Final Thoughts Before End Game

With less than a hundred days away from the premiere of the movie that the world has been waiting for, all fans can seem to think about is Avengers Endgame. Those trolling Russo brothers even tweeted a little video to amp up the anxiety (teasing bastards, cough cough). A good amount of time has passed since we witnessed the comic heroes we cherished turn to dust before our very eyes. Fans are not letting a single second go to waste either, concocting videos and articles with all kinds of theories and speculation about what is to come for our Avengers. Now that we are past the hundred day mark, I wanted to go over everything we know and everything we still need to know about Endgame. A brief recap on all of the teasers and sneak peeks we have seen so far, along with all the questions we as fans still have.

WARNING, Spoilers Ahead!

Is Thanos finished?

In the closing scenes of Infinity War, we see a satisfied Thanos sitting down enjoying a beautiful sunset. With the decimation of his “Black Order” and the sacrifice of his daughter Gamora, it appears that his original mission is complete, although he claims it cost everything. The Russo brothers, who directed both Avengers 3 and 4, have gone on record stating that Thanos accomplished everything he wanted to. The first trailer for the movie also showed a brief shot of his armor mounted on a post, which is a nod to the comics, when Thanos goes into retirement. Although, if he is content, does that mean there is going to be a new big bad in Endgame? Some fans have speculated that Thanos’s snap would be the perfect set up for a Galactus entrance, and the recent deal between Marvel Studios and Fox adds weight to the theory. As bad ass as seeing the long awaited “Eater of worlds” would be… there is a higher probability that if there is a new villain it would be the Skrulls, the shape shifting alien race debuting in Captain Marvel. A photo posted by Benedict Wong, the actor who plays Wong in IW (did not know that was his real name), shows him on set doing his costume. The first thing you notice is that his face seems to be peeling off from the back as if he was being revealed as a Skrull. This would also explain why Nick Fury was so quick to call Captain Marvel from that dope looking pager. It was almost as if he already knew exactly what was going on. While all of this seems to just be speculation for now it would be awesome to see a villain more ruthless than Thanos so soon.

Is Rocket really scared of Thanos?

One of the saddest parts of Infinity War was when we had to watch Groot die in front of Rocket a second time. Unknown to him, the rest of his orphan family members are gone as well, leaving Rocket Raccoon the last Guardian standing. Although after watching the movie a handful of times, there is something I can’t help but wonder about. Is he really afraid of Thanos? In the scene of IW where Thor had the Guardians split up, Star Lord (Chris Pratt) claims that he knows Rocket is only going with Thor because he knows that’s where Thanos isn’t. At first it appears to be just a petty comment meant to insult Rocket, but then jump to the scene where Thanos touches down in Wakanda. The entire team faces off against him, everyone except for Rocket. For some reason, he is the only one missing out of all the heroes at the battle of Wakanda. Is this because he knew attacking Thanos would be pointless? One theory of mine is that he didn’t know Thanos was there because he was not linked to their coms. This would explain why Thor was late to attack Thanos as well. Rocket did state to Thor that he had a lot to lose if they weren’t able to defeat the big purple titan. Whatever the reason is for his absence in that final fight scene, I am sure we will find out.

Why is everyone blaming Star-Lord?

One of the most discussed scenes of Infinity War is the scene where Star-Lord snaps on Thanos for killing Gamora. The rest of the heroes were right on the verge of pulling the gauntlet off of Thanos’s hand, but repeated blows to the chest, by a heart broken Peter Quill, woke the Mad Titan up from his induced sleep. Since then fans have given Pratt’s character hell, placing all the blame to the Avengers' big loss on Star-Lord's shoulders. Yet those who do this seem to be forgetting an important moment before the confrontation with Thanos even began. In the scene where Stark (RDJ) is trying to concoct a game plan for the battle that was to come, Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) glanced into the future and saw 14,000,605 end results, with the Avengers & Guardians only winning one of them. Therefore, Strange was already aware that Star-Lord's melt down was a high probability. Him not reacting means either it is all part of a larger scheme or the one who really dropped the ball was the wizard.

Who will come back to life in 'Endgame'?

The biggest reason millions of fans worldwide, including me, are counting down the days 'til Endgame is because we are all desperate to know who will return from the dead and who we will have lost for good. More than half of the MCU’s roster was wiped out in Infinity War, some appearing more permanent than others. Yet I am willing to debate that even the most obvious looking deaths might not be so permanent after all. First, I have to point out that every single person who died in that last movie, were killed by Thanos. Basically, that means the black order were nothing more than a band of distractions, but back to the point. Throughout the movie, we witnessed the genocidal titan go on a killing spree, snapping Loki’s neck like a popsicle, hurling Gamora off of a cliff, and ripping the mind stone out of Vision’s forehead. Let’s go over the reasons each individual may return case by case.

Loki

In Loki’s death scene he attempts a sneak attack that completely backfires… or did it? I find it suspicious that before his death, the god of mischief steps out of a dark corner to risk his life attacking someone he knows he has no chance of killing. He also reassures Thor not to worry, saying, “The sun will set on them again.” All of this leads one to believe that maybe Loki just pulled the wool over our eyes for the third time.

Gamora

This death is (at least for me) the most probable to be reversed. Disregard the fact that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 already has a script completed. There was some worry that the movie was in jeopardy with the firing of James Gunn, but Kevin Feige has confirmed that Vol. 3 is still a go. That being said, her death in IW doesn’t make much sense as a permanent ordeal. Some supporting evidence for this is the baby Gamora Thanos sees in the soul world. That may be simply how he views her, meaning her soul is still alive and trapped in the soul stone.

Vision

The final casualty our Avengers suffered at the hands of Thanos was Vision, the AI possessing the mind stone. Fans were already well aware that if Thanos’s ultimate quest was retrieving all of the stones, then there was a high probability that the fate of our favorite artificial intelligence was in jeopardy. What we didn’t see coming was the savagery in his death. The way that Thanos brought Vision back to life in front of an already mourning Scarlet Witch, then brutally rips the stone from his forehead and tosses his vibranium based corpse to the side like a used condom. If Vision were a biological organism as opposed to a synthetic one, then there would be no speculation about his death. But he is a synthetic life form, which means under the right circumstances he can be brought back. Shuri was already working on a way of removing the mind stone while leaving Vision’s personality intact. Even without Shuri, if the avengers can get the stone back from Thanos, then maybe they can bring him back to life that way. Overall there is more than one alternative to restoring him.

Aside from those three, we are still left with a long list of characters expected to return one way or another. Spiderman Far From Home’s trailer already showed us that both Nick Fury (S. Jackson) and Peter Parker (T. Holland) somehow make it back to the land of the living. Confirmation has been given towards Valkyrie and Korg from Thor's last movie, surviving Thanos’s attack at the beginning of IW. Aside from all of the theories surrounding which heroes will return to life in Avengers 4, I have come across one interesting theory regarding a villain from the last movie coming back to the fray. We all saw Corvus Glaive meet his demise at the hands of Vision towards the end of the last Avengers. Due to time constraints on the movie, the Russo brothers had to cut out some things, including some backstory for the members of the black order. Any die-hard fan of the comics would tell you that Corvus Glaive is a tad bit immortal. The source of this immortality derives from his weapon of choice (his glaive), which is one of the most powerful weapons in the Marvel universe. Proof that the Russo brothers stayed true to the glaive's true power lies in the fact that Corvus was back in action only hours after being seriously wounded by an alien staff through the chest. If I had it my way, every one of the characters mentioned above would return in Endgame. Although at this point, I guess we will just have to wait and hope for the best.

In the Endgame

All in all, for die-hard fans like myself, there are a wide variety of reasons to be highly anxious to catch the upcoming Marvel blockbuster. So many unanswered questions and not enough to go by. Did the Avengers only lose because Cap and Tony were separated? How will Captain Marvel play a role in fighting the Mad Titan? How will Antman (Rudd) escape the quantum realm? Why did Falcon think Banner and Natasha’s reunion was awkward? Will the Hulk stop hiding like a little bitch? Nothing is for certain except the fact that we will all have to wait until the 26th of April to have our inquisitions indulged.