Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has gone on record calling Captain Marvel the most powerful character in the MCU, and sure enough, the third act of her solo debut makes it clear that Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are about to get a formidable new ally in next month’s Avengers: Endgame.
Nonetheless, even the saga’s toughest heroes have their limitations, and in an interview with /Film, Feige argued that the climax of Captain Marvel simply wasn’t the right time to emphasize Carol Danvers’ faults.
“Well, the point of this movie was to see her exactly as you said, unleashed, unchained. What happens when she taps into her full potential not being held back? So it was not the time to hold back. It was not the time to emphasize limitations or loss. We’d seen that over the course of the rest of the movie. We wanted to see her cut loose.”
But while a seemingly boundless display of power may have been appropriate for the third act of Captain Marvel, Feige also hinted that future projects will explore her weaknesses and imperfections, while offering a reminder that no Marvel character is unkillable.
“In future stories, well, none of the Marvel characters are immortal. Even ones that seem immortal, some people might be very hard to kill, but nobody’s unkillable. So if we’re lucky enough to see future adventures with Captain Marvel, of course there will be limitations and there will be Achilles heels and there will be things that we learn and see that it’s not as easy as a slicing through whatever she wants to at any point. But this wasn’t the time to accentuate that.”
While it’s practically unthinkable that Marvel would kill off Carol Danvers after just one solo movie, her various superhero peers aren’t necessarily looking so safe. With Endgame thought to be the final MCU outing for multiple Phase 1 Avengers, the fans have spent much of this past year speculating on whose deaths might be imminent.
Iron Man and Captain America in particular remain popular picks for characters whose final hours may be nigh, though we surely can’t dismiss the possibility of a heroic death for Hulk or Thor. And seeing how the Black Widow solo movie is generally thought to be a prequel, perhaps we shouldn’t rule out a tragic end for Natasha Romanoff, either.
In short, fans have plenty of cause to be worried for the saga’s longest-running stars, but we’ll find out who lives to see the end credits of Avengers: Endgame when the film hits theaters on April 26th.