Who lives, who dies?
That’s the million-dollar question currently lingering over Avengers: Infinity War, Joe and Anthony Russo’s crossover that’s not so much a movie as it is a cinematic event. It’s also the first chapter in a two-part story, given the so-far untitled Avengers 4 is poised to put a bow on the whole Thanos saga – along with the current iteration of the MCU, if Kevin Feige is to be believed – come 2019.
And when it does, the studio’s character roster will be dramatically different to the one that’s helped define the Marvel Cinematic Universe hitherto. Killing off prominent heroes is no bad thing, of course, as it helps raise the stakes for what is undoubtedly the biggest MCU movie yet, but to date, we’ve still got no confirmation on who may meet their end and understandably, fans are starting to get a bit worried that some of their favorites may not be around much longer.
Of course, there are some characters who are more likely to die than others and speaking on a recent episode of his podcast, Kevin Smith laid down some interesting predictions.
“If Hawkeye goes down, I doubt they’re going to rush to refill that position, but he’s the obvious one, I mean f**k we all thought he was going to die in Age of Ultron,” he said. “It looked like they were leading up to that and they’re like ‘nah, we like being around Jeremy Renner’. So, I think if you’re playing money ball and I think you have to because now Disney owns Marvel but at the end of the day the most expensive person in their world is Robert Downey, Jr.”
Continuing on, he said:
“You’re talking about a guy who makes all the money. They’re like what do you want to be in it and he’s like all of it and they’re like okay. So, I think financially speaking if you were like you know these movies are only going to go on and get bigger you know that’s a cord you can cut. It’s also a very emotional cord to cut because the entire universe hangs on Tony Stark/Iron Man.
The whole Marvel Universe in the real-world hangs on the spine of Robert Downey, Jr. That performance in Iron Man launched the entire series of movies that were credible and plausible and connected to him always kind of coming back to his character. Who better to throw under the f**ing Thanos bus than that and if you look at that first trailer they put up it’s a lot of Tony out of the outfit looking scared so for my money I think they’re going to wind up killing Tony Stark.”
Smith makes a lot of good points here. After all, Downey Jr. is apparently earning $200 million for both Infinity War and its sequel. Yes, you read that right – $200 million. Cutting him out of the franchise would certainly save the studio a fortune going forward, but having Stark die would serve another purpose as well.
Like Smith says, to have Iron Man meet his maker would pack the biggest emotional punch and certainly hit audiences the hardest. It’d show that Marvel isn’t afraid to make bold moves and that there are real stakes in the MCU. Granted, many fans assume the studio doesn’t have the guts to do such a thing, and they’re probably right, but again, Smith makes an interesting case and at this point, we can’t rule it out.
Said to be an event movie that is unlike any other, we’ll be able to find out what all the fuss is about once Avengers: Infinity War descends upon theaters on May 4th. The fourth, so-far untitled Avengers movie will then release in May of 2019, by which point viewers will be acquainted with Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers and her ’90s-set origin story. March 8th, 2019 is the date for your diaries.
Published: Jan 21, 2018 05:42 pm