Dear Gossips,

Avengers: Endgameset a record yesterday for ticket pre-sales, surpassingStar Wars: The Force Awakenson the all-time list. This is probably not a surprise, especially not for a lot of people in Canada because, as you would know from my pouting and moaning, theAvengersdemand crashed the Canadian ticketing system. I wasn’t able to secure mine until 7pm last night, 8 hours after I started trying.

Not that they needed it, but it was a well-coordinated day of marketing. Marvel released new trailers and posters andall kinds of lures yesterdayto hype up the audience. We’ve already been waiting a year to find out what happens to our heroes, how they’ll take down Thanos, how they’ll work together to do it, and now, how Captain Marvel will factor into the situation. These little reveals, like the fact that Tony Stark and Steve Rogers trust each other and are shaking hands again, feel like small mercies – this is Marvel being charitable and also smug. If they can just casually throw in a shot of Tony and Steve together in a trailer, what other sh-t are they holding back for the theatrical release?

While most people were most excited about Tony and Steve’s reunion, I was more jacked about Tony and Pepper. PEPPERONY! Here, let’s watch it over and over again:

The last time we saw Pepper was in the park, just before Dr Strange and Bruce Banner interrupted their cute moment. Tony was telling Pepper that he had a dream she was pregnant and then he had to run off to save the world and the last we heard from Pepper she was yelling at Tony in his earpiece not to go to space. But they planted the seed – that’s me being as unsubtle as they were in the storytelling – and I wonder if it’ll be a bittersweet one. Because an OG Avenger is going to die, for sure. A lot of people are assuming it’s Captain America who’ll make the sacrifice. Maybe they’ve been preparing us for something else though, maybe they’ve been trying to get us ready for it to be Tony Stark. This era began with Tony in 2008. He’s the reason I’m even into the Avengers at all. I had no interest in these characters (hadn’t even heard of most of them) untilIron Mancame out in 2008. Tony Stark was the draw for me and probably many others who didn’t grow up caring about these stories. So, now that he’s put in a decade, is it time for the handoff? Will it end on his end with that obvious clue for a new beginning?

Here’s a TV spot that was dropped yesterday, yet another trailer to go along with the longer trailer that came out earlier in the day, featuring Thanos smugly talking about how he won and how he’s going to enjoy it and a new shot of Tony with his eyes all jaundicey and bloodshot.

This movie is going to be three hours long – and I’m already worried it won’t be long ENOUGH.

Yours in gossip,

1zplay