Marvel Fans Are Working Really Hard To Decipher Cryptic Avengers 4 Photo

Avengers 4 directors Anthony and Joe Russo may have moved on from the mysterious photo they tweeted last month to share new, similarly cryptic imagery, but that doesn’t mean the fans have given up trying to figure out what the filmmakers once told them to “look hard” at.

A few weeks ago, for instance, the theory emerged that the black-and-white set pic includes the first poster for the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War sequel, and it seems that this idea has caught on a little. And when one fan attempted to clean up and clarify the object on the easel, the picture became a veritable Rorschach test for anyone to impose their MCU fantasies on:

This is as far as I got with the Russo brother's posted image! I think that is a photo of captain marvel with the others, hope someone can clean this mess!
by inmarvelstudios

Personally, I see potentially three people. One in the foreground (Thanos?), someone behind them on the left (Nebula?), and a potentially shirtless person on the right behind the middle guy. Credit to da_nif7y for the main image.
byu/runningfox3 inmarvelstudios

Read through the comments below these posts and you’ll find that there’s hardly a Marvel character that someone didn’t see in this pic, be it the aforementioned Thanos, Nebula and Captain Marvel, or MCU Phase 1 stars Captain America, Iron Man and Thor. Of course, you might just see a load of messy blotches, but where’s the fun in that?

While this is certainly one road to go down in trying to uncover the secrets of the image, other fans have looked to the background where they see a partially obscured prop that was previously featured in Infinity War. After the Russo Brothers posted their most recent teaser photo, which showed the overly bright shape of an unknown object, the theory’s gained momentum that the prop seen in both pics is Iron Man’s proton cannon. And honestly, this idea seems a fair bit more plausible than the things people are seeing in the blurry potential poster.

In any case, our questions will be answered when Avengers 4 comes out on May 3rd, 2019.