Avengers: Endgame: What you missed in the new TV spots

The Avengers: Endgame TV spots are telling more and more of the story, 30 seconds at a time, or at least what we’re supposed to be looking at.

As much as it’s already been made clear that the Avengers: Endgame promotional campaign is lying to viewers, that doesn’t mean that those same fans can’t tease out what Marvel wants us to see — and what it doesn’t want us to see.

In the hopes of doing “whatever it takes,” we’re going to take a close look at some footage.

Check out these two TV spots. Both were released over the weekend:

Even though the first Endgame trailer mostly focused on Tony Stark, everything since has mostly focused on Steve Rogers. He’s getting the bulk of the dialogue that sets the stakes for the movie. “The world is in our hands; we gotta do something with it,” as a line, is something that we not only expect Steve to say, but also tell us how seriously he’s taking this. Seeing your best friend become dust probably does that.

Note also that even after her appearance in the second trailer, there’s a distinct lack of Carol Danvers here. She’s going to be in the movie; we know that much. But with her film edging ever-closer to $1 billion worldwide, why wouldn’t Marvel emphasize her return?

The simple solution is that her absence is meant to be the point. We know she plays a major role, and so to reveal nothing at all — except that Thor likes her — means that all theories are valid right now. Think Carol and Valkyrie are going to meet up and get together? That’s understandable. Think that Thor, Carol, and Valkyrie are going to ride off the sunset together? We relate to that, and also that can still happen.

Alternatively, Marvel could be planning to reveal more of her role if there’s a final trailer on the way. That’s certainly a theory of its own, because time is running short to drop another trailer. However, tickets haven’t gone on sale yet. What better way to announce that tickets are on sale than by dropping one last trailer, then putting in a card at the end to go break Fandango and the internet at large, presumably shatter pre-sales records, and make everyone excited yet again?

Avengers: Endgame premieres April 26.