The latest Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer is finally here, folks! After teasing us a couple months ago with some footage of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes grappling with the likes of the psychotic A.I. Ultron and "The Twins," Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, Marvel has unleashed an extended look. And it did not disappoint.
First premiering during the College Football Playoff National Championship on ESPN, the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer revealed new looks at Ultron as he gets laser-beam happy, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver looking as menacing as ever, the Avengers struggling to keep up their strength in the heat of battle… not to mention a couple mysterious figures we’re still scratching our heads over. Give it another watch to refresh your memory...
The footage has left Marvelites with plenty of questions to keep us guessing until the film premieres on May 1st, but there are a some moments that warrant a closer look. So what secrets did the Avengers: Age of Ultron reveal? Here are some moments — in GIF form!
Beware of potential SPOILERS…
1. Rescuing Civilians
Out of all the set photos that’ve leaked from the set of The Avengers: Age of Ultron, there was one batch that were snapped on the set in Aosta, Italy. Details from that shoot revealed Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye, Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch and Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver fending off an attack from Ultron’s numerous minions while protecting the location from destruction. In the aerial shot, you can see Hawkeye towards the righthand side as people flood into some strange sort of aircraft for safety. Based on what we’ve seen from the trailers so far, it’s possible that this setting could very well be in the same area as the castle the Avengers invade before getting swarmed on all sides by the ravenous A.I. (as seen in other parts of the trailer).
2. Who’s This Mysterious Woman?
At first glance, it seemed like Marvel might be introducing a new character into the already packed Avengers 2 roster, but perhaps it’s not what it seems. Take a look at where she is standing. It’s the pool in which we saw a half-naked Thor crying out in agony during the previous trailer. Since we know Scarlet Witch loves her illusions, is it possible that she’s setting up a confrontation between the Asgardian warrior with a figure from his past? Could it be the Enchantress? We only mention her because we’re pressed to think of another female could get the God of Thunder half-naked in a pool? Well, her or Jane or even Sif, perhaps. Aside from her goth attire, she looks to have a sheet of chainmail draped over her head, suggesting some sort of Asgardian figure. Or maybe it has nothing to do with Thor at all, and is actually something from a completely different direction! There isn’t exactly a ton to go on.
3. Ultron Is More Powerful Than We Thought
Because Ultron is conceived as a computer program, he can easily transfer his consciousness from tech to tech and updating, which we assume is what eventually leads him to manning this more menacing visage. While he’s been toted to have incredible strength and durability, though, he also has some blaster action going on here, which looks oddly similar to the energy that emanates from Scarlet Witch’s hands. That could just be a coincidence, however. He’s determined to upgrade his host body into the ultimate indestructible form ever conceived, so a blaster feature seems like an appropriate addition. It’s even strong enough to pummel Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit clear across a room and nearly through a metal wall.
4. Look Who’s Behind Thor…
Something has serious got Thor in a tizzy. We see him here seemingly getting the electricity pulled out of him… and without his trusty Mjolnir in hand, which is already a cause for concern. But who is this figure behind him as his shoots out a streak of lighting? If you look closely at the bottom right-hand corner, you can see what appears to be a half-naked woman doing some sort of exotic dance. We’re not sure who she is (here’s our second Enchantress guess), her presence as Thor is losing control over his abilities can’t be a good thing. It’s also not great that he’s surrounded by candles in what could be interpreted as some sort of ritualistic ceremony. Interestingly, we have seen the room in which this is all going down before, as we saw the Avengers team standing in it in the first trailer.
5. A Trip Down Memory Lane
Joss Whedon has promised us that Black Widow have a large part to play in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but also that the audience would learn more about her backstory. So far we’ve seemingly seen glimpses of her character’s past as a ballerina, but now we’re seeing her forced down on a medical slab for what looks like some torture or medical experiment. Is this one of those painful memories from her past Romanoff is trying to block out? We can’t say exactly who is responsible for the horribleness going on here, but it is worth noting that the hand grasping her face belongs to a woman. Who could this mystery villainess be? And what exactly does she have planned for the young Natasha? This is definitely one of the creepier moments in the trailer and has us begging for answers that will only be delivered come summer.
6. Andy Serkis Is Back
While Andy Serkis was first enlisted by Marvel to help out in the motion-capture department of The Avengers: Age of Ultron, he also obviously has a role to play to play as well – though it has not been confirmed exactly what that role is. We only caught a glimpse of him in the first Avengers 2 trailer, and, unfortunately, this new clip doesn’t shed much light on who he is. If you look in the background of Serkis’ brief scene, you can see some sort of monitors, the contents of which are difficult to make out. One of the rumors going around the internet is that he’s playing Ulysses Klaw, who’s actually a villain of Black Panther’s. He certainly looks pretty similar to the character’s comic book appearance, but we may not have official word for some time now.
7. Hulk and Black Widow Have a Moment
Hulk and Black Widow have a bit of a past, though not a romantic one per se. She was the one who appeared to Bruce Banner in order to recruit him for The Avengers Initiative. And when Banner was Hulking out on the floating S.H.I.E.L.D. station, she was the one who was there to try and calm him down - though it didn’t ultimately help matters much. Now, we see the two sharing a moment with Banner in full-on Hulk form. The fact that he recognizes Romanoff’s face in berserker mode is a good sign. We see him losing his shit on a bunch of unsuspecting bystanders with seemingly no hope of stopping him in other scenes, and it would just bring tears to our eyes if it turns out all that was needed to calm him down was gazing upon Black Widow’s face. That would certainly do it for us.
8. The Epic Hulkbuster Blowout
Speculation and rumors aside, there’s one thing we can say for sure about the new Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer: the forthcoming smackdown between Hulk and Hulkbuster will be one of the biggest cinematic showdowns of the year. It’s presumed that Scarlet Witch gets inside Hulk’s head and makes him go batshit crazy on everyone. Just take a look at his eyes during the battle sequences. Those are not his normal, healthy glow. What’s interesting besides the obvious action in this scene is the mere existence of the Hulkbuster suit. If you think about Stark’s early motivations at the start of Avengers 2, he was looking ahead to the future’s problems and trying to fix them. This makes Hulkbuster particularly interesting. After getting a taste of Hulk’s strength in the first film, he made sure this suit was up and running in case he ever needed to subdue the Hulk. Smart thinking, Tony.
