Marvel fans have been eagerly anticipating the first details about Avengers 4, and one rumor may have just provided a major clue.
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According to a new rumor published by MCU Cosmic, the full title for Avengers 4 is Avengers: Annihilation. As the report argues, the full title can be seen in the Russo brothers’ recent “look hard” photo — particularly, with two ladders in the photo seeming to symbol “As”.
For some Marvel fans, the notion of Annihilation potentially being the subtitle is an interesting one, as it shares a name with a 2006 Marvel Comics miniseries. Written by Keith Giffen, the galaxy-spanning storyline pitted many of Marvel’s cosmic characters against Annihilus, the lord of the Negative Zone. Thanos ended up playing a unique role in the event, ultimately culminating in him being killed by Drax the Destroyer and joining forces with Mistress Death.
If Annihilation really is the subtitle for Avengers 4, it’s unclear just how much of that comic storyline would factor in, considering the fact that the film is aiming to pave new ground.
“I don’t think there are any comics that correlate to it,” Joe Russo told ComicBook.com earlier this year. “I think we’re in pretty fresh territory with Avengers 4. If anything, I think it’s interesting after to go back and look at some of the Marvel films and view them through a different lens. But I can’t think of any comics in particular that would have value.”
But then again, it’s pretty easy to see how Annihilation could work as a potential subtitle for the film, as the word could be used to describe Thanos’ “snap” that destroyed half of the universe. It also sounds like Avengers 4 will take things into a dark direction, which would fit a subtitle of this kind.
“[Avengers 4] doesn’t do what you think it does,” Infinity War and Avengers 4 co-writer Christopher Markus said in another interview. “It is a different movie than you think it is…Alsoโฆ[the deaths are] real. I just want to tell you it’s real, and the sooner you accept that, the sooner you will be able to move on to the next stage of grief.”
“Put it this way,” Stephen McFeely added. “I think [Infinity War] is a fairly mature movie for a blockbuster. It’s got a lot of fun in it, obviously, but boy, it gets very mature. The second one is also mature. We’re going to own these choices, and hopefully surprise and delight you and get you invested. It’s by the same studio, the same filmmaking team. They were written at the same time, shot at the same time. They’re clearly connected, but they are definitely two different movies, one of which is dependent on what happened previous.”
What do you think of Avengers 4‘s rumored title? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Avengers: Infinity War is now available on digital platforms, DVD, and Blu-ray. Ant-Man and the Wasp is now available on digital. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019; the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019; and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5, 2019.