What once was old is new again.
Once more an official LEGO set for an upcoming Marvel flick— in this case, the long-awaited
Avengers: Endgame — may have revealed a major spoiler.
Namely, the return of the Chitauri, the invading alien race from the first Avengers movie.
Over the years, plot points such as the destruction of Tony Stark's home in Iron Man 3, the presence
of the Hulkbuster armor in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Scott Lang "going big" during the
airport brawl in Captain America: Civil War, and more have been spoiled for fans by LEGO
sets released in advance of their respective films' debuts.
One leaked official set for Endgame appears to be carrying on this tradition with the
inclusion of minifigs which really can't be anything other than Chitauri warriors, who
laid waste to New York in the climactic battle in the first Avengers film.
The attack was shown in that film's post-credits sequence to have been orchestrated by Thanos,
but it was headed up by Loki, who was under the malicious influence of the Infinity Stone
housed in his scepter.
Bolstering this speculation are set photos from Endgame that appeared late last year,
showing our heroes revisiting the Battle of New York, presumably as part of their master
plan to reverse the extinction of half of all life in the universe brought about by
Thanos and his finger snap at the end of Infinity War.
The presence of Chitauri warriors in the LEGO set suggests that the Avengers won't simply
be picking through the rubble for clues, but may actually have to relive the battle in
one form or another — possibly even purposefully altering its outcome, in order to create conditions
favorable to bringing about the one in 14 million-plus possibilities that results in
the heroes' eventual victory over Thanos, as outlined by Doctor Strange.
The LEGO set also features a new Hulkbuster-like suit for War Machine, so it's likely that
this do-over won't just be a tired rehash.
So the likelihood that our heroes will have to engage in a bit of light time travel in
order to reverse Thanos' victory is all but certain at this point.
But it might not be actual time travel: remember Tony Stark's technology from Captain America:
Civil War which allowed users to holographically reconstruct incidents from their past using
their memories?
If that's what we're seeing, the return to the Battle of New York would constitute some
kind of fact-finding mission, perhaps a search for some weakness of Thanos that was overlooked
the first time around in all the carnage.
But we've gotten a few significant clues in the intervening months that this is likely
not the case.
First, there's the post-credits scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp, in which Scott wound up trapped
in the Quantum Realm when those tasked with pulling him back out were all dusted before
they could do so.
Before entering the Quantum Realm, Scott was sternly warned …
"Don't get sucked into a time vortex.
We won't be able to save you."
The first teaser trailer for Endgame revealed that Scott was indeed able to extract himself
somehow.
Will the venerable Ant-Man's experience with the Quantum Realm come into play in the Avengers'
plan?
Will Scott, as he is wont to do, take exactly the action he was warned not to, employing
some timey-wimey trickery to help the team revisit the Battle of New York?
It certainly seems possible.
On the other hand, we also know that Brie Larson's Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel
— set to appear in her own '90s-set feature next month — will play a major role in the
events of Endgame, as teased by the Infinity War post-credits sequence in which Samuel
L. Jackson's Nick Fury puts out a distress call to the good Captain before he, too, crumbles
to dust.
In a recent interview with TotalFilm, Jackson made a comment about Danvers' power set that
could be seen as particularly revealing.
Jackson said,
"[Captain Marvel] can time travel, so maybe she can get ahead or behind or whatever, and
figure out what all that is.
The fact I have the pager [used to put out the distress call] 20 years later — it gets
addressed in an interesting sort of way."
Now, this could be seen as a sort of off-the-cuff comment, as Captain Marvel's time travel abilities
had never been brought up prior.
But it can also be assumed that Jackson knows plenty about the events of Endgame that we
don't, and he just might have let a major plot point slip.
However it happens, the good folks at LEGO have clued us in to the fact that Earth's
Mightiest Heroes will indeed have to relive their greatest victory, one way or another.
We'll see what it all means when Avengers: Endgame hits theaters on April 26th, 2019.
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