The much anticipated trailer for the next installment of the Avengers dropped Friday morning, causing excitement and concern among fans.
Following the dramatic ending of Infinity War, fans have been sharing theories, some reasonable, some outlandish, in an attempt to restore some order to the now chaotic Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Now that the trailer has dropped, fans have a small clue about what they can expect from Avengers: Endgame. I’m going to posit my own theories on plot arcs in Endgame and beyond, using what we already know about confirmed sequels and some hints dropped by Marvel actors and producers.
Hints I’m working with:
Only 2 original Avengers will survive
Confirmed miniseries (Loki, Scarlet Witch)
Time travel/Quantum Realm/Soul World connections
Confirmed Marvel movies with already introduced characters:
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Spider-man: Far From Home
Captain Marvel
Black Panther 2
Doctor Strange 2
Keeping those things in mind, along with my own suspicions that Endgame death counts will be high, here are my Endgame predictions, on a character by character basis:
Hawkeye was missing from Infinity War, leading to a lot of speculation about the major role he’ll play in Endgame. In the interim, I believe he’s been acting as a vigilante, single-handedly working to clean up the crime and corruption that easily took root after the snap. This renewed interest in being Hawkeye likely stemmed from his family’s disappearance in the snap; although, based on the costume in the trailer, Clint has returned not as Hawkeye, but as Ronin. I predict that Clint, whether as Ronin or Hawkeye, does live through Endgame.
It looks like his reappearance will (fittingly) take place with Natasha, perhaps in a parallel to their very first meeting. This new, darker look will help Clint make the tough choices necessary to get the Avengers back on track. He’s going to be so mad at Steve and Natasha for letting the snap happen. After his family comes back from the snap, Clint once again retires from the Avengers life, instead using his experience to set up a new organization, similar to SHIELD, to prevent anything like the snap from happening again.
Black Widow is going to die. She was lucky to survive the snap, but one of my theories is that the Avengers who survived the snap will be the ones to die in Endgame. Black Widow isn’t the type to retire, because being a spy is all she knows and she, like Bucky, is still trying to make up for her past sins. With a confirmed Black Widow movie, it’s possible she lives, but given that the movie is likely a prequel, Black Widow and Natasha Romanoff may out of the picture moving forward. But she’ll have a heavy presence in Endgame; as seen in the trailer, she clearly plays an important role in orchestrating whatever plan is going to pull the Avengers out of this mess. In fact, she kind of looks like she’s the only one with her head screwed on straight.
Infinity War showed us a hint of what Scarlet Witch is truly capable of – holding off Thanos (who had 5 stones) while destroying the Mind Stone took serious power, and Wanda’s arc in the MCU will explore those abilities. I predict Endgame will pair her with Captain Marvel for the final showdown with Thanos. Her miniseries could go in a multitude of directions.
Vision could come back, but his resurrection is doubtful, given that he died before the snap and that the absence of the Mind Stone would inhibit his creation. An adventures of Vision and Scarlet Witch show could be interesting, but a prequel of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, focusing on how they used their powers before their introduction in Age of Ultron, could also be interesting – and give some much deserved screen time to the beloved Pietro.
From the trailer, we can assume that Scott Lang makes it out of the quantum realm somehow; whether he had help from Luis or made it out on his own, the presence of the van (and the portal within) is critical. From everything we’ve heard, Scott is a key element to defeating Thanos – perhaps something he saw in the Quantum Realm or the portal from Ant-Man and the Wasp will help the team tie together the relationship between the stones, the Soul World, and the different realms, enabling the dusted characters, including Hope, to come back. I personally cannot wait to see Hope interact with the other Avengers. In any case, it looks like Scott will be bringing a dose of levity to an otherwise very grim situation for the Avengers. He really is the best grandma.
Bruce, my sweet summer child, you deserve better. I hope you live a long and happy life. If only 2 original Avengers are surviving, Bruce has a good chance at being one of them – but I predict that with the power of the stones, his ability to transform into the Hulk could be taken from him – given this choice, Bruce could either a) choose not to accept and remain the Hulk because he knows he can help the world, or b) accept and lose the power of the Hulk, making him normal.
I believe in option B because we know Bruce hates himself as the Hulk and feels a lot of guilt over the destruction Hulk causes. Also, because the Hulk is technically the Avenger, not Bruce, the Hulk being “dead”, creates a neat little loophole where Bruce and two additional original Avengers could survive. A Hulkless Bruce has endless potential; if Marvel is still pursuing the Natasha/Bruce romance, he’s free to live happily ever after. But, if Natasha does die, as I predict, Bruce could stick around and do sciencey things for the Avengers. He could go back to being an anonymous do-gooder, like in his character introduction in the first Avengers.
Maybe he helps Thor integrate the Asgardians to Earth, or maybe he goes on a few space adventures with Loki. Maybe he teams up with Dr. Pym, Shuri, Dr. Foster and Dr. Selvig to map out the true relationship between the Infinity Stones and the other realms. Whatever, I just want him to be happy.
Strange got dusted, but with a confirmed sequel, he’s definitely coming back and as the former master of the time stone, he will play a big role in defeating Thanos. Afterwards, Strange will have to make tough decisions about whether or not they should destroy the Infinity Stones. Whether he loses the ability to control time or not, he’s still a wickedly powerful sorcerer with a future in the MCU. In his next movie, he’ll likely square off against Mordo. With Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and likely many others not returning to the big screen, Strange will be a key adult hero in any future Avengers films.
The Guardians spent Infinity War split up and in various states of poor decision making. They also suffered the highest death rate, with only 2 (Rocket and Nebula) surviving to the end. In Endgame, all the Guardians will be reunited on Earth and finally come face to face with all the Avengers. Nebula is likely on the ship with Tony and may play a key role in getting him back to Earth.
Most of the Guardians will be brought back from the dust, but special accommodations would have to be made to resurrect Gamora, since she died separately. I think it would be a poignant arc for Gamora to actually remain dead, seeing as how her death was Thanos’ only sacrifice, but since she’s such a major character, she’ll likely be brought back. At which point, Gamora and Nebula get to kill Thanos – it’s what they deserve. Besides that, I only really care about Groot & Rocket, but with a confirmed Vol. 3, I predict most, if not all, of the Guardians will be returning.
If any of them were to die in Endgame, I predict it to be Rocket or Nebula. Maybe Mantis, but I’d like to see her live so the true extent of her powers could be explored. I don’t see the Guardians remaining on Earth past Endgame; I predict Captain Marvel will bring to their attention an issue somewhere out in space, and the Guardians arc will pick up as they conquer that mission.
Captain Marvel is such an unknown variable that at this point, it’s almost impossible to predict her role in Endgame. Once her solo introductory movie comes out on March 8, we’ll have a better idea about her involvement. That movie will presumably somehow set her up for a time jump to the future, following up Fury’s post credit call for distress. I see her being the one to rescue Stark from his ship, seeing as she’s about the only person left with the power to travel through space. Unless Stark’s ship actually drifts to Sakaar, where he is saved by Jeff Goldblum and then Goldblum uses his powers as an Elder to send Stark to Earth.
Chances are, Captain Marvel will be the one to tip the fight against Thanos in the favor of the Avengers, which is fitting because she is the future of the MCU. But, that would be hard to watch because it would insinuate that the heroes we’ve watched develop over the last 10 years just weren’t enough, and I think they deserve better than that.
Moving forward, Captain Marvel is going to be around for a while, and I have high hopes that she’ll play a mentor role in any Kamala Khan movies.
With T’Challa gone to dust and her army decimated, Okoye is overcome by grief and gives up on ever reversing the snap (much to Shuri’s frustration). Okoye instead focuses on meeting the practical needs of the remaining Wakandans. Assuming Shuri survived, which is debatable, she would have become acting ruler of Wakanda.
Now, Shuri could be a great queen, but I predict that in her attempt to reverse the effects of the snap, she’ll go rogue and join Steve, Natasha and crew, using her smarts to drastically improve their chances of success. When the snap is reversed and T’Challa returns, he will become king again, but the council will deem her actions as interim ruler as unsafe and kick her out of Wakanda. Shuri’s exile could be an interesting plot point in the Black Panther sequel, which I predict as happening like this: Wakanda, having opened its borders to the world, struggles to find its role in international diplomacy, resulting in an international crisis that T’Challa and crew must travel the world to fix, running into an outcast Shuri who helps them, redeeming herself to the council and earning her reentry into Wakanda.
My other hopes for Black Panter 2 are for M’Baku and Okoye to tag team roast T’Challa and for T’Challa and Nakia to get married – a royal Wakandan wedding would be on another level. Realistically, Wakanda will play an important role in Endgame, given that it was the site of the snap, and any time travel/Infinity Stone manipulation would move the plot back to that point. I would like for the Black Panther cast all to survive Endgame because they have such great chemistry, but if any were to die, I predict it to be Okoye – once T’Challa returns, she’s determined not to let him die again, and this determination coupled with her role as general leads to her death.
Based on contracts and statements from Chris Evans, it’s safe to assume that Captain America is out of the picture. But – he might not be dead, dead. Assuming the Infinity Stones will at some point be reclaimed by the Avengers, Steve could use the Time Stone to go back to the 1940s. He could then become Captain America again and handle the Tesseract situation in a better way, preventing the future Tesseract debacles we see in Avengers films and letting him live the life he should have had with Peggy Carter.
Admittedly, the idea of time travel means the MCU timeline could get way screwy, so if this is the route Steve takes, it would have to be carefully constructed so that the MCU could remain narratively cohesive. Steve will invite Bucky to come back with him, but Bucky feels that doing so would be a disservice to all of the people he killed as the Winter Soldier, and instead takes over as a present day Captain America in hopes that doing so will allow him to balance out the evil he’s done and honor his victims.
Sam Wilson also got dusted and almost no one cared. But they should have cared, because Sam Wilson is an icon, and when he comes back from the dust, he’s going to get the recognition he deserves. Out of loyalty to Steve, a renewed sense of purpose, and the duty he feels to his own fallen war buddies, Sam will join Bucky, leading to the Falcon/Winter Soldier buddy cop team of our dreams.
Poor Thor went through quite a lot in Infinity War and we can only hope that Endgame will restore some of his happiness. Valkyrie’s Infinity War fate is unknown, but hopefully she’ll be around to help Thor cope with his grief. Presumably, Thor is chilling out with Bruce, Steve, and Natasha, coming up with a plan to reverse the snap. Once victory is achieved, Thor will go against all advice and somehow use the stones to resurrect Loki; but, Loki won’t feel comfortable staying on Earth with Thor and the remaining Asgardians, so he volunteers to search the universe for an uninhabited planet where they can resettle.
So, Loki heads off on his quest, which will be the plot of the upcoming Loki miniseries, and uses the alone time to work through his emotional issues so that when Thor and Loki are reunited, they can finally have a real, healthy relationship as brothers and rule the new Asgard together. In the meantime, Thor will stay on Earth babysitting the Asgardians. I hope Endgame isn’t the last we’ll see of Thor, because the comedic bent Hemsworth and Taika Waititi brought to Thor: Ragnarok showed a lot of potential for future Thor movies. Even though Hemsworth’s contract is supposedly up, I personally hope Thor comes back and stays on Earth protecting kids against bullies and fighting petty crime.
Tony Stark is going to die. I know it, you know it…we all know it. My greatest wish is that Tony Stark gets to live, retires from being Ironman, drops out of public life and lives in isolation with Pepper while they build a family, and then magically resurfaces in 5 years with Pepper as the CEO of a start-up bioengineering company and Tony as the ultimate trophy husband. That’s my dream, I just don’t think it’s going to happen.
Unless Marvel is using reverse psychology to make us think he’s going to die, only to allow him to live, or to trick us into hoping that’s the case and then really killing him, which would be so, so cruel. But, assuming Tony dies, this is how I think it will happen: he will be rescued from his drifting ship, so that he can play a role in the whole movie, and then will be reunited with Steve, Natasha and friends on Earth so he can join in on their mysterious plan to save the world. Assuming that plan involves bringing all the dusted people back from the Soul World, he will reunite with Peter and Strange.
At some point, Strange will show Tony the future he and Pepper can have if Tony makes it through the final battle alive. As this battle is drawing to a close, Tony will leap in front of Peter to save him from some oncoming danger, sacrificing himself ( a Tony Stark patented move) to save Peter’s life. Obviously, Tony willingly sacrifices himself to save Peter because of the enormous guilt he feels at Peter’s first death, despite the knowledge that he’s giving up the life and family he always dreamed of with Pepper. Tony will then fall to the ground, while Peter cries and says “No, Dad, please don’t go,” and then Tony will smile and say the word “Dad…” with his last breath, both acknowledging the child he would have had with Pepper and cementing the father/son dynamic he and Peter have.
As if that’s not tragic enough, I really believe that Pepper actually is pregnant and will have their child after Tony’s death. Rumor has it that Pepper will also suit up in Endgame, and what with the general dearth of heroes, her desperation to save Tony, and her track record with previous villains, I can totally see Pepper kicking alien butt. Peter, having survived Endgame, will feel guilty about Tony dying, and that guilt coupled with the trauma of his own dusting will cause him to give up being Spider-Man while he copes with the mental side effects of those issues, mirroring Tony’s character arc with mental illness.
Those issues will segway into Spider-Man: Far from Home, set to premiere on July 5th. Peter, having given up being Spider-man, finds himself on a school trip in Europe, where circumstances involving Jake Gyllenhaal’s recently confirmed Mysterio force him to take up the Spider-Man mantle once again.
Colonel James Rhodes is an underrated legend – he’s funny, kind-hearted, and he kills it with the ladies, so I want y’all to put some respect on his name. In Endgame, he’ll be pulled in by Steve, Natasha and friends to procure some military intel or resources, and then post-Endgame he’s going to become the liaison between the Avengers and the government agencies.
This is perfect for Rhodes because it ties in his military background and desire to help the world, while keeping him (fingers crossed) safe from further harm. Plus, he’s the only Avenger the government agencies trust, and a more stable position for him will allow him to stick around and be a good uncle to Tony Jr. And, watching Don Cheadle team mom the remaining Avengers is the smackdown I didn’t know I needed, but now desperately want.
And finally, Thanos. Having achieved his goal in Infinity War, it seems he really has decided to retire and become a farmer. If Thanos is satisfied with his achievements and is content to live out his like on his unknown planet, the key question then becomes: what will it take to draw him away from his farm and back into action?
Given the limited resources of the Avengers, it’s unlikely that they bring the fight to him – at least, not as an opening move. Nebula’s continued existence could frustrate Thanos enough to bring him out of hiding, but it’s more likely that he’ll somehow catch wind of the Avengers’ efforts to reverse the snap. To keep the Avengers from succeeding, he’ll suit up again, but he’ll have to round up an army and repair his gauntlet to get back to full strength.
A weakened Thanos will make it easier for the Avengers to obtain the stones, but wielding them is another matter entirely – even if Thanos dies at the hands of Nebula and Gamora, there’s still a whole slew of things for the Avengers to fix, and using the stones to do that will likely take up the majority of the movie.
I’m no comic book expert, so my predictions are based only on my own observations, theories and wishes. My best guess is as good as yours and we’ll all have to wait till April to see what truly happens to the Avengers.