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Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Put your “Endgame” face on

Students share theories and expectations for the final film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s third phase

It’s been nearly a year since “Avengers: Infinity War” came out, but on the off chance that you haven’t heard about what happens in it, be warned: there are spoilers ahead.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is the shared universe that is most known for its superhero movies based on characters from comics published by Marvel Comics. The first MCU movie released was “Iron Man” in 2008, and it began the first “phase” of films, which ended with 2012’s “Avengers.” The second phase was from 2013’s “Iron Man 3” to 2015’s “Ant-Man.” The much-anticipated “Avengers: Endgame,” which releases on April 26 will bring an end to  the third phase, which started with 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War.”

The ending of “Infinity War” left fans shocked, as half of all life in the universe was turned into dust. Fans were reminded of which characters survived Thanos’ snap with a series of character posters released by Marvel. Those who are still alive are displayed in color, and those who succumbed are in black and white, and all the posters read “Avenge the fallen.”  

“The first time I saw ‘Infinity War,’ I was floored,” said second-year physics major Haitch Martinez. “I loved it all the way to the end. I didn’t expect that ending and I really want to know what happens next because of it.”

But not all fans loved “Infinity War” at first. First-year cell biology major Mehrab Hussain was “more than excited” to see the movie, but found himself not as attached as he expected to be. He says that it had to do with the fact that one of his favorite characters — Hawkeye — wasn’t in the movie.

“I’m an archer myself, which is why I have a special place in my heart for Hawkeye,” Hussain said. “Even though he’s more of minor character and a lot of people view him as irrelevant or insignificant, I still think he’s an integral part of the team. I also think he’s just so cool, and I’m still envious of his archery skills.”

Hussain has watched “Infinity War” many times since that first time and said that he’s gotten over the disappointment and enjoys it now. Hussain has heard multiple theories and has some of his own predictions for what will happen in “Endgame.” He thinks that Captain America will die and that “something very unfortunate” is going to happen to Iron Man or someone Iron Man loves. There are a few things that Hussain is looking forward to for the movie, such as major confrontations, but he is clear about one thing that he wants in particular.

“Honestly, I just want Hawkeye to avenge his absence from ‘Infinity War,’” Hussain said. “They did him so dirty in the past Marvel movies, and if you think about it, the movie that didn’t have him, ‘Infinity War,’ resulted in the Avengers losing, but all the other ones with him, the first
“Avengers” and “Civil War”, they were able to win. So I’m excited for his return.”

First-year psychology major Jacob Diaz was first introduced to the MCU when he watched “Avengers”, but he didn’t really get into it until watching “Captain America: Civil War.” Diaz considers “Infinity War” to be his favorite MCU movie due to the years of build-up combined with its execution.

“It had humorous moments and also shocking moments which I was not expecting from a Marvel film,” Diaz said. “It also stood out to me because it was the first superhero movie I had seen in which the villain won.”

In “Endgame,” Diaz expects that there will be loss, and although he loves the original six Avengers, he thinks that Thanos might kill some of them. By the end, though, he believes Thanos will be dead, and he would particularly like to see Captain America and Iron Man work together to take out Thanos.

Both Hussain and Martinez talked about a particularly popular theory: time travel. Hussain says that he’s heard that the remaining Avengers are going to use the same equipment that Ant-Man used to travel subatomically in order to travel back in time, which makes sense given that the new suits look like Ant-Man’s suit. Martinez says that if he were to guess, the team would go back in time and take the stones before Thanos.

“My expectation for ‘Endgame’ is that I have no clue what [will] happen,” Martinez said. “One thing I learned from the last movie [“Infinity War”] is that we can’t expect anything, and nobody in the film is ‘safe.’”

On Picnic Day, the Physics Club put on a production of a parody play they wrote called “Infinity Wire.” Martinez worked with the writing team and played Spider-Man. Martinez says that he believes that the club’s choice to use “Infinity War” as inspiration reflects how excited he and a lot of other people are for what happens next.

Expectations are high for the movie, and fans are rushing to find clues. But the stars are trying their best to avoid revealing any spoilers. Chadwick Boseman, who plays T’Challa, repeated “I’m dead” in an interview to avoid revealing spoilers. Mark Ruffalo, who plays the Hulk, is known for revealing spoilers. He famously live streamed the first 20 minutes of “Thor: Ragnarok” at its premiere and said “Wait until you see this next one, everybody dies” before the premiere of “Infinity War.” This time, Ruffalo said that he shot different endings for “Endgame” and was given a script with dummy scenes so he couldn’t reveal anything. People even say that Benedict Cumberbatch was intentionally selected to be interviewed with Tom Holland so the younger actor would be stopped from revealing any spoilers.

With all of the hype surrounding it, tickets for the premiere are being resold on eBay for up to $15,000.

“I think it’s so ridiculous but so expected,” Hussain said. “I think [for] a movie on such a scale as ‘Endgame,’ there’s going to be people who take advantage of really desperate fans. I just think it’s pretty dumb and [that] people should just wait and be patient.”

Hussain plans to see the movie (probably multiple times) with friends from home, whom he has watched every MCU movie with. Martinez hasn’t made plans to watch the movie yet, but hopes to soon.

“I want to see the film ASAP,” Martinez said. “I just got to make sure I avoid the internet entirely until I see it in theaters.”

With any luck Hawkeye and the rest of the Avengers will not disappoint these fans.

Written by: Anjini Venugopal — features@theaggie.org

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