Since you’re here, I’m going to take it for granted that you’ve seen Avengers: Infinity War and not worry about giving out spoilers. If you still haven’t seen it, this is your last warning. Major spoilers ahead.
What’s the first thing you felt when the movie finished? Confusion, right? What just happened, man? Finally, Marvel gave us something to do while waiting for the post-credit scene. A thousand questions and no answers. Well, we’re going to try and fix that.
First, the deaths. Heimdall, Loki, Gamora and Vision are the ones who died before Thanos had all 6 Infinity Stones. After snapping his fingers, the ones who disintegrated on-screen are The Winter Soldier, Black Panther, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Star-Lord, Drax, Groot, Mantis, Dr. Strange, Spider-Man, and if you stuck around for the post-credits scene (Who didn’t!?!) Maria Hill and Nick Fury.
Why have I listed the deaths separately? Well, because it’s most likely Marvel is going to treat them separately. This is speculation, though.
So, what happened? Well, the moment Thanos got all six Infinity Stones Thor attacked him with the Stormbreaker and then stabbed him in the chest. That’s when Thanos said, “you should have gone for the head.” A few seconds later, he snapped his fingers and teleported away.
That’s when people started disintegrating left, right and center. Exactly half the universe to be precise. That’s what his master plan was all along. To kill off half the universe so that the other half would prosper. Kind of anticlimactic isn’t it? There’s no war, no resistance, no anticipation, no nothing. Just snap and gone.
One of the biggest problems some people are having with this ending is that there’s no ex-machina moment. There’s no superhero saves the day moment. There’s no happy ending. Yeah, it may not be happy, but it’s apt.
Now, that you know what just happened, let’s address another big problem that Marvel just created for itself. How does Marvel fix all this in Avengers 4? They only have two options from the looks of it. First, they will go the way of the comics and everyone comes back to life. The problem here is that if they do that then ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ becomes one giant waste of time. It will be like everything that happened in this movie is inconsequential. What’s the point of the movie then except being a giant cash grab? This is why there is a need for an option two.
Let’s look at some real world problems now. Hollywood is not like the minds of a comic book writer. They still have the freedom to do whatever they want with the characters, but the actors playing them? Not that simple. Chris Evans looks like he’s happy leaving Captain America behind and there’s no news on whether Robert Downey Jr. or Chris Hemsworth have new contracts. On the flip side, we already know that there’s news of a Spider-Man 2, Guardians Of The Galaxy 3, Black Panther 2 and Dr. Strange 2 floating around irrespective of how much Marvel tries to keep things under wraps till Avengers 4. So, while they can ask us to expect the unexpected, there are a few things we kind of already know.
As for option 2, it will need to be something we’ve never seen before. We know that Captain Marvel is going to get thrown into the mix. Even Adam Warlock might have a role to play. The characters getting solo movies after Avengers 4 will have to be brought back and as for the rest, they could either be replaced or given a hero’s send-off. It will be painful to see an MCU without Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. either way.
Will Avengers 4 prove that Infinity War was nothing but filler before we get the main movie or will it tie every loose end up neatly? We’ll just have to wait and see.