The climactic events of Avengers: Infinity War tee up the most dramatic cliffhanger for Avengers 4 that you could possibly imagine: Thanos has won and half of all life in the universe, including many of the superheroes, has essentially vanished.
The process is ostensibly random, but once you stop crying and inspect the heroes that are left, it suggests what the thematic core of the next Avengers film might be. Yes, with the exception of Rocket, War Machine and supporting players like Okoye and M’Baku, the surviving heroes are Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Banner and Black Widow. In other words, five of the original six Avengers.
After the “everyone’s invited!” party of Infinity War, then, it seems that Avengers 4 will be focusing mostly on the first generation of the MCU’s heroes – which is fitting, really. And, as we know that many of these actors’ contracts are up, just because they survived Thanos’ attack doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to survive through the next film.
That’s something which the Russos were quick to stress in a recent interview with Variety, too, saying that the stakes will only deepen in Avengers 4.
“I will say this: There is a real commitment on our end to the stakes,” Anthony remarked. “Yes, this is a fantasy world, and yes, remarkable things can happen in a fantasy world, but-”
“They come at an incredibly high cost,” said Joe, finishing his thought. “For us, there will always be stakes and the stakes have been progressing from film to film. And I think you can extrapolate that they will continue to deepen in ‘Avengers 4.’”
While we don’t doubt the Russos, we would like to point out that even after all the teases about one of the major guns biting the bullet in Infinity War, such as Captain America or Iron Man, none of them did. It could still happen in Avengers 4, true, but the fact that it didn’t happen already shows us the MCU’s reluctance to pull the trigger when it comes to big decisions.
Even the non-vaporized deaths of Loki, Vision, Gamora, and Heimdall feel they could be overturned at any moment – especially Loki’s since we never know if he’s really dead or faking it. While it’s possible that these will be the ones that do stick, you can never be sure with Marvel.
Still, Infinity War was by far their most bold film to date and though it didn’t knock off any of the A-listers, Avengers 4 just might be the one to take that step.
