Entertainment Weekly The Ultimate Guide to the Avengers (No ?4?)

By The Editors of Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly Magazine presents The Ultimate Guide to the Avengers 4.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Entertainment Weekly
• Release date: Apr 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9781547846498

Book preview

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INSIDE THE NEW FILM

AVENGERS: END GAME

Eleven years; 22 films. When the fourth Avengers movie hits big screens, Marvel’s cinematic universe will change forever.

By Anthony Breznican

SOMETIMES WHAT LOOKS LIKE VICTORY IS ACTUALLY A prelude to defeat.

In one of the most haunting shots from Avengers: Endgame, we see the glorious armor of Thanos, the Mad Titan who succeeded in wiping out half the life in the universe, propped up as a scarecrow in the pastoral world where he has retired.

Its usefulness has ended, except as a warning—not to the birds but to its former owner: We are most vulnerable when we assume we have nothing left to fear.

Avengers: Infinity War left Marvel fans around the world with quickened pulses and broken hearts as hero after hero after hero drifted away in wisps of dust. Black Panther. Doctor Strange. Groot. Scarlet Witch. Nick Fury. All gone, and then some. Now the survivors must find a way to undo this unspeakable loss or die trying themselves.

From the start, directors Joe and Anthony Russo have said these two films—Infinity War and Endgame—would have a different feel from each other.

We like to think of them as two complete narratives since you’re getting two whole films, Joe Russo said during EW’s set visit. It’s not like we just chopped them in half, but obviously Marvel has serialized storytelling, and the stories continue one movie to the next, so there’s a continuation.

His brother characterized the connection by referencing the two Captain America films they directed: "I think the best analogy is, for us as storytellers in the Marvel Universe, it’s like the way The Winter Soldier relates to Civil War. That’s the relationship from one of these movies to the next."

In other words, it’s not so much a cliffhanger as one story in which the bad guy wins, and another in which the good guys try, try again. And it has deep roots in Marvel Comics lore.

The armor-as-scarecrow image is actually lifted directly from the finale of the 1991 Infinity Gauntlet comic-book series, written by Jim Starlin and drawn by Ron Lim and George Pérez, which shows the galactic tyrant in hiding, a fugitive from the universe he sought to rule. While the film and the comic already differ significantly, Marvel Studios knows the power of that image. It foreshadows doom for Thanos. The only question is how.

How could be the tagline for Endgame. The entire plot was kept secret, while seemingly impossible situations were presented: Baseball-stadium parking lots full of the abandoned cars of people who disappeared in The Snap. How do you come back from that?

Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man, last seen adrift in the Quantum Realm while his colleagues turned to ash—how does he get out and appear at the gate of Avengers HQ? And Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, recording a goodbye message while drifting through deep space aboard The Benatar with Karen Gillan’s Nebula. With food and water gone and oxygen running out, how can they possibly be rescued? Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel will be coming to the rescue from her origin in the 1990s—but how?

Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner was all over Infinity War, but in Endgame the Hulk will finally resurface. His mild-mannered scientist side is busy examining files of the missing—like Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, who was seen fading away, and Letitia Wright’s Wakandan science princess Shuri, whose fate is unknown.

Another character missing entirely from Infinity War was Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye, who turns up with the new vigilante identity Ronin. He’s seemingly alone, no longer with his family, and trying to keep the peace in an increasingly lawless and dangerous world. But how does he fit in to the restoration?

A plan is definitely being put together: This is going to work, Steve, Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow tells Chris Evans’s Captain America. Again—how? He’s looking at a compass with a photo of Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter. How does she factor in?

Thor and Rocket Raccoon appear to shrug off their grief and turn up in Thanos’s farmland retreat. What then?

All we can assume is that there must be a way to return the Decimated—but for now screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are keeping their ideas under lock and key until Endgame arrives in theaters April 26. Fans can rest assured, though, that with many Marvel sequels to make, at least some of those heaps of ash might be restored to full health before too long.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) records a message for Pepper Potts from space.

Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Captain America (Chris Evans) discuss their options.

Rocket Raccoon (voice by Bradley Cooper) is the only surviving member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, post-snap.

The most surprising survivor of the snap could be Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), who was last seen adrift in the Quantum Realm.

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) spent most of Avengers: Infinity War crafting a weapon capable of killing Thanos.

Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) is often in Captain America’s thoughts.

Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) has finally resurfaced as Ronin; but the implications that has about his family’s survival are dire.

Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Tony enter a fragile alliance to make their ship spaceworthy.

Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) grieves as he views photos of the lost.

PHASE