'Avengers: Endgame' Spoilers: Thanos Build-a-Bear Teases a Comic Book Twist

Avengers: Endgame’s marketing reached a fever pitch on Tuesday as ticket sales went live, official toys were unveiled, and the Marvel movie’s final trailer released. With all that promotion, something was bound to go wrong, but I don’t think anyone expected one of the biggest Avengers: Endgame spoilers to come from the Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Believe it or not, it looks like that may be exactly what happened.

Warning: Possible spoilers for Avengers: Endgame (and the Thanos Build-A-Bear) below.

The company’s “Thanos Bear with Sound” was unveiled on Monday as an online exclusive available for $47. Visiting the Build-A-Bear webpage also lets you listen to all five voicelines that come pre-recorded for the teddybear, and they may contain some pretty huge spoilers for Avengers: Endgame.

Here’s all five:

1) “I don’t care for your petty politics.”

2) “If you cannot retrieve the orb, don’t bother coming back. I will find you.”

3) “I had all the power in my grasp.”

4) “How are you doing this?”

5) “You do not have the power to wield the Infinity Stones.”

There’s a lot to unpack here, but before we go any further, it’s worth noting that we don’t know for sure if these voicelines actually come from Avengers: Endgame. For one thing, after listening to the recordings on Build-A-Bear’s website, it’s clear the voice we’re hearing is not Josh Brolin, who plays Thanos in Marvel’s movies.

Still, it’s possible Build-A-Bear could have based those lines on some official summaries shared by Marvel, though that seems like a pretty huge oversight by the movie studio. It’s equally possible that the toy company simply made up these Thanos voicelines based on their own best guesses about how Avengers: Endgame will play out.

Inverse contacted Build-A-Bear for clarification and we will update this story if we receive a response. In the meantime, let’s take a closer look at what this might mean if it’s actually an Avengers: Endgame spoiler.

The first interesting voiceline is number 2, which focuses on some mysterious “orb” that may play a role in Avengers: Endgame. It’s possible Thanos could be referring the Orb from Guardians of the Galaxy, which housed the Power Stone until Thanos broke it open to retrieve the stone.

This could even be confirmation that Endgame will travel back in time to the events of Guardians of the Galaxy, though it could just easily be a reference to some new plot device. Or it could literally be nothing.

Even more interesting are voicelines 3 and 4, in which the Thanos teddybear seems to imply that he’s lost control of the Infinity Gauntlet or at least the Infinity Stones. This lines up pretty well with various fan theories that claim Endgame will focus on the Avengers attempting to recapture the Infinity Stones to use them against Thanos and undo the Snap. However, it may also be a direct reference to the plot of the original comic book story that inspired these Marvel movies.

In Marvel’s “The Infinity Gauntlet” storyline, published throughout 1991, Thanos collects the Infinity Gems (that’s what they were called in the comics) and eventually uses them to wipe out half the universe’s population(just like in the movie). In the ensuing battle, Nebula manages to take control of the gauntlet, and in response, Thanos ends up working with the good guys to defeat Nebula.

That’s an extremely simplified version of the original story, but for now it will have to do. The main point is that when the Thanos Build-A-Bear says, “You do not have the power to wield the Infinity Stones,” he could be speaking to Nebula. This could also tie into the whole “greater threat” rumor that’s been floating around, assuming that Nebula is actually the greater threat hinted at in early Endgame leaks.

Regardless of whether or not a Build-A-Bear has any bearing on the actual movie, this is actually a pretty good theory for how Avengers: Endgame could play out. Thankfully, we’ll only have to wait a few more weeks to find out if we’re right.

Avengers: Endgame hits theaters on April 26.