Maintaining a level of secrecy and control that has rapidly become the trademark feature of their movie production, Marvel elected not to release any official promotional material for Avengers: Endgame until the Super-Bowl teaser dropped back in February. Since then, they’ve been gradually drip-feeding more new footage and detail into each successive trailer, setting up a reveal that may well end up emotionally breaking a huge percentage of the movie’s audience.
Whilst fans have been hyped and excited before for big Marvel movie releases such as Civil War and Thor: Ragnarok, there’s never been the level of emotional investment in an MCU movie as that seen for Endgame. The now infamous closing scenes of Infinity War changed the franchise in a way that absolutely nobody was expecting, and if you’re looking for evidence that Endgame is going to continue the trend, the latest teasers just keep it coming.
Last week saw a couple more new 30 second trailers drop, as well as a minute-long featurette with the Avengers cast members, and the devil is very much in the detail in this material. From the fleet of refugee ships moored up at Ellis Island, to the dog sat alone waiting for his dead master next to the missing posters and the glimpse of Clint teaching his kids how to use his bow, this is NOT just another blockbuster movie.
A new featurette was released yesterday:
The teasers also finally shine some light on Thanos, who had been conspicuously absent from the promo material up until now. Choosing to retrieve the armour he’d been utilizing as a scarecrow in his new agricultural setting, the trailers show him facing off with Tony and the others for what promises to be an EPIC showdown.
You only have to listen to the quotes from the principal actors to hear how emotionally affected they already are by knowing how this will all end:
Chris Evans: “Just when you think Marvel’s pulled every trick out of the bag, they’ve actually saved some of the best stuff for this one….”
Jeremy Renner: “The storytelling is insane, you just don’t know what to expect.”
Robert Downey Jr: “I guarantee there is no way, anybody could guess what is going to happen.”
In the case of Downey Jr, it’s his quite that is the most exciting. RDJ is notorious for his interaction and engagement on social media, demonstrating that he is well aware of the ideas and theories that fans are coming up with. (Yes, even the Thanos Butthole theory…).
If the Russos have managed to come up with something that not even he was expecting, you’d best be stealing yourself for a full-on breakdown.
Avengers: Endgame will open in cinemas on April 26th.