Avengers 4 Trailer Reveals Official Title, Returning Heroes, And More

At long last, it's here. Really, legitimately, finally here. 

Marvel Studios dropped the first trailer for Avengers 4 on Friday, December 7 — confirming the reports that set the internet ablaze in the days leading up to the official release and quenching the thirst of every Marvel fan in the world who has been yearning for a look at the Avengers: Infinity War follow-up. 

Opening on Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) tapping his Iron Man helmet and recording a video for his fiancée Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) — in which he reveals that he's been floating in space for quite some time, now running out of food, water, and oxygen — the Avengers 4 trailer picks up where the cliffhanger ending of Infinity War left off. From there, we see shots of several surviving heroes — like Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow, Chris Hemsworth's Thor, Karen Gillan's Nebula, Chris Evans' Captain America, and (surprise!) Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye, now in his full Ronin get-up.

"This is gonna work, Steve," Black Widow tells Cap later in the trailer, hinting that there's a grand plan in the works. 

"I know it is. 'Cause I don't know what I'm gonna do if it doesn't," he responds.

The Avengers 4 trailer closes on Captain America and Black Widow watching a video of Ant-Man (Paul Rudd). 

"Hi, is anyone home? This is Scott Lang. We met a few years ago at the airport in Germany. I got really big," he says. "Ant-Man? I know you know that!"

Cap asks if it's an old video, but Black Widow notices that Ant-Man is standing outside the front door. 

"Can you buzz me?" Ant-Man asks, and then the video cuts to black.

Not only does the footage grant our collective wish to see a sneak peek at Avengers 4, but it also reveals what the film is actually titled: Avengers: Endgame. No, it's not the Avengers: Forever, Avengers: Please Call It a Comeback, the Avengers: Whatcha Gonna Do When Thanos Kills Half Ya Friends?, or even Avengers: Get Ready to Cry for Three Hours Straight title that some joked it was, but the real name is badass — and it's the Avengers: Endgame name that thousands of fans predicted it would be. So thanks, Marvel. 

Even better than surface-level stuff, the title is emblematic: it manages to both encompass what the heart of the film will be ("part of the journey is the end") and offer insight into what lies ahead for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the current "game" the Marvel heroes have been playing is coming to an end, so there are new challenges to face) as it closes out Phase 3 and enters a brand-new era with Phase 4, where just about anything can happen.

Marvel had kept the film's real name locked up — with only a select handful of people holding the metaphorical key (definitely not notorious spoiler-spillers Tom Holland and Mark Ruffalo) — reportedly because the title was a spoiler for Infinity War. President Kevin Feige told CinemaBlend that way back in April 2017, just before Infinity War opened in theaters, and later dished to Collider that Marvel wouldn't be announcing the Avengers 4 title until "after the Captain Marvel teaser probably ... towards the end of the year with however we launch that film." The studio unveiled the second full-length trailer for the Brie Larson-topped superhero flick on Monday, December 3 (during ESPN's Monday Night Football, of all times), and a few days later, we have the real title for Avengers 4. Marvel is nothing if not loyal to its own word. 

Though we've now gotten a look at (and re-watched a dozen times) two minutes and 25 seconds of footage from the fourth Avengers flick, worries and what-ifs still threaten to melt our brains. 

Will the film include a time travel plot that takes the heroes who didn't fall to dust at the end of Infinity War, throws them in the Quantum Realm, and sends them back in time to the famous Battle of New York from the first Avengers film in some effort to stop Thanos' (Josh Brolin) universe-destroying plan at its inception? There's definitely some kind of mission in the works, but what is it? Can those characters who did perish during the Snappening (a.k.a. the Decimation) — like Tom Holland's Spider-Man, Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther, Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange, Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes, the whole Guardians of the Galaxy crew, and Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch — come back from the dead? Will Avengers: Endgame undo the devastating events of Infinity War and reverse the deaths that broke us all — despite what screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have indicated?

Just as Marvel sticks to its promises, the studio also loves keeping secrets (case in point: waiting this long to reveal what Avengers 4 is titled) and fiercely guards information regarding its ensemble installments. While it's highly unlikely that all our questions will be answered in the months before Avengers: Endgame debuts, hopefully Marvel can at least address a few with additional trailer reveals, TV spots, and the odd Q&A session during press junkets with the film's cast. Or maybe the studio will do the complete opposite and keep everyone in the dark until the movie opens in theaters, but hey, this first trailer has us too jazzed to do anything but wish for the best.

Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo — the same guys who took our hearts and squeezed them for all the juice they were worth, especially in the final act, in Infinity War – Avengers: Endgame is scheduled to arrive on April 26, 2019.