You’ve read the title of the article. No reason to beat around the bush with an intro. Here’s the trailer:
In the interest of transparency, the last time I did one of these predictions articles I ended up being only around half right about Star Wars: The Last Jedi. So, consider this just a bit of nerdy fun. Here are my predictions. I genuinely hope I’m wrong about a couple of them, particularly this one:
- Loki dies at the beginning
What better way to establish the stakes than having the new villain kill off the old villain at the beginning of the movie? Also, there’s nowhere left for Loki to go as a character. Ragnarok brings his arc to a conclusion and sees him letting go of the past and embracing his brother and his own potential for good.
Except, of course, he’s still Loki so of course, he grabs an Infinity Stone on the way out of Asgard, which he’ll likely jokingly refer to as more of a “break glass in event of danger” insurance policy than anything else. Not something he grabbed with malicious intent but instead because it would be a shame to see it go to waste in Asgard’s ruin. However, him grabbing it is what draws Thanos to the ship of Asgardian refugees at the end of Ragnarok, and as we’ve seen in both trailers a scared-shitless Loki now hands the Stone right over to Thanos.
What’s new in this trailer, though, is a scene of Thanos torturing Thor in front of Loki. My prediction is Loki either does something to save Thor and dies in the process or does nothing but still gets killed since Thanos has no need for him after getting his Infinity Stone. I don’t want this to happen. I love Loki. But, from a dramatic standpoint if I’m sitting down to write this script the first thing I do is to have the new villain kill the old villain.
2. Thanos will be a disappointing villain who seriously suffers from arriving so soon after Killmonger
Even if I’m right about Thanos opening the film by disposing of Loki and likely slaughtering or enslaving the Asgardians, I don’t see any scenario where he is anything other than a disappointing villain.
First, there’s the wait factor. It’s been 6 years since that Thanos-Avengers post-credits tease, and in that time we have weathered countless jokes about how increasingly ineffectual he has seemed, particularly when Guardians of the Galaxy’s villain easily betrayed him and suffered no consequences. Thanos has been, for the most part, just some dude sitting on a throne on some random space rock. By the time Age of Ultron’s post-credits tease gave us him finally out of his chair, grabbing his stupid glove and declaring, “Fine. I’ll do it myself,” the reaction was not one of glee but instead extreme eye rolling and heckles of, “It’s about damn time!” There’s only so long you can tease this out before anticipation turns to mockery.
What we have here is really the first time I can think of where the films are actually following the TV shows, specifically the Netflix ones. Kingpin, Kilgrave, and Cottonmouth were masterfully built up to on Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage. In two of those cases, the villains became so compelling they overshadowed the heroes. Now, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been building to Thanos since The Avengers, and Infinity War will be like his showcase episode, finally giving us his backstory and presenting him as this impossible-to-defeat baddie.
But those Netflix villains we had to wait for took just a couple of episodes to arrive, not multiple years. They were each of them human, flawed, and fascinating and pitted against just one hero. Thanos, on the other hand, is just going to be a big brute with a power glove and some story about turning genocidal after witnessing the downfall of his own planet, and he’s facing off against pretty much every Marvel Cinematic Universe hero ever, minus Ant-Man (who is again MIA here). He will only be interesting for his brutality and ability to actually kill some of our heroes, or, in Loki’s case, anti-heroes, but after waiting so, so long for it to happen I can’t see it paying off in a completely satisfying way. The destruction he brings will be of interest because of what it means to our characters; the person bringing the destruction will just be a CGI nothing passably voiced by Josh Brolin.
Secondly, with Thanos we are quite abruptly transitioning from a social commentary era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into pure event cinema. Going from Killmonger to Thanos is like if immediately after the holocaust imagery and MLK vs. Malcolm X dynamics of the first X-Men they had gone straight into X-Men: Apocalypse (skipping X2, The Last Stand, and so on) with its overly made-up, somewhat silly-looking villain yelling cliched crap like, “Everything they built [dramatic pause] WILL FALL! AND FROM THE ASHES OF THEIR WORLD [dramatic pause] WE’ll BUILD…A BETTER ONE!” The effect would have been super jarring, and it’s exactly what we’re heading for with Infinity War arriving so closely on the heels of Black Panther.
Killmonger was the best kind of villain: someone whose motivations and reasoning are sound and founded in something recognizable to our reality. It’s the extreme solution to the problem he correctly identified which made him a villain. You recognize that he’s got a pretty good point; you just don’t love his methods.
Thanos, as I’ve encountered him to this point, is no more complicated than a space Nazi, ala his DC counterpart Darkseid. That’s perfectly fitting for a piece of popcorn event cinema, but it’s not going to feel anywhere as interesting as Killmonger.
Loving Winter Soldier and Civil War as much as I do, I have faith in those same screenwriters and directors to deliver with Infinity War. But I think they’ve been dealt a losing hand from the get-go with Thanos. Then what Ryan Coogler did with Black Panther at the same exact time they were filming Infinity War has redefined and redrawn the superhero map in a way Joe and Anthony Russo can’t possibly respond to because the very nature of their story forces them to elevate things to such an insane scale.
Lastly, there’s the CGI factor. With each new trailer, Thanos looks a little more convincing, and by the time the film arrives next month I don’t expect him to look anywhere near as bad Steppenwolf in Justice League. Still, we’re operating in similar CGI territory which pulls us out since we know we are essentially watching a literal cartoon bad guy.
That being said, he’s not romping around screaming about mother or other such Steppenwolf nonsense. Instead, there’s actually an intriguing moment of him appearing to honorably eulogize Iron Man before killing him (or at least attempting to kill him) which suggests there might be something more to him. It’s the one moment in the trailer which gives me hope that I might have to (happily) eat my words and come around to loving this character when I see the actual film. For now, though, consider my expectations lowered.
3. Vision’s not going to make it.
Several of our characters are either walking Infinity Stones (Vision, Doctor Strange) or they’re standing in Thanos’ way (Iron Man, Captain America). As such, this trailer includes scenes where each one of them appears to be in mortal peri, and each one of them could conceivably die. The answer might be, more obviously, well, whose contract is up and who wants out of these movies? Thus, the newer guys are probably safe and the older ones fair game.
However, I have a feeling Vision will indeed bite it in this movie and not just because Paul Bettany’s never seemed particularly interested in taking anything from the MCU other than a paycheck. It’s more that Vision is such an Avengers-specific character, created in Age of Ultron, carried over into the unofficial Avengers film Civil War, that it would make sense to kill him here.
Despite Tom King’s celebrated 2016 run with the Vision comic books depicting the character’s ill-fated attempted at a family life with an android wife and children, I’ve never seen any indication Marvel Studios has any interest in making solo Vision films. So, he seems like the definition of a character who was created for the express purpose of someday being killed by Thanos, to the extreme heartbreak of The Scarlet Witch, who looks to finally be moving ahead in her relationship with him in this movie. Which, really, in the old Joss Whedon playbook the time when a couple gets happy is when you break them up or kill one of them. Whedon’s not in charge anymore, obviously, but it’s a tempting playbook for his successors to follow.
Doctor Strange is in danger, too. For sure. But he’s more likely to survive than Vision.
4. Iron Man dies.
The primary plot depicted in the trailer sees Iron Man, Spider-Man, and The Guardians teaming to take the fight to Thanos on his home planet, and Cap, Bucky, Black Panther, Black Widow, Hulk, War Machine, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Shuri, and the Wakandan army fighting off Thano’s forces. Good gawd, just writing that sentence gave me the slightest bit of a hint at how impossible this all must have been to film. Either way, cross-cutting in the trailer indicates Thanos will have one-on-one bouts with both Iron Man and Captain America, bringing Iron Man to his knees and looking stunned when Cap proves strong enough to push back on the Infinity Gauntlet (i.e., Thano’s glove).
My prediction here is that Iron Man’s forces fail and he dies in the process, and that frees Thanos to return to Earth to invade Wakanda. This would partially explain why Homecoming went out of its way to include a Tony-Pepper reunion at the end, the two apparently repairing their relationship sometime after Civil War. It was a way of tying that little bow on the character before disposing of him and turning the MCU over to the next generation, with a clear baton-passing to Star-Lord in the trailer.
Oh, yeah, then why do we see the Iron Man Hulk Buster armor in the Wakanda section?
Because that’s not Tony Stark in the armor. In fact, I have a feeling it’s actually Bruce Banner in there since, as Ragnarok pointed out when he’s not The Hulk he’s useless in a fight but he’s too afraid to Hulk out again since he’s lost years of his life doing that. I’m picturing a moment where he is overwhelmed by enemies from within the armor and gets angry which then leads to the Hulk literally busting out of the Hulk Buster.
As for Cap, I just really, really don’t want him to die. That didn’t stop me from predicting the same with Loki, and I know Bucky is waiting in the wings, practically measuring Steve’s costume to see if it will fit. But, still, with Cap…man, he just can’t die.
That all being said, if I have my timeline wrong, and the film actually does the Wakanda section first and the part on Thanos’ planet second or crosscuts between the two simultaneously then everything I just said is wrong and it’s more likely Cap dies than Iron Man.
Either way, I still have this feeling Iron Man won’t make it. If this is to be the end of the path Avi Arad, David Maisel, and Kevin Feige started us on way back in 2004 when they first secured funding to pursue this crazy idea of a series of interconnected movies, then the most poignant (and obvious) way to close that loop is to kill Iron Man. There is no Avengers nor a Marvel Cinematic Universe without him, but he’s the past and Infinity War is all about setting up a future led by newer heroes.
Crazy thought: What if both Cap and Iron Man die?
5. Thor partnering with Rocket and Baby Groot will be a fan favorite section of the film
There’s not much to on here, but there’s a brief moment in the trailer (highlighted above) which suggests Thor’s story will involve a team-up with Rocket and Teen Groot. The comic potential of a newly unrestrained, post-Ragnarok Chris Hemsworth bantering with Bradley Cooper and figuring out what to make of Groot strikes me as the kind of silly-fun subplot which will catch audiences off guard and turn into a real crowd-pleaser. After Ragnarok, it’s exactly the kind of oddball pairing we’d expect from Thor, and in a film sure to bring about so much death and destruction a couple of laughs from Thor and team could go a long way. My question, though, is where is Korg?
Infinity War opens almost everywhere April 27th. What do you think of my predictions? And what’s your reaction to the trailer?
We Minored in Film 
Space nazi? Oh no, that’s not what Thanos is about at all.
It’s a simplification for a simple character who courts absolute power as a means of courting the woman he loves, Death. Space Nazi is admittedly a far more accurate description for something like the Empire/First Order in Star Wars.
It’s just that, Thanos, Darkseid, Apocalypse…whoever…comic books are lousy with the all-powerful, despotic baddies who want to rule/kill all mostly because that’s what bad guys do. I understand the screenwriters and directors have this plan to turn Thanos into more a pre-emptive killer who saw his planet fall into ruin and now seeks to cleanse the universe of those forces he sees bringing about similar ruin elsewhere, thus it could be some kind of vague commentary on humanity maybe deserving in some ways to be wiped out. And I think that will play perfectly fine and work for what Infinity War is going to be, which is the most popcorn movie of all popcorn movies to have ever been made.
But coming literally just over three months after Black Panther is going to invite lots of unfavorable comparisons to Killmonger and lead a lot of reviewers to spin lines like, “After the MCU broke ground with its one of most grounded and compelling villains to date, they turn around with one who is as generic as they come, regardless of a game effort from all involved, Josh Brolin included.”
But, like I said in the predictions, I really, really want to look back on this and have to just eat my words and tip my cap to them for making a surprisingly awesome and compelling version of Thanos. I don’t think that’s going to happen, but I want it too. Even if it doesn’t, I’m still crazy excited to see this movie.
I imagine I’ll be too busy enjoying it to worry about some random sourpusses’ forced comparisons to a very different kind of movie!
I’m just saying, it’s gonna happen. How can it not after Black Panther just grossed over a billion in record-setting fashion? It doesn’t have to hurt your enjoyment of the film. Black Panther and Infinity War are obviously operating at two different ends of the superhero movie spectrum, but they exist in the same exact universe, are coming out so close to each other, and from the looks of it, a good chunk of Infinity War is set in Wakanda. The comparisons are going to be unavoidable for some ala Wonder Woman and Justice League last year.
[insert previous comment here]
I didn’t disagree with you, I just couldn’t care less what “they” say.
Oh, sorry.
“I just couldn’t care less what “they” say.”
And that’s obviously the best mindset to have about this.
No problem! And here’s my prediction: Hela is going to be back in a big way, and I feel like they might also take this opportunity to resurrect some villains that died too soon, if only temporarily.
Red Skull? Ronan? That might be fun to watch—just make sure they do something memorable—but thinking about the movie’s already long payroll list, it seems unlikely.
I think Hela, they could still use here and in other movies, since her we’re not really sure she died in Ragnarok.
Well, no. I don’t think they’ll be able to drag Hugo Weaving back in, as much as I’d like that, but there have been rumors about Frank Grillo (Crossbones) somehow returning to the movies, so who knows?
Hela I think they’ll use instead of introducing a separate Death character for the movies (and recent developments in the comics would seem to support this).
I’d wondered the same thing about Hela. It wasn’t until I saw Ragnarok a second time that I saw for sure that Surtur’s sword does indeed come down right on top of her, causing the green light around her in that moment to immediately extinguish. First time I saw it, I thought maybe she teleported out of there somehow because surely they wouldn’t have cast Cate Blanchette to the be in just the one movie. Ragnarok, however, really does want us to think she’s dead.
But she’d hardly be the first Thor villain to seemingly die in a Thor movie and come right back as an Avengers villain. As you pointed out, she’d make a great substitute for Death to fit into the more traditional Thanos arc. Plus, I still can’t completely escape my sense of Hela coming back at some point simply because Blanchette is too big of a name to be in just one of these movies.
The problem is simply that there are so, so, so many characters in Infinity War, not just the heroes and Thanos but also Thanos’ various minions, that adding another would suck up valuable screen time. Moreover, Ragnarok repeatedly insists that Hela’s power comes from Asgard. It’s the entire reason Thor decides the only way to defeat her is to allow Asgard to be destroyed. Now that Asgard is gone, if Hela is indeed still alive I’m not sure what kind of state she would be in. Perhaps that would lend credence to your idea about her being their version of Death. Maybe Thanos isn’t just courting her but instead seeking a way to help renew her powers.
I could see a scenario like that being somewhat workable, but I think it’s more likely that they drop the Death courtship idea entirely and reframe Thanos as somewhat different from who he is in the comics. At the very least, if Hela becomes involved it might not happen until the second movie, which I’m still very confused about. They keep saying Avengers 3 and 4 have been written to be two separate movies and not merely a Part 1 and Part 2. So, does that mean Thanos is dead and dealt with by the end of Infinity War, and then the next film is the aftermath, with maybe Hela and others coming in as the villains? Or is Infinity War a movie about Thanos and his point of view, and then the next one is more about the heroes? Not asking you for the answers, obviously. More just thinking out loud.
“I don’t think they’ll be able to drag Hugo Weaving back in, as much as I’d like that”
Agreed. While not quite as critical of the experience as Christopher Eccleston and The Dark World, Weaving has been one of those guys who has stuck to a one-and-done mentality of never wanting back in on the experience of playing Red Skull.
Sidebar: Does anyone still remember all the Winter Soldier theories that Robert Redford’s character was going to end up being the Red Skull? We really screwed the pooch on that one.
The way he “died”, the similar characters he’s posed as in the comics, and the fact that he was still contracted for more Marvel movies, still make me think those theories would have been correct if he hadn’t made such a big fuss about wanting out of his contract.
That kind of reveal would have at least made for a more memorable end for Alexander Pierce than just lying on a ground and faintly uttering “Hail Hydra,” but in story construction and parsing out who to pair with whom in the finale they clearly landed on Alexander being a villain to Nick Fury given their background, Crossbones to Falcon given their kind of sidekick status, and Winter Soldier to Cap for obvious reasons. I wonder how all of that would have had to be changed if in addition to Winter Soldier they revealed Cap was also dealing with what is arguably his arch-villain. Then again, it all probably would have been written completely differently in the first place if they knew Hugo Weaving was on board.
I wasn’t really “that” excited for this movie:
https://breedinglikelarva.wordpress.com/2017/12/06/13-reasons-why-im-not-so-excited-about-avengers-infinity-war/
But watching the trailers and reading your predictions here kind of whetted my appetite for some big event movie. (Not to mention Black Panther didn’t actually scored too high in my book).
I like your plot prediction regarding the two Avengers team and Iron Man dying. Following your predicted plot, I’m quite excited now to see the REAL Team Iron Man and Team Cap aka Team Wakanda wage two different CIVIL WARS. I initially thought the Guardians wouldn’t be a big part of this movie. But seeing Gamora, Star Lord with Iron-Man and Spider-Man just added to the movie’s COOL factor.
But Hulk (who we saw in NY with Iron Man and Dr. Strange) going to Wakanda? Yeah it’s possible they let him go to Wakanda to help Team Cap. I like the idea of Banner inside the Hulkbuster, then Hulk comes out and breaks… wait, BUSTED the Hulkbuster. Then, just when Team Cap are on the brink of defeating Thanos’ childrens, Thanos comes to Wakanda to show them who’s the real boss.
“I wasn’t really “that” excited for this movie”
I get your point in the linked article about the Russos having more of a house style than something distinctive like James Gunn or Taika Waititi, and that their ADHD handling of the action in Winter Soldier isn’t the best. But I remember from our differing MCU rankings that I’m just generally a lot higher on Winter Soldier and Civil War than you are. So, to me this is a movie coming from my preferred wing of the MCU whereas you’re more skeptical. I get that.
What’s interesting, though, is how different this actually is going to be for the Russos in terms of subject matter. They just made these two very grounded, by MCU standards at least, movies about institutional corruption, withering alliances and friendships, and personal and internal conflict. Now, they’re making the most cosmic film in MCU history, venturing more into Guardians/Thor territory. But since I thought Civil War did a good job of balancing all of the characters while somehow still remaining a Captain America movie I trust the Russos and their screenwriters to be able to balance everything in Infinity War, even though the scale is so much bigger this time. At the very least, having two directors in charge is a nice way to guard against the type of burnout Whedon quite famously experienced with Age of Ultron.
“But watching the trailers and reading your predictions here kind of whetted my appetite for some big event movie.”
And that’s totally the right way to look at this. It is going to be the event movie to end all event movies.
“But Hulk (who we saw in NY with Iron Man and Dr. Strange) going to Wakanda?”
The reason I say that is simply because we see him with Black Widow, and we know she’s in Wakanda. Plus, unless Bruce ends up in Dr. Selvig-like duty of simply being the scientist building some big device to shoot a ray into the sky or some other such problem-solving he’s going to have be involved in the fight somehow, and both trailers, unless I missed it, haven’t included a single shot of the Hulk. It just occurred to me what if he’s actually been hiding in plain sight this entire time, and we might get an insanely comic book moment like the Hulk literally busting out of the Hulkbuster.
“Then, just when Team Cap are on the brink of defeating Thanos’ childrens, Thanos comes to Wakanda to show them who’s the real boss.”
That’s pretty much exactly how I see it playing out. Of course, I could be totally wrong. I’m kind of simply following the breadcrumbs left behind the trailers and making sense of the story they seem to present. But these trailers can be so misleading. It’s entirely possible the Wakanda thing actually happens first and Cap dies, Thanos kills Vision and takes his Infinity Stone, and then returns to Titan where Iron Man and his team stage their attack. But both trailers make it seem like Thanos shows up on Earth in New York and goes after Doctor Strange, Iron Man chases after him and somehow ends up being transported to space in the process with Spider-Man and meets the Guardians.
Meanwhile, back on Earth Wakanda readies itself to be the first line of defense and we’re set up for either a simultaneous battle between Team Iron Man and Team Cap versus Thanos’ army on two different planets or Team Iron Man has long since lost by the time Thanos attacks Wakanda. But I really do see Thanos killing Iron Man and then hopping on over to Wakanda just when it seems like they are winning to completely turn the tide, laying waste to everything like Sauron on the battlefield in the Fellowship of the Ring prologue.
“But since I thought Civil War did a good job of balancing all of the characters… I trust the Russos and their screenwriters to be able to balance everything in Infinity War, even though the scale is so much bigger this time.”
Good point. I agree Civil War is more streamlined than AoU. It’s something the Russos did better in than Whedon. Also, as I pointed out those writers also wrote The Dark World, which I liked more than most Marvel movies for the amount of self-reflexive humor in it. And based on the trailers, Star-Lord is still Star-Lord–you know what I mean–that’s a plus.
“At the very least, having two directors in charge is a nice way to guard against the type of burnout Whedon quite famously experienced with Age of Ultron.”
I agree. (When Joe gets stressed, Anthony could bring in some cappuccino… or bottles of beer perhaps. 😀) Though I think Whedon’s burnout was more a result of doing something different, something Marvel required, from what he really wanted to do, from what he initially envisioned. Of course size of the project was also a factor. But the I way I see it, he wanted to do a more personal movie with the Avengers sequel (something James Gunn was able to do with Vol. 2) but he ended up making the biggest “set-up” movie in the MCU because that’s what he was required to do.
“And based on the trailers, Star-Lord is still Star-Lord–you know what I mean–that’s a plus.”
From what I’ve read, this is definitely a Joe and Anthony Russo movie written by Markus and McFeely, but it’s also one which can be said to have uncredited consultations from Ryan Coogler, James Gunn, and Taika Waititi to ensure that what they did with the Black Panther/Guardians/Thor characters was in keeping with what the other directors had been doing with them. In Coogler and Waititi’s case, their contributions were necessary since the productions of their films overlapped with Infinity War’s meaning The Russo’s hadn’t seen Black Panther or Ragnarok yet when making their movie. Of course, the Russos are also the ones who cast Boseman in the first place and introduced Black Panther. So, they already had a good feel for him.
Plus, at this point, I have to believe the actors are all entrenched enough in their roles to feel emboldened to speak up when something doesn’t feel quite right, and Feige’s got it all playing out in his head and can step in if something goes too off brand. So, I do trust that everyone is going to feel exactly as they should in this movie, unlike Justice League where WW and the Amazonians felt/looked off compared to the Patty Jenkins-directed version.
“Though I think Whedon’s burnout was more a result of doing something different, something Marvel required, from what he really wanted to do, from what he initially envisioned. Of course, the size of the project was also a factor. But the I way I see it, he wanted to do a more personal movie with the Avengers sequel (something James Gunn was able to do with Vol. 2) but he ended up making the biggest “set-up” movie in the MCU because that’s what he was required to do.”
Touche. It is indeed too simplistic to say the size of AoU destroyed Whedon, as I did, half-jokingly. The logistics aren’t what really killed him; it was the corporate marching orders that did that.
There’s actually a scene in the very first trailer with Hulk running with Team Cap in Wakanda. I checked some articles from Screenrant, and they are aligned to some of your predictions. It’s confirmed that it’s Banner who’s inside the Hulkbuster, and that the third act is in Wakanda.
“There’s actually a scene in the very first trailer with Hulk running with Team Cap in Wakanda.”
Crap. You’re right. Forgot about that.
“I checked some articles from Screenrant, and they are aligned to some of your predictions. It’s confirmed that it’s Banner who’s inside the Hulkbuster, and that the third act is in Wakanda.”
Cool. Let the record show: I was guessing based almost entirely on the trailers. The only thing I’d read beforehand was the confirmation that Team Iron Man’s battle takes place on Thanos’ planet. But if it is confirmed that Banner is indeed the one inside the Hulkbuster there’s clearly no other way for that to end than him Hulking out and busting through the thing in some tide-turning moment of the battle.
“He will only be interesting for his brutality and ability to actually kill some of our heroes… The destruction he brings will be of interest because of what it means to our characters…”
That will suffice for me. I mean, we don’t need a villain like Killmonger in every Marvel movie. I liked that villain in Ant-Man. Ronan was OK. Together with the Guardians, he’s more than OK. If Thanos could be like Ronan, or slightly better, that fine with me. In fact I have more problems when the villains are like Zemo… and his very contrived plans.
“Secondly, with Thanos we are quite abruptly transitioning from a social commentary era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into pure event cinema.”
GotG Vol.2, Homecoming, Ragnarok, Black Panther — that’s not an ERA. It’s just one movie with social commentary.
“Going from Killmonger to Thanos is like if immediately after the holocaust imagery and MLK vs. Malcolm X dynamics of the first X-Men they had gone straight into X-Men: Apocalypse (skipping X2, The Last Stand, and so on)”
X-Men: Apocalypse just plain sucks, regardless of whether the villain was like Magneto or Thanos. Again, we don’t need every movie to be like Black Panther.
Lastly, did anyone said GotG was a step-down after the political thriller-like The Winter Soldier? No, everyone was busy quoting Groot, checking for walkman on ebay and dancing like Kevin Bacon.
I’ve argued it elsewhere in the comments section, but the point is this: Almost no movies in film history have done what Black Panther has at the box office, not even The Avengers, and it’s doing a lot of that by drawing in new audiences to a comic book movie the same way Wonder Woman drew in significantly more women than usual.
Now, here’s Infinity War opening literally just 9 weeks after Black Panther. The trailers have been heavy on the Wakanda imagery, making clear part of the film takes place there, yet Infinity War and Black Panther as films could not be possibly further removed on the comic book movie spectrum. For some people, it’s going to be jarring to see Black Panther’s world so quickly integrated right back into the MCU.
I take your point about Winter Soldier versus Guardians, but those films don’t share any characters or settings and there was at least 4 months between their release dates. That’s not quite the same as what we’re getting here. We are going from one of the most unconventional MCU movies of all time to quite possibly the most comic booky of comic book movies of all time in just 2 months, really, and they each somehow share a very significant setting and set of characters.
Perhaps I should make this point more clearly: I don’t think the hardcore MCU fans are going to be too horribly thrown by going from Black Panther to Infinity War, and even after everything else a somewhat disappointing Thanos won’t ruin the movie. As you said, he doesn’t have to be anything more than a CGI baddie raining destruction down on the good guys to do an event movie like this justice.
But think of all the people who are new to this universe thanks to Black Panther or all of the critics who went out of their way to hold up Killmonger as being the finest villain yet attempted in the entirety of the MCU. How is Thanos going to register as anything other than a disappointment to them? He’s a villain made for a very different kind of film.
Okay…let’s see….
1. Loki dies.
Nope. If he dies it will be in a way which allows Marvel to pull him back if they want to. Loki is too valuable to die. I think, though, that Loki will play one big trick on Thanos. After Thor loses the battle against him, he will use the space stone to send Bruce Banner to Doctor Strange in order to warn him (thus ensuring that the Cameo in Ragnarök actually has a freaking point – Loki is the only living being in the MCU who knows where four of the Infinity stones are located) and then he gives the Tessaract to Thanos in order to rescue the Asgardians (and himself, because he is still Loki after all). He might even use a giant illusion in order to pretend that he killed them all. In the end Thor will follow Banner with the GotG, while Heimdal stays back to bring the Asgardians to earth in a slower pace.
2. Thanos will be a disappointing villain
Unlikely. Marcus and McFeely are waaaaay too good writing compelling villains with understandable motivations, and the Russo Brothers are excellent in translating their ideas to film. Plus, supposedly the movie is mostly about Thanos, and that there is a shot of him with mini-Gamora suggests that they will dive deep into his backstory. I think that they all know where the priorities are, and since we already know all of the heroes, the priority is clearly to make Thanos as interesting as possible.
3. Vision not making it
Perhaps…honestly, this is a little bit too obvious. But one thing I am sure of: They will lose. And maybe finding a way to keep Vision alive will be the one little win they will squeeze out of the situation.
4. Iron-man dies
Very likely….and I rather would have it in this movie, so that we could focus on the fall-out in the next movie. Tony dying just feels “right” at this point, while also being very ballsy. Cap dying on the other hand would feel “wrong”….there is so much you can still do with his character. Plus, one has to grief over the other. I can see them switching the famous panel from the “Death of Captain America” around.
Though it is also possible that Cap dies in this one and due to time manipulation they switch it around in the next one and then Tony will die in his place.
5. I think Rocket and Bucky will be the most fun if we can get that. Rocket plus anyone will be hilarious to be honest.
1.
“Nope. If he dies it will be in a way which allows Marvel to pull him back if they want to. Loki is too valuable to die. I think, though, that Loki will play one big trick on Thanos. After Thor loses the battle against him, he will use the space stone to send Bruce Banner to Doctor Strange in order to warn him (thus ensuring that the Cameo in Ragnarök actually has a freaking point – Loki is the only living being in the MCU who knows where four of the Infinity stones are located) and then he gives the Tessaract to Thanos in order to rescue the Asgardians (and himself, because he is still Loki after all). He might even use a giant illusion in order to pretend that he killed them all. In the end Thor will follow Banner with the GotG, while Heimdal stays back to bring the Asgardians to earth in a slower pace.”
I like all of that. I’d definitely pay to see it, and what was missing in my prediction was definitely a detailed description of what I think will become of the Asgardians. You’ve just supplied that, beyond my simple assumption they’ll all just end up prisoners on Thanos’ big ass ship.
It’s just … I’m trying to take Feige and the rest at their word that this is going to be a true end for the path we’ve been on. Killing Iron Man fits into that idea, but so does offing Loki. He must hold the record by now for making the most MCU appearances of any non-Avenger, maybe tied with some of the original co-stars like Pepper. He’s been a sympathetic villain, a mustache-twirling, Alan Rickman villain, a reluctant co-conspirator and inevitable betrayer, and…kind of the same thing again in Ragnarok but with a more hopeful resolution. Having read the solo Loki line of the comics and considering the Thor line of the films to be among my favorites, despite all of the film’s flaws, I recognize a potential future for him as a mischief-inclined wizard who is actually trying and sometimes struggling to be good now. But if they are truly sincere about making a real clean cut and carving a new path forward letting Loki loose seems like a tough, but obvious choice.
Post-Ragnarok, of course, all involved might be suddenly motivated to keep Loki around for another Taika Waitit Thor movie. That is, if Thor survives Infinity War himself.
I think the scenario you laid out totally fits, especially given the fact that we still have no idea how either Thor or Banner end up back on Earth and seemingly not in the same spot, either. But I also think it could be tweaked to sound a lot like one final, redemptive act of heroism for Loki right before getting killed. It would be a memorable way to go out, for sure. Thanos could also just end up holding him prisoner to torture/interrogate about the whereabouts of the Infinity Stone. However, I have a harder time imagining that happening than I do him going out in a blaze of glory. Plus, they’ve killed him and unkilled him so many times now I can’t see them doing it yet again. If he dies it will have to be done in a way where we know it’s for good because otherwise we’ll just assume he’ll be back and it won’t mean as much to the film.
2. Well, here is what Joe Russo told ScreenRant about Thanos, which I hadn’t read before making my prediction:
3.
They have been playing the “Vision’s not gonna make it, ya guys” card pretty hard in the trailers. So, it’s not at all a wild prediction on my part. I might, in fact, be falling for their red herring. I also don’t know enough about Vision to know if he can even live without his Infinity Stone. But between the two characters who are themselves walking Infinity Stones he seems far more expendable and likely to go than Doctor Strange.
4. “I can see them switching the famous panel from the “Death of Captain America” around.”
Oh, I like that idea. As I was venting elsewhere in the comments, I don’t have a good read on how these two films play out. They say it’s not a Part 1/Part 2 scenario but instead two separate films with their own stories that happen to have been filmed back-to-back. Yet it’s hard to imagine Thanos being dealt with in one movie. It really feels like it’s going to be two movies about fighting him, just with the first from his point of view and the second from more from the heroes. Vaguely similar, but hopefully better than BvS into Justice League, Infinity War could be about Iron Man’s death and the next one about mourning and, true to their name for a change, avenging him.
5. “I think Rocket and Bucky will be the most fun if we can get that.”
Kind of like Falcon and Bucky in Civil War, but much, much funnier. I could behind that.
Thing with Loki is that there is an option for him which is pretty popular with comic book readers: Kid Loki. Could be hard to find a young actor who fills Hiddleston’s shoes, but if they could pull this idea off, it could be amazing.
Loki/Vision/Iron Man dies:
If there’s one character who would most likely die in this movie, I’d say it’s Vision. Maybe they won’t be able to make much of that Wanda & Vision romance (just like Nat & Bruce in AoU) but that’s OK if the movie’s focus is on Thanos. Yes, the trailers have been pushing the “Vision will survive, Vision is with Shuri in Wakanda, and Thanos’ two infinity stone while fighting Cap”, but any or all of those could be just to intentionally mislead us, or not to spoil it. It’s just so easy to CGI Vision and those Infinity stones.
Of course, there are other characters who might die in this movie: Hawkeye, who’s intriguingly absent in all these trailers (maybe he’ll die or maybe he’ll not show up until Avengers 4); Clint’s family, again absent in the trailer; Nebula, who was in the trailer; and Drax, whose death I don’t think would make much dramatic impact. Also, it’s better to keep him as comic relief for Vol. 3.
I like the idea of having Loki fake his death once again, to save Thor and the Asgardians, and having the Avengers and GotG led by Cap avenging Tony’s death in Avengers 4. But maybe having Loki come back one more time, even in Avengers 4 doesn’t sound like a good idea. I’m also thinking maybe Iron Man won’t die, just stranded in some alien planet, then return in Avengers 4 like Gandalf in LOTR. But having him return then die in Avengers 4 doesn’t sound like a good idea.
Because they have been adamant that this is not a Part 1 & 2 situation I have to get the following out of my head: what if the movie ends with Thanos killing Vision and taking his Infinity Stone?
I’m picturing a Desolation of Smaug situation where the film simply ends with the heroes losing, left stunned and asking, “What now?” Because if Iron Man’s ultimate plan is to leverage the Infinity Stones they do have to force Thanos to come to them and the third act is set in Wakanda, where either Vision is being guarded or the missing Infinity Stone is being held or both, what if they just totally fail and the film ends with Thanos getting most of, it not all of the Infinity Stones. And the next film features them pausing momentarily to bury the dead (like Vision and Iron Man) and mourn before figuring out what to do next, likely with the help of Ant-Man and the Wasp, Hawkeye, and Captain Marvel this time around.
Oh, as for the missing characters from the trailer thing, my assumption is that those characters we haven’t seen much of won’t factor significantly until the next movie. That means Nebula and Hawkeye, obviously. Either that or their roles/potential deaths in Infinity War are too brief/too spoilery to acknowledge.
I have read the relatively recent solo Loki comic book line where it’s him as a teenager on Earth trying to be a good guy and repeatedly coming up against those who refuse to accept his change of heart. Is that what you’re talking about? Or is Kid Loki something different?
Yeah…I haven’t read it myself, but the concept is great. Can you imagine MCU Loki getting a second shot at childhood, this time on earth, but having to deal with what his adult counterpart did, as well as the mistrust thrown at him?