‘Avengers 4’ Set Photos Hint at an Intriguing Flashback to the First Movie

Fans still need to wait to see who survives Avengers: Infinity War before getting to the fourth movie in the series, which is currently in production. But, photos from the set seem to suggest that the film will throwback to the first Avengers movie from 2012. Is it a flashback, or are there going to be time-traveling shenanigans in the MCU?

The paparazzi website Just Jared posted a series of photos taken on the film’s Atlanta set that appear to show Thor and Loki as the appeared at the end of Avengers. Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is rocking his classic costume and long, luscious locks while Tom Hiddleston looks a little beat-up and is sporting the same muzzle he wore while in custody after being defeated in the first film’s big battle.

While it’s possible that Thor grew his hair out again after getting it cut in Thor: Ragnarok, and that Loki got in trouble again and was locked up in exactly the same way as in The Avengers, that seems unlikely. We don’t know exactly what havoc Infinity War is going to wreak on the team, but in the comics, the Infinity Stones can do all sorts of crazy, universe-altering stuff. And we’ve already seen that Doctor Strange used one of them to go back in time. Could that be what’s happening in these pictures? Or, if they are just flashbacks, what’s so important about this moment, Loki’s capture, that Avengers 4 needs to revisit it?

Another post on Just Jared shows Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark on the set, so he probably makes it through Infinity War okay. Piecing together Avengers 4 this far into the future, without knowing what happens in the next Avengers flick is tricky, but these pictures are certainly intriguing.

Avengers: Infinity War comes out on May 4 in the United States.