Little by little, Marvel is revealing the second phase of its movie universe.
At the D23 Expo in Anaheim on Saturday, studio president Kevin Feige introduced new video footage of Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Guardians of the Galaxy, the quirky new film starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and John C. Reilly. And a digital raccoon.
With stars from each movie on stage — and all all receiving massive applause from the 4,000 Disney fans in attendance — sizzle reels and early clips played on the massive arena screen.
Thor was first up, first with the clip shown at Comic-Con last month and then a new clip that featured Natalie Portman's Jane Foster in her first visit to Asgard. She's ill and inside a healing tube — reminiscent of that last birthing scene in Star Wars: Episode III — but presumably, things work out a lot better for her this time around. She teases Thor about the fact that his dad — played by Anthony Hopkins, who like Portman was on stage during the presentation — knew her name.
"You told your dad about me?" she cracked... before he commanded Thor to let her die, which is a terrible move by a prospective father-in-law.
Hiddleston was also here — he didn't sing this time — but he wasn't in costume, like at Comic-Con.
Here's the official plot: Thor: The Dark World continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself. In the aftermath of Thor and The Avengers Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos...but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.
Up next was The Winter Soldier, which featured a visit from Cap himself, Chris Evans, as well as Anthony Mackie — he plays The Falcon — and Sebastian Stan, whose Bucky Barnes evidently survived that brutal crash in the first movie. Not without some major damage, though.
Feige showed a few other clips, including one with Cap being surrounded in an elevator by Frank Grillo and a bunch of government strongmen. Guess who wins?
Robert Redford, who plays Alexander Pierce in the movie, gives a speech about how sometimes, you've got to tear down old institutions to make a better world, which presents some moral quandaries for old school hero, who objects to a lot of the fear mongering being done by S.H.I.E.L.D. and Samuel L. Jackson.
In the other clip, Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow tries to set up Cap with some of her girlfriends, kicking some ass all the while. Romance is brewing, it seems.
The plot: "After the cataclysmic events in New York with The Avengers, Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier finds Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, living quietly in Washington, D.C. and trying to adjust to the modern world. But when a S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague comes under attack, Steve becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue that threatens to put the world at risk. Joining forces with the Black Widow, Captain America struggles to expose the ever-widening conspiracy while fighting off professional assassins sent to silence him at every turn. When the full scope of the villainous plot is revealed, Captain America and the Black Widow enlist the help of a new ally, the Falcon. However, they soon find themselves up against an unexpected and formidable enemy—the Winter Soldier."
The Guardians footage had been shown at Comic-Con, and with just a few more weeks of production gone by, they didn't show anything else. But good news: Chris Pratt is hilarious and flips the audience the finger.