With just under a month until it opens on May 1, Marvel has released the final trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron. Despite a steady stream of trailers, TV spots, and featurettes, they’ve done a really good job recycling footage so that they haven’t given the whole movie away before it opens. Might feel like that, but trust me, you have not seen the best of the Avengers yet. This trailer is half stuff we’ve seen before, with some bonus Black Widow footage. It will always sting that we won’t get a Black Widow stand-alone movie, but her role has become more central, and in Age of Ultron, she gets the best character stuff. It’s like half a Black Widow movie, and I’ll take what crumbs I get until we get to Captain Marvel in 2018.
(Marvel’s argument against a Black Widow movie is that they’re telling a specific story and taking a time out to do a movie for Black Widow doesn’t fit into The Plan, but 1) that’s exactly what they’re doing for Spider-Man, and 2) just do a story set before Natasha first appears in Iron Man 2. Do something with her and Hawkeye on a SHIELD mission—you could even throw in a bonus appearance by the Winter Soldier and get some more mileage out of one of your best villains, since it’s been established that Natasha previously encountered him. How hard is that? It’s not hard at all, you just don’t want to do it. Stop pretending like making a Black Widow movie is a special burden and own your disinterest.)
Monday is the premiere of Age of Ultron, kicking off a two-week press tour that’s a minor miracle of logistics and planning. Half the cast—including RDJ and Chris Evans, the most-requested stars for publicity appearances—are due to start filming Captain America: Civil War any day, and Chris Hemsworth is in London making that Huntsman movie no one asked for. But it’ll be two weeks of all-Marvel, all the time. Are you ready for the Avengers bonanza?
Attached - Jeremy Renner and Robert Downey Jr. arrive for RDJ's 50th birthday party on Saturday.
