The Marvel Avengers Endgame trailer has given the world a new catchphrase

Man, how many times have you watched the Avengers: Endgame trailer already? Like a thousand? I'm gonna have 2 lie down 2 process this. #goosebumps. Hey, shipping for Thor/Captain Marvel. #thorvel? Right?

Let the world have its fun. The trailer for Marvel Endgame has arrived and it has already given fans a new catchphrase. “Whatever it takes!” Iron Man and others bellow towards the close. It’s this generation’s “By any means necessary”.

The remaining Avengers are going to need such ruthless determination if they mean to bring half the universe back to life. Then again, maybe all the Avengers that Thanos annihilated at the end of Avengers: Infinity War really are gone for good. Ha ha ha!

"It seems like a thousand years ago," Robert Downey Jr says while coming to in a heap of grey ash that would seem at home in a production of the Samuel Beckett take on Endgame. "I fought my way out of that cave, became Iron Man, realised I love you…"

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By golly, it really does seem like a thousand years since the Marvel Cinematic Universe had its own Big Bang (it was 2008).

The trailer begins by reminding us of a history that – though as recent as the first Obama administration – began when many fans were living off pureed apple.

There's some black and white stuff from the early life of Captain America (Chris Evans). There's more monochrome (or near-monochrome) footage of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) looking sad in Asgard. "I saw all these people die," Cap says. "I keep telling everybody they should move on. Some do. But not us."

Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) looks unhappy. But she has a gun. The snoozy Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) doesn't even have that – he's still using the weapon that helped Henry V win at Agincourt – but he does have a Mohawk haircut. If I were Thanos I wouldn't be too worried.

Hawkeye’s new ’do almost certainly references a thing the bow-and-arrow guy did in some comic or other.

In keeping with the Avengers movies themselves, the new trailer will be practically meaningless to anybody not already soaked in Marvel lore. The films are less a series of entertainments than they are devotional tools for the already faithful.

The trailers skilfully tease a few theological developments without giving away the revelations that really matter. We do, however, get a few seconds of romantic tension between Thor and Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). #wowed #heartstruck #Thorvel

Avengers: Endgame opens on April 25th. Barring monsoons, it will go on to become the highest grossing film of the year.