Endgame Theory: Ant-Man Was Digitally Removed From Super Bowl Trailer

Marvel Studios may have digitally removed an Avenger from Avengers: Endgame's Super Bowl TV spot - and we think it is Ant-Man. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) was absent from Avengers: Infinity War, something explained in Ant-Man and the Wasp; although the sequel to his solo movie came out after Infinity War, the events of the film were actually happening in conjunction with everything else. This meant that even after Ant-Man and Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) saved the day, Thanos' snap still happened.

Ant-Man survived the snap but was left in the Quantum Realm as a result in Ant-Man & the Wasp's post-credits scene. However, after months of speculation involving time vortexes and hidden cities, the first trailer for Avengers: Endgame straight-up confirmed that he will unsurprisingly make it out. Thanks to set photos and the little we know about the plot, it looks like Ant-Man will eventually become a proper member of the Avengers team, helping them travel through time in a bid to undo Thanos' snap from the end of Infinity War.

Despite this being largely known by fans who have followed every report and rumor about Avengers: Endgame, Marvel is still doing their best to hide what his role will be. He only appeared at the very end of the first trailer, but we previously theorized that he was just out of frame in several other shots. Now, with the debut of the Endgame Super Bowl TV spot, it looks like Marvel is still trying to hide Ant-Man's role.

During the 30-second teaser, there's a shot of Captain America, Black Widow, Bruce Banner, and Rhodey standing outside the Avengers HQ at night looking up to the sky with a conspicuous gap amongst them. It could be nothing, but just based on the positioning of the actors, there is a conspicuous amount of wasted space between Bruce and Rhodey. Has someone been edited out? If so, we're pretty sure it's Ant-Man.

There's a lot of other potential candidates to be in this scene, although few make much sense: Tony and Nebula are not accounted for but likely still in space as they aren't part of the team shot later in the TV spot; Thor and Rocket look to be on their own adventure away from the Avengers; Captain Marvel has yet to become involved (and could be what they're looking at); and Hawkeye's introduction as Ronin doesn't come until later in the film judging by Black Widow's longer hair when she finds him. Therefore, Ant-Man is the only logical choice to be in this shot based on what we know.

It's been confirmed thanks to the Endgame Super Bowl TV spot that Ant-Man does definitely arrive at the Avengers facility thanks to a shot of him with War Machine, so he fits in the group. Possibly the best piece of evidence to support that he's in this shot is actually the clothes the characters are wearing. The first trailer showed Steve Rodgers, Natasha Romanoff, and Bruce all during the day time wearing these same outfits. And, during these scenes, they are explaining Thanos' snap and who went missing; only Scott and Carol would need such an explanation potentially, and these scenes appear to take place before Captain Marvel is believed to enter the story. Assuming this is the night after that day, Scott will be in the compound by this point.

While hiding Ant-Man may not be as exciting as Captain Marvel (or a surprise character), this is still a clever move by Marvel; removing Ant-Man from the footage prevents fans from getting a clear indication of the movie's timeline. Marvel has a tendency to digitally remove characters from trailers anyway - just look at Spider-Man missing from Captain America: Civil War's airport running shot - so this could be them relying on old tricks to keep fans in the dark on everything going on in Avengers: Endgame.