Let's talk About Who is in Danger of Dying in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR
Place your bets! The Marvel Cinematic Universe is not known for having any stakes involved with their movies. If a character supposedly dies, it’s not uncommon for them to not actually be dead. Agent Phil Coulsen died back in 2012 and then he came back to lead his own spin-off TV show. Loki supposedly died back in Thor: The Dark World. Groot sacrificed himself and then gave us his son (who fans didn’t know until recently was his son) who is also named Groot. Nick Fury “died” in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but really didn’t. Marvel doesn’t seem to be a fan of the idea of killing off characters. It makes some sense because they want to keep as many options open as possible. However, it takes away from the possible impact that these movies can have on the audience. If there are actual stakes, we will care more. In theory, the Russo brothers are raising the stakes in Avengers: Infinity War. In a recent interview with /Film, Anthony Russo said:
“We’ll say this. We like mature storytelling. We like dramatic storytelling. We like intense storytelling. I think we appreciate conflict, and we appreciate stakes. And without stakes, there really isn’t a lot of value to the story. And I think if you look at the Marvel Universe as a whole as a story that’s been told for ten years, you can look at this as the climax. And the stakes will be higher in this movie than they’ve ever been, times ten.”
Ok, so what will the stakes be? My money is on some characters will die (although 0 x 10 =0, I'm betting on addition instead of multiplication). The question is, who? That’s what we’re going to theorize today.
Personally, I was hoping Cap would die in Civil War and then we’d see Bucky take the mantle of Captain America. I could still see this happening in Infinity War, but I feel like it’s less likely. My money is on Iron Man kicking the bucket. He started this whole thing 10 years ago and I could see them killing him off as he tries to prevent the vision he saw in Age of Ultron from happening and ends up sacrificing himself.
I think Vision will also die since he is dependant on the Mind Stone, but I think there’s a chance he will come back. I know that Mark Ruffalo recently said that the movies will be vastly different from the comics, but I think we can still expect to see some people come back to life.
I don’t think this will be the end of Black Widow, but rather I could see this leading into a Black Widow film where she creates a team of femme fatales. Doctor Strange and Black Panther are safe because they have sequels coming up as is Spider-Man. Thor could potentially die, but Chris Hemsworth has talked about wanting to reprise the role and you can’t do that if your character is dead.
Hawkeye could be a casualty and for some viewers, it would be impactful (yes, I know a lot of you don’t care about him). I think if someone from the Cap Trio dies it’s most likely to be Falcon. I just feel like Marvel isn’t willing to kill Cap. Scarlet Witch is a possibility unless you think she will be in the Black Widow femme fatale group. I could see one or two of the Guardians of the Galaxy also biting the bullet, but will keep my guess at maybe Nebula.
Here’s a TLDR for everyone as to my thoughts:
SAFE:
Doctor Strange
Black Panther
Spider-Man
Hulk
Guardians of the Galaxy
PROBABLY SAFE:
Black Widow
Captain America
Bucky
Thor
Captain Marvel
War Machine
Ant-Man
Wasp
DANGER:
Iron Man
Vision
Falcon
Scarlet Witch
Hawkeye
Nebula
What category would you place these characters in? Remember, there are really no right or wrong answers until after we see the movie! Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters April 27, 2018.