fbpx

Infinity War, Infinite Possibilities!

As of the time this article was written, Avengers is trending first on Twitter, with a total of 770k tweets. On Youtube, the newly-released trailer has garnered 5.6 million views over a four-hour period.

Advertisement ▼

Virtual screaming in the form of fully-capitalised tweets and Facebook posts are still flooding social media; observations, thoughts, and fan speculations floating rampant in the realm of cyberspace. Suddenly, everyone seems to know the phrase, “and get this man a shield!” – already on its way to becoming the most iconic line from the trailer.

Frankly, it’s all expected behaviour. The Avengers: Infinity War trailer features new character appearances, and promises dark, trying times for Marvel’s golden heroes. There’s a lot of fighting, of despair, of lost hope, of pain – but also an underlying sense of grim determination, shared camaraderie, mutual romance, and powerful teamwork.

In short, it’s nothing short of satisfactory. Thanos’ dramatic entrance in all of his purple, overpowered glory? Count me in. Spider-Man sporting a new suit? Nice. Winter Soldier, Black Widow, Captain America, the Hulk, Falcon, War Machine, Okoye, and Black Panther charging into the fray? Great stuff.

With too many things happening at a frenzied pace, here’s a brief summary of the relevant facts gleaned both from the trailer and Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), with a few speculations thrown into the mix.


Famous Last Words

Like a ghost from the past, Nick Fury’s rallying cry from the first Avengers starts off the trailer for Infinity War, which Tony Stark, Vision, Thor, and Black Widow duly recite with some small changes:

There was an idea, to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if we could become something more. So when they needed us, we could fight the battles that they never could.

Here’s the original:

There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to fight the battles we never could.

It would seem the mission statement for our heroes still remains the same, but could it be foreshadowing a changing of the guard or the deaths of our heroes?

Avengers: Disassembled

After the events of Civil War, the team is pretty much broken up into two factions. Captain America sports a new bearded look to accentuate his status as a fugitive (or a possible reference to the comic’s Nomad), with Black Panther, Bucky, War Machine, Black Widow, and the Hulk in tow fighting against Thanos’ hordes with the Wakandan people. Meanwhile, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Wong, and the Hulk again are seen in New York, where Spider-man is surely swinging around.

We also catch a glimpse of what could have happened at the end of Thor: Ragnarok, with one-eyed Thor meeting up with the Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Trickster God

Thanos is gunning hard for the Infinity Stones/gems, and no more guessing as to who gave him the Tesseract. The Tesseract came from the hands of Loki, and that much is obvious in the trailer, where the latter is shown to hand the piece over to Thanos. It was also implied that Loki swiped it at the end of Thor: Ragnarok, except that an official interview with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has confirmed the case.

The rationale of his actions has sparked divided opinions among the community, and surely we will find out why. Could he be back in partnership with the Mad Titan, or does Loki once again have more up his sleeves?

Iron Spider

A new film, new suit. Spider-man finally gets his hands on the suit he turned down at the end of Homecoming. Based on its comic namesake, sans the red and gold trimmings, the new upgrades could come in handy as Peter tries to take on Thanos by himself, you silly boy.

My Spider-senses are tingling!

Speaking of the friendly neighbourhood Spider-man, we finally see the web crawler’s famous Spider-sense in action. His hair standing on end harkens the arrival of some advanced alien machinery, pretty apt.

Platinum Widow

If you saw the Vanity Fair covers, you would know Black Widow is now sporting blonde hair instead of the trademark scarlet tresses. A callback to the second ever Black Widow, Yelena Belova, who is pretty much a badass like Natasha Romanoff. Created in Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee’s late 90’s Inhumans series, she ended up as an evil foil for Natasha Romanov; plus, it’s definitely easier to be in disguise with blonde hair than red.

Vision in the Flesh

The Vision is now human!? Could it be real, or is Wanda Maximoff working her magic? Even in his new human guise, we can see the Mind Stone embedded in his forehead. The pair is surely going down the path of their comics counterparts, and all will be good unless Scarlet Witch uses her power to, you know, create two children and causing the near extinction of all mutants after the Avengers wipe her memories in the iconic House of M storyline.

The Death of Vision?

The future doesn’t really look that bright for our favourite android. With the Mind Stone jammed right in his forehead, it could prove to be a painful problem for Vision, who appears to be suffering in pain as Corvus Glaive tries to remove the Stone. If the Mind Stone is what gives Vision life, what happens if it’s removed?

Xandar’s Extermination

In the first shot of the trailer, we catch a quick glimpse of the Xandarian Nova Corps spaceship behind Tony Stark. Further in, Thanos is seen possessing both the Space Stone/Tesseract as well as the Power Stone. If you recall, it was to be safeguarded by the Nova Corps at the end of the first Guardians of the Galaxy. With it now in the hands of Thanos, surely the Mad Titan has left doom and despair behind his wake on Xandar.

The Wakandan King

While Infinity War is shaping up nicely, don’t forget that Black Panther is the next Marvel film in theaters. Having T’Challa, the Dora Milaje, and even Bucky in Wakanda show up in Wakanda for Infinity War does hint at the ending of Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. An alliance between the Winter Soldier and the Black Panther? Awesome.

The One-Armed Soldier

Speaking of the Winter Soldier, it would appear Bucky got himself a new and shinier arm, sans the Red Star. Welcome back to the fold, Bucky!

The Guardians

We end off with Thor meeting up with the Guardians of the Galaxy, and judging from Groot’s size here, Infinity War takes place after an extended period of time after the Vol. 2. Could Thor be floating in space for a while before being picked up? Early footage from D23 seems to suggest so, but we can all find out in May!

Everything Wong With The Avengers: Infinity War Trailer

No, you didn’t read it wrong. Nothing is wrong with the trailer, not really, except the lack of screen time for the Guardians of the Galaxy. This subheading is created in light of Benedict Wong’s appearance in the trailer, which raises a bigger question: where are the rest of the ragtag team, namely Wasp, Hawkeye, Ant-Man, and Captain Marvel?

If Wong, whose role isn’t as significant as the rest of them across the different Marvel universes, is in the trailer, then what about their whereabouts? In the comics, these characters play an important role in the Avengers’ setting, in particular Wasp and Captain Marvel, the latter of whom is confirmed to star in Avengers 4 (2019). As such, shouldn’t there be perhaps a brief introduction to her?

Moving away from reel life to real life also sees Paul Rudd in a fundraising video filmed on set – a possible allusion to Ant-Man being in the film. This is further elaborated upon in Evangeline Lilly’s interview with Vanity Fair that both Ant-Man and Wasp will have a part to play in the shifting phase to Avengers 4.

Upon the trailer release, some visual cues have been called into question. Thanos’ skin appears to take on a lighter shade than its usual purple, almost bordering on violet instead. The debate over Thor’s eye seems to be in a league of its own: apparently, the footage from SDCC and D23 shows him having both intact, which we know from Thor: Ragnarok that it shouldn’t be the case, then a Vanity Fair shoot has him sporting a scar. In this, however, we see that Thor clearly has an eyepatch plastered over his right eye. It’s all pretty eye-ronic, indeed.

The last one isn’t really an error per se – the scene of Bruce Banner crashing through the sanctum seems to be MCU’s take on the Silver Surfer crashing and announcing Thanos’ arrival to Strange. The slight change is understandable, however, as it’d be weird to introduce Silver into the picture after many years of absence. Besides, Hulk is the next thing available to create an authentic crashing effect, with his massively muscular bulk.

Speculations, Speculations, And More Speculations

Thanos’ gauntlet is pretty: not just in appearance, but it’s pretty damn powerful too. In a close-up shot, it can be seen that the Power Stone and Space Stone (Tesseract) are both housed within it, telling of great strength and incredible power.

As mentioned earlier, the latter was probably from the hands of Loki, the Power Stone from the decimation of the Nova Corps. This means that there are four more Stones scattered around the cinematic universe.

Meanwhile, the Reality Stone (Aether) is presumably in the Collector’s hands, following Malekith’s failed assault at the end of Thor: The Dark World. The Time Stone, fittingly, still lies in Kamar-Taj library after Doctor Strange used it to reverse Kaecilius’ destruction, which leaves us with the Soul Stone – where art thou?

Based on the fight scenes, it’s highly probable that the Soul Stone is present in Wakanda, and this lines up with the explanation of why Thanos is squaring off against T’Challa, Captain America, and the Secret Avengers.

Remember the handing over of the Tesseract by Loki to Thanos? While it can also be disregarded as a red herring from the film’s direction (we think it’s highly unlikely), word has that former did so to prevent more deaths of his fellow Asgardians, especially since he’s starting to lean towards the “good” side of the war in Thor: Ragnarok.

Of course, one could easily argue that his actions are spurred by self-preservation as well, and as far as the trailer is concerned, there’s no evidence thus far to debunk any of these theories.

Speaking of, let’s retrace back to the very first movie in the Thor franchise, where a potential hint may lie herein. We know that Mjolnir was “forged in the heart of a dying star”, and this probably means that it’s strong, not easily replaced.

Yet, what’s striking is that the imagery of the trailer seems to be alluding to some scenes of Mjolnir’s creation in the comics, where Thor is seen working in an actual forge. The slight difference aside, the overall atmosphere retains the same heroic vibe, which gives rise to the question: Is Thor building his new weapon in Infinity War?

The theory may seem a little far-fetched, especially with the lack of evidence. However, a leaked LEGO description reads:

Join the Avengers, who are trying to to find the ax-thunderbolt for Thor. Sit down in the cab of the rescue capsule with Rocket, Thor and Groot and go into space. On the way to Nidavellir, you will meet many enemies, (and) you can be protected from them by shooting from the thorns. Land on the red planet to charge Thor’s power plants in the space forge. Find the stone of infinity, untwist the energy ray, and create an amazing ax-thunderer!

Look past the translation errors, and there’s something being hinted at. Nidavellir is one of the Nine Realms, home to the Dwarfs, who are responsible for making Mjolnir. Most notable, though, is the “axe-thunderbolt” shtick – in the Ultimate comics, Thor had an axe hammer, and recently wielded Jarnbjorn as well, another battle axe that’s forged from Nidavellir (surprise, surprise).

Now, once is a coincidence, but twice? Sounds like a plot in the works.

Character Deaths

The entire thing, frankly smells of death. Coupled with the comment on the change MCU will undergo past Avengers 4, it’s not a far stretch to guess who’s to meet their maker. Vision makes for the popular choice for obvious reasons – all that pain and suffering in the trailer – and the theory will fit into its comic counterpart, in which the alien was disassembled then re-assembled again without a hint of his past personality. Death in the most metaphorical sense.

Next on the list would be Tony Stark. The genius billionaire playboy philanthropist has seen the most character development over the years, and churned out one of the most successful franchises in history. With Robert Downey Jr.’s contract expiring after Avengers 4, it may just be the time for him to pass the torch to the next generation.

Based on that along, the same can be said for Captain America, who surely has served his nation long enough for Falcon to take up the wing.

Conclusion

There are probably tons of fan theories floating out there, but here’s where this list stops. With the release of the Infinity War trailer comes new lore, and that inevitably leads to more speculations. If there’s one thing learned from being in a fandom, it’s that fans are able to dig deep for possible links across every universe, and scour for the tiniest bit of evidence.

Come May 2018, we’ll see if most of these theories will be addressed in the movie, but for now, why not put that trailer on loop for the thousandth time and bask in its glory?