Small Details You Missed In The Avengers: Infinity War Trailer
The first trailer for Marvel's The Avengers: Infinity War has finally dropped, and it's as much of a doozy as fans might've expected. Not only do we finally see the many new subsets of superheroes come together with the OG Avengers—from Black Panther to Star-Lord and his Guardians to Doctor Strange, the new kids are all here—but Thanos has finally decided to step down from his space throne and take a shot at gathering what he's wanted all along: those amazing Infinity Stones. And, from the looks of this trailer, he's off to a good start.
Let's take a look at some of the finer details you might've missed in the trailer for Avengers: Infinity War, shall we?
Loki's betrayal is (probably) going to happen
The events of Thor: Ragnarok might've brought Thor and Loki to a cheeky detente, but it was just a matter of time before brother dearest betrayed that newly-earned trust. Not only does this new trailer show Loki handing over the Tesseract (which he definitely stole from Odin's vault) to someone (probably Thanos or one of his minions), but it also shows him stepping over dead bodies to do so. Could that giant ship that arrived in bleak mid-credits scene after Ragnarok truly have heralded Thanos' arrival? And if so, will it mean the destruction of the remaining Asgardians?
Thor does seem pretty broken up in the glimpses we get of him here. He's sporting a patch to conceal the damage Hela did to his eye in Ragnarok, and he seems to be trying to fight something well above his pay grade by pushing against the levers on some massive machine. He's later shown looking through a spaceship window (which looks like it might be on the Guardians' Milano) at some more fiery destruction. When he does finally meet Star-Lord (with teenaged Groot, Gamora, Mantis, Rocket Raccoon and Drax in tow), Thor seems lonelier and more contemptuous than ever, and it's not hard to guess why.
Spider-sense is tingling
In addition to his new suit, Peter Parker is also shown experiencing his first visible onscreen spider-sense—the raised arm hair that alerts him to the fact that his city's just been invaded by the looming sky ring of doom. Peter's uncanny sense of danger is key in the comics, and there's a reason we're seeing it here while he's still in plain clothes. After fans questioned why spider-sense wasn't explicitly seen or mentioned in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige said the studio purposefully reserved this reveal for the right time, telling IGN that they wanted to show it's "his natural abilities ... not the suit." Voila.
Spidey's got a brand new suit
Tom Holland's Spider-Man is the newest and youngest member of the team, but he clearly won't be held out of the action when it comes to handling the mysterious circular craft we see hovering over New York City—and he'll join the fray wearing a new suit. The costume, earlier seen in the closing moments of Spider-Man: Homecoming, was custom-built by Spidey's mentor Tony Stark and boasts a ton of extra features—like those glowing eyes we see in the trailer. He'll need all of them and then some in order to survive the Avengers' battle against Thanos.
Calling up the Captain
When Tony Stark is shown visiting Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, there's an interesting little Easter egg in his hands: what appears to be the cell phone Steve Rogers gave him at the tail end of Civil War. Even though the two didn't completely resolve their differences, the device was meant as a show of solidarity against their common enemies—and came with a note promising "no matter what, I promise you, if you need us, if you need me, I'll be there." Cap may be enjoying asylum in Wakanda, but it's clear Tony's going to take him up on that offer in Avengers: Infinity War once the threat of Thanos becomes clear.
Captain America's beard
Following the events of Captain America: Civil War, Steve Rogers has a different attitude about the entire world and his place in superhero society—an evolution visibly expressed in the Infinity War trailer when we see him stepping out of the shadows, sporting dark garb and a full beard. As director Joe Russo told HuffPo, "him dropping that shield is him letting go of that identity." However, with Thanos entering the picture, Rogers is going to have to reconsider his recluse status—and although the trailer makes it obvious he'll be joining the battle against the Mad Titan, he doesn't seem to be stepping back into his Captain America uniform or using his trademark shield anytime soon.
Getting the shield
In the trailer, when T'Challa instructs his people to "get this man a shield," he's talking about getting Steve Rogers back into superhero action—and the line also serves as a clever callback to the characters' comics history. In 1941, the Captain earned the trust of T'Challa's father T'Chaka, who gave him a piece of Wakandan vibranium—which was then used to help form Cap's circular shield, allowing him to retire his original triangular model (which he gifted to T'Chaka). Decades later, when Rogers gave up the title of Captain America in a dispute with the U.S. government (sound familiar?), he was gifted a new vibranium shield by Black Panther.
Do blondes have more fun?
Natasha Romanoff is another of the exiled Avengers who's seen sporting a new look in our first glimpse of Infinity War—specifically, blonde locks. She's probably still a fugitive at the start of this movie, and the hue of her 'do may just be a simple effort to disguise herself. However, some suspect it might also harken back to the comics' second Black Widow, Yelena Belova, who was similarly blonde. If she is just trying on a new identity for size, in light of the events of Civil War, why not make her alter ego one plucked from the page as a hat tip to her longtime fans?
Frozen in time?
Although we don't know for sure if Thanos has or will be able to steal the Time Stone from the Sanctum Sanctorum, there's at least one shot in the trailer which hints that he might. As Tony Stark is shown on the street, removing his glasses to stare at something above him (the ring portal, perhaps?), Doctor Strange, Bruce Banner, and Wong seem to be frozen behind him. Strange and Wong's mystical shields seem to be turning very slowly, if at all, adding to the question of whether Thanos has somehow gotten his hands on that powerful gem.
Vision looks...different
In the first glimpse we get of Vision in the Infinity War trailer, he looks a lot more human than he used to—in fact, his appearance is almost ordinary, save for the bright yellow stone embedded in his forehead. In the comics, one of the character's defining features has often been a desire to be as human as possible, so the fact that he's able to shed all the red means that either we're looking at a dream sequence or he's acquired new shapeshifting abilities. In either case, he's clearly developed a romantic relationship with the Scarlet Witch, which is also a nod to a central component of his comics origins. The two have had quite a storied relationship throughout the years—including a marriage that resulted in twins, named Wiccan and Speed, who later became part of the Young Avengers. A certain casting call for Avengers 4 seems to indicate that the kids could be joining the MCU.
The new guys
Two quick cuts in the Avengers: Infinity War trailer point to new bad guys coming forward to support Thanos' quest for the Stones. In one frame, Captain America (all decked out in black and bearded) is shown tussling with someone who looks a little like Ronan the Accuser—that's Proxima Midnight, a villain that comics readers will recognize as a member of Thanos' Black Order.
Another member of the Order, Proxima's husband Corvus Glaive, also seems to make an appearance in the trailer. In the shot where poor Vision is shown having his forehead zapped by a golden staff (presumably to steal the Mind Stone), the weapon and grungy clothes of his attacker look an awful lot like the Glaive of the comics. Whether Glaive wins his battle against Vision here remains to be seen—but it's already painfully apparent that Thanos will stop at nothing to collect those Infinity Stones.
The heroes will have their hands full in Wakanda
Avengers: Infinity War won't be the first film to make landfall in Wakanda, of course—and we'll see a lot of it in Black Panther, whose release date precedes Infinity War by several months. But it does look like the gang will recruit T'Challa and Okoye to join their superhero squad—there are several glimpses of Wakanda throughout the trailer, including one big battle that'll feature Captain America, the Winter Soldier, the Black Widow, Hulk, and more.
The significance of Bruce being one of the central go-betweens to bring these teams together is that he's clearly not lost in his transition to Hulk the way he feared he might be in Thor: Ragnarok. When we see him, he's still very much himself in human form—albeit standing next to one of Iron Man's Hulkbuster gloves.
Is the Winter Soldier no more?
Steve isn't the only one sporting a new look in the trailer. There's also a subtle difference in the way Bucky is outfitted, as the star looks to be missing from his new bionic arm—a visual indication that he's decided to shed a piece of his pre-Civil War identity and go forward as a non-Winter Soldier nomad. Has he rid his mind of HYDRA's programming at long last? Even if he is truly ready to start fresh, actor Sebastian Stan has cast doubt on how well it'll work out for him, telling The Daily Beast, "I think Bucky represents some of those people that come back and just don't know how to restart their lives."
Thanos is not above hand-to-hand combat
Although Thanos has been a pretty hands-off kind of space villain until now, he decided in the mid-credits scene for Avengers: Age of Ultron that he was going to take matters into his own hands before gloving up with the then-unjeweled Infinity Gauntlet. And it looks like he's going to make good on that promise in Avengers: Infinity War, because he's shown personally bringing the pain to some of our heroes.
Chief among his victims is Iron Man, who's easily dispatched by the giant supervillain, but Spider-Man also seems to take quite a beating (and get choked out) by our intergalactic baddie. Of course, the final showdown will probably be a little more spectacular than either of these clips, but it's still clearly very personal for Thanos right now. Speaking of which ...
Thanos has stones
Before this movie, it wasn't clear that Thanos would have any Infinity Stones to add to his Gauntlet, or whether he'd even gotten the real Gauntlet this time (as expected, it's on the left hand now). But now we know that he's not only been able to gather one stone in light of the events of Guardians of the Galaxy, but now he's gotten a second.
The first stone is purple, which seems to indicate that he's retrieved the Power Stone Ronan tried to keep for himself in Guardians. The second is blue, which means it's the Space Stone, a.k.a. the Tesseract, which probable traitor Loki is shown passing along. It's not clear whether he's able to gather the Mind Stone from Vision, or the Time Stone from Doctor Strange ... but he's still farther along in his quest than many fans might've expected by now. It'll all add up to a heck of a fight for our heroes—one that's destined to end in what Marvel chief Kevin Feige has described as "a finale" for the MCU as we know it.
Nick Fury the storyteller
Although we don't actually see him in the trailer, Nick Fury's voice is the first one we hear, beginning the voiceover narration that reminds viewers how the Avengers came to be. "There was an idea," he's heard saying, before other characters—including Vision and Black Widow—finish out the intro by adding, "to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if we could become something more, so when they needed us, we could fight the battles that they never could." This line is a pretty direct callback to one of Fury's earliest Avengers speeches setting up the first group assembly, but as far as we know, it doesn't signify that Fury will appear in the movie. According to Samuel L. Jackson, who's played Fury throughout the MCU, he won't show up in Infinity War, Avengers 4, or Black Panther.