Four and half months after a trailer for “Avengers: Infinity War” was released for select audiences at San Diego Comic Con, the first television trailer dropped last week for the rest of Marvel fans worldwide.

It was about time.

The trailer opens with an aerial view of a mysterious planet and ominous music as a voiceover of Nick Fury [Samuel L. Jackson] starts his famous speech from the first “Avengers” film: “There was an idea…” The speech is continued by some of the heroes, like Tony Stark [Robert Downey Jr], Thor [Chris Hemsworth], Vision [Paul Bettany] and Black Widow [Scarlett Johansson]. For long time fans, this was surely a detail that Marvel knew would hit a chord.  As they speak, we see them in far reaching locations, with Tony on an alien world and Black Widow possibly in the fictional country of Wakanda. Obviously, the split caused by “Captain America: Civil War” had long lasting effects.

Another face we’ve been seeing since the first “Avengers” dominated theaters is Thanos [Josh Brolin], the villain Marvel has kept to post-credits scenes and cameos for the past ten years. This villain voices over most of the trailer with a threatening speech. He appears walking out of a portal onto Earth part of the way through. Marvel has always kept close to his comic look in his previous movie appearances, but something about this version makes him look even more like a living, purple thumb with a face. The internet quickly produced memes that pointed out the similarities to Joss Whedon and Homer Simpson. We will have to see whether “Infinity War” can make him into a believable villain.

Thanos’s appearance wasn’t surprising. None of the other characters we saw were that surprising, but the sheer number of them present is notable. There was a lot of speculation about who would be in “Infinity War.” The common prediction was it would be a mix of a few “Guardians of the Galaxy” characters and several Avengers, but not everybody. We were wrong. Every major character from every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie made at least one appearance — besides Hawkeye. Is Marvel biting off more than it can chew? Or will they pull off what no movie franchise has done, again?  On top of that, there are so many plot threads that will need to be wrapped up. How did Bucky get out of Cryo? Why is Black Widow a blonde? How did Thor end up with the Guardians? And, most importantly, why does Captain America have a beard?

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