Avengers: Infinity War: all the trailers, updates, and commentary for Marvel’s biggest film – The Verge

Good news, Thor’s roommate survived Avengers: Infinity War

2018-08-14T11:56:08-04:00

Judging from a recent post on social media, fandom's favorite average, everyday Marvel Cinematic Universe character is still alive after the population-halving Thanos snap in Avengers: Infinity War. Everyone who had him on their concern list can officially stop worrying.

While Thor's roommate Darryl isn't featured in the actual movies, he became a Marvel fan-favorite, thanks to a series of hilarious shorts that explained what Thor was up to during Captain America: Civil War and leading up to Thor: Ragnarok. As these videos told it, the thunder god just took it easy and tried to live a normal life, including living in a small Australian apar …

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How casual MCU fans experienced Avengers: Infinity War

2018-05-15T11:53:03-04:00

Spoilers ahead for Avengers: Infinity War.

Avengers: Infinity War is an epic payoff for a decade of onscreen comics fandom. Over the past 10 years, Marvel Studios has released 18 films that lead up to the plot of Infinity War: The Incredible Hulk, three Iron Man movies, three Captain America movies, two previous Avengers movies, three Thor movies, two Guardians of the Galaxy movies, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Black Panther. All of them have plot threads that collide in Infinity War, and Marvel's clear expectation is that people walking into the movie will have seen all the previous films.

But that's a significant …

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How Avengers: Infinity War turned Josh Brolin into an eight-foot purple madman

2018-05-10T15:55:59-04:00

Warning: plot spoilers ahead for Avengers: Infinity War.

Despite the title of Avengers: Infinity War, the lead character isn't Iron Man, Captain America, or any of the other Avengers who protect the world from evil. From beginning to end, Joe and Anthony Russo's blockbuster is about the eight-foot intergalactic big bad Thanos, played by Josh Brolin. Thanos is every bit as dominating and destructive as fans of the series could hope, but he isn't the one-dimensional villain he so easily could have been.

His maniacal plan to restore balance to the universe by arbitrarily killing half its inhabitants aside, Thanos is sometimes a strangely symp …

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How Avengers: Infinity War uses humor to solve its story problems

2018-05-09T14:44:52-04:00

Warning: spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War ahead.

"Fun isn't something one considers when balancing the universe," Thanos says in the first Avengers: Infinity War trailer. "But this does put a smile on my face." He isn't alone. When screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely were plotting out the film, they certainly put a lot of thought into how to use humor to balance the story, and to shore up some of the most difficult plot obstacles Infinity War would inevitably face. Humor has been a signature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the franchise launched with Iron Man in 2008. And humor is especially important throughout I …

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What would the MCU look like if Marvel didn’t undo Avengers: Infinity War?

2018-05-08T13:54:29-04:00

Warning: Major spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War lie ahead.

Everybody knew there would be deaths in Avengers: Infinity War. Nobody was prepared for how many. But now that the world has collectively gasped as hero after hero disappeared in Infinity War's final moments, everybody knows they're bound to come back, and that we shouldn't take their deaths seriously. This is a comic book movie, and Marvel's films operate by comic book logic that dictates no death lasts forever, except formative ones like Spider-Man's Uncle Ben. (Plus, many of the affected characters have upcoming movies that were announced long ago.)

The only problem: Christop …

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James Gunn won’t stop devastating people with his Groot headcanon

2018-05-07T13:39:35-04:00

Warning: major spoilers ahead for Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Infinity War.

James Gunn is terrorizing Twitter again. The director and co-writer of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies is an active participant on the social media platform, and he frequently interacts with fans, sometimes to their dismay. Back in February, he casually mentioned to a fan asking a jokey question that Groot, the sentient tree character who became a breakout favorite character in the first Guardians, is dead. In the film, Groot is shattered while saving his friends, but his partner Rocket plants a piece of him which grows into a cute infant version of Gro …

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Thanos is coming to Fortnite for a limited time

2018-05-07T10:25:05-04:00

The biggest movie and game of the moment are about to collide. Today, Epic Games revealed a new, limited time event coming to its battle royale game Fortnite, which will feature Avengers: Infinity War baddie Thanos. The crossover will come in the form of a new mode - creatively called "Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup" - where players will be able to scour the map to try and collect the Infinity Gauntlet containing all six Infinity Stones, which when equipped turn you into Thanos and grant a significant boost of power. We don't yet know if the gauntlet will be randomly placed on the map or found at a distinct location.

According to Inf …

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Avengers: Infinity War has crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide

2018-05-05T15:07:34-04:00

Marvel's Avengers: Infinity War has broken another record: it's become the fastest movie to cross the $1 billion mark at the global box office, overtaking the prior record-holder, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Deadline reports that that the film reached this milestone in just 11 days: it took The Force Awakens 12 days in 2015. The film's success thus far has allowed Disney to cross the $3 billion mark for its overall box office thus far in 2018. What's notable here is that Avengers reached this milestone before it opens in China on May 11th - once it does, that number will likely jump considerably.

The film also overtook The Force Awakens' …

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Thanos’ plan in Avengers: Infinity War has historical precedent, but he applies it wrong

2018-05-04T14:22:11-04:00

Warning: spoilers ahead for Avengers: Infinity War

For someone who claims he just wants to help the whole Universe, Thanos certainly is out to destroy a lot of it. In Avengers: Infinity War, the villain's helpful strategy is genocide. As soon as he collects all the Infinity Stones and becomes omnipotent, he kills half the people in the Universe. Suddenly, bystanders in New York - and half the movie's superheroes - turn into gray mush and disappear. But why is Thanos so convinced this is necessary?

In one of the very few scenes where superheroes aren't blowing things up, Thanos' adopted daughter Gamora tells him that his plan is madness. Bu …

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Avengers: Infinity War’s bravest moment only works because nobody takes it seriously

2018-05-01T15:36:36-04:00

Warning: Major spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War below.

When Avengers: Infinity War opened on April 27th, it exceeded even Disney's own lofty expectations, besting Star Wars: The Force Awakens for the biggest box office opening in history. Given that it's the film meant to bring together all previous 18 movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Infinity War certainly had plenty of audience hype working in its favor. But it also had a secret weapon to help inspire interest: death.

For years now, fans and critics have vocally assumed that when the movie's big bad, Thanos (Josh Brolin) finally came to battle The Avengers face to face, at lea …

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