The internet has gone wild with speculations after the Russo Brothers, the directors behind
many an MCU film, including the upcoming Avengers 4, posted a cryptic photo on social media
that many believe contains the answer to a question we’ve all been wondering; what
is the title of the movie going to be?
So, recap time- The last Avengers film, Infinity War, left
us hanging on a major cliff hanger.
Spoiler alert, if you haven’t seen it, might be a good idea to skip ahead.
Good?
Good.
Thanos, who had managed to wrangle all of the infinity stones together, snapped his
fingers and BAM!
Wiped out half of all living things in the universe, which so just happened to include
some of our favourite heroes.
The film ended with Thanos sitting down and reflecting like a total boss on what he had
accomplished.
And everyone in movie theatre audiences everywhere was like WHAT!?!?!
And a post credit scene showed Nick Fury getting dusted while sending out a distress call via
a space beeper that then flashed Captain Marvel’s logo on it.
So naturally, the MCU fandom has A LOT of questions as to where this sequel will go.
In between Infinity War and Avengers 4, there are two MCU films that take place; Ant-Man
and the Wasp, which shined more light on the Quatum Realm; the alternate dimension in which
time and space are believed to be irrelevant, accessible when shrinking down to subatomic
sizes or via mystical transportation.
The second is the upcoming Captain Marvel film, which will take place in the 90s, and
introduce Carol Danvers into the MCU.
As you can imagine, both movies and their content have spawned a whole lot of fan theories.
THE PHOTO So what’s the big deal about this photo?
Tweeted out by the Russo Brothers joint account, its caption reads ‘Look hard…’
The photo itself is a black and what photo of Joe Russo sitting on the set of Avengers
4 on his laptop.
The set looks like it’s unfinished, or off to the side of the sound stage they’re shooting
on.
Aside from a quiet snap on set, what does this photo entail?
The most common belief is that the photo contains the title of the upcoming Avengers film.
THE TITLE Before we break down the interpretations of
what fans across the globe think they’ve spotted, let’s briefly discuss why this
title has such a massive importance.
Back in March of 2018, the Russo’s had responded to a tweet from a fan who articulated that
they were afraid why the film’s title hadn’t been released yet, because they were nervous
the title had a major (and potentially heart breaking) spoiler.
The Russo brothers’ responded by saying, “It should”, as in, it should make you
nervous.
Naturally, this spawned a lot of twitter reactions in which people joked that the title would
be Avengers: EVERYONE YOU LOVE IS DEAD, or Avengers: The Funeral, to name a few.
Or, more realistically, Avengers Disassembled.
THE INTERPRETATIONS Now the most common belief is that in the
photo, you can make out certain letters.
There’s at least a very obvious A and E in there, to say the least.
The most popular interpretation is that the title is Avengers: Endgame.
And if you take a look at the photo that’s been drawn over, you can kind of make that
out, with the E’s being on the very edges of the photograph.
The word Endgame resonated with fans because of a line that Doctor Strange says in Infinity
War after he willingly gave up the Time Stone to Thanos in order to save Tony Stark’s
life.
Prior to the battle on Titan, Strange had foreseen 14 million, 605 realities, with only
one of those realities being one in which the Avengers defeated Thanos in Infinity War.
After handing over the stone and saving Tony’s life, he tells the hero, “we’re in the
end game now.”
The next best interpretation of this mysterious photo has less of a literal title spelt out
in it.
If you take a look at the right hand side of the photo, you’ll notice a piece of tech
that at first glance may look like a light.
A user on Twitter named Erik Mathews noted that piece of machinery is an object that
appears in the Avenger’s facility in the Infinity War movie.
When you go to that scene in the blu-ray, the chapter is called Avengers Assemble.
Another commonly believed hint is that the easel in front of Joe Russo and the ladder
behind him read AA, which has people also speculating that Avengers Assemble could very
well be the hint.
The phrase, compared to the comics, hasn’t been thrown around all that much in the MCU,
either.
The problem with this though is that in many countries outside of North America, the translated
title of the 2012 Avengers movie was actually Avengers Assemble, meaning that would cause
some confusion internationally, to say the least.
On the flip side of this, it’s worth noting that in the Twitter post, there is no actual
confirmation from the Russo brothers about this being a hint to the title.
That’s something that the internet collectively decided upon.
Kevin Fiege and the Russo brothers have also stated in other interviews that they feel
it may have been a mistake to hype the title up this much, so that kind of leaves us wondering
if the whole “be afraid” comment from March is nothing more than some good fun on
their part.
Another speculation is based off of the A and E shapes that are visible on the left
side of the photo.
Some believe this could stand for Avengers Eternal.
Pointed out by IGN, it was noted that the Russo Borthers had previously commented on
how fans were guessing that the title of the movie could be Avengers Forever, but that
the actual title was pretty close to that.
Thanos is one of the Eternals, so there could be some sort of ties there to that and his
heritage.
Or, it could be Avengers Eternity.
There was major speculation that Doctor Strange’s storyline in the upcoming film would involve
him encountering the celestial entity of Eternity, who he would have to bargain with for humanity’s
case and not to reset the universe since Thanos has cost so much damage.
WHAT COULD THIS MEAN?
So let’s take a look at the implications both of these titles could have.
If we’re running with the idea that perhaps the titles have been overhyped, then the Avengers
Assemble title seems like the most likely out of these two to actually be the title.
And considering what the film’s content will presumably entail; the original Avengers,
along with whoever else remains alive, will be assembling to stop Thanos.
The band will be getting back together, that’s for sure.
Meaning Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye (who might be Ronin
now if leaked set photos have anything to say about it).
We know that ant-Man is a part of this mix, too, thanks to other photos from the reshoots
of the movie.
And considering that Nick Fury sent out that distress call, and scenes between Josh Brolin
and Brie Larson have reportedly been shot, it seems very likely that Captain Marvel will
be teaming up with the original Avengers, too.
All in all, it’s a title that makes perfect sense.
Now, if the title is Endgame, that has more nefarious implications.
Endgame implies the end of SOMEONE, hopefully Thanos, if we’re running with that Doctor
Strange line.
But it also suggest finality; we know that Chris Evans will be leaving after this film,
retiring his Captain America, which many have taken as foreshadowing that Steve Rogers won’t
survive the upcoming film.
So, what do you guys think?
Do you have a theory on what this cryptic photo could mean?
Give us a shout in those comments below and let us know your thoughts!
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