We get it: The Avengers: Endgame trailer has been here for over 24 hours, we still haven’t stopped talking about it. Though we’re still mesmerized by the upsetting scenes in the first official trailer, not everything in the Avengers: Endgame sneak peek is what it seems.
Somehow, we continue to trust the Russo brothers and Marvel in general, even though they’ve repeatedly told us that Endgame isn’t the title for Avengers 4 and that Loki is dead even though the shapeshifter is getting his own series on Disney+. With our Marvel-induced trust issues, you can see why we’re healthily skeptical of the scenes in the Avengers: Endgame trailer.
We can’t blame Marvel’s marketing team from using Tom Holland, the Russo brothers, and their trailers to keep us from decoding their impending films before they’re released. After all, that would ruin the surprise. Movie trailers generally include deleted scenes in their trailers to sway viewers from piecing together the entire plot. Comic book films utilize heavily armed advertising strategies to keep fans anticipated and bewildered.
Marvel especially uses fake clips or conveniently timed footage in their move-specific trailers, but we already know that from its past promo with Avengers: Infinity War. In the first official Infinity War trailer, we thought the famous clip of the Avengers running alongside thousands of Wakandan warriors would fight Thanos. After watching the film, we know that the scene at 2:00 of the trailer never made it into the movie and that the Hulk wasn’t present after his initial tango with Thanos, unlike the same clip suggests.
We were naïve and that misdirection in the Infinity War trailer gave us a false sense of confidence in the fact that the Avengers would actually defeat Thanos. That leads us to now. Thanos won. Half the Avengers are dust, some are still at risk of dying, and the Avengers: Endgame trailer doesn’t give us much hope for the fate of the remaining heroes.
We expect Disney to distract us with misdirection, fake scenes, and conspicuously syncopated scenes and audio so that our wandering fan theories don’t decode the trailer for Endgame. However, we have some suspicions about which scenes in the teaser might be fake or slightly misleading.
Avengers: Endgame first official trailer. Screenshot via Marvel Entertainment/YouTube.
Certain cameos
Ant-Man’s cameo at the end of the trailer gave us some overdue reprieve from our post-Infinity War sadness. However, that might not be Ant-Man at the front door.
We don’t actually see Steve and Nat look at the screen that displays Scott’s live or archived message at the front door. The camera pans back and forth between Nat and Steve and back to the screen; however, the screen and the two Avengers who are watching it aren’t actually in the same frame, which could mean Ant-Man isn’t at the front door of the Avengers complex ready to save the day with the Quantum Realm — or not at that designated moment of the film.
Scott’s voice is in the background of the frames that include Nat and Steve looking at something; however, the sound could very well be edited into the scene. They could be listening to a different message from a different Avenger at the door, or even a different message entirely — like a distress call from a certain other Avenger. After all, like Scott, the remaining Avengers likely think Tony is dead and any contact from him would seem preposterous, explaining Steve’s inquiries about where the message is old or not.