A Close-Up Photo of You Know What From Avengers: Infinity War‘s Post-Credit Scene

Even though Avengers: Infinity War premiered way back on April 27, we’re still going to make sure you’ve seen the film before we suggest you keep reading…

Still here? Fantastic. Let’s all rejoice at a close-up photo of the one glimmer of hope from Infinity War, the most somber film in Marvel history. Truly, the only moment in the last, oh, 40-minutes of the film that gave us any hope at all occurred during the otherwise hideously depressing post-credits scene. Let’s revisit: After Thanos murders half the universe (and possibly you, too), the post-credits scene gives us S.H.I.E.L.D. head honcho Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and the ever capable Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) driving through New York. Suddenly, a car in front of them crashes and flips, and when Maria runs out to investigate, she finds that there’s no one in the vehicle. That’s because the driver was turned to dust by Thanos, which is precisely what happens to Maria moments later. As if that wasn’t horrific enough (after watching so many of our favorite characters suffer the same fate, no less), Nick Fury himself begins to disintegrate. Yet being Nick Fury, he manages to send out one last message and almost get a curse in before he’s gone.

Fury’s message, on a bizarre looking space beeper, was the last image we see in the film. When I saw the film, the shot of the beeper’s digital face made people gasp. Now, thanks to the Art of VFX‘s interview with Infinity War VFX supervisor Oliver Schulz (h/t to i09 for pointing us to the interview), they’ve got the image of the beeper’s digital face showing the iconic blue, red, and gold iconography of Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). Here’s the question by Art of VFX‘s Vincent Frei that prompted Marvel to release the image:

Which sequence or shot was the most complicated to create and why?

Each sequence had its own set of challenges but if I had to choose one it would probably be the TAG sequence. The sheer length and the complexity of the different effects alone were quite a task. One thing was that at a later point in the process the decision was made to not move forward with the filmed plate of Nick Fury — instead we would do a camera takeover and switch to a full CG shot. This included a full CG arm crumbling away in close-up together with a full CG environment. Additionally were also the CG close-up pavement and the all CG pager – which reveals the illuminated Captain Marvel Logo at the end. Sequence Comp Lead Erik Schneider did a great job staying on top of all this different elements and delivering a successful shot even when time started to run out.

We won’t know just how Captain Marvel might help the Avengers kill Thanos (and, perhaps, bring back our fallen heroes) until May 3, 2019, when Avengers 4 hits theaters, but we do know she at least knows she answers the call. We will be seeing her a few months before, however, when Captain Marvel premieres on March 8, 2019.

For more on Avengers: Infinity War, check out our interview with the film’s VFX animation director, VFX supervisor, supervising art director and production designer.

Featured image: Thanos (Josh Brolin) in Avengers: Infinity War. Courtesy Marvel Studios.