Marvel knows how to build a shared universe. But it was still a shocker to see just how far it went to maintain continuity, when it kept the victims of the Thanos snap out of the Avengers: Endgame L.A. press conference on Sunday. Instead, the still-living superheroes sat on a stage filled with empty chairs to represent their fallen colleagues. The weight of Infinity War was palpable with the notable absences of beloved characters like Black Panther and Shuri.
Here are your Avengers, with plenty of empty chairs meant for their fallen comrades pic.twitter.com/5sdyFw5JKv
While Marvel's stars are experts at being tight-lipped, there was at least one moment where Chris Evans nearly let something critical slip about the fate of his character in the upcoming blockbuster.
Chris Evans almost spoils something about Captain America in #AvengersEndgame and it turns into a fight over Paul Rudd’s birthday party. Civil War 2? pic.twitter.com/f44ZrD93V2
There was also a nice tip of the hat to Jon Favreau, whose original Iron Man movie helped launch the MCU into existence. Favreau helped introduced the press conference for the movie that's seen as the end of a specific Marvel era that he helped start.
Favreau, for his part, used the moment to remind us that a significant portion of the characters we've followed for a decade are theoretically deceased. He gave no indication of which ones will eventually re-emerge, but we have a pretty good idea.
Avengers: Endgame hits theaters on April 26.
