Avengers: Infinity War had the biggest cast of any Marvel movie to date, uniting all of the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy together with the various other new heroes in the MCU. If you think about it, though, despite the insane number of characters on show in the event pic, only 4 of them are officially Avengers.
Reddit user TheChlorideThief first pointed this out, telling us that due to the rift in the team that occurred in Captain America: Civil War, the only characters you could call legitimate Avengers in Infinity War are Iron Man, War Machine, Vision and Spider-Man. And Spidey only becomes an Avenger on fly over the course of the film.
So, why do the rest of the heroes not count? Well, Captain America himself and his Secret Avengers – that’s Black Widow, Falcon and Scarlet Witch – are on the run from authorities at the start of the movie. Meanwhile, Thor and Hulk have been absent from Earth for so long that they kind of aren’t official members any longer. Then there’s the newbies like Black Panther and Doctor Strange, who have their own gigs. And, of course, Ant-Man and Hawkeye don’t even appear in the pic.
As one fan commented in reply to the original Reddit post, the number of official Avengers decreased to 2 by the end of Infinity War, as Vision and Spider-Man were killed by Thanos. Ironically enough, that means the Mad Titan succeeded in halving the number of Avengers, leaving them perfectly balanced (as all things should be).
Of course, we heavily suspect that many of the fallen heroes that the villain turned to dust will be resurrected by some means in April’s Avengers: Endgame. However, the movie could take its own toll on the team and kill off some other heroes in exchange. How many Avengers will still be standing by the end of the film? We wait with bated breath to find out.
