Carlos Bastarache: patton-oswalt-filibuster.jpg

nobody knows I'm unemployed because I've got so much money

*Infinity War Spoilers Below*

After 18 movies and years of waiting, Avengers: Infinity War has finally hit theaters. The film once known as Infinity War Part 1, sent moviegoers home shocked at the obliteration of half of mankind, which included Black Panther, Spider-Man, and so many others.

Thanos won. At least for now. He has all six Infinity Stones and with their combined power, he can change reality or snuff out existence with a snap of his fingers. With the Guardians of the Galaxy almost all but destroyed and the universe in peril, it’s time for a new band of heroes from an intellectual property under the ownership of Disney to gather, possibly with the use of the Time Stone or the Reality Stone since they are from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away — to take on Thanos.

Yes, this is the perfect moment to look back on Patton Oswalt’s improv filibuster from Parks and Recreation in which he connects the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Star Wars. Many things have changed since 2013, and even with The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi released the main crux of the filibuster remains: Marvel’s superheroes along with the Jedi can stop Thanos. And it isn’t even that hard to connect the universes.

Let’s go to the third paragraph of Oswalt’s speech, picking up right after he describes Boba Fett surviving his fall into the Sarlacc pit in Return of the Jedi.

And we realize that he survived his fall during the battle at Jabba’s palace ship. Then, do a hard cut to a re-purposed imperial destroyer, which has now been taken over by the Rebels, Commander Luke Skywalker, now a full Jedi Knight, training new Padawans, is using – ironically – his father Anakin’s red lightsaber which will be a symbolic, I think, visual for his battle with how to both bring about the new Jedi Order, while still acknowledging his father’s fall from grace.

As he is training the Padawans, we pan outside of the control window to a nearby asteroid where we see – and please allow me to finish this because it’s gonna seem like a bit of a jump – we see Thanos, who was the villain tease at the end of the first Avengers movie. Now Thanos, as you know, owns the Infinity Gauntlet which has the Time Gem, the Mind Gem, the Power Gem, the Space Gem and the Reality Gem. If he holds the Reality Gem, that means he can jump from different realities. This will be our link from – to the Marvel Universe from the Star Wars Universe. We then cut to Earth, Tony Stark realizes…

This makes total sense. In fact, Oswalt’s citing of the Reality Stone as the conduit between the two cinematic universes may not be needed at all. Of course, a ship would have to find its way to wherever the Avengers are fighting Thanos on earth or otherwise, so it would require an intergalactic distress signal to get the attention of the Rebels/Resistance/Empire, but it could work.

A cataclysmic event like half of life being destroyed across the universe might be the type of thing that sends people looking for the source, right? As long as they are all on the same timeline. Let’s go back to the filibuster.

Tony Stark realizes I – I do not recognize the Chair – Tony Stark realizes that there has been a disturbance in – in what he will call a time ribbon. For the time being, I will allow J.J. Abrams to think of a better term for this. And he then starts to assemble the cream of the Marvel universe, not – not the second-tier superheroes that we saw in the first Avengers movie, I’m sorry but Hawkeye and Black Widow are not first-tier. He would go find, hello, Spider-Man? Spider-Man exists in that universe.

We know that (for now) Spidey is ashes, but we also know that Disney has purchased 21st Century Fox and all of their superhero properties with them. With the MCU’s Phase 4 incoming and the (real) body count about to start racking up some big-time numbers with Chris Evans and other key actors considering other options when their contracts expire, new heroes have to be brought into the fold. Oswalt has that covered as well:

Then, at the edge of the – of the Star Destroyer’s orbit, suddenly the time ribbon begins wavering and what comes through? The X-Men’s Quinjet, that’s right. What we – what we did was back on Earth we showed him gathering up all the heroes, but we didn’t see him gathering up the X-Men, so, oh my goodness. Now, Wolverine’s gonna be there, now Cyclops is gonna be there.

So the Quinjet comes through, Luke gets in his X-Wing to go out and meet them and they engage in this awesome star battle and it looks like the Quinjet actually is going to shoot Luke down and suddenly this volley of lasers comes in and what comes flying in is…we think it’s going to be the Millennium Falcon just like in Episode IV when he comes in and saves him during the Battle of Yavin but no. It is Slave 1. That’s right, Boba Fett shit – Slave 1 has to save Luke because, of course, he’s trying to track down Han, he can’t have Luke die.

Now, cut back to the Quinjet and Reed Richards from the Fantastic Four is piloting it. Oh it was a fake-out. He – it’s him, and we have select members of the X-Men that I thought, in my opinion, were – were not focused on properly in the earlier films. We have Colossus in there, we have X-23, which is Wolverine’s daughter, and then we have a now mind-controlled Sabretooth, and of course Wolverine.

This copy and pasting of the filibuster cuts out the whole subplot about the mecha-spider Chewbacca and Leia and Lando having an affair, but we don’t need that to show that Oswalt was truly onto something prescient back in Pawnee in 2013. We have a tight and reasonable connection between the Star Wars and Marvel universes that can lead to a smart end to Thanos (chop his Infinity Gauntleted arm off with a lightsaber) and will also bolster the MCU’s dwindling ranks. It can also help out the Star Wars universe after The Last Jedi left things in such an open-ended flux.

Oh, and it bridges the Arrested Development Universe with Star Wars.

(Transcription via Lybio)