A group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology pranksters transformed the school’s Great Dome Saturday night into Captain America’s shield in celebration of the new “Avengers’’ movie.

One of the jokesters — they cheekily call themselves “hackers’’ — reached by the Globe Sunday said dozens of people worked on the project for months, which they started planning about a year ago after learning a new Marvel movie was going to be released.

The hacker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the secretive nature of the pranks, said the current generation of MIT students grew up with the “Avengers’’ franchise, and that the shield was a symbol of their gratitude toward the series.