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The 2024 presidential race has touched on just about every aspect of pop culture, from the involvement of musicians like Charli XCX to the overrunning of our algorithms with coconut tree memes.
Now, the race to the White House has drawn in the world of superhero movies, with a viral clip drawing parallels between Kamala Harris’ candidacy and a climactic scene in Avengers: Endgame. The video was posted on X by comedian and actress Leslie Jones (one of multiple celebrities who’ve joined the Harris train), and recasts the blockbuster’s final face-off with Thanos as a rallying call for Harris’ campaign.
Naturally, Chris Evans’ Captain America is given the Harris treatment, while Thanos is portrayed as Trump (even though Thanos can actually speak coherently). The Endgame scene used to depict the presidential race is the one where all hope seems to be lost in the face of Thanos’ master plan, before a whole host of crossover-jumping heroes appear to take on the villain.
In the video, the gradually assembling roster of heroes is likened to demographics who support Harris, from Black men and women who overwhelmingly back the Democratic candidate to generation X, millennials and “white dudes,” who are rendered as Guardians of the Galaxy’s Drax the Destroyer, Mantis and Star-Lord, respectively.
That each demographic is given a worthy, triumphant superhero entrance makes the whole video feel strangely patriotic, and the corresponding characters somehow just feel right. Gen Z is represented by Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, with a slew of Harris endorsers also getting the Avengers treatment. There’s Barack Obama as Falcon, Pete Buttigeig as Doctor Strange, and Tim Walz as Thor.
For her part, Hillary Clinton joins the Harris army as Pepper Potts, while Bernie Sanders appears as Doctor Strange’s Wong and President Joe Biden is depicted as Iron Man. The video even makes mention of key events in Harris’ campaign, from the record-breaking Zoom call meetings to the Democratic National Convention. Thanos/Trump receives his biggest rival in the video’s final moments, when the Hulk-sized support base that is Taylor Swift and her fans appears to bolster the Democratic offensive.
Offering a fittingly motivational call to arms, the video concludes with the iconic Marvel quote “Avengers, assemble!,” and the urge to go out and vote has never been stronger. Fans promptly flocked to the video to relish in just how heroic the presidential race now feels, with one X user even going as far as saying the clip brought them to tears.
“Why did this have me tearing up tho,” the user wrote, with another adding that “this was so much fun to watch.” Elsewhere, users said that the clip “just made me break down and cry,” and remarked that depicting Trump as Thanos is perhaps giving the Republican a little more power than is warranted by the reality.
It remains to be seen whether any other films will be likened to the presidential race, but perhaps given Trump’s seemingly romantic compliments about Harris’ beauty, there could be an enemies-to-lovers rom-com arc in their future? Anyone up for a showing of When Donny Met Kamala?