Another Super Bowl means another opportunity for Marvel to release a new teaser. This year, fresh glimpses at both Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame graced the most expensive commercial real estate in television. And just like in years past, the biggest details in Marvel’s movie teasers are the ones you can’t even see.
In the new teaser trailer for Avengers: Endgame, a 30-second spot made up of entirely new footage, two shots of the Avengers (now with Rocket) contain large gaps in between characters. There’s one shot in an Avengers hangar at sunset, and the other showing the Avengers standing on a wide open field at dusk, with open space between Bruce Banner (Hulk) and James Rhodey (War Machine).
Because film is a carefully calculated art, no director or cinematographer worth their salt would ever randomly spread out their subjects in the frame with large pockets of space in between. So when these spaces show up in Marvel trailers it’s rarely by mistake. Instead, this is where new, “surprise” characters are digitally erased to avoid spoiling the actual movie.
It happened back in 2016, leading up to the release of Captain America: Civil War. In the Super Bowl teaser for that movie, Iron Man’s “side” of the conflict had an empty space where Spider-Man (Tom Holland) would end up standing in the theatrical version.
It is, admittedly, a small precedent. Previous Marvel movies that had Super Bowl spots, like 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and 2017’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, didn’t have “surprise” characters, and the spot for Avengers: Infinity War simply didn’t use shots where its surprise characters would appear. Infinity War did reuse an ensemble “running” shot of the Avengers in Wakanda that featured the Hulk, even though that shot never appeared in the film.
But with Avengers: Endgame, Marvel is clearly trying to hide someone. So, who could it be? Fans are suggesting it could be Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), who will make her cinematic debut a short month prior in her own movie. In that hangar shot, it might could also be the Hulk, who “abandoned” Bruce Banner in Infinity War.
Fans are also speculating that the Hulk will become “Professor Hulk,” a variant of the Hulk from the comics in which Banner’s brain remained active in Hulk’s body. This meant the Hulk might talk in eloquent, conversational English than, you know, “HULK TALK! PUNY BANNER!”
HULK SAY AVENGERS: ENDGAME IN THEATER APRIL 26!
