After what feels like an eternity the teaser for Avengers 4 has finally dropped (roughly a year after the Infinity War teaser). With it we at last had the title reveal: Avengers: Endgame, which doesn't seem to spoil anything (as we'd been told it would). I, like many people, dismissed that it would be the title precisely because it wasn't a 'mild spoiler' (the Russo's also denied it was the title months ago). Jeremy Conrad, who has made a huge fuss over the title being Annihilation, has decided the title was always in flux and therefore, no error was made. Conrad, it seems, does not make mistakes--I'm not infallible myself, so I'm not sure how that feels.
Speaking of being wrong, thus far it appears that all the trailer leaks were incorrect. There's almost no substance to the teaser at all, opening with Iron Man and Nebula seemingly adrift in space aboard the Benatar (the Guardians ship)--Tony making what he thinks is a last message for Pepper. Many have noted that Tony's outfit and look in this scene echoes that of his from the very first Iron Man. We then briefly revisit Thanos on his farm before heading to the Avengers facility (I'm incredulous at how much fuss people are making over what appears to be a few weeks without lawn maintenance--if you look at previous images it's difficult to detect much change). We then see what looks like Captain America, Hulk, Thor, and Black Widow discussing their plan--as this happens we see among the 'missing' is Shuri (heavily implying she was dusted, which makes sense as her abilities are pretty redundant when included with the OG Avengers). This is followed by the Hawkeye-as-Ronin reveal (an alter-ego we've known about via leaked photos from a year ago); he's being recruited or collected by Black Widow. Cap is seen wearing his Winter Soldier uniform while looking at a picture of Peggy Carter from the first Captain America. The stinger is Ant-Man arriving at the Avengers base, along with Luis' van, and asking to be buzzed in.
And that's the trailer--the meat of it boils down to just two elements (Iron Man believing he's about to die and Captain America getting ready to enact a bold plan--Ant-Man either interrupts the latter or is the genesis of it). There are a few heroes we know are involved in the film that we don't see: Captain Marvel (excluded for the obvious reason that they don't want to distract from her own film), Rocket (the CGI for him may not be finished), and War Machine. How do we know these three are part of the team? Toy leaks in October that confirmed concept art leaked earlier in the year. Overall I think the teaser was good, if not as evocative as the Infinity War teaser (which is understandable given how much more secrecy there is about the plot). The substance of the teaser is quite different from Infinity War except the stinger, which also aims for both comedy and the introduction of a character/s unseen until that moment (the Guardians in the latter case).
What can we glean from this limited material? There's a growing consensus (which I share) that Captain Marvel will find Iron Man in space. I'm guessing much like the Guardians and Thor in Infinity War she will answer a distress call. This isn't required for Carol Danvers--she could arrive on Earth looking for Nick Fury and come to the earth-based Avengers when she can't find him--just as there are others who could rescue Tony in space (such as Valkyrie or Kraglin)--but given that she's space-based and a bigger character than anyone else who could make the rescue, it makes sense. It's likely Nebula knows who Captain Marvel is given that she's Kree (whether the reverse is true is unknown) [she's actually a Luphomoid, but her knowledge of interstellar space makes it still likely].
From context is appears the heavily rumoured suggestion that Hawkeye's family has been dusted is true (no one else has family to lose, as Cap says in the voice over, even if Bucky and Gamora feel like family to some).
So what is Cap's plan? I think it depends on if this pre-dates Scott Lang's arrival or not. If it does my guess is he wants to find and fight Thanos in order to use the Stones to bring everyone back (what other solution, really, could he have at that point?). Alternatively, he might want to find Tony and rescue him from space (they know that's where he is because he talked to Pepper while on the Q-ship). My guess is the former idea is what's occurring and that the arrival of Ant-Man suddenly opens up new possibilities. Scott arrives with the van that contains the mechanism that opened the doorway into the Quantum Realm for Hank Pym, so the possibility of time travel is suddenly available (a less suicidal route than fighting Thanos in the present).
That's all I can glean from what was shown, but the teaser does poke holes in the long-cherished five-year gap that Conrad (and others) have been promoting since Infinity War. Let's first acknowledge that there could be trickery in the trailer, but at least on the surface Endgame seems to be happening shortly after the Snapsure--it's difficult to imagine Tony Stark floating in space for any serious length of time (or that his rescue would then include a lengthy return or a 'time passes' moment). It's also highly unlikely Shuri would still be considered 'missing' after years had passed (especially given that the Snap occurs in Wakanda). Scott also says they were in Germany 'a few years ago,' ie, 2016 for Civil War--while this doesn't necessarily pin down the timeframe for Cap, it's suggestive since Lang would have had to make his way to the Avengers building, giving him plenty of time to be aware of current circumstances (ie the time period) and thus he believes it's no later than 2019.
Let's be clear: if the movie opens soon after Infinity War there's no possibility of a time jump. Why? Narrative tension. This is the main reason I've rejected the idea from the start--there's no point in paging Captain Marvel if she's going to take years to arrive or else arrive soon after to no effect--it's just not dramatic.
CCXP, the massive convention in Brazil, has brought us our first footage from Spider-Man: Far From Home. Sony has not publicly released the footage, so we're reduced to descriptions from those who saw it. The footage has greatly clarified the plot, which seems to refute both leaks from back in May (one on Reddit and one on 4Chan). The plot seems to be: Nick Fury recruits Spider-Man while on his class trip in Europe and joins him with hero Mysterio. They are facing off against elemental powers that seem to mimic Sandman, Hydro-Man, and Molten Man (confirming toy leaks in September); we cannot be sure yet if this is the Sandman (ie William Baker). The assumption is that Mysterio is either secretly a villain or becomes one through this process (he could go through a Mordo-like arc ala Doctor Strange).
None of these villains are known as Dmitri, and we know that Numan Acar is playing a character with that name via Deadline in July. If he is Chameleon, as speculated, it's difficult to see where he fits into the film.
Also confirmed is that, at least for Sony, Fury counts as an A-list Avenger (the deal they made with Marvel was that an A-lister would appear in the Spider-Man films). There's no suggestion any bigger name is slated for the film. There's an implication from this--Peter Parker is Tony Stark's surrogate son, so where is Tony in all this? It adds some fuel to the fire that Iron Man won't survive Endgame.
Footage of Captain Marvel was also shown at CCXP--this hasn't been released either, but we have descriptions to work with. The bulk of the footage simply expands on the scene above where Carol Danvers is captured by Talos (leader of the Skrulls); it shows her escaping.
There's some static coming from The South China Morning Post (an English daily in Hong Kong which has a long and colourful history you can read here--it understandably has very limited circulation) about Marvel's plan for a Shang-Chi film (consisting of lazy journalism, which is no surprise--see below). The gist is:
An angry Chinese public is accusing Marvel Studios of insulting China after learning that its first Asian superhero on the big screen will be the son of Fu Manchu, the offensive fictional character who has become a shorthand for racial stereotypingLet's keep in mind that the 'angry public' cited includes just three direct quotes from China's version of Twitter (two against and one for). The objection isn't even to Shang-Chi, but his association with Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu (who first appeared in 1912), originally his father. If your first thought is 'why not just eliminate Fu Manchu from the story,' then you've arrived at a solution Marvel has already come to (the comics changed his father to Zheng Zu in 2010). Because of how little known the character is there's really no pressure to stick to any of Shang-Chi's lore regardless. I still have no idea how you make this work as a movie, but who is father is won't be what makes or breaks it.
This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)
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