As we all know, someone is going to die in Avengers: Infinity War. How many people that may be or who – is unknown at this point.
There has been speculation upon speculation, but nothing concrete.
Director of the film, Joe Russo, had the following to say about that topic, while speaking to MTV:
“My brother [Anthony Russo] and I believe in stakes. I believe that everything has to have an end at some point in order for it to have value. The audience should be prepared.”
Kevin Feige added:
“It’ll be emotional for a lot of different reasons. As all our films try to do, we want to have the laughs, we want to have the heart, we want to have the humor, and Infinity War has all of that.”
This isn’t the first time character deaths have been teased – and certainly won’t be the last.
Kevin Feige even hinted at it back in June:
“We have another two years of hard work to even finish these movies, and they [the actors] have a lot of hard work to do, so that’s all we’re thinking about, is completing those and delivering on the promise of those. Where it goes beyond that, we’ll see.”
With Mark Ruffalo teasing major deaths, it’s safe to assume that this will be one sad movie – but also be one epic movie, especially after seeing the leaked footage yesterday.
In case you didn’t get to see the leaked footage, here’s a description:
We’ll learn more about Thor and the Hulk in Thor: Ragnarok, but the Infinity War trailer opened with the Asgardian being flung against the windshield of the Milano, the ship commanded by Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) from Guardians of the Galaxy. “Get it off!” shouts Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), as though a particularly ugly bug had been smushed there.
Mantis (Pom Klementieff) brings Thor back to life, and he promptly greets out Guardians with an unfriendly, “Who the hell are you?” (To be fair, Star-Lord had just told his fellow Guardians, “This might be dangerous, so let’s put on our mean faces.”) It then seems like Thor joins forces with the Guardians to guide them to Earth, where we see the following things go down, in quick succession:
Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) seems to cut a flaming car in half. It looks like her beau Vision (Paul Bethany) might be trapped nearby, and to judge from their faces, something sad and bad is going down.
“Death follows him like a shadow,” we hear, as Josh Brolin’s ultimate villain Thanos is teased.
Suddenly, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki appears, cutting through flaming wreckage to grab the Tesseract, which holds one of the Infinity Stones. Is this what Scarlet Witch and Vision were trying to prevent?
Next, there’s a glimpse of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker on his school bus. The hair on his arms stands up. How’s that for some trouble-activated spider-sense?
“He’s come to us,” someone says, as some alien ships crash land on a wrecked Earth. A worried Mantis stands with Iron Man, Thor, Doctor Strange, the Hulk, and the other heroes as the aircrafts approach.
“This does put a smile on my face,” intones Thanos, as Gamora (Zoe Saldana) takes in the wreckage of the room kept by the Collector (Benicio del Toro). More Infinity Stones pillaged.
And that’s when Thanos walks through a portal onto Earth — big and hulking and boasting a shit-eating grin. Star-Lord and Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) leap into action, harnessing magic and airborne stepping stones. Even Spider-Man swings into action, wearing a cool new suit … perhaps the one teased at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming?
Briefly, we see Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), who’s blond now, and Captain America, who’s bearded. Listen, I know the fate of the universe is at stake, but don’t we all feel a little refreshed after spending valuable time on an undercover makeover? Talk to Wonder Woman about that, she knows what’s up.
In the final moments, things get truly heightened. Thanos grabs Thor’s head in his meaty paw and regards it like a grape he’s about to smush. Maybe he saw that scary black-and-white episode of Twin Peaks and wants to practice storming radio stations and breaking open heads?
“You can run from it,” growls Thanos, “but your destiny still arrives.” And then he holds up one hand and seemingly destroys a planet far away in the sky — or, if this scene is taking place on Earth, our freaking moon — and heaves the remains of it at our Avengers in a single shot.
Captain America’s new look was also revealed via some screen grabs of the leaked footage.
Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters May of next year.