I have heard that they are the Chitauri, which is a shape shifting race of aliens that have been called "skrulls" in the Ultimate comic line
• I'm not sure you want to watch 20 minutes of behind-the-scenes Avengers footage, but if you do, part one is above and part two is here. Me, I desperately want to see it, but I'm afraid that 20 minutes of any Avengers footage will spoil shit for me I don't want spoiled, so I'm actually going to hold off watching it until after the movie premieres or someone I trust tells me it's safe. Note, when I say "someone I trust," I don't mean any of you bastards. (Via iGeektrooper)
• Somehow, the mysterious identity of Loki's indeterminate army has possibly been revealed, but definitely has gotten more confusing -- hit the jump, and you'll see what I mean.
Topless Roboteer Kevin Goddard found that Jakks Pacific Avengers movie game with the pink alien figures in it (remember it?). He also took this picture of the box.
 |
Fucking Skrulls.
Okay, here's why I can't be sure that Skrulls are in the movie: because these pink figures look like Skrulls, complete with pointy ears, and yet they look nothing like the alien/mythological bad guys in the Avengers movie trailer. Nothing. So is this a game that Jakks made that has nothing to do with the movie? If so, why is the Cosmic Cube, which we know is in the movie, involved? Were Skrulls the original Loki-army in the movie, and Jakks made the game based on them, only to have Marvel switch the bad guys to something else during the movie's CG phase while the game pieces were being molded in China? Or are the movie guys actually Skrulls just with an un-Skrull-like design, and Joss Whedon and everyone at Marvel have been lying to our faces, Michael Bay style?
I honestly don't want to think of everyone at Marvel movies having as much contempt for their audiences as Bay does, so I'm going to assume that Skrulls were the original movie villain, and got switched for something else during production but after Jakks had designed the game. Which means we still have no fucking clue who Loki's army is. See, I told you that my wasting everybody's time was not a new phenomenon.
More links from around the web!
80 comments
Okay, I'll just say it out loud, Rob: does it really matter?
From everything we have seen so far, we know, just KNOW that the Avengers is going to be a blast and a half and a whole bag of kittens. Kinda light plot, yes, but with likable characters, excellent performances by the actors involved, and a lot of other random shit to keep people happy and talking about this Nerd Main Event for YEARS.
Factoring all of those points above, at this point, the aliens could've been called "Generic Invading Aliens" for all I care, and it will never, ever, EVER change the fact that the Avengers is going to be nothing short of a good movie.
I did both a spoiler-filled and a spoiler-free review of Avengers Assemble from the fan screenings on the 14th... http://bit.ly/yB7IXR
It's seriously worth the wait, I'm definitely going to see it again once it's on general release!
One thing, Miss Emma: Tony is either very brave, or has a death wish of some kind. XD
Thank you very, very much for that wonderful preview. Now, I can't wait to see the whole thing on the silver-screen! We were right, nerds and nerdettes: Avengers IS going to be the new standards of how superhero movies are supposed to be done! XD
I already saw the movie... we all know that Loki's army is an alien race, but the real question is: who is behind this army? Why is (s)he helping Loki? Stay after the credits and you will find out!!
Yeah. Reports from early screenings are that they are Chitauri, which are the Skrulls from the Ultimate Avengers/ Ultimates book. This way they get to have some form of Skrull without Fox suing the pants off Marvel since Fox got the Skrulls as part of the deal for Fantastic Four characters. So I guess it's a workable work around to the legal fiasco of not being able to use Skrulls.
At first I thought the aliens looked more like Korbinites to me (Beta Ray Bills race)
BTWDoes anyone know why they used a different name for the Skrulls in the ultimates?
Why is Loki even leading an alien invasion in the first place? That is not how Loki works! He schemes and manipulates!
You know, at this point you should have already realized that adjustments are always, always, ALWAYS made to any adaptations from any media making it into the silver screen. I say, if it works for the betterment of the movie, then, well, adjust away!
I still say there's the possibility that Whedon & Co. are going to be evil, and fuck with us, and never name in the movie at all.
The Chitauri are not the Skrulls of The Ultimates universe.
"A separate "Skrull" race later visited Earth-1610, who recognized the name Chitauri, disclaimed any common motives or connection between them." - Marvel
What if Loki's army are Skrulls in disguise and not even he knows? You know the scene in the trailers when the Avengers are circling in for one last stand? What if the aliens reveal themselves as Skrulls and Loki fights with the Avengers when they're almost beaten against two-timing Skrulls led by a Maria Hill/Skrull Queen? The movie does need a twist after all and would be a reason the Marvel and Whedon people are so adamant(ium) that there are no Skrulls in the movie.
Skrull High Command: We'll use their shape-shifting powers to look like techno-organic Viking zombies instead of green people with pointy ears & wrinkly chins. Earth will be totally unprepared for our true menace! MOOHAHA!!!people of Earth: Uh ... we had no idea you aliens existed, let alone what you look like. If you have superior weapons, why bother pretending to be different aliens? If you can shapeshift, why not just replace our world leaders & millitary commanders instead of making a big deal of invading?Skrull High Command: Well, uh ... go choke on a bag of Kree dicks! We didn't practice truning into a Skrullian Centipede just to conquer your dumb planet the easy way!
The video game has the avengers fighting Skrulls, and the HEroclix set has skrulls in it...face it....were getting skrulls....
Hm. I'm still going with Skrulls. Some sort of movie-specific retooling of the Skrulls, tweaked to fit the overall movie universe.
whoever they are it will be like a STNG where Q made the Borg aware of the Federation by pulling them ahead spacewise
WHAT IF they are being sneaky bastards, and what we see in the trailers is not what we'll see in the movie? it couldnt be that hard to replace the cgi for 30 seconds worth of footage.
Loki is supposed to be the main villain, so a tricky marketing campaign with enemies hidden by cgi-illusions would make perfect sense to me. Then again, all kinds of strange things make perfect sense to me, and I don't think that they'd actually take the risk and time to do that.
As far as I'm concerned the Avengers are only fighting Loki, each other, and a giant robosnake.
Anything else is unconfirmed rumor.
Well, at least we have some idea why Jeremy Renner's archery skills aren't up to par: digital arrows...
I imagine the reason is because one of our main characters is a Skrull. Don't want to give that away by revealing the villains.
From the trailer shots, my thinking is they're the Disir, the dishonored dead of Asgard, perfect army for Loki to recruit.
The behind-the-scenes footage is safe. It's almost entirely footage of scenes that have already been shown in trailers, and there's no on-set sound. It's all just background music.
Honestly, I don't have a problem with them turning out to be Skrulls, even if Whedon and Co. denied that they are. Lying isn't how I'd handle the situation if I were in their shoes, but I can understand the need to release some exciting action-y footage against wanting people to have some level of surprise with your big reveal, which would otherwise be ruined by nerds that are going to dissect every little bit of footage you release. I'm not saying we nerds are doing anything wrong by dissecting the footage, or that lying is the right way to deal with it, but I can understand why they'd do it, and it wouldn't hurt my opinion of either Whedon or the movie. And I certainly wouldn't think of it as contempt.
Maybe they're Ubervamps left over from Buffy's finale and Whedon doesn't want anyone to know, so he's telling twelve different stories to everyone who'll listen?
I don't know how much I would pay to see Tigra being chased by a bunch of hungry Melmacians, but I probably couldn't afford it.
I still don't think they are Skrulls. I also don't think it matters. All the hullabaloo baffles me. They're just the bad guys in Loki's thrall! They're gonna get smashed. End of their story.
I'm fairly sure that 20th Century Fox has the term SKRULL and their appearance under license along with the rest of the FANTASTIC FOUR license which is why MARVEL couldn't use them in the AVENGERS. But FOX can't sue them for making toys of the SKRULLS who are far better known than the Chitauri both by name and visual.
This is a very good point, and one that I hadn't thought of... considering Skrulls were originally FF baddies, and the licensing is crazy for Marvel properties across the film-o-sphere, I would actually put money on this theory. Whedon: I want Skrulls.Marvel: ...well, we technically can't. Licensing wibbly wobbly timey wimey shit.Whedon: Then Chitauri. They're Skrulls by another name.Marvel: ...damn you're good.Whedon: And you can call them Skrulls in all of your toylines, adding to the mystery leading up to the movie, while our marketing team insists that they aren't Skrulls, because technically they aren't.Marvel: We bow before your Jossy Might, Lord Whedon.
You shouldn't credit Whedon with that. The guy in charge of Marvel continuity across product lines is none other than Joe Quesada.
Yeah. I know. Nerdrage!!!!!! Get over it. He has made some good choices in his current role.
I've yet to see an adequate answer why the identity of Loki's army has to be the equivalent of nuclear missile codes. Why does this have to be such a big secret? Seriously...the war on spoilers in Hollywood has gotten out of hand. It's like Abrams (one of the ultimate "tell no secrets/lie to their faces" people in Hollywood) and Cumberbatch in the new Trek movie. Why exactly is it such a big deal to just say: "Yes...he's playing the bad guy."
Again...these aren't military secrets, Hollywood people...it's just movies.
And im from the school of-- why do we have to know before we go in-- spoilers are called that for a reason-- they ruin the movie-- or tick us off when there is a scene in the trailer that is not in the movie-- I wish at this point they would stop hyping it with new clips-- is there really anything else they can show- that is going to make someone else see the movie- that wasnt going to see it 3 weeks ago--- you can keep advertising just stop showing new footage already.
Because all the people who aren't geeks not only know who the Skrulls are, and not only know that they wouldn't necessarily be the Avenger's most likely threat, but also know about all the other alien races (including Chatauri/Skrulls from the Ultimate milieu) which the Avengers could be facing instead.
And because if geeks knew for sure they were the Skrulls (or Chatauri) we wouldn't bother going since we would know that part of the plot already.
LET THE PURIFYING TENSION CLEANSE THIS AREA!!!
(Advantage: Marvel Studios marketing.)
