Marvel releases a suitably epic "Avengers: Infinity War" trailer

The new trailer promises supervillain Thanos having fun while utterly routing the Avengers in the 2018 blockbuster

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published November 29, 2017 9:16AM (EST)

 (YouTube/Marvel Entertainment)
(YouTube/Marvel Entertainment)

The trailer for "Avengers: Infinity War" has dropped, and it makes the upcoming movie look every bit as epic as fans are hoping.

Not surprisingly, it opens by checking off as many of the fan-favorite superheroes as possible: Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Scarlett Witch, Vision, The Incredible Hulk (in Bruce Banner form), Black Widow and Spider-Man. The classic Avengers theme song appears with a more ominous tone, and after characters solemnly repeat Nick Fury's famous monologue from the first "Avengers" film, we cut to Josh Brolin's Thanos warning the titular superheroes of their impending failure.

If "Avengers: Infinity War" plans on following in the footsteps of the comics, Thanos will probably be proved right. In the original series, he assembled the Infinity Gems onto the Infinity Gauntlet and used it to kill half of the living creatures in the universe. This is because any living being who controls the Infinity Gauntlet with all of its gems becomes the equivalent of a god, capable of reshaping worlds and ending life on a mass scale with a literal snap of the fingers.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been building toward this kind of denouement with Thanos for a while, from teasing his presence at the end of the first "Avengers" film to having various gems appear as plot points in other movies within the MCU canon. Yet the most striking feature of the trailer is that it clearly establishes Thanos' menace and the fact that, yes, he really will be as all-powerful as he was in the comics.

Even as the trailer dutifully name-checks other heroes like Black Panther, Thor and Captain America, we see shots of characters stepping over landscapes filled with corpses and Thanos demolishing Iron Man with a single punch. Even closing the trailer on a cheeky note — Thor asking "Who the hell are you guys?" before being introduced to the Guardians of the Galaxy — doesn't alter the somber mood that pervades these proceedings.

If Marvel producer Kevin Feige is correct and the two-part "Avengers" movie will serve as a "finale" — one in which, presumably, important and beloved characters die — you can't say they didn't warn us.

 


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

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Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Captain America Guardians Of The Galaxy Iron Man Spider Man Thanos The Incredible Hulk Thor