With Avengers: Endgame right around the corner, Marvel fans are eager for information on what’s awaiting us in the grand finale to the first ten years of the MCU. The trailers so far have been resolutely spoiler-free, however, telling us as little as possible about the fourth Avengers movie. So where do we go to get hints as to how Endgame will unfold? Well, MCU Cosmic has a theory that one unlikely source might hold all the answers: Star Trek.
First of all, it’s no secret that Kevin Feige’s a big Trek fan and he’s talked about the franchise’s influence on the Marvel movies before. For instance, he’s realized that the third entry in every MCU trilogy ends with something getting destroyed – think about it and it’s true, either literally or metaphorically – and lays the blame for that at Star Trek III: The Search for Spock‘s door (which sees the Enterprise blown up).
What’s more, Feige has previously spoken about his love for The Next Generation‘s finale “All Good Things…,” citing it as the perfect finale as it doesn’t just kill of its characters but ends on a bittersweet note (Picard playing poker with his crew, showing that he’s opening himself up to their friendship). Given that Endgame is the last chapter of the first volume of the MCU, doesn’t it stand to reason then that Feige would look to his favorite finale for inspiration?
Aside from TNG‘s finale, the last episode of Voyager could also be a key influence. Why? Because it’s called “Endgame”! The plot of that one features an older Captain Janeaway from a dark future traveling back in time to undo her timeline. Doesn’t that sound a lot like the rumored plot of Avengers 4 – that Iron Man and the rest will traverse the Quantum Realm to go back and stop Thanos from ever collecting the Infinity Stones?
Time travel has all but been confirmed as a major element of Endgame, with the movie expected to hop around past events in the MCU. Note that “All Good Things…” also sees Picard revisiting the first episode of TNG, thereby similarly giving the finale a feeling of coming full circle. We’re all expecting the OG Avengers to die, but maybe they’re just going to sit around and play cards at the end of Avengers: Endgame?
