Marvel Heroes That Won't Survive Avengers: Doomsday And Secret Wars

The upcoming event films "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Avengers: Secret Wars" promise to bring lots of upheaval to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After all, both iterations of the "Secret Wars" concept in the comics featured multiversal shenanigans that impacted the Marvel universe for years to come. Expect "Doomsday" and "Secret Wars" to crash MCU superheroes into each other in similarly momentous ways, which is bound to end with some of them almost certain to bite the dust. After all, "part of the journey is the end," as a wise Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) once remarked in "Avengers: Endgame." 

With Doctor Doom (also Downey) preparing to terrorize superheroes all across the multiverse, it's only inevitable that some seemingly invincible figures will meet their fate in "Doomsday" and "Secret Wars" much like Stark and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) died saving the world in "Endgame." The question becomes, though, which superheroes will perish in these two cinematic juggernauts? 

Surely the younger figures only recently introduced into the franchise (like Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel) are safe, but most other MCU superheroes, especially ones who have been in the saga for years and years, seem to be fair game. For some, dying in "Doomsday" or "Secret Wars" just feels like the natural end to their stories, while others seem to be so routinely ignored in modern MCU media that getting wiped out in the next "Avengers" installments feels unavoidable. Whatever the reason, these are the MCU superheroes that seem pretty much guaranteed to not survive whatever mayhem unfolds in "Doomsday" and "Secret Wars."

It's hard to remember now, but the original "Thor" was only the fourth movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since then, Chris Hemsworth has reprised the character across four solo "Thor" movies and a quartet of "Avengers" installments, not to mention a "Doctor Strange" mid-credit scene. Thor has become a critical part of the MCU, an impressive feat for a character that once looked "too weird" or "fantastical" to exist alongside Iron Man and company. However, if directors Anthony and Joe Russo are looking for a major superhero to kill off to really up the stakes of "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Avengers: Secret Wars," Thor could be an optimal choice despite the figure's fanbase and extensive presence in the franchise.

For one thing, two of the original six Avengers are already dead in the MCU. Thor surviving through so many phases of MCU history is impressive but can't last forever. There has to be an endpoint for this character. Why not give Thor a glorious send-off in one of the next "Avengers" movies? Plus, 2022's "Thor: Love and Thunder" was a divisive title that indicated this character, now an elder statesman to newer MCU superheroes, is spinning his wheels. If there's nowhere more interesting to take the God of Thunder, why not bring his lengthy journey to a close? "Doomsday" and "Secret Wars" could offer prime chances to wrap up a character that existed almost since the dawn of the MCU.

In "Deadpool and Wolverine," snarky Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) jokes that Disney is going to force Hugh Jackman — playing Wolverine for the first time since 2017 — to "do this until he's 90." The quip is rooted in some truth considering how much the Mouse House is clinging to the past these days.

Still, Jackman, speaking in practical terms, can't do this role forever. But with Kevin Feige openly saying that Marvel Studios is actively seeking out further chances to bring back Jackman's Wolverine from the third "Deadpool" film, it seems likely that this unstoppable mutant will be returning for some role in "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Avengers: Secret Wars." Such appearances would make tremendous sense, given how much the comics version of Wolverine factored into the original 1980s "Secret Wars" run.

If Wolverine does come back for the next "Avengers" installments, maybe it's time to take a cue from "Logan" and kill this variant of the character off. For one thing, going this route would help reaffirm the intimidating nature of Doctor Doom and other "Doomsday" and "Secret Wars" baddies by having them end such an indestructible mutant. For another, there have been constant rumors in recent years that Marvel's "X-Men" movie reboot may be closer than fans think. Wiping out Hugh Jackman's Wolverine in these "Avengers" installments could clear a path for a new incarnation of big screen mutants.

With the final post-credit sequence of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," former cosmic outlaw Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) was officially back on Earth, shown eating breakfast with his grandpa in a humble kitchen. Quite a contrast for a guy audiences met nearly a decade earlier excavating weird artifacts from alien temples. With this shift, it's clear a new era was beginning for Star-Lord, but that doesn't mean the character's superhero days are behind him. 

After all, this scene was followed up with text reading, "Star-Lord will return." "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Secret Wars" would be an optimal place to fulfill that on-screen promise, especially since Pratt has just worked with "Avengers" directors Anthony and Joe Russo on "The Electirc State." Given that Star-Lord made a conscious choice to leave the world of swashbuckling outer space adventures behind, however, it would take something incredible to pluck him out of his cozy domestic life. 

More urgently, some major narrative purpose would be needed to justify Star-Lord coming back. After the character narrowly evaded death on three separate occasions, bringing Star-Lord back so he can sacrifice himself or otherwise die during the events of "Doomsday" and "Secret Wars" could be a great way to resolve Star-Lord's storyline. Plus, given how so many of Star-Lord's emotional beats have been fulfilled, there's little reason to keep him around beyond the next two "Avengers" adventures. Time for the legendary Star-Lord to have his last dance.

Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) has been around a lot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His exploits date back to "The Incredible Hulk" in 2008, with both Edward Norton and Mark Ruffalo playing the character. The Hulk has been a formative member of The Avengers, stole the show in "Thor: Ragnarok," and even offered important advice to Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk in her Disney+ show. 

The Mark Ruffalo incarnation of the Hulk in particular has had a lot to do, including transforming into a more communicative, intelligent version of the green monster. Plus, key supporting characters from the comics like Red Hulk (Harrison Ford) and Samuel Sterns/The Leader (Tim Blake Nelson) have manifested in MCU projects like "Captain America: Brave New World." Now that the MCU's gotten so much mileage out of the Hulk, it seems likely he'll be one of the heroes to bite the dust during "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Secret Wars."

Like Thor, the prospect of one of the original Avengers perishing in this multiversal saga just sounds perfectly poetic, especially with a whole new generation of MCU heroes waiting in the wings. Also, the MCU has leaned so hard on various Hulk-based comic book storylines (namely elements from "Planet Hulk") over the years that the well on Hulk material that can be adapted for the big screen is starting to run dry. Now that the Hulk has a canonical MCU son, it's time for a radical status quo change, like the character's demise.

Scott Lang/Ant-Man's first solo movie, 2015's "Ant-Man," garnered widespread praise for offering a low-key counterpoint to that year's other big Marvel Cinematic Universe adventure, "Avengers: Age of Ultron." Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) may have begun his silver screen life as a smaller presence in the MCU, but his subsequent adventures have led to numerous multiversal exploits and even became an integral part of "Avengers: Endgame." 

His experiences across the multiverse have even led to two different points, in "Ant-Man and the Wasp" and "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," where it looked like Lang was stranded in the Quantum Realm permanently. Lang's narrowly avoided that fate twice now, but he can't keep running forever. With "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Avengers: Secret Wars" presumably intersecting so many different realms of existence, the time could be now for Ant-Man to get squashed.

After all, who could be more vulnerable to multiversal woes than someone who has nearly perished in the Quantum Realm twice? The MCU's already teased on multiple occasions that Scott Lang's end will come through the multiverse. It's time to make good on that potential. Plus, MCU fans everywhere agree that "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" committed many grave creative sins. It's not like killing Ant-Man off in the next two "Avengers" movies would suddenly halt a thriving series of solo features. This plucky hero better watch his back, as one of the MCU's most intimately-scaled heroes could experience a large-scale demise in the near future.

While we've focused so far on MCU stalwarts who have existed for decades in the franchise, what if a fresher-faced superhero bit the dust in "Avengers Doomsday" or "Avengers: Secret Wars" — like a member of the Eternals? After all, what better way to solidify the might of Doctor Doom than having him take down an ancient superhero who has existed since the dawn of time. 

One particularly vulnerable member of the group could be Thena (Angelina Jolie), who was last seen in the ending of "Eternals" traveling through the deepest corners of outer space with Makkari and Druig. Perhaps, in their cosmic exploits, they end up encountering Doom and his Battleworld (the latter being the domain the "Secret Wars" comic unfolds in), which results in poor Thena finally biting the dust after eons of existence.

Picking Thena over her two other "Eternals" companions would simply come down to Angelina Jolie's star power. Thanks to her being one of the most famous movie stars of the last 30 years, audiences wouldn't need to have an encyclopedic knowledge of "Eternals" to understand the gravity of Thena perishing. Plus, this would give other "Eternals" characters personal motivation to fight Doom, an element these figures desperately need given how disconnected they are from the rest of the MCU. Her death would make Thena's time in the MCU short, but she could go out on a blaze of glory.

Though Don Cheadle previously expressed excitement that a proposed "Armor Wars" movie would finally pull back the helmet on War Machine's inner life, it was recently announced that the first solo feature for Colonel James "Rhodey" Rhodes was on the back burner at Marvel Studios. The future now looks uncertain for one of the MCU's first superheroes, with the 20th anniversary of the character's first appearance in "Iron Man" fast approaching.

With this mind, it seems like Marvel Studios could be teeing up Rhodey to be one of the superheroes that perishes in the next two "Avengers" movies. With "Armor Wars" no longer a priority project, killing War Machine off wouldn't jeopardize a potentially lucrative MCU entry. Plus the MCU has struggled to figure out what kind of role Rhodey should have in this larger franchise now that the character's best friend, Tony Stark, has passed away. If there isn't truly essential material to hand Don Cheadle, why keep him around? 

Finally, it's hard to imagine this saga coming up with more dramatically compelling material than War Machine having to fight (and, presumably, die at the hands of) a version of Doctor Doom that looks like his deceased buddy. Cheadle's been a sturdy, enjoyable presence in the MCU for 15 years now. Given the status of "Armor Wars," "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Secret Wars" seem poised to give him a worthy send-off.

"Thor: Love and Thunder" seemed to pretty clearly indicate that Marvel Studios doesn't have much interest in further exploring Valkyrie as a character. Tessa Thompson's breakout Asgardian from "Thor: Ragnarok," after getting some fun action beats in "Avengers: Endgame," returned in "Love and Thunder" only to get sidelined for the entire third act after her character injured her arm. With that, any and all Valkyrie plotlines ground to a halt.

Save for a cameo in "The Marvels," Valkyrie hasn't shown up much in MCU media nor have the key creatives behind the franchise indicated that they have further grand plans for her. If Thor's saga is winding down with the next two "Avengers" installments, it might sense to also jettison Valkyrie by letting her valiantly perish in a skirmish against evil forces in "Doomsday" and "Secret Wars."

It doesn't hurt that Thompson herself is very busy at the moment, with the drama "Hedda" and the Netflix series "His and Hers" on the way. As her schedule gets increasingly cramped, does she really want to make more time for further MCU appearances? Killing off Valkyrie would also give the character something of note to do after being so sidelined and ignored in "Love and Thunder." This character really deserved better in her post-"Ragnarok" exploits, but maybe the next two "Avengers" movies can give the unforgettable Valkyrie an equally memorable finale to make up for her "Love and Thunder" erasure.

While Scott Lang/Ant-Man has been accidentally ensnared in the multiverse multiple times, Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has repeatedly and consciously tangled with it across his entire MCU career. The climax of the first "Doctor Strange" ended with a voyage to the Dark Dimension, while Cumberbatch's gifts in communicating with the multiverse provided the impetus for the entire plot of "Spider-Man: No Way Home."

So far, even after the events of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," this hasn't resulted in very grave consequences beyond Strange getting a third eye and a new pal that looks a lot like Charlize Theron. However, as Strange's former friend Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) repeatedly intoned to him, "the bill comes due." There's no way Strange can constantly mess with the multiverse and not expect there to be severe consequences.

With Marvel's "Multiverse Saga" planning to conclude with "Doomsday" and "Secret Wars," this could be an optimal time to also finish Strange's saga. What better finale for this superhero than for his end to come as Doctor Doom wreaks havoc across the multiverse? Plus, it's not like the MCU would be deprived of wizards if Strange bit the dust. America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) and Wong (Benedict Wong) are still around, while Strange's cape seemed to sense some magical prowess in Spider-Man pal Ned (Jacob Batalon) as well. Perhaps the bill will be paid in full by Strange in "Doomsday" and "Secret Wars."

Rocket (Bradley Cooper and Sean Gunn) was once the ultimate loner who couldn't stand the idea of interacting with other people, let alone working with them toward a common goal. In the touching ending of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," though, Rocket's grown enough to let countless souls into his life and function as the new leader of the Guardians. "Vol. 3" mid-credits scene showed this critter leading Groot, Adam Warlock, Kraglin, and other cosmic heroes into battle, a sight that would've been impossible to imagine at the trilogy's start.

It's almost a foregone conclusion that this new iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy will show up in "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Secret Wars," after the group's first incarnation proved so instrumental in "Infinity War" and "Endgame." But when they do reappear, they might lose their recently-implemented furry commander.

Rocket dying in "Doomsday" or "Secret Wars" would undoubtedly send many audience members into unstoppable fits of tears, especially since he survived the Thanos snap from "Infinity War." However, some self-sacrifice on the part of Rocket could cement how far he's grown as a character. Plus, "Vol. 3" showed that the Guardians of the Galaxy can survive membership changes. Most importantly, though, "Vol. 3" delved into Rocket's past and let him come to terms with his origins. His greatest character arc is fully completed. With no further urgent emotional ground to cover, it could make sense for him to finally "fly away ... into that forever and beautiful sky."

Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) was once mostly just a background player in the "Captain America" trilogy, existing largely to both motivate Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) into action and inspire endless Tumblr fan-fiction about his relationships with male MCU characters. As the years progressed, though, a fanbase inevitably cropped up for this tragic bad boy with floppy hair. Cut to the modern world and the "Thunderbolts*" poster even features vivid text screaming "Now with more Bucky!"

The character has become a key selling point for MCU projects beyond the "Captain America" movies. Not a bad result for someone who, for many years, existed in the comics as just a Dick Grayson/Robin pastiche. Unfortunately, it's not looking good for Bucky to survive whatever chaos Doctor Doom throws at the Avengers in "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Avengers: Secret Wars."

For starters, even with that super-soldier serum running through his veins and mechanical arm, it's doubtful a mere mortal like Bucky could withstand Doctor Doom's most towering abilities. There's no sorcery, ancient mystical rings, or superpowers that can protect him. More urgently, Bucky previously perished in the ending of "Infinity War" at the hands of an "Avengers" villains. Who says it can't happen again, especially when Doctor Doom's involved? At least Bucky's inevitable death will inspire a greater fan reaction than anyone could have imagined when the character first hit the silver screen in 2011.