(Bloomberg) -- Marvel Studios today unveiled its first trailer for “Avengers: Endgame,” the fourth cinematic chapter in the tale of the universe-saving team of superheroes. And it features that staple of Marvel marketing -- a link to its other movies that flesh out the story line.

When we last left Iron Man, Captain America and the gang, they were reeling in defeat at the hands of Thanos, a super villain who had eliminated half the population of the universe with a snap of his fingers. The how and why is complicated.

But what’s important is that the series is a big moneymaker for Marvel, a unit of Walt Disney Co. The three Avengers movies so far have grossed at least $5 billion worldwide since 2012.

And the story lines for individual Avengers are extended in the trailer. Ant-Man, for instance, reappears. (His last movie ended with him stuck in the Quantum Realm after being shrunk to microscopic size. Again, it’s complicated.)

Why is that important? Because Marvel’s non-Avenger films, and there are a lot of them, have grossed about another $12 billion because fans want to be up-to-date on all doings within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Marvel’s website says “Avengers: Endgame” opens April 26.

To contact the reporter on this story: John McCorry in New York at jmccorry@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Gillen at dgillen3@bloomberg.net, Michael Tsang

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