Yes, people do die in Infinity War. Don’t act surprised. It’s war, after all, and superheroes, no matter how super or how heroic they might be, aren’t immortal. We’ve already talked about the Infinity War deaths soon after the film premiered, but now we finally know how those deaths were decided. If you still haven’t seen the movie, avoid this at all costs, as significant spoilers are about to follow.
When Thanos obtained the final stone at the end of the movie, he was able to snap his fingers and instantly kill half the population of the known universe, not just Earth. The audience was quick to learn that nobody is safe in the Marvel universe, and plenty of heroes would die. After all, we’ve got so many characters fighting on the Avengers side, that it’s a mathematical certainty that some of them will die.
But their deaths were not random (at least, not in the process of writing the movie), the Russo brothers told Comic Book in an interview, while stressing that the characters are really dead.
“Joe and I can’t go into too much detail because we’re not gonna talk about where the story goes from here,” Anthony Russo said. “All of our choices are based on story. It’s based upon the road that these characters have traveled, in not only this movie, but throughout the entire MCU up to this point because, again, these movies are the culmination. So all we can say is that they are very focused story choices. That’s our motivation for everything. And, again, that’s why we love Marvel so much is they never let the tail wag the dog. The creative choices always lead the process and then they figure out how to pull off the miracle of making it work on a business level.”
My personal expectation is that plenty of these heroes will be resurrected in Avengers 4, mostly because many of them will have to appear in other movies of their own which have already been announced.
The Infinity War writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely also insisted in a previous interview that the deaths are real and you’d better get used to the idea. The writers said they did not take into account Disney’s other plans for the Marvel universe.
Joe Russo, meanwhile, told Comic Book that characters like Star-Lord will not come back to life to redeem his actions from the first episode — punching Thanos in the face just as they were about to steal the Infinity Gauntlet from him — “because he’s dead.” Joe also revealed that it was rather heart-breaking to share the deaths with the cast.
“A lot of tears,” he said. “They’re never easy conversations to have with people. But I think that people are understanding that the story comes first and a lot of these people have really amazing careers and lots of films that they want to make so, ultimately, I think they go through a grieving process like anyone but you come out the other side at some point and understand what being part of the Marvel Universe did for you. And, like with us, when we move on from Marvel, it’s done amazing things for us and allows us a lot of other opportunities in our careers.”
Finally, the brothers admitted that Avengers: Forever is the closest people have come to guessing the title for Avengers 4, but they’re still not ready to share the actual title of the movie with the fans.
