Entertainment

'Avengers 4: Endgame' Spoilers: 5 Returning Heroes Confirmed by Toy Leaks

by Eric Francisco

Thanos had the power to wipe out half the universe in Avengers: Infinity War, he wasn’t powerful enough to stop toy companies from making action figures aand LEGO sets that could spoil Avengers: Endgame.

Avengers: Endgame, the second part of the Avengers’ big battle with Thanos, will have an array of fan favorite Marvel characters either back from the dead or reinventing themselves completely. And we know this thanks to a handful of internet leaks showing just released or still unreleased toys, action figures, LEGO sets, and Funko Pop vinyls.

While toy leaks are the french fries of geek movie rumors — always great with a pinch of salt — they are also very physical, very visual pieces of evidence that can reveal a great deal about a major movie. See that time we learned about Ares in a LEGO set for 2017’s Wonder Woman.

Below is a list of the biggest Avengers: Endgame toy “confirmations” thus far, all based on hunks of plastic you’ll probably buy at Target in two months.

Rescue (Pepper Potts)

Right out of the gate, those rumors that Gwyneth Paltrow will suit up in her own Iron Man armor and become Rescue might actually be true thanks to a toy. On January 20, a Spanish-speaking Twitter user shared a leak showing an array of headless figures. There are some obvious characters there, such as Thanos and Captain Marvel, and some red and white Avengers uniforms for unknown heroes. (Really hard to tell who they are without their heads.)

But the most interesting one belongs to a headless figure in blue-ish purple armor in a distinctly feminine form. The costume has an uncanny resemblance to another previously leaked image, a selfie presumably of Paltrow wearing her Rescue armor in front of a green screen.

While there are no definitive sources to either image, that they appear independently and share “confirmation” of Rescue is worth considering. (And yes, we realize Pepper didn’t actually die onscreen in Infinity War, but like everyone else there’s a 50-50 chance she turned to dust.)

Black Panther and Spider-Man

Although it is absolutely a no-brainer that Chadwick Boseman and Tom Holland will reprise their roles as Black Panther and Spider-Man respectively in Avengers: Endgame, a tweet from January 20 depicting a shelf full of official Hasbro toys confirms that both characters will somehow return even after Thanos’ devastating snap.

Valkyrie and Star-Lord

Two other separate leaks from the same source confirms that the MIA Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and the very dead Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) will appear in Avengers: Endgame.

Star-Lord is another “No duh” character. Like Spider-Man and the billion dollar, now Oscar-nominated Black Panther, his return was obvious from the second he turned to dust in Infinity War.*

But Valkyrie, who has been missing since her debut in 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, is the bigger news. And her action figure supports a September 2018 story in which Hemsworth and Thompson were caught Instagramming from the same plane during reshoots of Avengers: Endgame, which also coincided with production of Men in Black: International.

White Avengers Suits

Go, go, Power Avengers? The surviving Marvel heroes, including Thor, the Hulk, and more, are suiting up in sleek white uniforms for Avengers: Endgame. We’ve seen promotional art for these costumes already, and they have appeared on some of the toy packaging in other leaks. (Just scroll up again to our first embedded tweet to see Thor wearing his.)

So when the Avengers return in all their glory, expect them to look pretty fabulous, too.

Avengers: Endgame will be released in theaters on April 26.