The Marvel Cinematic Universe will never look or feel the same after May 4, 2018. Thanos (Josh Brolin) will finally arrive on Earth when The Avengers: Infinity War debuts in theaters, and the life of every major Marvel hero will be on the line. In fact, Infinity War director Joe Russo recently opened up and admitted that the audience needs to be ready for death when the film finally premieres because that's the source of high drama. Russo explained:
My brother and I believe in stakes. I believe that everything has to have an end at some point in order for it to have value. The audience should be prepared.
To put it in layman's terms: no one is safe. Every single member of The Avengers roster is outmatched by Thanos and his Black Order, so the odds of everyone making it out alive seem slim. It does not matter if it's an old-timer like Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), or even a brand new member of the Marvel world. The Russos have placed nearly everyone on the chopping block, and the early footage of the film shown at D23 and San Diego Comic-Con has done a phenomenal job of making everyone fair game for death whenever it (or she?) rears its head.
With that said, if I had to place money on one Avenger who will likely die by the end of The Avengers: Infinity War, then it would have to be Vision (Paul Bettany). As the one member of Earth's mightiest heroes whose very existence depends on that Infinity Stone stuck in his forehead (remember, he has The Mind Stone), Thanos will have to kill him if he wants to complete the Infinity Gauntlet.
Arguably one of the only consistent problems that Marvel has had to face over the course of the last decade is the fact that the studio has shied away from death on more than one occasion. Even in Captain America: Civil War (which teased a possible Avenger death) the film only ended with War Machine (Don Cheadle) suffering life-altering injuries.
We're not necessarily saying that no one has died in a Marvel film before. In fact, before Joe Russo made his comments to MTV, Kevin Feige opened up to point out that characters like Frigga (Rene Russo), Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) have all died in the line of duty. The difference here is that death may soon come for more central and integral Marvel heroes during Infinity War's story. It may not just be side characters who bite the dust this time around, and we're in for an "emotional" story arc in which the stakes are unprecedently high.
The Avengers: Infinity War will blast its way into theaters next summer on May 4, 2018. If you currently need some Marvel awesomeness in your life, then make sure to catch Spider-Man: Homecoming, which is now in theaters.
