13 Frequently Asked Questions About ‘The Avengers’ Trailer Answered [Superheroes]

The Avengers (2012) movie trailer is out and we’re going to answer ten thirteen burning questions about the film.

Loki says, “You were made to be ruled. In the end. It’ll be every man for himself.” So begins the biggest trailer of the year for the biggest movie next year.

It’s only 2:04 long, but any movie that costs $220 million to make has a lot of expectations attached to it.

Directed by Joss Whedon, this new trailer does a lot to spark your interest.

Official Synopsis: Marvel Studios presents in association with Paramount Pictures “Marvel’s The Avengers”-the Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow.

1. Who Are The Avengers?

“The Avengers Initiative” is described by Nick Fury this way: “There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people, so that when we needed them, they could fight the battles that we never could.”

The super team is made up of “The god of Thunder” Thor (Chris Hemsworth), super-enhanced soldier Captain America (Chris Evans), armor-suited Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), master archer Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and master spy Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson).

Several other characters play supporting roles. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) head of  S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) for example.

What about the name “Avengers?” Tony Stark put it best. “If we can’t protect the Earth, you can be d—ed sure that we’ll avenge it.”

2. What’s the Song Playing in the Background?

Nine Inch Nail’s “We’re In This Together Now” from their 1999 “The Fragile” album. The chorus is appropriate for a team of superheroes.

You and me

We’re in this together now

None of them can stop us now

We will make it through somehow

You and me

If the world should break in two

Until the very end of me

Until the very end of you

Some people hate it, but I don’t have a problem with it.

3. Why is Thor trying to attack Captain America?

This is a big point of discussion. There are actually several scenes of the Avengers fighting one another. One of two possibilities exist.

One, the two are genuinely fighting. Just like any group of people there are bound to be disagreements. When you add superpowers you can get some real conflicts.

Captain America fights with Tony Stark. Nick Fury has to lecture Thor on going alone. Stark makes fun of Hulk for turning into a “big, green hulking rage machine.” It’s very possible Captain America made fun of Thor’s greasy blond hair and he decided to teach him a lesson.

Superheroes fighting each other are major draws in the comics. Check out how many comic book covers say “X vs. Y!” This is supported by the fact that it’s just the two of them in the woods.

The second possibility is that Captain America is part of the threat to the world. In other words, he’s either a traitor or a shape-shifting duplicate of the “Star-Spangled Avenger.” Cap would never be a traitor, so this leaves the option that he’s a duplicate. We’ll get into the topic of duplicates later.

4. Why is the Police Car in German?

In one scene we see a car getting blown up with the word “Polizei” on it. Polizei is the German word for police.

“The Renaissance Hotel” in Cleveland was transformed into a German location for filming some scenes. So, presumably part of the film is to take place in Germany or it’s part of a montage to show the world-wide scope of the threat. An article in Cleveland said it was “transformed into a modern-day beer garden in Stuttgart, Germany, complete with German flags and street signs.”

5. Who’s the Villain?

Tom Hiddleston (Loki) has stated that he will be the villain in the Avengers movie. He’s Thor’s brother and turned evil in Thor. He and Thor come from the land of mythical land of Asgard.

Of course, he could be lying. In the interviews for Batman Begins Liam Neeson always said he had a “cameo” in the film as an assistant to Ra’s Al Ghul. Then it turned out (SPOILER ALERT) he was Ra’s Al Ghul.

But, we know Loki is the main villain because of what Chris Hemsworth said, “I think [Thor’s] motivation is much more of a personal one, in the sense that it’s his brother that is stirring things up. Whereas everyone else, it’s some bad guy who they’ve gotta take down. It’s a different approach for me, or for Thor. He’s constantly having to battle the greater good and what he should do…it’s his little brother there.” So, Loki is definitely the main villain of the story.

This makes sense especially when you watch the trailer carefully. Loki appears to have some sort of glowing staff. A key point to note is he has the staff when he escaping from S.H.I.E.L.D. prison. Why? Because he had to get it from somewhere. Someone must have given it to him. Stellan Skarsgård is listed in the cast and was shown in the end of Thor as being in his control somehow.

There are other villains we don’t see though. More on that later.

6. Why does it say “This May?” Shouldn’t it say “Next May?”

This is true. Technically “this May” would have been months ago. If you say “next May” people won’t expect it next summer.

Basically, the marketing team thinks we’re idiots who can’t tell what year the movie opens. The official date is May 4, 2012.

7. Are the Skrulls or Kree in the Film?

For those who don’t know, the Skrulls are a fictional race of extraterrestrial shapeshifters from the comics. The Kree are a highly advanced militaristic alien race. Put the two together and you have an invasion of shape-shifting aliens of immense fire-power. Sounds like a job for the “Avengers!”

A lot of circumstantial evidence suggests the Skrulls or Kree are villains in the film. There have been reports of scenes with Thor and Captain America fighting stunt doubles in motion capture suits.

According to AICN, a description from the “Albuquerque Journal” read, “The Avengers script will blend Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger story lines as the Avengers battle with two alien races, the Skrulls and the Kree.”

A casting call for filming in New Mexico described it this way, “A superhero team called ‘The Avengers’ do battle against two separate alien extraterrestrial humanoid life forms. The Avengers are a superhero team, consisting of a group of Marvel Comics heroes aka ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.’ The aliens that The Avengers will fight are called ‘The Kree’ and ‘Skrulls.’ These two extraterrestrial races become embroiled in a war for ages that ultimately makes its way to Earth, and the Avengers unite to intervene with all their power and might combined.”

In several scenes from the trailer there are lasers being fired and shots of people looking up into the sky. It could be some sort of alien invasion. In the last Avengers trailer Loki said, “I have an army.” Tony responds, “We have the Hulk.” An army of aliens no doubt.

We don’t know for sure, but all signs in the trailer point to yes!

8. Why is Tony Stark Getting Thrown Out of a Window?

We know Loki escapes form S.H.I.E.L.D. We know they have a flying command center called the Heli-carrier. Put the two together and you get Loki pushing him out while he’s trying to escape. Tony’s just the kind of guy to start mouthing off to Loki while not wearing his protective suit of armor. Bad move.

9. Is Hawkeye Going to Be Cool?

To me Hawkeye was one of the most useless characters in the comics. A regular guy who shoots arrows. But, it looks like he’s going to really be a major player in the film.

Renner said, “He’s the only one who can really take down The Hulk with his tranq tip arrows. He knows his limitations. But when it comes down to it, there has to be a sense of confidence in any superhero.” So, he’s technically the most powerful member of the team. There are lots of shots of him mixing it up and dodging laser blasts.

Plus, the actor Renner has the charisma and confidence to really pull it off.

10. What is That Staff Loki Has?

The staff shows up in several places in the trailer. Loki has it and uses it like a royal scepter. He looks like its firing something from it in one scene.

One of the most telling scenes is when he doesn’t have it. In one scene it looks like some sort of lab and the scepter is in being analysed. We get a really good look at it.

We know the “Cosmic Cube” aka Tesseract features into the plot somehow from Captain America: The First Avenger. The cube glowed with blue energy and was described as a source of “unlimited power.” Its very possible that the staff holds either a modified cube or the tapped energy from the cube.

11. Who’s The Guy In The Purple Shirt? I Thought Ed Norton Played The Hulk.

While Edward Norton did an amazing job as BannerHulk in The Incredible Hulk, negotiations broke down when it came time to do The Avengers. Kevin Feige of Marvel said “Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members.” In other words, they said Norton wasn’t a team player.

Norton’s rep came back and said the problem was “a financial decision.” No hard feelings though.

Ruffalo was cast as his replacement. He said, “It’s like Hamlet or Romeo and Juliet, a new actor gets a crack at it every year…It’s exciting to be here. It’s great to be a part of all this.”

Ruffalo has a different take on his character, he says, “[Banner’s] the most mild-mannered guy, but a total loose cannon. No one wants to set him off except for Iron Man, except for Downey, who just wants to see him pop.” Sounds like fun.

12. Where was Banner?

UPDATE: This answer is in dispute.

In one scene we see Bruce Banner walking into a disheveled shack. Where is this?

When we last left Hulk in The Incredible Hulk (2008) he was in Bella Coola, British Columbia in Canada. Not the smartest place to hide from the U.S. Government and General Ross. We can assume he was just hiding there for a minute.

A map shown in Iron Man 2 showed one of the Avenger targets was in Southern Africa. Banner is either in Sudan, Ethiopia or the Republic of South Sudan.

Someone in the comments pointed out this is “Black Panther” in Africa. I made the assumption that everyone on the map corresponded with someone in the upcoming movie. This was a mistake.

Checking the official map of Wakanda from the comics confirms Wakanda is in the region of the Sudan.

After doing some research, I found a quote from Iron Man director Jon Favreau about the maps in Iron Man 2.

“Yeah, that’s from “The Incredible Hulk” (news report on S.H.I.E.L.D monitor), which means it took place before “TIH”. If you look you see the the crater on the other monitor, that’s the “Thor” thing. That’s where the hammer was recovered. This is just a geek heaven here.

“And if you think that anything on this monitors is not something we (in Marvel) didn’t talk about for hours – you are crazy! And if you look on that one, see there is a map up there, so… if you look at those maps, each one of those locations corresponds to something in the Marvel Universe. I’m not supposed to say that.

“And if you look on each one, and I know what they mean, but I’m not gonna say it, but I’m gonna say this: Two of them relate to “The First Avenger: Captain America”, One of them relates to “Thor”, and the one in Africa relates to Black Panther.”

So, Banner may not be in Africa in that scene. It could be Iowa for all I know.

Apparently, someone makes him mad because he goes ballistic and changes to the Hulk.

13. Why is the Street Getting Blown Up?

Besides the fact that Transformers made it looks cool to blown up a street, this is probably one of many scenes showing destruction from above. This is a worldwide threat and we can expect to see a lot more destruction.

There is scene after scene of people either shooting into the sky or running from something up above. That added to the scenes of Loki riding some kind of flying vehicle points to a threat from either aliens or a flying vehicle.

So, that’s it. It’s an awesome trailer, but it could have been better. At least one team shot would have been nice.

There’s a lot to analyze and if you watch the trailer there are a million other questions. We won’t know for sure until May next year. Till then, Excelsior!

Official Site:http://avengers.marvel.com/

Are there questions about the trailer we haven’t answered? Do you feel this will be a good movie?