Description of Avengers footage from D23

Disney held their third annual D23 event this weekend for the fans, showcasing everything that’s coming up on all of Disney’s fronts, from television and radio, to films and video games. And since The Avengers didn’t make an appearance at Comic-Con this year, as expected, Disney and Marvel brought members from the cast along with sizzle real of footage to D23 instead.

Unlike Comic-Con, Disney was very protective in ensuring their presentations were exclusive to D23 attendees and they would not let cameras, cell phones, laptops or any other such tech/recording equipment into the rooms but we can still certainly describe what was shown for The Avengers.


Before the cast came on stage, The Avengers segment of the presentation was introduced with a video that recapped the series of movies before it, emphasizing the story and characters we’ve met so far and what it’s all been leading up to. It included bits of all the films to date (Iron Man​, The Incredible Hulk​, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger) as well as all the “button” post-credit scenes of the films (teaser trailers/easter eggs). This footage ended with the scene of Nick Fury​ saying to Stark at the end of Iron Man: “I’m here to talk about the Avengers initiative.” This was quite an intro and the audience nearly lost it.

Marvel President of Production, Kevin Feige, then came on stage, explaining that director Joss Whedon is working away on the final two weeks of The Avengers shoot, but that he’s prepared a little something special for the D23 attendees. On comes the new footage the eager audience was waiting for.

Here’s what was shown:

• Loki (Tom Hiddleston​) is trapped in a high tech, glass prison room.
• Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) enters, and uses the panel to communicate to him: “In case it’s unclear, if you try to escape – you even scratch the glass – it’s 30,000 feet straight down.”
• Floor opens, revealing that this is taking place on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.
• Loki says the room is “an impressive cage,” mocking that it’s not good enough to hold him.
• Fury quips that the “cage” was built for something much stronger than Loki.
• Loki: “…a mindless beast makes play he’s still a man,” referring to the Hulk.
• Fury accuses Loki of bringing the world to the brink of war: ”You threaten my world with war. Steal a force you can’t control. You have made me desperate.”
• Loki points out that Fury nearly had true power, having the Tesseract (the Cosmic Cube from Captain America​ and in post-credits of Thor), and talks of what SHIELD’s plans are for it, mocking their purpose with using it as a “warm glow for all of mankind.” Loki taunts Fury about being so close to “real power” and says he’ll show him what “real power” is.
• Fury responds in classic Sam L fashion: “Let me know if real power wants a magazine.”
• The Avengers team is in a briefing room, sitting at the table from Captain America post-credits Avengers button with Thor standing in middle of the room – they’re watching Loki on the monitor.
• Bruce Banner​ (Mark Ruffalo): “He really grows on you doesn’t he?”
• Agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) is also shown watching the happenings through a monitor of her own.
• Next scene shows Nick Fury explaining S.H.I.E.L.D.’s plan to bring together these heroes to handle the issues too big for the agency.
• Scenes are shown of SHIELD agents around the Helicarrier and we get a few action scenes of our favorite heroes.
• Next scene shows Tony Stark​ (Robert Downey Jr​.) behind a bar, introducing the team: “Let’s do a head count.”
  • Stark lists through The Avengers roster and as he names them, scenes are shown for each character (the Quinjet is also shown flying towards a city).
  • “We’ve got two deadly assassins” – Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner​) are shown on a bridge next to some destruction – Hawkeye shown aiming with his bow.
  • “A demi god” – Thor is shown with angry face, followed by slow motion action scene of him jumping, swinging is mighty Mjolnir hammer at Captain America’s shield.
  • “A legend that actually lives up to the legend” – Captain America (Chris Evans) dodging explosions – Also has a scene standing in front of a closet containing his new modern day costume.
• Stark follows up by saying “and somehow, you managed to piss them all off.”
• Loki is revealed to be the one talking to Stark and he retorts: “I have an army.”
• Stark: “We have a Hulk.”
• The final scene is showing Banner’s leg transforming into Hulk, followed by a close-up of his face while screaming Hulk-style.
• The Avengers logo.

Needless to say, this was very exciting – and intense – footage but it will not be available online for a very long time. It was a pure tease and not revealing of any additional plot details or villains – we actually have learned more from the recent set videos and photos. There sadly was also no news about what comes next on Marvel’s film slate (i.e. Guardians of the Galaxy or Runaways) so we’ll wait until next July for Comic-Con 2012 and hope Marvel holds a panel there.


Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth​, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Cobie Smulders, Tom Hiddleston were then introduced to the stage (above, click to enlarge) with Feige as Downey, being the spokesman and poster boy of sorts for the franchise, took the mic and got the audience excited by asking them if they wanted to watch the footage again… and so The Avengers reel was shown again to everyone’s pleasure.


The Avengers stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Clark Gregg, Tom Hiddleston and Stellan Skarsgard. It is of course written and directed by Joss Whedon, opening in theaters on May 4, 2012.