We’re still mourning those moments in Avengers: Infinity War and brainstorming what the frightening title of the Avengers 4 will be though we’re sure it will have something to do with Infinity Gauntlet and the Celestials. If you haven’t seen Infinity War yet, then your bestie has probably been preemptively screening your Twitter feed for any impending spoilers (because people who spoil movies on the Twitterverse are the real villains here). Thankfully, the original Avengers are giving us some good news on the MCU front: ET reports that the original Avengers cast members assembled to get matching tattoos, which puts our matching friendship t-shirts to shame.
Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Chris Evans (Captain America), and Chris Hemsworth (Point Break Thor) banded together to get some Avenger-affiliated ink. TBH, we’re jealous of the design.
In fact, the tattoo was initially Johansson’s idea. Robert Downey Jr., debuted the tattoo during an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, and said, “It was [Scarlett] Johansson’s idea, and she and [Chris] Evans did it in New York. Then, their New York guy, Josh Lord, who is amazing, flew out to LA, he did me, did [Jeremy] Renner, and then we just bullied [Chris] Hemsworth into doing it, and he got it.”
The tattoo appears to be the iconic Avengers logo overlapping a six, which could represent the six OG Avengers. Nevertheless, some fans have theories about this adapted Avengers symbol.
According to Polygon, there’s an entire Reddit thread dedicated to decoding the meaning behind Johansson and company’s tattoo. Redditer ZebraEggs even overlapped their interpretation of the tattoo’s meaning over the actual design.
While it might seem like a reach to think that the tattoo design is anything but the Avengers symbol and a six, it would be un-Avenger-like to ~not~ have something bubbling with Easter eggs.
Thanks for the ink, Joshua Lorde!(and for letting all of us maim you in return) Love to @RobertDowneyJr @Renner4Real @chrishemsworth Scarlett (we just need to get Ruffalo blackout drunk) pic.twitter.com/mNtJ6xCyOP
— Chris Evans (@ChrisEvans) May 8, 2018
Beyond our flourishing ink-related fan theories, we can’t help but notice that the sixth founding Avengers was missing from the tattoo session. Apparently, Mark Ruffalo wasn’t too keen on getting a tattoo. (Clearly, Hulk said no.)
Downey Jr. tells EW that, in Ruffalo’s absence, their tattoo artist, Josh Lord, filled in as the sixth Avenger. “And each one of us drew a line on the artist with his own tattoo gun and it was a total massacre. Each of us contributed to giving the tattoo artist the sixth tattoo that he designed for us,” he said.
Regardless, we have a lot of questions. Does this mean that Lord is an Avenger now? Or does this mean that Lord is secretly moonlighting as the Hulk? Or is this just the prelude to the Planet Hulk movie-ready story arc? Hopefully, Avengers 4 will help answer some of these queries.