Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for: the Marvel panel. We don't know exactly what to expect but here it goes. Time for Cap and Thor! Kevin Feige is already on stage to introduce everyone so let's get this thing started!
6:48 First up is Cap! Chris Evans, Joe Johnston and Hugo Weaving on stage!
6:49 Teaser trailer show archive footage from World War II on the Cap shield. Silhouette of Captain America. Slow turn and he's in the suit, but it looks quite vintage. In a tiny stinger bit he throws the shield at the screen-- nice little surprise.
6:51 Evans started on set only five days ago and he says that it's fantastic, the suit's fantastic.
6:51 Weaving talking about learning the voice. It's part Werner Herzog and part Klaus Maria Brandauer. Won't do the voice just yet, though
6:53 Evans hopes that nobody will see Johnny Storm from Fantastic Four in his role and that it can stand on his own.
6:54 Going a bit more modern than the original suit (more than just pajamas with stars and stripes on them).
6:55 Chris has only been in a test suit so far. What we saw in the footage was a snippet from the costume test.
6:56 Asking Chris about interlocking movies. Evans loves origin stories and who they were before they got their amazing gifts. Story doesn't end after he gets his powers and can go through many evolutions.
6:56 Needed a guy to play both Steve Rogers and Cap. They saw that quality in Evans.
6:57 About to see what they shot last week. Scene in which Hugo Weaving finds the cosmic cube.
UPDATE: A title card shows that reads "Norway, May 1942." Two priests are in a church scrambling around as the building around them begins to crumble. Suddenly, a bulldozer crashes through the wall, the debris crushing one of the priests. Enter the Nazis. From behind appears Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt, but he is not yet the Red Skull. He begins talking about finding an object of myth. The priest tells him that it is nothing more than that, but Schmidt doesn't believe him. He opens a sarcophagus and takes out a blue cube. It looks like the Cosmic Cube, an object from the Thor universe that bestows the power to change reality to the person that is holding it. Schmidt immediately recognizes it as a fake, dropping it to the ground and it smashes like ice. He then continues to look around and sees a space in wall that looks like it could be pulled out. He does so and pulls out a box. Opening it up, there is a blue glow that fills the room. The Priest tells him that no man is meant to hold the power that the cube can provide. Schmidt tells him that he is wrong.
7:03 It's hammer time! Kenneth Branagh, director of Thor is now on stage!
7:04 Branagh has been a fan of Thor for years. Loves the look of the character, the different worlds.
7:05 Bringing out Clark Gregg, Tom Hiddleston, Kat Dennings, Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth.
7:06 Hemsworth looked to the comics to find out how to hold Mjolnir.
7:07 Anthony Hopkins has brought great enthusiasm to the set, things appear to be going well
7:08 Jane Foster isn't the most defined character in the comics, but Portman finds it as an exciting opportunity and open to finding new colors. Exciting to play a scientist on screen which is rare of women without a sexual side.
7:09 Darcy, played by Dennings, is Jane Foster's assistant/sidekick/protege who doesn't know how to do anything. Dennings jokes that nobody really cares about her being out there, and it hits pretty close to home. Why is she being considered an important enough character for this panel?
7:11 Loki is the agent of chaos and the damaged younger brother, the one that is overlooked - Tom Hiddleston
7:12 Loki is a great liar and you can't tell if he's lying or telling the truth.
7:12 Clark Gregg: the glue of the Marvel universe.
7:20 Just showed the first Thor trailer. Intense and full of passion. Details to follow.
UPDATE: The trailer starts with Thor sitting in a chair being interrogated by Agent Coulson. Thor has just broken into the S.H.I.E.L.D. compound and taken out all of the guards. Action scenes with Thor kicking the crap out of guards is shown between shots. Coulson says the only way that is possible is for Thor to have had similar training. Thor stays silent but glares at him.The shot expands to the wider galaxy and Odin's voice is heard. He is talking about handing down his throne in succession, but that Thor lacks humility and is arrogant, saying "You are a vain, greedy, cruel boy." Thor responds, "and you are an old man and a fool" Odin takes his hammer and powers and banishes him to Earth until he learns his lesson. Jane Foster finds Hemsworth in the desert and he says, "Oh man, I'm on Earth aren't I?"Cut to the next morning and Thor is getting out of the shower. Darcy quips that for a homeless man he is pretty cut. Thor and Jane for a ride and she asks him what he was doing the night before. She tells him that there is the view of magic and the view of science on Earth, but in Valhalla it is all one and the same. He then knows that he must reclaim Mjolnir to get his powers back, and heads to the S.H.I.E.L.D. compound. He tries to pull the hammer from the stone, but because he is not yet worthy he cannot.Back in Valhalla, Odin is dying and Frigga, Odin's wife, hands the throne to the next in succession: Loki. The soldiers of Valhalla are forced to bow to him. On Earth, Thor says that for the first time he doesn't know what to do with himself. The scene then cuts to action, Thor throwing his hammer, doing battle with soldiers, and kissing Jane Foster. The title card comes up.Out in the desert, Coulson and some S.H.I.E.L.D. agents find The Destroyer armor. One agent asks Coulson if it is one of Starks but he responds, "I don't know, that guy never tells me anything." He grabs a megaphone and says that he is in posession of an unregistered weapon. The face of The Destroyer begins to shift and Coulson thinks that it will reveal Stark's face, but instead it's a gold beam of energy the starts blowing things to shit before hitting the camera to another title card, announcing its release in May 2011.
7:21 First look at The Destroyer destroying things in the desert with Coulson and SHIELD.
7:22 Portman wanted to do this film because of its scope and focus on character (and working with the other actors. Not in The Avengers but will be in the future Thor films.
7:23 Con staple Bob Stencil is up with a simple question: does Thor smash Loki with a hammer and will it be sweet? Natalie Portman tells him he is the winner, and someone else quips that Stencil has just named the moderator for Thor 2
7:24 Speaking on Norton and Hulk -Going for continuity but the Hulk will live on, bigger than all of us...the panel is not over yet
7:26 Branagh drawing some very interesting ties between Henry V and Thor. Makes some very interesting points.
7:27 Hemsworth did his homework by sitting with Ken Feige and going through books. A ton of comic books, Norse mythology. Any kind of influence they could. He didn't read the comics as a kid.
7:28 The Punisher is now back in Marvel's hands and they are working on bringing him back. Full story here.
7:29 An audience questioner doesn't know Wolverine belongs to Fox. Tsk tsk.
7:30 Branagh had a mix of dread and confidence while looking through the script. There are quite a bit of action scenes from the look of the trailer.
7:39 Avengers teaser played, Samuel L. Jackson voice over about getting Earth's mightiest heroes together: UPDATE: The full quote: "And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroes and heroines found themselves united against a common threat. On that day, the Avengers were born." The Avengers logo is slick and a little Iron Man 2 ish-- expect it to pop up online very soon.
7:40 Jackson, Gregg, Scarlett Johansson, Hemsworth, Evans, and Robert Downey Jr. are all on stage! Robert Downey Jr. takes over on the mic and gets ready to make two more introductions.
7:42 THE AVENGERS ASSEMBLE! JEREMY RENNER COMES OUT AS HAWKEYE! MARK RUFFALO COMES OUT AS HULK! JOSS WHEDON IS DIRECTOR!
7:43" I had a dream my whole life, and it wasn't this good" - Joss Whedon
7:44 Whedon says he'll blow it, and he needs the audience's support. The standing ovation and thunderous applause oughta do it.
7:44 Mark Ruffalo looks utterly terrified. Perhaps it just sunk in what he signed up for
7:45 The assembled Avengers stand for photo ops (great photo here) as the walls of Hall H metaphorically come crashing down. Marvel has once again ended the last Hall H panel with footage that people will be talking about for the next year.
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