LOS ANGELES -- The fourth "Avengers" movie finally has a title. Marvel Studios and the Walt Disney Co. said Friday that the highly anticipated, and closely guarded, conclusion to the "Infinity War" saga will be called "Avengers: Endgame."
The studios also released the first trailer for the film, in which Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow character explains that Thanos really did erase half the population. "Avengers: Infinity War" ended on that cliffhanger as many of Marvel's superheroes dissolved into the air. It went on to become the highest grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with over $2 billion in ticket sales.
Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo "Avengers: Endgame" will also now debut in North American theatres a week earlier on April 26, 2019.
Yet the trailer hints at a spark of hope as it draws to a close.
"Avengers: Infinity War" released April 2018 and, with an international box office surpassing $2bn USD, became the year's highest grossing theatrical release and, without adjusting for monetary inflation, the fourth-highest grossing film of all time (behind $2bn "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," $2.1bn "Titanic," and $2.7bn "Avatar").
Its plot took superheroes and supervillains from 18 previous Marvel Cinematic Universe entries, from 2008's "Iron Man" to 2018's "Black Panther," hurling them together in what seemed to be a final and ill-fated battle.
Since then, "Ant-Man and the Wasp" has been released and, in a mid-credits sequence, revealed what happened to its suited superhero during the events of "Infinity War."
And on March 8, 2019, some seven weeks before "Avengers: Endgame" arrives, we have franchise prequel "Captain Marvel" bringing a new perspective to this decade-long story arc.
Not that Disney's Marvel Studios is hanging around for long afterwards: July sees travel adventure "Spider-Man: Far From Home" release as, post-"Endgame," its title character takes a summer break and heads to Europe with his friends.
