So unless you don’t have access to the internet or are quite literally trapped in a cave circa Tony Stark in Iron Man then you most likely caught The Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer last night. Multiple times. If you haven’t then SHAME ON YOU! But also here it is right below in glorious High Definition.
I know right? Actually, watch it one more time for good measure before we continue.
Phew – OK, now that you caught your breath from the utter meltdown of epic glory that just washed over you we can break it down a little in more detail. Of course I’ll issue a SPOILER WARNING for anyone who hasn’t watched the trailer yet and for some reason is still reading this article. Dude, what gives? Just stop reading. For the rest of you – let’s go!
1. The “Civil War” cracks are already forming
Superhero on superhero violence, Thor choke-slamming Tony, Riots in the streets, distrust amongst the Avengers. It’s all there and it’s all signs that are pointing towards the recently announced Civil War storyline that’ll pit Tony Stark against Steve Rogers in Captain America 3. You can see this has been brewing since the team fought amongst each other in the first Avengers movie but the catalyst to this event is the exploitation of Hydra hiding amongst S.H.I.E.L.D in The Winter Soldier. Cap was already a guy who didn’t trust the group to begin with and the events of that movie pretty much solidified his stance on being anti-big brother when it comes to anything in the near future. If you don’t already know, the “Civil War” title of course comes from the comic-book arc that centers on a “superhero registration act” which is spearheaded by Tony Stark and opposed by Steve Rogers. It’s a document forcing superheroes to give up their identities and register with the government, which is exactly what would’ve killed every single person on Earth if Hydra’s plans went through at the end of The WInter Soldier. Sides are taken, heroes fight against one another and a major death is involved. This trailer didn’t give us any Cap on Tony action but we did get a sense of dread amongst the teammates and a lot of confusion, blame (both by Tony on himself and by Thor on Tony) as well as our characters looking broken and alone. Bruce in particular seems to be unable to control his rage anymore which is something I find odd as he harnessed it so well in The Avengers. We know for a fact that Loki’s staff is in possession of Hydra and was a key cog in how Loki was able to get inside the mind of Bruce and turn the Hulk against the team in the first movie, so could this have happened again? What could make Bruce look THAT DISTRAUGHT in the above gif? Is he shell-shocked at someone’s death or even worse – is it a death that he caused? This brings me to another small fan theory I have but in The Civil War storyline it’s Doctor Strange who goes on a hunger strike to protest the war between his allies and refuse to take sides, which makes me wonder if they’ll be using Bruce in that role for Captain America 3. Time will tell of course but I think it pretty much guaranteed that this Avengers team might not even be the same cohesive squad by THE END OF THIS MOVIE, let alone by the next sequel.
2. Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch will start off as enemies to The Avengers
That above image seems to be of Ultron either breaking out the twins from their Hydra headquarters we saw them at in the end of The Winter Soldier or leading them into an underground Stark Industries lair where he’ll get the rest of his robot army. Those details are yet to be confirmed but what you can tell from that image is that he’s aligned with them. I’m assuming that Ultron would use Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver for their powers (specifically Scarlett Witch as she might be the most powerful Avenger in the movie) and he would harness their trust by praying on their emotions. He’ll use their tortured past as a crutch in order to convince them that the rest of humanity feels the same way these scientists do about their “gifted attributes” – that they fear them and treat them as outsiders. It’ll help the twins to become corrupted since they’re broken and angry and need someone to blame, ultimately choosing to follow Ultron before something eventually splits them apart. Is it a death? It could be. Or this could all just be a wild theory. I’m going with the former.
3. Black Panther might be (should be) showing up in Age of Ultron
The writing has been on the wall in regards to a Black Panther movie for quite some time now. It’s been spoken about by Marvel higher ups repeatedly and they’ve gone as far to confirm that they have plans for the character and have been developing his solo adventure behind close doors. Now here’s what we do know about Black Panther: He’s from the fictional town of Wakanda in South Africa. Now here’s what we do know about The Avengers: Age of Ultron: They filmed in South Africa. That’s not nearly enough to confirm anything right? Well when you consider the fact that Captain America’s shield is made from vibranium, one of the rarest ores on Earth and his shield is broken in the Age of Ultron trailer then we can assume they need to fix it right? And where is that ore found? Ding-Ding-Ding: Wakanda. Adding further fire to this theory is the stillshot of Andy Serkis that showed up in the trailer last night:
It still hasn’t been revealed who he’s playing in the movie but his image above closely resembles the image of Marvel’s Ulysses Klaw:
Looks familiar, no? Klaw is actually a scientist who experiments with sound-waves technology using none other then one rare ore in a majority of his testing. Can you guess what it is? Yup, it’s vibranium. When you add all of that up with the fact that a bunch of our heroes might be moving on as a new generation of Avengers comes into the cinematic universe then you can guess we’ll be getting a Black Panther cameo in Age of Ultron (or at the very least a strong reference).
4. There will be familiar faces (and possibly new romances)
The above image is taken from the scene of Ultron introducing himself to the group in The Avengers tower as our group has some kind of party. However if you look closely you can see what looks to be Maria Hill in front of Cap in the red dress and someone behind Thor who could possibly be Jane Foster. Now neither of these actresses have been confirmed for the movie so we’re not positive if that’s them but who else could it be? Maria Hill in particular makes sense and it looks to be Colbie Smulders but if you look even closer you can see that she’s wearing Cap’s jacket. Is this a possible romance that has blossomed since we last saw Steve at the end of The Winter Soldier? Knowing that he’s a good ole’ boy and a gentlemen we can just assume he’s giving a cold lady his jacket and being polite but GODDAMMIT I JUST WANT STEVE TO BE HAPPY AND THE MAN DESERVES TO FIND LOVE!
5. Something very terrible happens to Thor
Now this one is going deep into theory territory since I can only go off of possibly misleading clips in a 2 minute long trailer but this is what we know: Thor seems emotionally destroyed. We have 4 separate scenes of Thor either losing his cool or looking broken and I have them listed below:
Now as much as I love staring at a shirtless Chris Hemsworth I find that gif very important since he seems to be isolated and alone in a weird environment, screaming in rage. Where is that? Is he trapped in some sort of prison? We have no idea but the other 3 images are much clearer to his situation. His choking of Tony Stark leads me to believe that Ultron kills someone close to him or at the very least an ally he sees as very important – perhaps Jane? – and he’s blaming this on Tony. I’m not sure what it could be but whatever it is it’s enough for him to LOSE HIS COOL which is unlike the Thor we’ve seen in recent movies. We also get another clip of him looking towards an opening in a blown out building where he drops Mjolnir (his hammer) and continues walking towards the site. WHAT COULD IT BE THAT MADE HIM DROP HIS PRECIOUS MJOLNIR? That might have been the most telling thing that something awful is happening to our favorite God of Thunder if it wasn’t for the final image of his limp arm next to Cap’s broken shield. Yup, look at that in slow motion – that’s not Cap’s arm next to the shattered shield that’s Thor’s. Could he be *gulp* dead? One wouldn’t think so as Hemsworth is still contracted for one more movie but like we’ve found out the hard way time and time again – we never know what Marvel’s planning next.
