Marvel Studios honcho Kevin Feige and stars Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston and Cobie Smulders assembled Saturday at Disney's D23 Expo to promote next summer's The Avengers. Marvel screened an exclusive scene from the movie plus some sizzle reel footage for the gathered fans and press.

Beware of SPOILERS!

The presentation began with an assemblage of the "Avenger Initiative" codas and set-ups that were included in Marvel's past few films (Iron Man 1 and 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger), essentially creating a prologue for how S.H.I.E.L.D. got the superhero team together. A team that director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) says was put together to fight the battles that we can't.

Feige then introduced a clip to the audience. The scene takes place aboard S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier where there's a terse exchange between Fury and Loki (Hiddleston), who is caged inside a hi-tech chamber encased by glass walls. Loki sports much longer hair and an altered green and gold costume from he what he had in Thor. (Indeed, all of the characters have new duds in the film.)

Fury warns Loki that if he tries to escape, or even touches the glass, he'll plummet 30,000 feet to his doom. Fury then opens a portal to reveal the dark and stormy sky outside. Loki remarks that the cage he's in was built for someone different from him -- Hulk.


Loki turns to the surveillance camera, acknowledging those looking on elsewhere aboard the ship: Black Widow, Thor, Cap, Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and, at her post, Agent Maria Hill (Smulders). Loki teases Fury on how it must hurt them to have the Tesseract (Cosmic Cube), but to what end? Only to then see what real power is (meaning himself)? Fury glibly tells Loki to let him know if the "real power" would like a magazine while he's in his cell, a very Whedon-esque touch. Banner quips to his teammates about Loki, "Kinda grows on you, doesn't he?"

The sizzle reel footage showed quick flashes of the Avengers in action, specifically shots of what appeared like Cap and Thor clashing as well as a shot of Cap parachuting out of a plane. There was also a brief scene of Tony Stark dressed in a Black Sabbath t-shirt and making himself a drink (of course) as he addresses Loki. Tony runs down who he has on his side: Two master assassins (Widow and Hawkeye), a demigod, and a living legend who more than lives up to his legend. Loki remarks, "We have an army." To which Tony replies, drink in hand, "We have a Hulk." Cut to a close-up of Hulk roaring. The footage ended then, but the nerdgasms continued.

Much to the surprise and disappointment of the fanboy press there, Marvel DID NOT REVEAL what their two mystery movies are that are slated to open in 2014.


When the cast (none of whom spoke save for Downey) came out onstage afterward, Downey prompted Disney to run the footage again so that the cast could see it, much to the audiences' delight. That was up there with any great Hall H moment from San Diego Comic-Con.

Overall, The Avengers indeed looks as cool and promising as fans have long wanted. It's still surreal to see all those heroes together onscreen. Summer 2012 can't arrive fast enough!

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