First 'Avengers: Endgame' Trailer Breakdown – What Does It All Mean?

Months after Avengers: Infinity War smashed box office records in theaters this spring, Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fans finally enjoyed a look at the first trailer for Avengers 4—which also revealed the title, Avengers: Endgame—on Friday. The film stars Hamptonites Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson and Gwyneth Paltrow—and there’s a lot to unpack.

WARNING: If you still haven’t seen Avengers: Infinity War, you should be ashamed of yourself. You should also stop reading because this is full of spoilers. Really, go watch the movie already; it’s out on DVD, Blue-ray, 4K and digital streaming. You have no excuse.

For those who need to catch up (and ignored our spoiler warning), Infinity War left off after the greatest villain in MCU history, Thanos (Josh Brolin), successfully gathered all six infinity stones and used his fancy new Infinity Gauntlet to snap half of Earth’s population out of existence—including a huge percentage of superheroes and their allies, such as Spider-Man, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Winter Soldier, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Nick Fury, The Wasp, and most of the Guardians of the Galaxy (Star-Lord, Groot, Drax and Mantis, while Rocket Raccoon was left alive and alone on Earth). Several others were also killed in battle with the Mad Titan: Loki, Vision, Gamora and Heimdall.

Now, Avengers: Endgame begins with the somber, defeated survivors—including Iron Man (Downey Jr., an East Hampton resident), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Hamptons visitor Chris Hemsworth), Hulk and his alter-ego Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Amagansett’s Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and the always-affable Ant-Man, played by Hamptons fan Paul Rudd—living in a new paradigm and looking for a way back to victory.

The trailer kicks off with Tony Stark (Iron Man) floating through space alone on a ship, which appears to be the Milano, left behind by the Guardians of the Galaxy after they perished on Thanos’ home planet Titan. He’s out of food and water, and he only has enough air to survive until morning. We have to assume the only other surviving sort-of hero who fought on Titan, Nebula (Karen Gillan), is also on board and heading back to Earth. Stark’s Iron Man armor is burnt and broken, and he sends messages to his wife, Pepper Potts (Paltrow), who will supposedly play a bigger role in Endgame, likely reappearing in her armor as Rescue from Iron Man 3.

Referring to the infamous snap, when everyone turned to ash, the Marvel Studios logo also turns to ash after it appears onscreen. This is a dark moment in the MCU.

We then see Thanos’ armor held up as a scarecrow, and his hand in a farm field—presumably where he’s retired to brood and farm after his “great” accomplishment, which he sees as an unavoidable act to save the universe from overpopulation and death. This closely mirrors Thanos’ last scene from the original source material, in Marvel comics’ 1991 Infinity Gauntlet series written by Jim Starlin and penciled by George Pérez and Ron Lim, down to the scarecrow. The main difference here is that the Infinity Gauntlet remains on his hand, keeping it safe from any who might try to claim it.

The trailer switches to Avengers headquarters in New York, where the heroes who fought their final battle before the snap in Wakanda—the advanced African nation ruled by T’Challa, the Black Panther, before he was wiped from existence. Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, who has dropped the beard and scraggly hair from the previous film, is crying for his lost friends.

A shot of Black Widow talking reminds viewers what’s happened to Earth’s people. She says, “He wiped out 50 percent of all living creatures.”

Bruce Banner, who couldn’t turn into the Hulk back in Wakanda, is looking at profiles of the missing Avengers—remember, he doesn’t know what became of the heroes who traveled to Titan. We see Scott Lang, aka Ant-man, labeled “Missing,” along with a picture of Black Panther’s brilliant sister Shuri and Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man. Parker is also labeled “Missing” because he was among those on Titan, and they don’t know he’s dead yet. We also don’t know if Shuri died or survived Infinity War, but her photo doesn’t say she’s missing.

We then see an empty airplane hanger at Avengers HQ, maybe representing the ship Stark and company took to Titan, that has not yet returned? Next, Thor sits brooding in civilian clothes, followed by shots of other survivors. Nebula is on a ship, likely confirming she’s with Stark on the Milano, while Hawkeye is fighting with a sword instead of a bow in what looks like Tokyo. He’s wearing a new, ninja-like costume that is most definitely his alter-ego Ronin, as seen in the New Avengers comics series. and he removes the mask after taking down some Yakuza-type bad guys.

Steve Rogers’ voiceover says, “We lost friends, we lost family, we lost a part of ourselves.” It seems quite possible Hawkeye lost his family during the snap, causing him to take on this ninja assassin persona, but that’s just a guess.

A scene follows with Black Widow and Rogers (his hair a bit more unkempt), who looks at a compass with a photo of his long lost love Peggy “Agent” Carter from his WWII days. His voiceover continues, saying, “This is the fight of our lives.”

After a dramatic pause, Black Widow says, “This is gonna work, Steve,” hinting they might actually have a plan. Rogers replies, “I know it is. Because I don’t know what I’m gonna do if it doesn’t.” The trailer’s music reaches its crescendo and we see the Avengers: Endgame logo, followed by silence, briefly.

Scott Lang’s voice then cuts in as we see him at the door of Avengers HQ. “Is anyone home?” he asks. He reminds the Avengers inside about their shared fight from Captain America: Civil War, where he appeared as Giant Man. “Can you buzz me in?”

Many have speculated that Ant-Man and the Quantum Realm will play a big part in defeating Thanos—having something to do with time travel, as mentioned in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Fans of the Infinity Gauntlet comics should also know that Nebula may very well take the mighty glove from Thanos and change the course of their fight, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Avengers: Endgame hits theaters in April 2019, which is just a few months away. Expect much more to be revealed soon.