Major spoilers ahead forAvengers: Infinity War.
A lot can be said aboutAvengers: Infinity War, and even more can be said about the bonkers ending. To recap, Thanos (Josh Brolin) basically wins the war when he collects all six Infinity Stones. Then, with a snap of his fingers, he accomplishes what he sets out to do—wipe out half the universe at random. This ends up killing beloved characters like Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), all of the Guardians of the Galaxy except Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Nebula (Karen Gillan), and more. There are still major superheroes on the board like Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and Captain America (Chris Evans), but half the universe is just gone, and Thanos is happily watching the sun rise, still in possession of the Infinity Gauntlet and all the Stones (although it looks like the gauntlet was damaged after he snapped his fingers).
The ending ofInfinity Warmakes the split in the audience feel profound. There are two kinds of people that go to see Marvel movies. There’s the casual viewer that will go see a Marvel film if they think it looks interesting and then there are the die-hard fans that will see every Marvel movie on opening weekend and keep up to date with what’s happening for future installments. These two audiences will not perceive the ending the same way. The first group, the casual viewers, will probably be left dumbstruck by what they just saw. “Black Panther just got his own movie! And now he’s dead? What the hell! That can’t be it!” And the die-hard audience will say, “Spider-Man literally has a movie coming out in July 2019. There’s no way he’s dead for good.”
So let’s break down the two options here, keeping in mind the whole time thatInfinity Waris clearly part 1 of 2, and that the story we’re watching is only half-complete.
All of These Characters Are Seriously Dead
For starters, let’s be clear that there are two kinds of dead inInfinity War. There are people who are killed directly and those that are killed by the Infinity Gauntlet finger snap (which we’ll call “dusting” for the sake of convenience). The characters killed before the dusting—Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Heimdall (Idris Elba), probably The Collector (Benicio del Toro) Gamora (Zoe Saldana), and Vision (Paul Bettany)—are probably dead for good no matter what happens with possibly the exception of Gamora due to her personal connection to Thanos.
If this is the case, it means that the universe is irrevocably changed and there’s nothing any of our heroes can do about it. Everyone will just live with survivor’s guilt forever andAvengers 4will be more in the vein ofLeft Behindat worst orThe Leftoversat best. The world itself will also be pretty much unmade and none of characters will be around to see it rebuilt. Additionally, since Thanos still has the Infinity Gauntlet and all the Stones, he’s pretty much unstoppable anyway, so what would be the point? I just depressed the hell out of myself by writing this paragraph.
This ending would be shocking if it were an ending instead of a cliffhanger or if Marvel was really willing to reckon with what it would mean to live in a world where 50% of all populations just vanished. But that’s not the kind of propulsive action-comedy that Marvel is known for making, and while it’s certainly a bummer conclusion, it’s not really a bummer and it’s not really a conclusion.
Most of These Characters Are Probably Coming Back
To Marvel’s credit, they’ve tried to be as quiet as possible on potential sequels. They haven’t announced released dates for anything pastSpider-Man: Homecoming 2, which is technically a Sony picture and is set for a June 24, 2025 release date. Then there’s common sense, which states that sinceBlack Panthermade over a billion dollars worldwide, Disney would probably be less-than-thrilled if Marvel didn’t make a sequel starring Chadwick Boseman as the King of Wakanda. They’d, along with viewers, would also probably be somewhat disappointed if half of Wakanda was now dust.
Which brings us back to having just watched half a story, and which ultimately makes the ending ofInfinity Warself-defeating. It’s a gut-punch to see all of these characters “die”, but it’s more like a thought experiment. “What if half of all Marvel superheroes up and died suddenly?” Well, we’d be really sad. But that’s not the end of the story, and it’s clear that saving these dead people is the mission ofAvengers 4.
Granted, we have a whole year to think abouthowthese characters will be saved and what kind of sacrifice will be required from the surviving heroes to make that possible. We also have to wonder what kind of movieAvengers 4will be. Will it be a dour movie since half the world is dead? Will it be a time-hopping or reality-hopping adventure where the characters attempt to find timelines or outcomes that allow them to defeat Thanos?
Thehowis almost irrelevant because the deaths we’re really waiting on haven’t arrived yet. It’s likely that Loki and Heimdall are dead for good, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Gamora and possibly Vision are somehow resurrected. And I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if the dusted characters are brought back to life one way or another.
And yet that lack of impact rendersInfinity Waroddly inert. It doesn’t have an ending, and the cliffhanger only exists to be undone. The question forAvengers 4isn’t, “How will they bring these characters back?” but “How can it hope to leave a lasting impact if the follow-up story is just a giant ‘undo’ button?”
As for the two movies we’re getting betweenInfinity WarandAvengers 4—Ant-Man and the WaspandCaptain Marvel—it appears they’re unaffected because they take place beforeInfinity War. InInfinity War, it’s mentioned that Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) accepted house arrest as punishment, and we can see him under house arrestin the first trailer. Since the trailer is fairly upbeat, it’s safe to assume thatAnt-Man and the Wasptakes place beforeInfinity War. As forCaptain Marvel, we know it takes place in the 1990s, so that film is definitely not in danger of being affected byInfinity War. However, in the post-credit scene ofInfinity War, we see Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) send out a beacon to Captain Marvel when he sees the dusting, so we know there has to be some kind of connection between the two films. We’ll have to wait until March 2019 to find out what that exact connection may be.
What did you think of theAvengers: Infinity Warending? How do you think the story will conclude inAvengers 4? Sound off in the comments!
