'Avengers: Infinity War' Trailer Breakdown - A Team Divided, and a World at War

At long last, the first official trailer for 2018's massive superhero game-changer Avengers: Infinity War has arrived. With fans of the ever-growing Marvel Cinematic Universe begging eagerly and obsessively for some tease at the May release, which looks to draw together the top-tier characters of the franchise in an all-out battle to save the universe, we finally have a slew of compelling footage that will easily make the third Avengers effort the most anticipated film of next year. With the trailer teasing not only the new-formed allegiances between the once-divided Avengers, but also the long-awaited arrival of Josh Brolin's menacing Mad Titan, Thanos, here are my thoughts on the many tantalizing pieces I took away from our first peek at Infinity War. 




With Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury and his call to arms from the first Avengers film echoing in the background, now voiced by members of the same unity of heroes he aimed to build back in 2012, we catch brief glimpses at the Avengers and where they are now. From Scarlet Witch and a rather-human-looking Vision embracing in the dark to a dazed Bruce Banner among the wreckage of Stephen Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, we instantly get the sense that something bad is afoot. With a bruised-up Tony Stark and a space-bound Thor looming over visions of what's to come adding to the mix, the dramatic tone of the trailer is cemented from its first thirty seconds.

It is then we hear the distinct echoes of someone else, a force, unlike Fury, that seeks to disband and destroy the very foundation of the Avengers and what they stand for. As we see the characters of Stark, Strange, Wong, and Banner unite in New York City, with Tom Holland's Peter Parker/Spider-Man not too close behind, we see the long-awaited entry of the Mad Titan Thanos to Earth. Bare of his armor, his Infinity Gauntlet empty of the few Infinity Stones it still craves, Josh Brolin's Thanos smirks with a newly-awakened pleasure. As an eerie, mechanical ring darkens the skies, we see the beginnings of Thanos' deadly reign across Earth.



While the small band led by Stark gears up for war, we get a brief look at where the Mad Titan might begin his search for the powerful stones he requires to master the universe. With an anxious-looking Loki walking among the discarded bodies of what could be the fallen inhabitants of Asgard, we see something very familiar glimmering in his grasp. As he peers up towards the unknown, the blue glow of the Tesseract cube against his face, it looks like Thor's troublesome brother could be offering an "olive branch" of-sorts to Thanos, seeking to win his favor after failing to conquer Earth himself.

As all hell begins to break loose in New York, across the globe we find Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa summoning his own call to arms, as king of the technologically-advanced city of Wakanda. While February's Black Panther might be set to clue us into the homeland of T'Challa and his role as king and protector of the hidden, futuristic city, it would seem Thanos (and his army, including the cryptic Black Order) will set his sights on taking Wakanda in his reign as well. Said to be the home of the Soul Stone, one of the remaining stones left to fill the Mad Titan's all-powerful gauntlet, we find Wakanda in all-out war between the Black Order and a team led by none other than Steve Rogers. With T'Challa at his side, along with a now-blond Black Widow, Falcon, War Machine, and an unfrozen Bucky Barnes, Rogers looks to be leading his own battle apart from not only his pal Tony Stark, but from his identity as the once-clean-shaven Captain America as well.



As the battle rages on, tossing both teams into the deadly grasps of war, we get a number of intriguing -- and quite grim -- glimpses at the fate of some of the Avengers. While Stark and Spider-Man might get tossed around by Thanos a bit, their fates seem pretty intact in contrast to Paul Bettany's Vision. With an Infinity Stone lodged in his robotic skull, the power source that gave him life back in Avengers: Age of Ultron, it's highly likely that the humanoid successor to Stark's A.I. Jarvis could meet his end at the hands of Thanos or the Black Order. While the possibilities of death might seem arbitrary when a power source as mystifying as the Infinity Gauntlet is in play, there's bound to be some lasting sacrifice that will push the Avengers to put their collective might against Thanos.



While much of the first trailer for Avengers: Infinity War might have shown the Avengers still divided, for most part, fighting their own battles against Thanos and his army on different sides of the globe, one of the most interesting teases from the trailer had to be the potential team-ups and character combinations we get minor glimpses at. While Tony Stark and Stephen Strange might have been a fun and obvious pick to put together (facial hair bros!), it will definitely be interesting to see Rogers and T'Challa's relationship, following the events of Civil War, as well as the fantastic team-up of Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy!

With many more questions and speculation burning in my brain as I watch the trailer for the hundredth time today, what were your favorite moments from the Infinity War trailer? Which character combinations are you hoping to see in the summer 2018 release? Let me know in the comments below!             

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