The trailers for Avengers: Endgame have left things pretty vague so far, but one thing’s clear: the world is seriously feeling the effects of Thanos’ finger snap at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. The human and animal population of the planet has been halved and only a few Avengers survive. Yup, the Mad Titan has definitely won, all right.
Or has he? Last Sunday’s Super Bowl TV spot gave us our best look yet at a post-Decimation Earth and it appears that maybe Thanos actually failed in his mission. Sure, he did indeed succeed in using the Infinity Gauntlet to halve the number of lives in the universe, but his ultimate goal was to “bring balance,” to sacrifice a great many so that the rest could thrive and not have to worry about extinction.
But, from what we saw of New York in the recent promo, maybe Thanos didn’t really think too much about the repercussions his drastic actions would have on both the survivors and the world around them. For starters, the shots of Manhattan depict the city as utterly desolate – even with millions turned to dust, it should still be a busy place. By the looks of things, then, society has basically collapsed. There’s no business, no tourism…not even any sport.
There are many reasons for why this could be. It could be as simple as the rest of humanity falling into depression, or perhaps the economy has collapsed. Or, maybe it’s because the ecosystem is failing with so much animal and vegetation life lost. Whatever the case, it sure doesn’t look like “the grateful universe” that Thanos dreamed off. ScreenRant has even theorized that maybe the key to undoing the devastation will be the Titan himself.
Could he reverse his actions if he realizes that he’s failed to achieve what he wanted? All will be revealed when Avengers: Endgame hits cinemas on April 26th.
