Marvel fans are doing what they do best after the Avengers: Endgame Super Bowl spot — theorizing. That’s an admirable feat, given that the 30-second spot didn’t provide nearly as much fodder as the Phase Three endcap’s first trailer. There was some ambiguity in seeing Captain America’s shield, which could point toward time travel or a prototype. Still, everyone knows why Cap looked so angry/sad (it wasn’t because he had something stuck in his teeth). Ant-Man was definitely on-hand, not hollering in CCTV footage, and Iron Man’s certainly still stuck in space with Nebula. Marvel also pointedly showed us Black Widow, War Machine, Rocket Raccoon, Hawkeye/Ronin, and Thor. Who was missing, though, in the sense that Marvel may have edited a character out?
Yup, there are always little nooks and crannies to explore in these things, and the fan community on Reddit zeroed in on these conspicuous looking gaps between characters at a few key moments.
Once pointed out, those weird spaces can’t be unseen and also didn’t go unnoticed on Twitter. Cranking up the brightness does help, but in the first shot (from left to right), we clearly see Black Widow, Cap, Bruce Banner, [Blank], and James Rhodes, all looking like they’re checking out something in the sky.
This other shot’s lineup is a little more difficult to nail down, but the overriding consensus is that (again, left to right) we’re seeing Banner, War Machine, [Blank], Ant-Man, Rocket, Black Widow, Thor, and Cap.
Yes, those gaps are awkward. Is it possible that Marvel got wonky with their spacing to encourage speculation? Are Banner and Rhodey simply enjoying a leisurely conversation together and kinda hanging back behind the others, or is there someone (or someones) who Marvel’s actually trying to hide? Guesses in the Reddit community (which does believe there’s blatant editing at work) include fan-favorite Peter Parker/Spidey (does he still not feel so good, Mr. Stark?), Shuri (folks were awfully concerned about her whereabouts after the first trailer), Pepper Potts in Iron Man armor, and the big one — Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers.
Indeed, Danvers makes sense for the latter shot because there’s no way Marvel would want to spoil that potential aspect of Endgame or take away from Captain Marvel’s big screen debut on March 8, seven weeks before Endgame. Yet one could also reasonably assume that the first image shows the Avengers (what’s left of them) looking up to see Captain Marvel’s arrival, so are we talking about two digitally erased characters in this Super Bowl spot? Guess away, folks.
Avengers: Endgame will arrive on April 26, 2019.