Trailer watch: Do or die for our heroes in 'Endgame'

While the conclusion to Marvel's decade-long Avengers epic inches closer, directors Joe and Anthony Russo on Thursday quietly dropped an official trailer for Avengers: Endgame out of nowhere. And there is much to unpack.

Will the three original heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- Iron Man, Captain America and Thor -- come out alive at the end of this saga? Will those blown to dust during the Snap get their lives back or will it be a bittersweet ending? "Whatever it takes," chant the characters on-screen, throughout the trailer.

And finally, what will the MCU look like at the end of this movie?

Tributes

At 2 minutes 26 seconds, the trailer spends much of its time paying tributes to Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Thor, giving us the story of their beginnings -- the opening shot of the trailer is the defining scene from 2009's Iron Man after Stark's escape from the cave. We see pre-serum Steve Rogers, Thor and Odin in Asgard, Stark's original arc reactor in a box that Pepper gifts him -- "proof that Tony Stark has a heart" -- and more.

Footage from

Endgame is interspersed with the trips down memory lane. We get more glimpses of Tony in the Benatar, floating aimlessly in the sky. There's Clint Barton teaching his daughter archery one second, and in the next, he's in his Ronin avatar, grieving with the Black Widow somewhere on a street in an east Asian country. Barton seems to keep his Ronin-style haircut and gear throughout the trailer and that begs the question: is Hawkeye gone for good?

The trailer also recounts moments from the Snap -- Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff, T'Challa all crumble to dust. Interesting choice of characters; are they going to be playing a bigger role in this movie?

Battle scenes

Around the halfway mark is when things really kick off. "I keep telling everybody that they should move on. Some do. But not us," Rogers tells Romanoff.

There are shots of a giant battle scene in the trailer. Rogers tightens his shield, Ant-Man is inside a burning car, Rocket Racoon is now hanging out with James Rhodes a.k.a War Machine, toting a gun that is twice his size, and Nebula is sprinting full speed ahead with her blades out.

This also falls in neatly with the Russo brothers' habit of misguiding everyone with their skill at editing a trailer. We saw the Hulk in the trailers for Infinity Way, but the joke seemed to be on us because the Hulk refused to come out for the entirety of that battle. In addition, we get a look at the new white and red Avengers suits that was teased a while ago, but all the battle shots in this trailer have the superheroes wearing their old suits.

The trailer also lends credence to the theory that time travel might be involved -- Rogers has his old shield back. We don't get to see the new ones that he wielded in Infinity War .

Conspicuous by their absences in the trailer are the Hulk, Loki and the big man himself -- Thanos. We get a brief shot of Bruce Banner, but that's about it. Even in the end shot, when all the remaining heroes are shown wearing their new suits, the Hulk is missing.

But most importantly, we know what happens to Tony Stark! Even if he dies in the film, we know it's not somewhere in space. He's there in the line-up, walking along with Nebula. But there's no Iron Man suit, even though Rhodey is wearing his War Machine suit.

Captain Marvel (spoiler alert!)

The Russo brothers had earlier said no information about Endgame or any MCU movies post-Endgame would be given out until the release of Captain Marvel. And for good measure. If you stayed till the end credits of Captain Marvel, you'd know what was coming. If it felt good to see Carol Danvers with the team at the end of that movie, it was even more so here seeing her unfazed by Thor's gentle hazing.

Will Thanos get his comeuppance? The trailer tells us nothing on that front, but it definitely is do-or-die for the rest of our compatriots.

Avengers: Endgame is scheduled for release on April 26.

Watch the trailer here