Marvel Studios and the Russo brothers have given us several sneak peeks at Avengers:
Endgame, but comments from the directors - and tricks they've played on the audience before
- have us wondering whether what we've seen really tells us the truth about what to expect
from the movie.
Trust is built over time, and Joe and Anthony Russo have proven that the only thing we can
really count on from them is a well-made movie.
Everything else is questionable.
Look no further than the trailer for Avengers: Infinity War.
One shot shows the entire team, including the Hulk, , running at the screen in Wakanda.
But when the film arrived, the shot was nowhere to be found.
In an interview with Slashfilm, Joe and Anthony Russo admitted to changing trailers to misdirect
viewers, saying,
"At our disposal are lots of different shots that aren't in the movie that we can manipulate
through CG to tell a story that we want to tell specifically for the purpose of the trailer
and not for the film."
As many observers pointed out, Joe Russo also appeared to straight-up lie about the title
of Avengers: Endgame when asked if it was ever spoken in Infinity War.
The director said no, but...
“We're in the endgame now."
When the first trailer for Endgame dropped, reports swirled that the movie's promotional
clips would only feature footage from the first 15 or 20 minutes.
With a final cut that clocks in at over three hours, that leaves a lot of the movie unseen.
According to Marvel boss Kevin Feige, those reports are, quote, "somewhat accurate."
But the vagueness of his comment leaves open the possibility that Marvel could throw in
a quick shot or two from a later sequence.
It's hard to believe that everything is coming from the beginning of the movie.
There have been plenty of clips of the team sulking around in the aftermath of Thanos'
Decimation, but there have also been several action sequences and a variety of costume
changes.
Black Widow having both short blonde and long red hair seems to indicate that a lot of ground
is being covered.
Since Iron Man and Captain America threw down in Captain America: Civil War, fans have been
anxiously awaiting the inevitable reunion of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers.
It seemed a safe bet that we'd get some kind of moment between the two in Infinity War,
but it didn't happen.
The Endgame Special Look spot did reveal an emotional scene between the two heroes as
they re-established their trust.
“You trust me?"
"I do."
Fans everywhere rejoiced until the Russos dropped a bomb.
In an interview not long after, Joe Russo announced that the shot wasn't in the movie.
Anthony teased a different possibility — maybe it's in the movie.
The brothers laughed with glee as they tortured bewildered Marvel fans with the possibility
that we still may not see Rogers and Stark reconcile.
It's hard to believe they'd deny the audience a chance to see some closure for one of the
cornerstone relationships in the MCU.
But if it happens, it might look a lot different than that one particular shot.
Hulk being inserted into Infinity War footage where he didn't belong let fans know that
all bets were off heading into Endgame promotion.
As the advance looks have trickled out of Marvel's tightly sealed vault, the speculation
has swung from "who's being added in?" to "who's being cropped out?"
The Super Bowl spot, in particular, got a ton of attention due to a couple of shots
that seemed to deliberately leave gaps between characters.
Fans pointed out that a shot showing Cap and the team looking up into the sky had a huge
empty area, while the first shot of the crew striding in slo-mo through the Avengers HQ
hangar seemed to also have an unevenly spaced gap.
While speculation on this level would normally be left for the most obsessive fans, the fact
that we've clearly seen two completely different shots of Thor's axe in the Endgame trailers
has made it a topic of wider interest.
Fans love seeing the Green Machine do his thing, and yet we haven't seen him in action
since he squared off against Thanos and was soundly beaten during the opening moments
of Infinity War.
The fact that he's about to finish a three-movie story arc has fans on the edge of their seats
to see how his story will play out.
Many are expecting to finally see Professor Hulk in action, while others think Endgame
may be the Jade Giant's swan song.
Whatever the case, the fact that the marketers refuse to put a clip of Hulk into the Endgame
promotional footage is maddening.
Bruce Banner has shown up multiple times, but the fact that the Russos haven't allowed
the slightest glimpse of green on the screen makes one wonder what, exactly, they're hiding.
The Special Look trailer finally had a shot of Thanos geared up and ready for action again.
He's covered head-to-toe in armor, while apparently "beaming down" to a location.
So why is he wearing armor?
As Infinity War plays out, Thanos slowly leaves his armor behind, evidently unneeded now that
he has the Infinity Stones to protect him.
Perhaps the Infinity Gauntlet simply broke during the snap, which is a scenario that
Joe Russo has implied as being plausible.
Another possibility that the scene occurs while the Avengers are traveling through time.
Time travel and the Quantum Realm are heavily rumored to play a big part in the movie, so
there's a possibility that our heroes could be fighting Thanos in the past.
"And don't get sucked into a time vortex.
We won't be able to save you.”
It's fun to get worked up over feeling betrayed by the Russos, but the truth is they're doing
it mostly out of love.
Speaking with Empire, Joe Russo summed up the directors' feelings perfectly when he
said,
"The thing that's most important to us is that we preserve the surprise of the narrative."
This talented pair of directors isn't just trolling fans for the fun of it.
They're aware that they're sitting on a goldmine of information that tens of millions of fans
can't wait to see.
They want the experience to be a good one, not spoiled by bad timing or too much information.
Joe Russo added,
"When I was a kid and saw The Empire Strikes Back at 11AM on the day it opened…
It so profoundly moved me because I didn't know a damn thing about the story I was going
to watch.
We're trying to replicate that experience."
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