Marvel has been teasing its fans with tiny details of Avengers: Endgame a lot the past couple of months, causing many to flock to social media to express their rollercoaster of emotions.
It started with the trailers, which haven’t really shown us much about the plot of the movie. The recent trailer did show the healing of the relationship between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers after Captain America: Civil War, which was already expected since their argument was petty anyway.
Thanos’ snap did more than just repair friendships. The trailers also showed that Clint Barton is back from his “retirement” after Civil War, and he has a whole new superhero persona. Hawkeye, aka Barton, has a whole new costume and a new codename, “Ronin,” that has been used multiple times by multiple characters throughout the comic books. The theory is that Hawkeye’s change to Ronin could be driven by the death of his family after the snap, which means that Barton will be twice as powerful as before with his newfound rage. He also could develop some actual superpowers in the process, as shown when he became the super-strong character Goliath for a brief time in the comics while fighting a reality-ending menace (which could describe Thanos).
Marvel has always been good at incorporating subtle hints and Easter eggs, but it really pulled at the fans’ emotions when it released character posters. Each poster features the phrase “Avenge the fallen,” and if that wasn’t bad enough, the characters who were killed by the snap are pictured in black and white. While everyone else’s deaths were already known from Avengers: Infinity War, Shuri’s black-and-white poster was the most surprising. Also, an unknown fate was Valkyrie’s, who was confirmed to be alive with a full-color poster.
Fans love to speculate about what will happen in the upcoming movies, and they are always looking for hints. When the character posters were revealed, fans noticed that Groot had a little bit of mossy facial hair, which lead to a potential confirmation that the characters aren’t actually dead or in stasis but are in an alternate dimension inside the soul stone. Marvel Studios know that their fans are detail-oriented, and the producers will make sure the fans aren’t bored.
Endgame broke presale ticket records while also breaking many ticket sellers’ websites. Fandango’s website was functional but had ridiculously long wait times for tickets; even then, it wasn’t guaranteed that opening weekend showtimes wouldn’t be sold out. It set Fandango’s first day pre-sales record in just six hours, overtaking Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Websites like AMC, however, couldn’t handle the high demand and shut down. After more than 10 years of getting to know some of these characters, fans are excited to see where they will end up.
This will not be one of those movies where the end result doesn’t live up to the hype. It will be three hours of pure anticipation and excitement based on how the Earth’s mightiest heroes will make their final debut — and fans will relish in every minute of it.
Charlotte Caldwell is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk to Charlotte? Email her at cc670717@ohio.edu.
