May 4, 2018: the third installment of the Avengers trilogy will launch in theatres everywhere; by now you may have heard that it is the most watched trailer on YouTube, so to say that it is an anticipated movie is an understatement. People are blowing up Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and YouTube with discussions, excitement, and concerns about what will happen. I am here to further extend some thoughts into the world about this upcoming action-packed journey.
1. Who's going to perish, and when in the movie(s) is it going to happen?
The question on everyone's mind: Who's biting the dust? With the previous two Avengers movies, someone died; in the first one it was Agent Coulson, and in the second, it was Quicksilver. It's been alluded by the boss of Marvel Kevin Feige that an Avenger will be on their way out; he said "there will be two distinct periods, everything before Avengers 4 and everything after (Avengers Infinity War)," so we can guarantee someone's dying. Another question in relation to this is, is someone dying in both movies, or just one?
It's common to point the finger at the top two Avengers, Iron Man and Captain America, and say that they have the biggest targets on their backs (which to be fair has some truth to it), but I'm going to place my bet on a certain mischievous god: Loki. Some people think he may be on his way out, and I believe there to be some validity in this statement. I've watched the trailer for Infinity War quite a few times and at one point, I noticed how little we saw of Loki; he was only seen holding the Tesseract. We can presume that he is handing it to Thanos to fulfill his duty from the original Avengers movie back in 2012, and if he does, he can consider his purpose to this monster as complete. For all we know to solidify his new found power (and him as the true villain of the MCU), Thanos might finally put an end to the God of Mischief and kill him off. Or in a last ditch effort Loki might betray Thanos (as that was his 'real plan all along') and that ends up getting him killed. This may happen fairly early in the movie or somewhere around the middle. Also, throwing out the obvious here: Vision is pretty much screwed due to the Mind Stone in his forehead; if he goes down, I hope he goes down with a fight.
2. How will Infinity War end to lead into the fourth movie?
The fourth movie is currently untitled because... help me River Song:
Spoilers! What could possibly happen at the end of Infinity War that warrants a change from Infinity War Part 2 to currently 'untitled?' I have a few guesses... Thanos collects all the Infinity Stones and is seen putting the last stone in his Infinity Gauntlet as the Avengers look on. Thanos snaps half of the universe out of existence to show the audience his true strength. An unknown Avenger sacrifices themselves in order to save their comrades (adding extra meaning to the word 'Avenger'). ...someone is dying in this movie, okay? They are most likely going to make the situation seem hopeless so you're on the edge of your seat wondering 'how are they going to get out of this one?' Maybe the Avengers are spread across Earth or the planets or the universe and they have to fight their way back together; they have to have the fuel to fight back against Thanos.
3. Is there a chance we see any of the X-Men and/or Fantastic Four characters previously/currently owned by Fox in Avengers 4?
As this article is being written, 20th Century Fox and Disney are in talks of a deal; Disney wants X-Men and the Fantastic Four and Fox... wants the right amount of money. But if the deal goes through, how likely would it be to see all those characters appear and aid in the resistance against Thanos? I have no answers, and I would be incredibly excited if this were to happen - although the cast of X-Men and the Fantastic Four would almost certainly be recast, which is a bit of a bummer. It'd be a sight to see to see Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart in the MCU!
4. Where is the Soul Stone?
This has yet to be seen in the MCU, and the fans are running up some ideas as to where it could be. Some people originally believed that Heimdall had the Soul Stone due to his eyes glowing a similar color and his armor having a similarly colored stone in it, but that proved to be incorrect as seen in Thor: Ragnarok. Now it is being guessed that Soul Stone is in Wakanda with T'Challa; luckily we won't have to wait too long to be proven right or wrong as Black Panther comes out February 16, 2018. This theory stems from the trailer where T'Challa is seen in the fields with black panthers in the trees and the sky is lit up with auroras; this could be Djalia and perhaps to access this place, T'Challa uses the Soul Stone. There is always the off chance that we don't see the Stone until the fourth movie (Avengers: Soul Stone?), furthering making us fans speculate.
5. Who survives?
Who in the world is even going to be in the fourth Avengers movie? We can presume that those with movies coming after Infinity War (Spider-Man for example) will make it there, so they could be off the hook. Guys like Iron Man and Captain America who don't have anymore movies in their contracts? They don't have a good looking outcome. Maybe the only one who survives Infinity War is Stan Lee.
6. What is going to unite the Avengers with Dr. Strange and Wong, with the Guardians of the Galaxy?
Obviously the mutual desire to take down Thanos will be a factor in uniting the good guy front, but we are dealing with a significant amount of characters - it isn't just Hulk, Black Widow, Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, and Thor anymore - we've got all the Star Lord, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Drax the Destroyer, Mantis, and Nebula, plus Black Panther and his loyal followers, plus Dr. Strange and Wong... also, they are presumably going to be bringing characters from their world here (such as The Collector) in order to further the plot. Then there's the Black Order because of Thanos. We are dealing with a heck of a lot of people and time is limited with screentime. There needs to be something or someone who unites the good guys against the bad guys and bring everybody together (literally) as everyone in sprawled out - in New York, in Wakanda, hell, even out in space. Are we going to have mini battles throughout the Milky Way?
With five months to go until we get to the first of two installments, let the speculations continue.
