Kevin Feige, exec at Marvel Studios and the brains behind the huge task of coordinating Phase 2 of the Marvel movie releases, has relented to fan pressure and commented on what or who that grey monster at the end of Avengers Assemble is.
He's Thanos, he's an insane god, and he'd be delighted to take over the universe.
With the ugliness of Monday's Avengers-based stories out of the way, let us look on the bright side and focus on the future.
On the day Avengers Assemble hit shelves up and down the country, faintly controversial news hit that the UK cut of the Blu Ray/DVD release had toned down a moment of violence that was still present in the US version.
Disney UK have addressed the issue.
SPOILER ALERT: Do not hit the jump if you have not seen Avengers Assemble, but intend to. The following information pertains to a massive plot point in the film, and its bizarre omission from the UK Blu-Ray and DVD release. Seriously, only continue if you either know the film well or don't care about the story.
A blockbuster five years in the making, a build-up consisting of five previous blockbuster releases would come with mounting expectation. Marvel Studios made a gamble here; if this movie failed then their master plan would come crashing down. To make matters worse, they handed the reins over to a man who worked primarily in cancelled TV shows and his only prior big screen experience was directing a spin-off of one of his cancelled TV shows.
The odds were against them on this, yet Avengers Assemble defied the odds.
It wouldn't be a week in movie fandom without a slew of Marvel movie news. Thor was lucky enough to get his own piece but, for the sake of tidiness, here are the three other big stories of the week.
The Avengers was a rarity: A long movie that left me wanting more. The film saw its fair share of cuts, two of which were released online recently (here and here), but they were mostly disposable scenes that didn't really add to the movie. If anything, the alternate opening would have taken away from the film.
The latest deleted scene to hit the web, however, is the first one that feels essential. The minutes this would add to the runtime are negligible, the much-needed pathos and humanity that it would lend the film would have been invaluable.
The Avengers, for all its greatness, did not run completely smoothly. The opening is somewhat clunky and offers little in the way of genuine drama and excitement - it's a testament to the movie's greatness that it course corrects and produces the best superhero movie of the summer (Yeah, that's right, I said it).
Things could have been very different, had they used the original opening sequence, which shows Cobie Smulders' Agent Maria Hill delivering a debriefing to her superiors on the events that transpired. It's a haunting moment, offering a hint of darkness and loss which paints Loki's invasion in a much darker light.
We always knew Marvel's plans for world domination were bigger than just conquering the movie world, they also want TV. What is sure to be the flagship of the Marvel small-screen armada is SHIELD, the spy-flavoured Avengers spin-off.
August has seen the release of a number clips from the DVD and Blu-Ray extras of this year’s summer blockbuster, Avengers Assemble, and today we have a selection of the latest clips that will certainly get you pre-ordering this one if it isn’t at the top of your to-buy list already.
