The new trailer for Avengers: Infinity War showed us nearly every character that has ever been introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, it's the characters that we saw the least that are the most curious. Infinity War is being billed as a massive crossover event that will bring the Earth-based MCU characters together with its cosmic world, but is that really the case? The trailer gives no indication that the Guardians of the Galaxy will meet any other heroes, with the exception of Thor. How much are they really in this movie?
Last week's trailer for Avengers: Infinity War did a great job showing off all the characters that we'll see in the new film, including a great moment at the very end including the Guardians of the Galaxy. However, seeing them then only makes you realize that they're nowhere to be found anywhere else in the trailer.
When last we saw Thor at the end of Thor: Ragnarok he was on a spacecraft with Hulk and Loki headed to Earth. We see in the trailer that Hulk eventually crashes to Earth, but Thor is nowhere to be found. We only see him in two shots prior to the end, and both appear to be in deep space. Neither shows him with any other characters.
The vast majority of the trailer appears to take place in two places, New York City and Wakanda. For the most part, the MCU characters we know seem to only appear in one place or the other. Bruce Banner/Hulk appears in both, but beyond that, it looks like each location will have its own contingent of heroes to battle Thanos. We never see Thor or the Guardians in either of these places, which would seem to indicate one of two things. Either the Guardians never come to Earth in this movie, or there's a large portion of the film that the trailer is hiding from us. The trailer sets up the Battle of Wakanda as the major climax, but what if that only takes place part of the way through the film? There are a lot of Infinity Stones that Thanos needs to collect, and they're in lots of different places. Perhaps the Guardians only come to Earth, or other heroes leave it, after the fights in Wakanda and New York are over.
Alternatively, if Wakanada is the film's final battle, which is what the trailer clearly wants us to believe, maybe we won't actually get the big Avengers/Guardians crossover we're expecting until Avengers 4.
There is certainly some evidence to suggest that the Guardians are just being hidden. Footage of Avengers: Infinity War shown at the D23 Expo and at San Diego Comic-Con included a sequence not in this trailer, of Star-Lord using platforms created by Doctor Strange in order to get in a better firing position. We also saw in the video announcing Infinity War going into production Chris Pratt on the set with Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jr. However, it's always possible, with Avengers 3 and 4 being in consecutive production, that decisions were made that change where one movie ends and the next begins. Perhaps the reason the Star-Lord/Strange scene wasn't included here is that it's going to be held for the next Avengers movie.
The thing is, everybody knows that Avengers: Infinity War is the big team-up movie, so holding this information back simply for marketing and hype purposes seems odd. Nobody will be surprised to see the Guardians and the Avengers together. Quite the contrary, that's the whole point. This isn't like Spider-Man's appearance in Captain America: Civil War where Marvel kept trying to hide those details. They're the ones who told us these characters would be in the movie together.
Whatever Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy get up to looks significant in the trailer. Will they really have the time to get involved in what's going down on Earth? If they do, then it looks like Avengers: Infinity War is going to be an even bigger movie than we think, and there's a lot the new trailer isn't showing.
