Avengers: Infinity War trailer breakdown

Marvel this morning released a new trailer for Avengers: Infinity War, coinciding with the launch of ticket presales. The new footage both expands on the last big tease, from November, and adds plenty more to speculate on.

There’s a lot to take in from this, from the full reveal of the Black Order (aka the “children of Thanos”) to more one-liners from both Star-Lord and Spider-Man. If you’re looking for a frame-by-frame breakdown of what you can glean from the new footage ahead of the film’s April 27 premiere, we’re here to help — and if there’s anything we’ve missed, please let us know!

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War.]

NEW IRON MAN CAPABILITIES

Almost every new Marvel movie with Tony Stark shows off a new Iron Man suit or some new capabilities. Here’s one you don’t see every day: Iron Man clicking his heels at around 0:40 to activate a speed boost as he soars into the sky. (The suit in Infinity War appears to be heavily inspired by the Mark 37 / Bleeding Edge armorfrom the Invincible Iron Man comics.)

Avengers: Infinity War - Thor casts lightning as sparks fly around him

WHAT IS THOR (NOT) HOLDING? MJOLNIR? JARNBJORN?

At around 1:14, Thor raises his hand to cast lightning. That isn’t interesting in and of itself — after all, the god proved in Thor: Ragnarok that he didn’t need his trusty hammer, Mjolnir, to control his powers — but note in between flashes that his hand looks conspicuously like it’s holding something.

Leaked images from the movie’s toys have shown a decidedly two-eyed Thorwielding a weapon that looks like Jarnbjorn, a battle axe that he has sported in the comics. Previous teasers, pre-Ragnarok, showed Thor without an eye patch before that scene was altered in later trailers, so it’s not unlike Marvel to tweak some CGI ahead of a bigger reveal. (As for why Thor once again has two eyes for the toy line, there are some theories about that, too.)

Also note that Thor is with Groot and Rocket. We know that Thor, Rocket and teenage Groot split up from the rest of the Guardians team. Drax and Star-Lord can be seen in the trailer hanging out with Iron Man and Spider-Man, and we can only assume that Gamora is headed to Earth to take on her father, Thanos.

THANOS FINDS HIS HAT

One of the first questions from the last teaser was: Where is Thanos’ hat? Did he lose it? Is his head cold? That question gets answered at least twice in this new trailer — first at the 0:30 mark, where he is seen taking off the helmet (note the large shoulder pads) and later (at 1:20, to be precise) in a shot of him clearly keeping his head warm. What isn’t clear if this is the present day, because ...

A THANOS FLASHBACK WITH A YOUNG GAMORA

... in the scene immediately following the one above, we see a tiny green hand grasp Thanos’ finger as they walk away from the camera. The green hand and red hair suggest that it’s Gamora and Thanos in a flashback. Thanos actor Josh Brolin told Entertainment Weekly recently that we would see their relationship evolve in Avengers: Infinity War. A flashback to “simpler” times, relatively speaking, fits that description.

Thanos is later seen in his bare-armed, bald-headed glory, though.

Avengers: Infinity War - Loki and the Black Order

MEET THE BLACK ORDER, THE “CHILDREN OF THANOS”

We’ve known about the Black Order, also known in Infinity War as the “children of Thanos,” since statues of the quartet were were unveiled last July at D23. This trailer marks the first time we see all four together on screen — presumably just after the events of Thor: Ragnarok’s post-credits scene, given Loki standing in the middle. From left to right above (ignoring Loki):

Proxima Midnight, who we very briefly saw in the November teaser
Ebony Maw (more on him in a minute)
Corvus Glaive
Cull Obsidian. In the comics, Cull Obsidian is another name for the Black Order; here, it’s just the big guy.

The Black Order first appeared in the 2013 crossover storyline Infinity, and there seem to be at least some other elements from that story that will appear here.

EBONY MAW VS. DOCTOR STRANGE

One of the most interesting parts of the trailer comes at the 1:38 mark, where Ebony Maw is seemingly torturing Doctor Strange with what look to be shards from the mirror dimension. Ebony Maw has to deal with Doctor Strange, and does so through supernatural manipulation and persuasion in the Infinity comics, effectively turning Strange into a double agent. Whether that happens in this film is unclear, but the trailer seems to be hinting at a meeting, and one where Ebony is fully capable of keeping Strange’s interdimensional powers at bay. (Note that Strange, in this scene, doesn’t have the Time Stone around his neck like he does elsewhere.)

Strange is later seen giving Star-Lord a helping hand in a large battle alongside (we’re guessing from earlier clues) Iron Man, Spider-Man and Drax.

Avengers: Infinity War - Captain America and Black Widow meet Black Panther in Wakanda

WHICH AVENGERS ARE IN WAKANDA?

Every tease for Infinity War indicates the film’s biggest showdown will be in Wakanda, and the new trailer sets the stakes pretty clearly: Vision is now in Wakanda, along with the yellow Infinity Stone (aka the Mind Stone) lodged in his head. Given what we know about the infinity stones, and what Thanos can do if he obtains them, it seems like a worthy endeavor for all of Wakanda to band together and protect Vision.

At this point, it feels like Wakanda might have the most Avengers per capita. At 0:48, we see Captain America, Black Widow, Bruce Banner, Falcon, War Machine, Vision and Scarlet Witch joining up with T’Challa.

We also see Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier aka White Wolf (who we know is on the front lines from previous teasers). The bigger surprise of this trailer is Iron Man’s “Hulkbuster” armor. Based on where we’ve seen Stark appear elsewhere in the footage we’ve seen so far, there’s a good chance he’s not actually in Wakanda. We’re guessing the Hulkbuster suit is either being piloted by someone else (War Machine?) or being controlled remotely. (Update: As commenter Irving Lee points out, if you want to know who is in the Hulkbuster suit, just ask Lego.)

Not pictured anywhere: Hawkeye. Sorry, Hawkeye.

Avengers: Infinity War - Captain America vs. Thanos

THANOS IS IN WAKANDA, TOO, WITH ONLY TWO INFINITY STONES

The Mad Titan himself, though he’s presumably fighting Iron Man, Star-Lord, Spider-Man and other heroes in the trailer, will definitely make an appearance in Wakanda.

He grapples with Captain America, who looks to be pushing back harder than Thanos expected. When Thanos gets to Wakanda, he only has two of the five Infinity Stones: the Power Stone, last seen in Guardians of the Galaxy being protected by Xandar’s Nova Corps, and the Space Stone, seen throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, in the form of the Tesseract.

As for where the other Infinity Stones currently are when the film begins, here’s what we know so far:

The Mind Stone (yellow): Vision’s noggin
The Reality Stone (red): The Collector (aka Benicio del Toro) should still have it? Maybe? Thanos certainly doesn’t.
The Time Stone (green): draped around Doctor Strange’s neck
The Soul Stone: No clue. Whether that gets resolved for this movie, or is saved for maybe the second Avengers: Infinity War film, is unclear.

Avengers: Infinity War will be released on April 27.

Search This Blog

MARVEL FANS UNITED