The Super Bowl aired on television this past Sunday and with it came an epic new TV spot for Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War.
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Avengers: Infinity War is the culmination of 10 years of storytelling within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The threat first revealed in the first Avengers movie, that of Thanos is finally poised to arrive on Earth. When Thanos finally emerges from the shadows of the galaxy he finds the Avengers – Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the rest – fractured from the infighting seen in Captain America: Civil War. If the Earth is to survive, the Avengers will have to assemble once again and enlist the aid of new allies like Doctor Strange and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Otherwise, they’ll stand no chance of saving the Earth form from Thanos and his “children” in the Black Order.
The TV spot that aired during the Super Bowl only lasted 30 seconds. Even so, it was a dense half-minute packed with new footage of most of Marvel’s biggest characters. The TV spot was almost entirely without dialogue, but for saying so little it brought up a lot of questions.
With only a few months left to go until Avengers: Infinity War opens in theaters, Marvel fans are more eager than ever to try to piece together what’s going to happen when the Avengers finally assemble again. Those fans are surely hard at work trying to piece together everything they can from what footage and information we have.
ComicBook.com is feeling much the same way. We’ve been poring over the new footage reveal in the Avengers: Infinity War Super Bowl spot and trying to parse out what we know and what we don’t know. Here are the questions that we’re still asking.
Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War opens in theaters on May 4th.
What is Thor doing with the Guardians of the Galaxy?
The footage from the Super Bowl spot for Avengers: Infinity War includes a shot of Thor riding shotgun in a ship with Rocket. There’s also a shot of Thor calling out to someone above him.
We know from this footage, and footage from the first Avengers: Infinity War trailer, that Thor is going to be hanging out with the Guardians of the Galaxy. But what are they getting into?
The most prevalent theory is that Thor is forging a new weapon to replace his hammer Mjolnir, which destroyed by Hela in Thor: Ragnarok. This would be what Thor is doing in the shots from the first trailer that show him working inside some sort of large ring.
It seems likely that Thor may have encountered Thanos already – based on the Thor: Ragnarok post-credits scene – and that meeting probably went poorly for Thor. Perhaps he’s preparing for a rematch by forging a new weapon that can focus his power the way Mjolnir once did.
What is Scarlet Witch doing to Vision?
The Avengers: Infinity War trailer showed Scarlet Witch and the Vision, who appears human, getting close to one another.
The new footage in the Avengers: Infinity War Super Bowl spot includes a moment that seems to be from the same scene. Scarlet Witch looks to be using her powers on the Mind Stone embedded in Vision’s forehead. This is the Infinity Stone that gave Vision life in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
So what is Scarlet Witch trying to do here? In Captain America: Civil War, the Vision noted that he had no idea what the Mind Stone was. Perhaps Scarlet Witch is using her mind powers to study the Stone.
What is that Giant Ring
A massive ring floating in the air over Earth was featured in the first Avengers: Infinity War trailer and returned in the Avengers: Infinity War Super Bowl spot.
The previous trailer showed Spider-Man swinging out to investigate the giant ring. The new Super Bowl spot shows Spider-Man being carried higher an hire towards space.
So what is this giant ring? Could it be some means of interstellar travel? Something quicker than a ship alone? Or is it perhaps a weapon with which Thanos threatens a large portion of Earth’s population? Perhaps New York City itself?
It seems likely that this is the problem Dr. Strange, Iron Man, and Spider-Man are looking into together.
Captain America’s Shield
We know from the Avengers: Infinity War trailer that Black Panther orders a new SHIELD for Captain America. The new Avengers: Infinity War Super Bowl spot gives us our first look at this shield on Captain America’s arm.
Where did it come from? The same person who builds all o T’Challa’s coolest Black Panther suits and gadgets. That would be his sister, Shuri.
It makes sense that Wakanda would be resposible for supplying Captain America with a new shield. His previous shield was made out of vibranium, and nobody knows how to work vibranium better than the Wakandans, not even a brilliant scientist and invetor like Howard Stark.
Is Something Wrong with Tony Stark’s Hand?
The Avengers: Infinity War television spot featured a very cool moment of Tony Stark extending his Iron Man armor at the same time he was putting on his sunglasses. It’s a shot that perfectly blends Tony Stark the man and Iron Man the hero.
However, some are wondering if there’s something more at play here. If you look closely at Tony Stark’s hand, it looks like the armor may be extending outward to produce new fingers rather than to cover up his existing fingers.
Looking closely at the opening shot of the first Avengers: Infinity War trailer, it looks like Tony Stark may be clutching his hand. Is he bound to lose it?
Thanos’s Scar
One of the biggest questions following the reveal of the Avengers: Infinity War Super Bowl spot was how Thanos got that scar near his eye.
No one seemed to notice a scar before, either in Thanos’s previous brief appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or in the Avengers: Infinity War trailer. This seems to suggest that Thanos gets these scars during the events of Avengers: Infinity War.
Despite what some fans want, Wolverine definitely does not give Thanos that scar. However, we do know that both Drax and Nebula are hunting the Mad Titan down. Could one or both of them have finally caught up to Thanos?
Where’s Hawkeye?
There’s one question that carries over from the Avengers: Infinity War trailer into the Avengers: Infinity War Super Bowl TV spot: where the heck is Clint Barton?
Hawkeye was completely absent from the Avengers: Infinity War trailer and the Avengers: Infinity War Super Bowl spot still featured no shots of Hawkeye.
We know Hawkeye is in the movie and we’ve even seen Jeremy Renner’s new haircut for the role. We also know that he’s rumored to be taking on the Ronin persona and possible operating in Japan.
Perhaps the reason he hasn’t been in the footage is that he continues to operate solo, away from the rest of the Avengers, for much of the movie.
