Warning: SPOILERS to follow for Avengers: Infinity War!
The end of Avengers: Infinity War left the Marvel Cinematic Universe in shambles. We witnessed some heroes killed at the hands of Thanos and many others turn to dust before our eyes. But the MCU is vast, and there are plenty of other characters that were left off-screen after the snap. While the Russo Brothers have shed light on some characters, the fates of others have been left ambiguous. One cosmic character that probably survived, at least according to the actor behind him, is Thor: Ragnarok's Grandmaster. Like a rapper spitting about how great he is, Jeff Goldblum spoke about the Grandmaster, saying:
Grandmaster is more superheroed than all of them put together. You can't kill me, I'm like a vampire. I'm deathless and I can kill people by looking at them. Or I can resurrect them just by looking at them and thinking of them. I can do everything. Being able to do all of that, all I want to do is play games. So really I'm everywhere and nowhere. I'm like Keyser Söze.
Grandmaster always survives because like life, he finds a way. Seriously, Jeff Goldblum is hilarious here comparing the Grandmaster to a vampire and Keyser Söze, and praising him as a powerful immortal puppet master playing games with all of his lessers. Jeff Goldblum does seem to be embellishing the Grandmaster's powers just a smidge here, while also reminding us how perfect he and the character are for one another. I'm not sure how the Grandmaster could have avoided the universe-encompassing snap, but maybe he likes to play the odds and wound up on the right side of that coin flip.
Of course, this statement to Digital Spy is hardly a confirmation of the Grandmaster's continued existence from the powers that be at Marvel Studios, but in his hilarious way, Jeff Goldblum touches on how the Grandmaster is the kind of character that survives by the skin of his teeth every time, eluding death even when half the universe is wiped out. When last we saw the Grandmaster, he was on Sakaar and had fallen quite far from his lofty position, and he was in quite the precarious situation. But the old rule goes if you don't see a character get killed, they're not really dead. When asked directly if the Grandmaster is still currently alive in the MCU, Jeff Goldblum played it coy while also seeming very willing to return to the character, saying:
I could be, potentially, very much around. Anything they want me to do I'd be ready and able.
So it sounds like it could go either way and Grandmaster's fate probably either been decided yet or at least not told to Jeff Goldblum. If Marvel continues to lean into the cosmic elements in Phase 4 and beyond, it would be great to have the Grandmaster show up again. Jeff Goldblum sounds up for it, and cosmic characters like him and the Collector (who also may have managed to survive) that pop up in multiple movies opposite different heroes really add a fun element while also providing some more connective tissue to the universe.
Keep an eye on our guide for all of Marvel's upcoming movies to see where Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster could potentially pop up. You can next see Jeff Goldblum as another great eluder of death, Ian Malcolm, in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, in theaters on June 22.
