It's time for Marvel to admit the truth: there's no way the deaths in Avengers: Infinity War will be permanent. The movie's cliffhanger ending saw Thanos emerge triumphant, achieving his insane goal of erasing half the life in the universe. The deaths included some of Marvel's most notable heroes: Doctor Strange, Black Panther, most of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and even Tom Holland's Spider-Man. The wall-crawler's farewell was heartbreaking, an improv scene in which he begged his mentor Tony Stark that he didn't want to go.

And those weren't the only deaths, of course. Infinity War started with Thanos, the Mad Titan, slaughtering the survivors of Asgard. Notable deaths there included both Heimdall and Loki (although Valkyrie was apparently spared off-camera), and later he sacrificed favorite daughter Gamora in order to acquire the Soul Stone.

But here's the catch; Marvel Studios is well known for its "fake deaths." Given that's the case, nobody is expecting these to last - especially with sequels on the cards. So why is everyone involved acting like it's permanent? The Russo brothers recently suggested that characters having an upcoming solo movie doesn't mean a return by nature of a non-linear narrative, but do they realize nobody believes them?

All the Dead Avengers Who Are Returning

The fundamental problem for Marvel is that Avengers: Infinity War kills off characters we know are returning. Take Spider-Man. The Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel will release just two months after Avengers 4, meaning he's really got to return next year. What's more, while doing interviews in 2017, both Marvel's Kevin Feige and Sony's Amy Pascal stressed that the film would follow on from Avengers 4; in fact, Pascal said it would "start a few minutes after Avengers 4 wraps as a story." Feige stressed that the sequel would relate to Avengers 4 "in the way that the events of Civil War directly inform the opening of Homecoming and [Spider-Man's] state of mind as he goes back to high school." According to Feige, Spider-Man's sequel was deliberately chosen to "hold your hand and lead you into the next incarnation of the MCU" after Avengers 4.

Clearly, Spider-Man's emotional death scene isn't going to stick; hardly surprising given the expectation for the entire "snap" will either be undone or else averted through use of time-travel. And that makes sense, when you consider that Marvel has clear plans for both a Black Panther and a Doctor Strange sequel too. It's true that even Marvel didn't expect Black Panther to be quite the success story it turned out to be, but no studio simply kills off a massive franchise just when it's launched. Meanwhile, Avengers: Infinity War gave Doctor Strange a major role, perfect setup for a sequel featuring Mordo and Nightmare.

Even moving away from the franchise leads, it's seriously unlikely Marvel would kill off popular secondary characters like Falcon and Bucky. For one thing, Avengers 4 is expected to bid a fond farewell to Chris Evans's Captain America, and that sort of ending is completely undermined if his dearest friends aren't there to mourn him. And replace him. Those characters have the potential to continue the Captain America brand once Evans has left the MCU; in the comics, both have wielded the shield as a version of Captain America.

Finally, the Guardians of the Galaxy are confirmed to return as well. Dave Bautista has clearly been somewhat bemused by the outpouring of grief after Drax's death during the "snap." "They were really like heartbroken," he noted, "and I was like 'I'm gonna be in four. I'm gonna be in Guardians 3.' I don't know how they're bringing me back, yeah but somehow I'm going to make it because, as far as I know, I am going to be in Guardians 3, so I have to be back." Bautista clearly didn't get the memo about keeping his resurrection a secret; nor, for that matter, did Zoe Saldana. She unwittingly admitted that, to her, Gamora's death was a "TBC." As she explained, the whole team have to head back to Atlanta for Avengers 4 reshoots in Fall 2018. Presumably, as in the comics, Gamora isn't actually dead; she's instead been consumed by the Soul Stone, and in the comics it's entirely possible to escape the Soul Stone's realm. And if she can survive, then any of the pre-snap casualties - like Vision - are also sure to make a return.

The reality of the situation is that we all know these characters are coming back. That's not a problem in and of itself - the deaths serve their purpose for the narrative, creating a sense of scale and reducing the cast for a tighter, more focused Avengers 4 - but there is when Marvel starts pretending otherwise.

Page 2 of 2: How Marvel's Trying To Trick Fans

How Marvel's Trying To Trick Fans With Avengers 4

Comics are renowned for so-called "comic book deaths", where characters are killed off but swiftly return. The most recent examples were in the X-Men comics, with Jean Grey and Wolverine resurrected after high-profile "deaths". In just the same way as the comics, Marvel movies have treated death as something of a revolving door. A number of secondary characters -ranging from Bucky to Nick Fury, from Happy Hogan to Pepper Potts - have had "fake deaths".

In light of that, in the build-up to Avengers: Infinity War's theatrical release, Kevin Feige warned that some of the Infinity War deaths will stick. "People need to be careful what they wish for," he cautioned. Marvel's been sticking to that line ever since, arguing - against all the evidence - that these deaths will last. Infinity War co-writer Christopher Markus insisted that the deaths were real, and that viewers would have to deal with that. "The sooner you accept that, the sooner you will be able to move on to the next stage of grief." Asked about how they expected Marvel to market the post-Avengers 4 Spider-Man film, Markus and his co-writer Stephen McFeely seemed to admit the problem. After a brief quip about two hours of Aunt May crying, McFeely gave a simple and honest response; "We can't make movies for people who read Variety, you know what I mean?"

The Russo brothers, for their part, initially played coy about the deaths. "We love these characters as much as anybody," Anthony Russo noted, "but all things have to come to an end." More recently, he actually argued that the sequels may be set before the "snap":

"Just because there’s a sequel on the books doesn’t mean ... people become accustomed to time moving linearly in the MCU. That doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. There’s a lot of very inventive ways of where the story can go from here."

It's true that the MCU sometimes operates out of sequences; last year's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was set in 2014, this year's Ant-Man & the Wasp takes place before Avengers: Infinity War, and next year's Captain Marvel is actually based in the '90s. But we already know that's not the case with some of the films that are on the books, most notably the Homecoming sequel. In this case, the sequels do guarantee that the "snap" will either be undone or averted, and Marvel should really stop trying to pretend otherwise.

What Marvel Should Do Instead

Right now, Marvel seems to be trying to "have their cake and eat it" - they're trying to pretend their characters have been killed while booking high-profile sequels starring them at the same time. There's a sense in which that strategy is understandable; they hope audiences will react with honest and real emotion at the end of the film. What's more, the studio seems to have achieved their goal; as Markus noted, "Clearly, if there are people crying and there are articles about how to console your children at the end of it, it doesn't matter what you know." But the nature of the shared cinematic universe means that Marvel can't keep this going for much longer. For one thing, when Marvel begins to promote the Homecoming sequel, marketing will reveal that Peter Parker is back from the dead.

Read More: Spider-Man Has A Superman Problem After Avengers: Infinity War

Will there be a consequence for trying to trick viewers like this? There's a reason Marvel's propensity towards "fake deaths" has been so roundly criticized and it's partly to do with the manipulative nature of this kind of plot. Viewers object to having their heartstrings tugged with deaths that are swiftly reversed: how will they react if the entire cliffhanger ending of Avengers: Infinity War ultimately turns out to be a trick? The danger is that, if the deaths of half the lives in the universe don't actually mean anything, the stakes will never feel high again. Marvel's current strategy is dangerously close to backfiring.

It's time for Marvel to come clean, and admit that these characters are going to return. Rather than simply encourage viewers to react emotionally, they need to move the conversation on to the point where viewers are debating just how that return will happen. This would be a far more honest approach, treating the viewers with a little more respect. What's more, smart marketing could stir up intense debate, dropping countless hints and misdirections.

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The cliffhanger ending of Avengers: Infinity War was powerful and emotional, but its effectiveness is undermined for many by the very nature of the shared universe in which the Marvel heroes operate. Marvel pioneered the shared universe model, but right now they're trying to avoid its inherent limitations. There's no way they can pull it off in the long run, so it's time for the studio to be a little more honest with its audiences.

More: The MCU Scenes That Are Extra Sad After Avengers: Infinity War

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