Yet another trailer has arrived for Avengers: Endgame, and among all the things Marvel is choosing to keep fans in the dark on, it appears there's a pretty big tease for one much-anticipated scene. The rematch with Thanos has been the moment fans have been waiting for ever since the Mad Titan destroyed half of all life in the universe, and there's some breadcrumbs leading me to believe they won't be waiting long to see it.
In fact, it looks as though once the team has a chance to reconnect, get acquainted and collect their thoughts following this massive tragedy, they're going to track down Thanos in order to exact revenge. What makes me so sure? Read through this line delivered by Thanos in the latest look at the movie.
You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me.
It's a curious line, and one that may be a reference to the Avengers' failure to stop Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. The villain seems to relish in the idea that the heroes have found their way back to him, hoping to right their wrongs in defeating him. Man, how can a villain be such a dick, but also so badass at the same time?
Now, if Thanos' snap has happened, that would imply that no time travel has happened at that point of the film. After all, what would be the point in going back in time if not to prevent the events of the present? It's possible this scene takes place before the team meets up with Scott Lang and learns of the Quantum Realm, and this is a mission half founded on stopping further destruction by Thanos, but mostly founded on revenge.
It's worth mentioning at this point that there's evidence to back some of this, and it comes in the form of a footage description (via Heroic Hollywood) of Avengers: Endgame footage that hasn't been released to the public. The footage, which aired for Disney shareholders a couple months ago, contained scenes in which Captain Marvel and the Avengers (plus Nebula, minus Tony) talk of a rematch with Thanos.
A rematch so soon sounds crazy, but it follows the logic of the heroes. After all, Thor was pretty close to killing Thanos on his own, so having everyone together would give them a solid chance even with the Infinity Stones at his disposal. It’s also worth mentioning that, provided Scott Lang and the Quantum Realm aren’t introduced into the story until later, this is really the only way for the Avengers to save the universe.
Going back to the footage description, Nebula reveals she may know where to find her father, and the crew (again, minus Tony) head off in a ship to face the Mad Titan. The description syncs up with a couple scenes shown in the latest trailer, including the one with the Avengers in the space ship with Captain Marvel and Rocket Raccoon at the wheel. According to the footage, this will be the team that heads off to face Thanos.
So if that’s the team that is supposed to go and fight Thanos, what the hell is that battle scene? After all, Tony is explicitly stated in the shareholder footage not to be a part of this action, but he’s seen marching up on Thanos alongside Thor and Captain America. Did Marvel pull the wool over the eyes of its own investors and show fake footage?
That doesn’t seem like a wise move to fool investors, so it’s more likely there’s something screwy with this scene shown to the public. Perhaps Tony isn’t really alongside Thor and Cap in this confrontation with Thanos, or there are three different heroes entirely? That doesn’t seem likely given Cap’s shield tightening scene seems to match up with the back drop of this battle, so the odds of this scene being completely fabricated are unlikely.
It’s a tough pill to swallow, especially considering what a great homage it is to see Cap, Iron Man, and Thor fight Thanos together. Who better to take on the villain than than these founding Avengers members? It’d be a cool moment to see on screen for sure, but we’re all well aware the Russos aren’t above creating epic footage strictly for trailers and nothing else.
It’s also possible that while Thanos’ speech about failure comes early in the movie, the actual fight footage comes from a showdown later on in the film. After all, Nebula referred to the place Thanos is at as “the garden.” We’ve seen the location in footage before, and it looks like a paradise and definitely not that smoldering pile of metal and ash he’s chilling out in when the heroes walk up on him.
Hey, maybe the garden has always looked like shit and he’s just using the Reality Stone to help him avoid the realization that his master plan didn’t ultimately save humanity? After all, it would suck to live a life that strictly revolved around mass genocide to save the planet only to learn in the end it wasn’t the answer after all. Yeesh, you’d almost have to feel bad for the guy for having to live with that.
So assuming we're right and the Avengers do take on Thanos fairly early on into the film, where do they go from there? Do they defeat the Mad Titan and it changes nothing? Do they fail and are forced to live with another failure? Tony's gray hair in some scenes is likely another sign we're going to see a time jump, so regardless of how things shake out with Thanos, it appears this is a problem that can't be solved through fists alone.
Avengers: Endgame is headed to theaters in late April, and tickets are already being sold at incredible rates. Fans may want to secure theirs before the grand opening, and continue to stick with CinemaBlend for all Marvel analysis and reactions leading up to the premiere and beyond. For example, read up on the various ways Marvel can wrap up Captain America's arc in the upcoming film.
