The opening scene of Avengers: Infinity War starts the event movie as it means to go on with a devastating sequence in which all of Thor’s Asgardian subjects appear to have been murdered by the Mad Titan and his Black Order. It’s only later on in the film that we find out the God of Thunder isn’t the last of his kind, after all. Once Thor meets the Guardians of the Galaxy, he tells them that Thanos slaughtered “half his people.” I mean, that’s bad and all, sure, but at least there are more Asgardians out there somewhere.
How did half of the evacuated population make it out alive, though? Well, we know that Joe Russo’s already revealed that these Asgardians, including Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie, got away via “escape ships” that were deployed from the Statesman – the Asgardian refugee ship. But is there actually more to it than that?
For one, it can’t just be a coincidence that half of Thor’s people survived, right? As we know, Thanos doesn’t believe in mindlessly destroying whole civilizations but rather, only wiping half out in order to provide “balance.” Obviously, Asgard has already been lost, and he was in a hurry to get the Space Stone at the time, so he might not have cared at this point. But from what we saw of the villain in Infinity War, this is one of his core beliefs. So perhaps he allowed half of the Asgardian population to live?
On the other hand, there might be more to the method in which the Asgardians got away. At about two minutes into Infinity War, you can see the Grandmaster’s ship that the Revengers stole from Sakaar in Thor: Ragnarok (you know, the, uh, orgy one). Russo did say “escape ships” rather than “escape pods,” too, so it’s possible they got away in the borrowed vessel. This also might be why Valkyrie left, as she knew how to fly it.
Speaking of Valkyrie, evidence points to Tessa Thompson reprising her role in Avengers 4. Given that, we wouldn’t rule out the fate of the Asgardians being left deliberately vague in Infinity War, as it’ll probably be addressed in the next installment.
