The countdown to Infinity War continues apace – by our calculations, Joe and Anthony Russo’s super-sized ensemble piece is exactly 105 days away from its release in North America – and to fan the flames of excitement, Marvel has now rolled out a gallery of frankly incredible concept art for The Avengers.
Coming to us by way of CBM, these stills are a timely retrospective of Joss Whedon’s epic, crowd-pleasing crossover, which dragged the Marvel Cinematic Universe to dizzying new heights back in 2012 – $1.5 billion worldwide, to be specific. Now approaching its sixth birthday, The Avengers continues to be the gold standard of Hollywood’s superhero crossovers, and one need only look to Justice League‘s failings as an example of a movie that tried, and ultimately failed, to emulate Marvel’s success.
The MCU shows no sign of slowing down, either, particularly now that Disney has agreed to buy out Fox’s entertainment assets. It’s a merger big enough to reshape Hollywood as we know it, and will, through time, introduce the likes of Deadpool, Fantastic Four and the X-Men into Marvel’s cinematic ranks.
Exciting though that may be, it’ll be another two or three years before we begin to see the fruits of the Disney-Fox merger. And really, that’s okay. Because even in 2012, Marvel had no shortage of star power…
In the intervening years since, the MCU has ballooned in size thanks to cosmic adventures (Thor: Ragnarok) and grounded, hilarious heist movies (Ant-Man), resulting in a 76-character ensemble for Avengers: Infinity War. That’s an impressive, if overwhelming roster by any standard, though we’re quietly confident in the Russo Brothers’ ability following their incredible work on Captain America: Civil War.
“Fun isn’t something one considers when balancing the universe.” There’s a Mad Titan on the horizon, folks, and he’ll be bringing his Black Order to town once Avengers: Infinity War opens on May 4th.
