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Avengers: Endgame’s special look trailer has the Cap and Iron Man reunion fans have been waiting for

Breaking down the new trailer’s biggest clues, from Thanos to time travel.

Alex Abad-Santos
Alex Abad-Santos is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at The Atlantic.

“It’s not about how much we lost, it’s about how much we have left,” Tony Stark says in a new “special look” trailer for Avengers: Endgame.

For the last year or so, Marvel fans have dealt with the vaporization of their favorite characters in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. Thanos snapped his fingers, half of the universe’s life turned to dust, and ever since then, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have been trying to figure out a way to get their friends, family, and Earth’s general population back from the dead.

In Tuesday’s new trailer, there’s a lot of new footage and some clues as to how the Avengers are going to take down Thanos and save the world. The first being: The Avengers are apparently back in New York City. In one shot, we see Iron Man in his advanced suit (look at the arc reactor/power source on his chest) flying around Manhattan:

Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame
Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame
Marvel

And later, Iron Man and Cap shake hands on what looks to be a New York City street:

Cap and Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame
Cap and Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame
Marvel Studios

The curious thing about this footage is that there’s seemingly no reason in the present MCU for Iron Man to be zipping around New York City’s skyline, and for Cap and Iron Man to be re-iterating their trust in one another on the streets of Manhattan. As of Infinity War, the decimation of half the world’s population has already been done — there’s no impending invasion or assault, because there’s really nothing to invade or assault on Earth. Thanos teleported somewhere else (it’s not entirely established where), and the Avengers are trying to figure out how to get to him.

But, and take this with a grain of salt, this could be a sign that time travel might come into play, with the Avengers going back to the Chitauri invasion of New York City — a significant time in the MCU, as that was when Cap and Iron Man were last in New York City fighting alongside each other. It’s also when Thanos first attacked Earth.

Another curious thing is that it seems as though Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, and some of the Avengers are flying a space ship (the shot right before it is the Guardians’ Benatar, but it’s unclear that’s a connected shot as Rocket, Groot, and Thor used the Stormbreaker to teleport to Wakanda in Infinity War) to some undisclosed location, with Captain Marvel doing the driving:

Cap and the Avengers in the Benatar in Avengers: Endgame
Cap and the Avengers in the Benatar in Avengers: Endgame
Marvel

It’s fun seeing the Avengers and Captain Marvel going on a space adventure. But if you look closely, a few key surviving Avengers are missing: Iron Man, Ant-Man (though maybe he is just tiny), Hawkeye, and Nebula aren’t there. Maybe this could have something to do with Tony and Nebula’s rescue (they were stranded in space at the end of Infinity War).

To that end, the trailer also has no qualms in showing that Nebula and Tony are rescued as it shows Rocket holding hands with Nebula and Tony and Pepper Potts reuniting:

Nebula and Rocket in Avengers: Endgame
Nebula and Rocket in Avengers: Endgame
Marvel

The last juicy bit of this trailer is what appears to be Marvel’s Big Three — Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America — taking on Thanos. Silhouettes of Marvel’s Trinity are seen walking up to the Mad Titan, who seems to be taking a seat next to a giant sword (look between Cap’s leg and Thor’s cape):

Cap, Iron Man, and Thor face off against Thanos
Cap, Iron Man, and Thor face off against Thanos
Marvel

“You could not live with your own failure. And where did that bring you? Back to me.” Thanos says in a voiceover.

There’s a lot of nifty stuff for Marvel fans in this trailer. But note that Marvel isn’t against throwing some misdirection into its trailers to keep fans guessing. For last year’s Infinity War, there was a famous shot of the Hulk with the Avengers running in Wakanda — a scene that never happened.

Regardless, we’ll all find out the fate of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in 23 days, when Avengers: Endgame hits theaters.

Avengers: Endgame will officially be released in theaters on April 26, 2019 (showings will start the evening of April 25, 2019).

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