another shot of the disheveled Clint reuniting with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), this time extended to show the two briefly holding hands. D’aww.

The old footage being used in this trailer is intriguing, focusing on figures and homes our remaining heroes have lost. Steve gets a bit more heartbreak as we see Peggy’s funeral from Civil War, while Thor (Chris Hemsworth) gets, well, Thor, looking back at his lost Asgardian home and his now departed father Odin (Anthony Hopkins). But he also gets Avengers: Infinity War snap victims like Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), as we hear him solemnly note that he “saw all these people die,” alluding to some lingering regrets that hint at Thor attempting to burden the responsibility for their deaths on himself alone. Maybe he should’ve aimed for the head.

Finally, a meatier shot of actual Endgame footage again, as we glimpse Natasha, Steve, and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) back at Avengers HQ—and Nat has her two-tone hair. It’s full blonde in some scenes, like when she reunites with Hawkeye, so this is presumably set after that—because later on when we see the entire team assembled, her hair is still in this style. “I keep telling everybody they should move on,” Steve notes. “Some do, but not us.” Well, you guys are Avengers, Steve.

As Nat and Steve ponder that if there’s a chance they could take to undo Thanos’ horror, they should take it, we get our first glimpse at Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), having survived the snap during his trip into the Quantum Realm at the end of Ant-Man and The Wasp (we’ve yet to find out if him simply being in the Quantum Realm is what saved him from the dusty fate for if it was mere chance—but we assume the former). This is presumably at least a little after the initial shock, given the missing posters he dejectedly looks at.

Meanwhile, a Quinjet flies in over Tokyo—note Tokyo Tower on the left, and the Rainbow Bridge (yes really!) across Odaiba and Shibaura Pier—with Clint and Nat on board. So Tokyo is presumably where Clint was off Ronin’ around.

But we pretty quickly cut to this ominous shot of Hawkeye attempting to outrun a huge explosion, in some kind of underground tunnel. His outfit matches the one we just saw him wearing in the Quinjet—is this part of his adventure in Tokyo, or somewhere else after with Nat?

Speaking of action though, the trailer starts getting very action heavy here as we see Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) and War Machine (Don Cheadle)—ready for action. Rocket’s got a cool space gun, and note that beefy, souped-up War Machine suit for Rhodey! And, finally—finally—after being seen in it in concept art for Guardians of the Galaxy years and years ago, Rocket is wearing a cinematic take on his comics uniform from the 2008 Abnett/Lanning run that inspired the movie team.

Also note: Where in the hell is this scrap taking place? It seems to be the same battle we get glimpses of later in the trailer, but it’s worth bearing in mind that its true location is obscured by ash and flame throughout. Is it the fight against Thanos, or some other battle ahead of it?

Before we get ahead of ourselves though, it’s time for a bit more build up with a shot of what seems like it could be Steve’s reunion with Hawkeye after he’s brought back to HQ by Nat—as he closes off her earlier voiceover about taking the chance to undo this with a simple “We will. Whatever it takes.” We also get our best look at Hawkeye’s extremely questionable haircut here. Maybe how he learned about the snap was his hairdresser got dusted mid-razoring?

More pre-battle-prep, as we cut between Scott Lang, suited up in what looks like Avengers HQ, and then a quick shot of an electrified Thor readying Stormbreaker.

Nebula unleashes a primal scream before charging into battle, but…where is she? The lighting matches the location of wherever Rocket and War Machine were, rather than Titan, where we last saw her (plus, why would she be rushing into battle there when only her and Tony were left standing?). The yellow hue in the sky though makes this seem like it’s not Earth, as does all the wreckage. Is this actually the world where we saw Thanos tending crops in the first trailer, after his victory? Or is it another alien world that she finds herself on?

As we get another brief shot of Clint readying himself in the same tunnel we saw exploding earlier, and a repeat from the Superbowl spot of Natasha unloading on a firing range at Avengers HQ, we hear them both echo Steve’s “Whatever it takes” with ones of their own.

Another extension from the Superbowl spot is this shot of Steve tightening his shield straps, so we now get to see him grit his teeth too—which also reveals this is taking place in the same scrap we’ve now seen Rocket, Rhodey, and Nebula in. So yeah, this is feeling like some real “last fight” level scrapping, here.

Meanwhile, Ant-Man leaps into miniature action, and while the fire and lighting would seem to hint that this is wherever Cap and the others are fighting. If it is, then maybe it’s not as alien a place as we thought it could be. Note the objects Scott bounds around—a pencil, a headphone jack, what looks like a measuring tape. All pretty Earth-ish objects. So he’s either somewhere different from the rest of our heroes and this is just trickily edited, or whatever this scrap is is a bit closer to home than we anticipated.

We cut back to Tony aboard the Benatar recording his final message, just to give him a “Whatever it takes” of his own.

A new dawn rises in Avengers HQ, as our heroes, at long last, are assembled. Not everyone is here, or at least shown here—we get Steve, Scott, Nebula, Clint, Rhodey, and Nat. But we also get Tony and Nebula. So at this point, they’ve been rescued from their seeming doom (oh, like Tony would go out in this movie like that!). But also, note the snazzy costumes! Themed armor, or is this spacesuit gear? Hell, the inspiration of Hank Pym’s Quantum Realm suit from Ant-Man and The Wasp on these could even hint at a trip into microscopic realms rather than cosmic ones.

This is, actually, not the first time we’ve seen these looks—leaked merchandise revealed the suits recently, but it was always uncertain as to whether or not they were misdirection just for the toys, or actually in the film, so it’s nice to get to see the latter confirmed. Which raises an interesting point—those toys also revealed the likes of Rocket, Hulk, Thor, and even the completely-unseen-in-this-trailer Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) donning these outfits too. So maybe not everyone is in this panning shot. Also, it should be mentioned, outside of the flashback scenes there’s no Wakandans in sight.

The trailer concludes with a hero we’ve been waiting to see in this movie: at last, Carol Danvers is on the scene at Avengers HQ, after we saw her make her speedy arrival there and demand to know where Nick Fury is in Captain Marvel’s first post-credits scene. It’s a brief moment, but a fun one—Thor, attempting to intimidate the new arrival, summons Stormbreaker to his grip right past her. All he gets out of Carol?

A smirk. Oh, we agree, Odinson—we like this one, too. Also: note that Nat has her full blonde Infinity War hair here, so this is presumably pre-braid-and-dye and pre-Hawkeye. So maybe Carol arrives on the scene pretty quickly? We’ll have to wait and see.

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Like our prior looks at Endgame, this trailer doesn’t really tell us all that much beyond what we already knew: the battered and bruised Avengers regroup and prepare for one last-ditch effort to take out Thanos once and for all. What that effort involves, or the price that will have to be paid to see it pulled off, remains unseen. And at this point, we probably won’t get any more hints until Endgame is actually hitting theaters.

Not long to go now—it’s only a month and a half until April 26.

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