Google has joined in with the hype around the release of the Marvel movie Avengers: Endgame, with an Easter egg for people searching for information on one of the franchise’s main villains.

A search for “Thanos” on the site brings up, as usual, a little information box about the character played by Josh Brolin in the movie.

However, the character’s trademark gauntlet contains a secret. When clicked on or tapped the Google search results begin to disintegrate, echoing the fate of life across the universe when Thanos activated the completed Infinity Gauntlet in Avengers: Infinity War.

As individual entries atomise, the search page also shows the number of available results plummeting in a countdown.

It is possible to restore the results to the page – but maybe you need to have seen the newest Avengers movie to work out how to reverse the destructive power of Thanos.

The film, the 22nd in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films series, is expected to be a huge box office hit for Marvel, which has already enjoyed record-breaking success this year with the Captain Marvel movie, despite campaigns to boycott and review-bomb it.

Fans have gone to extraordinary lengths to be able to see the conclusion of the Avengers saga on the day of release in the UK, including, in one case, postponing a caesarean section.

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