Deaths will surely come to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Avengers: Infinity War, film co-director Joe Russo has shared. The epic blockbuster, which arrives in theaters next year, has been labeled as the culmination of everything that has transpired in the massive movie franchise and will mark the full introduction of the Mad Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin), with the help of cohorts, the Black Order, who will stop a nothing to fulfill his goal of universal domination.
For almost 10 years, the MCU has produced countless films introducing several characters that fans quickly grew to love. And while there have been deaths (sometimes real, sometimes fake-outs) in the franchise, the principal cast of characters have been intact - at least, until now. Joe, who helms the both Avengers 3 and untitled Avengers 4, with his brother, Anthony, says that they are not pulling back in terms of the grittiness and the darkness ahead and teases of some very "intense surprises."
Talking to MTV over the weekend at San Diego Comic-Con, Joe has explained that to be able to do the narrative of Infinity War justice, they should up the ante and give everyone intense motivation to defeat Thanos.
"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."
On the other hand, Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige has mirrored Joe's comments, especially with death following Thanos like a shadow, but he also made sure sure he emphasized that the films won't just be a downer, and fans can still expect the levity that Marvel films are iconic for.
"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."
Feige has previously said that some of the principal cast members of the MCU like Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) will meet their respective ends in Infinity War and presumably its sequel. If anything, the D23 and Hall H exclusive trailer for the film puts Iron Man and Thor at the forefront of the battle against Thanos which also raises the chances of them getting killed by the Infinity Gauntlet wielding villain.
It will definitely be difficult to imagine the MCU without Downey Jr., Hemsworth, and Evans - after all, they were the ones who first started this massive franchise even before the Avengers became a thing. Fans have grown so attached to these characters, as well as, the actors who played them over the years, that will be hard to say goodbye. But in order to move forward and bring the franchise to new heights, tough changes should be made. As Joe Russo said, it's hard to give emotional value to a character that can exist in perpetuity. Nevertheless, as the main source of stories for these movies is the Marvel comic books that inspired them, and characters (especially the high-profile ones) really go away or die (permanently) in them, we could also be seeing these characters pop up in or another for years to come.
Source: MTV
