Avengers Week: Crystal Ball Edition
We’re in the endgame now! With under a week to go until the release of the newest Avengers movie, the good folks at UNPLUGG’D will be answering all the hottest questions about the second most ambitious crossover event in history. Let the hype begin!
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Avengers: Infinity War and potential spoilers for Avengers: Endgame. We are just guessing though, and only one of us is smart, so most of what we say probably won’t come true.
I’ve been simultaneously dreading and anxiously awaiting this moment for the past 365 days. No, it has nothing to do with the fact that Thanos snapped away half of our favorite heroes the last time we met (he didn’t get the good ones anyway).
In two days, I finish my last-ever class as a college student. And while I still have a couple months until I’m forced to become a real adult, I can thank the Russo Brothers for a nice three-hour-long escape to the Marvel Cinematic Universe to forget my troubles for the time being.
Will it be a pleasant journey? Will Endgame give our favorite heroes a storybook Disney ending? Or will I be left weeping the same way my father was after the Snappening?
Fear not, for my brother and I are here to answer all of your juiciest Avengers questions. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Culture Corner.
We’re going hard-hitters first. Right off the bat, does Captain America survive the endgame?
Jake: Of course, bromigo. This is Disney. There are kids watching.
Now, I’m not approaching this question in the traditional sense. Instead, I ask you to remember the context in which a film like Endgame is being released. Big blockbusters are not trying to depress us. Sure, you have your dark chapters — à la Empire Strikes Back or Infinity War — but the sun will surely rise again on a grateful universe. After all, did Spider-Man really die if the Mouse House (and Sony) has already begun shoving more Homecoming films down our throats?
Cap won’t die. Instead, he will make a big grand gesture to sacrifice himself for the greater good, but not through the loss of his life. We already assume time travel or dimension-hopping of some kind will be involved in Endgame. Likewise, Steve Rogers will end the film saying goodbye to the Avengers as he stays behind in either an alternate timeline or the past (or some combination of both). My best guess is he gets his Hollywood ending and remains in golden age America alongside his best girl, Peggy Carter. We can only dream.
Nate: You kidding me, brochacho? No wayyyy Cap makes it out of Endgame alive.
To give even greater context to this whole thing, we know that — along with RDJ — this will be Chris Evans’ last ride. It’s public knowledge that his contract is up. And while I actually like Jake’s theory on how Cap will ultimately exit, I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility for Disney to truly kill him off.
Here’s the thing: Cap is living on borrowed time. He’s pulled off what Walt Disney himself could never do, waking up from a frozen sleep for decades and continuing to live on in the modern world. I agree with Jake that Cap will sacrifice himself, but I think this sacrifice will be to save Tony Stark in a tense, emotional, conclusive situation.
Hearken back to Infinity War, when Tony tells Pepper about his dream that she’s pregnant. She denied it… but I think she was lying, and that she wanted to surprise Tony before he, ya know, flew out into space.
In the end, I think the whole team figures this out, and Cap (in the most Cap move ever) takes a bullet to save Tony in an effort to make up for the splitting effects of Civil War. With his remaining fortune, Tony erects a memorial for Cap and disappears from the public view to raise his kid and retire as Iron Man.
Is Thanos the final bad guy the Avengers face?
Jake: Probably, but I’m again going to traverse a workaround time travel route to answer this question.
If we consider Endgame as a comic book movie, some other potential evil-doers who wielded the gauntlet in the comics could take over as antagonists. Adam Warlock has already been teased, although I’m assuming he’s being saved for the next Guardians film so as not to disorient viewers too much. I also imagine that a potential entry into the MCU by Adam Warlock would be too big of a deal for even Disney to keep on lock-down for this long.
However, I’m more certain Nebula will acquire the Gauntlet and wreak havoc against Thanos and the other Avengers for at least a good chunk of the film. Maybe a second-act plot point. It’s too fitting given the comic history, her family ties and the fact that she wasn’t snapped away along with the rest of the irrelevant characters.
Yet I don’t see her being a final antagonist given she’s not that high-profile of a character, at least in the films. I’d bet my money on the film returning to focus on the fight against Thanos or another familiar Marvel baddy through some time travel shenanigans. Might we see the return of Loki? Or how about Red Skull? The possibilities are endless.
Nate: I read a theory that Thanos is essentially vanquished in the first, like, 20 or so minutes of the film. The theory had merit: the Avengers find Purple Josh Brolin and enact their revenge, only for him to gloat — defeating him won’t bring their friends back.
Frustrated, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes return to Avengers HQ to regroup and plan their next move. That’s when Ant-Man and the Quantum Realm comes into play. With newfound knowledge about time travel and the tech to pull it off, the team travels back to different moments in their history in order to alter the eventual timeline and save their friends. Along with, well, half of the (formerly) living universe.
I think there’s merit to a good chunk of this, though I doubt Thanos is finished that quickly. There might not be an actual villain of the film — the conflict might just revolve around this time travel aspect — but I agree with Jake that Nebula is the most likely candidate to take the Gauntlet and run with it. Due to her complicated-yet-much-improved relationship with her sister, however, I can see Nebula coming to her senses near the end of the film and sacrificing herself to bring Gamora back from the Soul Stone.
How does Ant-Man escape the Quantum Realm?
Jake: Going to play the time travel card again. In the last scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp, Michelle Pfeiffer had some remarkably out-of-place dialogue about not getting stuck in a time vortex as Ant-Man prepared to jump into the Quantum realm.
Every little detail in the MCU films holds purpose, with grandmaster Feige planning out his every move like a ginger Bobby Fischer. Why else would Cat-Woman say such a cringey line?
Ant-Man tends to not follow orders. We’ve seen him go sub-atomic and break his house arrest with absolutely zero consequences. Why not go into the time vortex?
Nate: Yeah, I’m with Jake here. Why keep Ant-Man around — and this relevant — for anything other than time travel? I imagine that a year or two has passed post-Snappening, which is when Scott Lang finally figures out how to escape the Quantum Realm. In doing so, he’ll have the know-how to bring the rest of the squad along for the next ride.
Who kills Thanos? And how?
Nate: This may be a hot take, but I don’t think Thanos dies.
After all, the ultimate Marvel villain isn’t really a bad guy. His character motivations were so well-crafted and valid in Infinity War, you could make the argument that he was the protagonist of the film and most reasonable people wouldn’t bat an eye.
Thanos has accomplished what he wanted to do. Yes, he finally had to get out of his favorite chair, but the big purple guy succeeded in collecting the six MacGuffins — sorry, Infinity Stones — and carrying out his perfectly balanced plan. All he wants to do now is rest and watch the sunset.
We know the Avengers will confront Thanos. I think they’ll defeat him, though he won’t really be trying. After all, chilling on a random planet all alone gets boring. Thanos will come around to our heroes’ viewpoint and admit his mistake. In turn, they’ll leave him on his planet for the rest of eternity (or for however long large purple god-like-but-not-actual-god figures typically live).
Jake: You’re probably bored by now with all my time travel theories, but it’s the only proper way for Endgame to go down, allowing for a grand-scale epic adventure with a callback to every nostalgic MCU moment possible.
I’m expecting Thanos to die twice. First, at the hands of his Infinity Gauntlet-wielding daughter, as Nebula makes quick work of her father and assumes the role of most powerful being in the universe (the BOAT, if you will). After that, I’m expecting the Avengers to travel back to the same moment from Infinity War where Thanos snaps his fingers, but this time… Captain Marvel goes for the head! You see what I did there?
How does Endgame set up the rest of the MCU?
Jake: Not a clue. I’ve been thinking about this question a lot, but I feel that Endgame is the culmination of all the superhero hype. It’s already been confirmed Disney is taking a step back with its Marvel projects after Homecoming 2. I just have a hard time seeing people getting excited for anything that’s not Black Panther in the next few years, and even then I hardly expect the sequel to arrive with the same bang that the first one did last February.
People are going to be tired of superheroes after Endgame (especially after sitting through the film for three hours). Disney will have to severely shake things up and/or tone things down in order to rein in the MCU beast they’ve created. Maybe some less connected, one-off tales in the vein of the new DC films (Shazam was a great time). Maybe some funky alternate timeline/re-casting revisions to the MCU as we know it. Either way, I don’t really know what to expect, but I’m sure the post-credit stings for Endgame will manage to at least engage my curiosity.
Nate: Well, we know that Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange, T’Challa and Spidey will be carrying the MCU for the foreseeable future. In terms of our other heroes with films still on their contracts, we have GOTG3 in the works, along with a Black Widow solo film.
After that, the only confirmed flicks are Shang-Chi and The Eternals, two projects which Feige and Co. have been uncharacteristically mum about. I agree with Jake on the fatigue aspect of this entire MCU experiment, but the reality remains as such: if Marvel keeps pumping out good movies, I have no reason to stop flocking to the theaters to see them. I certainly don’t think I’m alone in this thinking, either.
In any event, I may have seemed confident throughout here, but I’ll be the first to say that I legitimately have no idea how Phase 3 will end. If the Russo Brothers’ track record is any indication, however, I’m assuming Endgame will be more than just a must-watch. It’s gonna be one of the greatest moments in pop culture history, period.
Did you agree with our answers? Am I too obsessed with time travel? Will Kevin Feige kill off my favorite superhero and break my heart? Let us know what you think, and let’s enjoy our last seven days before the end.
