Infinity War's New Trailer: All The Small Details You Missed
A lot has happened since Marvel dropped the first trailer for Avengers: Infinity War last November. The film's release date was bumped up from May 4 to April 27. Entertainment Weekly unleashed a special issue with 15 collectible covers and a swarm of new stills. Black Panther took theaters by storm in February, giving Marvel fans a whole cast of new favorite characters in Wakanda, a significant location in Infinity War.
The second and final theatrical trailer has arrived, and it's packed with even more action than the first. Spider-Man meets Doctor Strange! Thor joins the Guardians of the Galaxy! The Hulkbuster armor is back! With all these big moments thundering across the screen, some less obvious details are bound to slip between the cracks like Loki creeping off with the Tesseract. To help you prepare for all the impending emotions, we've caught some of the things you might not have picked up on. Here are the small details you missed in the new Infinity War trailer.
A familiar tune
The first thing heard in the trailer is sure to stir some familiar emotions in any Marvel devotee. It's a new version of Alan Silvestri's main theme from the original Avengers, introduced way back in 2012. Now it's got some wistful piano, some eerie strings, and some sick bass drops. Over the Infinity War trailer's two minutes of action, it builds to a full-throated reprise of the heroic fanfare.
Silvestri, who scored not only The Avengers but Captain America: The First Avenger as well, is making his triumphant return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Infinity War. Recent Marvel movies have been increasing their musical continuity, with Mark Mothersbaugh's Thor: Ragnarok score using Patrick Doyle's original Thor theme to bring that trilogy full circle. The music for Age of Ultron by Brian Tyler and Danny Elfman made brief uses of Silvestri's motif, but Infinity War promises to really play on a nostalgia for the first time Earth's Mightiest Heroes met onscreen.
Half the universe
While the first Infinity War trailer had Thanos waxing poetic about his dream of "balancing the universe," it was still pretty vague about just how he intended to do that. Now, Gamora spells out for us exactly what he plans to do: "wipe out half the universe," a goal he's had for as long as she's known him. This audacious plot should come as no surprise to longtime comics readers.
When Thanos assembled the full power of the stones in the 1991 comic event Infinity Gauntlet, his first order of business was to make half of all life in the universe suddenly vanish. He did this in order to impress Marvel's Death, who in the comics is a sexy undead being he would very much like to smooch. He didn't exactly announce the coming half-apocalypse to the people of Earth, making the disappearances extra horrific for those left behind. Only when the Silver Surfer appeared to Doctor Strange did the Avengers know who was responsible.
It seems our heroes will have a bit more of an advance warning in the movie version. Will they be able to stop Thanos before his fateful finger snap? Well, whatever happens, we know the story will continue next year.
Shuri is shaken
In the months since the first Infinity War trailer, audiences have been introduced to Shuri, and they like what they see. Wakanda's teenage technological genius/princess is the breakout hit of Black Panther, largely because of her unflappable confidence and readiness to crack wise when things get too serious. Her scientific understanding is so advanced that it's up to her to calmly explain what seems like magic to the outside world.
It's not insignificant, then, that this trailer takes a moment to show Shuri staring in disbelief at a hologram of the Vision. Her awed silence shows that this cosmic confrontation will introduce her to wonders beyond the scope of even her imagination. This suggestion of new challenges should excite the legions of fans who are already hyped to see more of her. Not to mention, of course, the thrill we'll all get from watching her wipe the intellectual floor with Science Bros Tony Stark and Bruce Banner.
Sam and Rhodey: wingmen?
The biggest challenge in defeating Thanos just might be healing the emotional wounds that are sure to divide the Avengers as the story begins. Most of our heroes were last seen in Captain America: Civil War, a conflict as contentious as its title suggests. When we left them, Captain America and Iron Man had an uneasy truce, their team split into two factions by the debate over the Sokovia Accords.
One of the most personal elements of the fight came down to James Rhodes, a.k.a. War Machine, and Sam Wilson, a.k.a. the Falcon. Rhodes and Wilson already butted heads as two military men with opposing views, but things got serious when a showdown left Rhodes freefalling from the sky and losing the use of his legs. Stark blamed Sam for the injury that befell his best friend, solidifying the bitterness between Team Cap and Team Iron Man.
The new Infinity War trailer shows off a grand shot of Iron Man's Hulkbuster armor striding across the plains of Wakanda with Falcon and War Machine flying in formation behind him. Whatever has transpired between these characters in the time since Civil War, we're sure to see an emotional confrontation in the buildup to this reunion.
Thor's anguish
A brief shot shows Thanos grabbing Thor by the head and forcing him to his knees. Closing his one remaining eye, the God of Thunder seems to be screaming in anguish — not from the force of the Mad Titan's hand, but in reaction to something he doesn't want to see. We're getting a look at not only Thanos' might, but his sadistic streak.
What could the villain be using to crush the king's soul? Well, Thor's got a lot on the line. After learning the lesson from his father that "Asgard isn't a place, Asgard is a people," he's been left in charge of a spaceship that contains the only remnants of his homeland. It seems likely that the confrontation we're seeing takes place immediately after Ragnarok's mid-credits bonus scene, which saw Thanos' warship looming before the Asgardian vessel. Thanos could be forcing Thor to watch the slaughter of his people, the betrayal of his brother, or (given that he isn't seen in the trailer very much) the execution of Loki.
Loki's betrayal
A lot happened in the last few minutes of Thor: Ragnarok. In the middle of his rush to summon the titanic destroyer Surtur, Loki deftly lifted the Tesseract, also known as the Cosmic Cube, from Odin's treasure room. Of course, he last had his hands on it in The Avengers, as part of a plot eventually revealed to be Thanos' doing. As they journeyed into space with what remained of the Asgardian people, Loki and Thor seemed to at last truly make amends.
Or did they? The Infinity War trailer finds the God of Mischief standing before the throne of Thanos, seemingly ready to surrender the Tesseract willingly. The cube contains the Space Stone, which is likely what will allow the Mad Titan to warp to Earth. What's Loki's endgame? It's impossible to guess, considering he has a penchant for double-, triple-, and quadruple-crosses. As usual, he's hard to read in the shot we get of him surrounded by Thanos' Black Order.
Ebony Maw is a sassy molassy
Speaking of the Black Order (or the "Children of Thanos," as they are reportedly called in the film), this trailer gives us our first good look at them in action. The Order is Thanos' elite squad of lieutenants charged with doing the kind of nitty gritty dirty work he wouldn't touch with a ten-foot Infinity Gauntlet. Their onscreen incarnation includes strategist Corvus Glaive, the vicious Proxima Midnight, the massive Cull Obsidian, and the slippery Ebony Maw.
While the assembled group is glimpsed only briefly in the trailer, Ebony Maw gets special attention. We get a nice close-up of this master manipulator grinning and shushing someone playfully. He may be in the midst of manipulating the power of Doctor Strange to facilitate Thanos' invasion, something he has done before in the comics. It's an intriguing promise of some big personality among these newcomers joining the armies of returning heroes and villains.
Tiny Gamora?
While all of the Avengers will be reassembling to save the universe from Thanos, there are only a few characters for whom the conflict is extremely personal. The two Guardians of the Galaxy movies have built an epic backstory of family drama behind Thanos and his daughters, Gamora and Nebula. It's a bitter tale of abuse, betrayal, attempted murder, and limb loss.
This soap opera from space is sure to come to a head in Infinity War, and the trailer provides a surprising moment of family bonding. We see Thanos take a tiny green hand in his giant purple one, as he walks with a young girl toward an ornate archway. It seems like a safe bet that the girl is a young Gamora, but is this a flashback? Maybe some warping via the Time Stone? Or perhaps it's a vision conjured by Scarlet Witch for the kind of emotional manipulation she used against her future teammates in Age of Ultron.
Thanos and his pretty hat
Though writer/artist Jim Starlin admits his original design was inspired by Jack Kirby's Metron and Darkseid over at DC, Thanos remains undoubtedly one of the most iconic characters in Marvel Comics. Introduced in a 1973 issue of Iron Man, the Mad Titan truly rose to prominence with the massively successful Infinity Gauntlet event. Since then, his lilac skin, ridged lantern jaw, and gold-plated garments have appeared on countless book covers, t-shirts, action figures, and tie-in merchandise.
Since his first appearance during the end credits of The Avengers, Thanos' look has been tweaked slightly for return cameos in Guardians of the Galaxy and Age of Ultron, but he remained instantly recognizable. But when the first Infinity War trailer hit, many fans were plagued with one question: where's his helmet? Something about that big, bald head just felt wrong compared to the profile we're all used to. Fortunately, the new trailer shows off multiple shots that find his shiny hat firmly in place.
Where's Hawkeye?
Marvel is touting Infinity War as "the culmination of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe," providing a grand clash of seemingly as many heroes and villains as can fit into two-and-a-half hours of IMAX-sized action. The new trailer brings us up to speed on just about all of our leading stars, introducing old friends to recent favorites and new allies from across the cosmos. But one of the original Avengers is still missing, and it's becoming a rather conspicuous absence.
Jeremy Renner is confirmed to be back once more as Clint Barton, a.k.a. Hawkeye, but none of Infinity War's marketing has shown even the slightest sight of him. Though Age of Ultron introduced his previously unmentioned private family life and he declared himself "retired" in Civil War, it would be strange if this founding member of the cinematic Avengers didn't have a major role to play in this big payoff. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo remain tight-lipped on the subject of Clint, hinting only that he has a "special spot" in the film.
This film is not yet rated
The trailer closes with the standard MPAA ratings notification — or, in this case, the pending arrival of one. With just over a month before release, there's still no official word on what kind of content warnings will accompany the film. It's a safe bet, though, that Infinity War will arrive in theaters slapped with a PG-13, the rating that has adorned all of the MCU's previous 18 movies.
It's possible that changes are being made to the final cut even now to secure this certification. That's what happened to the first Avengers film in 2012, when Phil Coulson's death at the hands of Loki had to be re-cut multiple times to avoid an R. Though Marvel hasn't shied away from TV-MA ratings for its grittier Netflix shows, they're likely to stick with the financially viable PG-13 for theatrical releases for the foreseeable future. DC may have branched out with an R-rated extended cut of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but Marvel has yet to use home video for any alternate versions of their movies. Then again, with a universe-shattering event like Infinity War, who knows what the future may hold?