9 questions about Avengers: Infinity War you were too embarrassed to ask

For the past 10 years, Marvel has been building up its world of superheroes, supervillains, cosmic guardians, Wakandan warriors, Infinity Stone-enhanced AIs, telekinetic witches, strange doctors, and spidermen. And on Friday, when Infinity War is officially released in theaters (screenings begin Thursday night), audiences will finally get to see the movie that Marvel has promised will completely change everything we thought we knew about its cinematic universe.

But not all of those audiences are on the same page. A lot of us have things to do other than relentlessly internalize 10 years and some 2,200 minutes of Marvel superhero cinema — things like eating, sleeping, finishing Infinite Jest, worrying about the plastic island floating in the Pacific Ocean, knitting, catching up on Game of Thrones, trying to make sense of President Trump and Stormy Daniels, or making our own American Chopper meme.

In other words: Life can get in the way of being a Marvel Cinematic Universe completist. That’s okay. We’ve got you covered. Here are some answers to the questions you may have about Infinity War but were too embarrassed to ask.

1. What is Avengers: Infinity War?

Avengers: Infinity War is the 19th movie in Marvel Studios’ 10-year history, and the third Avengers movie in that span. But it’s also a bit more than that.

Thanks in large part to Marvel’s marketing and cinematic strategy, Infinity War has been hyped since 2012, when Thanos was touted in The Avengers as one of the most powerful villains in the universe. Throughout the years, Marvel has been planting small teases that Thanos seeks to become even more powerful by hunting down six powerful ingots called Infinity Stones, which would make him a galactic threat.

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Now, six years later, Thanos is in the home stretch of his plan, and that’s where Infinity War begins. He’s coming to Earth to look for the remaining Infinity Stones, and the Avengers — who are now split up and scattered, following the events of 2016’s Captain America: Civil War — are doing everything they can to stop him. Thanos threatens to not only destroy life on Earth but also, in a meta sense, shatter everything Marvel has built since 2008: its characters, its many worlds, and its wide-ranging mythology.

1. How closely does Avengers: Infinity War follow the comics?

Avengers: Infinity War is an amalgam of two Marvel comic book arcs: The Infinity Gauntlet series, by writer Jim Starlin and artist George Pérez, and a 2013 comic book crossover event called Infinity.

In Infinity, Thanos launches an attack on Earth alongside a team called the Black Order — pretty much what’s happening in Infinity War. But when it comes to Thanos’s motivations, and the mythology of the Infinity Stones (which are called the Infinity Gems in the comic books), The Infinity Gauntlet informs the movie a lot.

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That said, you don’t need to read the comic books to understand what’s happening in this movie. But if you enjoy Marvel’s movies, it wouldn’t hurt to read the comic book source material and support the medium and the writers, artists, and editors who enrich it with their talents.

1. What’s up with the Avengers: Infinity War sequel?

Back when Marvel was rolling out its plans for its “phase three” set of movies, it initially introduced Infinity War as a two-part story, with part one landing in 2018 and part two hitting theaters in 2019. Then in 2016, Part II was dropped, and the fourth Avengers movie has been untitled ever since.

It’s unclear exactly why this change happened, or what the new title for the 2019 Avengers movie is, but the secrecy around the shift is probably to avoid spoiling the very major things that happen in Infinity War — which, suffice to say, leave the door wide open for another chapter in this story.