WARNING: Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4 ahead.
Even if you haven’t seen Avengers: Infinity War at this point, you have to know at least that plenty of folks don’t make it out alive. We’ve seen the memes, discussed the goals of Thanos (and his hotness for some reason), and we’re all scrambling to figure out what happens next in Avengers 4.
In a pretty surprising move, The Russo Brothers have been sharing little tidbits all over the place to explain some of the plot details in Infinity War and what we can expect in Avengers 4. While the fate of some characters isn’t really in question — like Spider-Man and the Guardians of the Galaxy given their future films — others aren’t as safe from the wrath of Thanos. This even includes the characters that didn’t appear on screen during Infinity War.
One we learned this week was the location of Valkyrie after the devastation that opened the movie on Thor’s Asgard ship. According to a report by i09 and a student from Iowa City High School on Reddit, Joe Russo stopped by to speak to students and answered a few Infinity War questions in the process. One of the big ones was the fate of Valkyrie and why she didn’t appear in the film:
There certainly were survivors—Thor does say to the Guardians that [Thanos] slaughtered half his people [but] prior to the start of that scene escape ships were deployed for Asgardians—including Valkyrie.
So she managed to get out of dodge and save a few other Asgardians in the process. But she wasn’t the only one who was on the ship that fans wanted to see in Infinity War. As The Russos laid out to HuffPost on Friday, several characters that don’t appear on the screen are still directly affected by Thanos’ snap and the removal of half the population in the universe. They also bring some speculation about Avengers 4 in the process.
Related to Valkyrie, it turns out that Korg and Miek from Thor: Ragnarok aren’t just part of the death pile in the movie. Their fate is marked as “too spoilery” by the Russos, which doesn’t mean necessarily they survived the snap but it does say they didn’t just bite it in the early moments of Infinity War. They’re not the only pair that could hold spoilers for Avengers 4, and one might be pretty crazy. Spider-Man’s best friend Ned and Shuri from Black Panther are both spoilers for Avengers 4 apparently, along with Thor’s girlfriend Jane Foster played by Natalie Portman. It had been thought that Portman was done with Marvel in 2016, but she seemed to change her mind in January 2017. If she returns for Avengers 4, even in a small cameo, it could bring some interesting takes for the character. Then again, it could also just be another passing mention of Jane Foster like we got in the first Avengers film. We’ll just have to see.
The rest of the characters that lived or died in Infinity War is a little more cut and dry. Actor Loki from Thor: Ragnarok joins the real Loki in the afterlife, along with Lady Sif and Betty Ross. Not only does Betty end up getting replaced by Black Widow in the heart of Bruce Banner, now she’s been turned into dust by a purple tyrant she didn’t even know.
On the opposite side, Howard The Duck lives for that heroic appearance we’ve all been waiting for since he showed up at the end of Guardians Of The Galaxy and Aunt May might show up to provide a moment to follow that emotional ending for Spider-Man and Iron Man. The only character that both directors aren’t willing to push in one direction or another is Nakia played by Lupita Nyong’o in Black Panther. The only thing they were willing to say is that “she’s on missions.”
If we can somehow get a Nakia, Hawkeye, Wasp, and Ant-Man film where they are all on a mission together while Infinity War is happening, it might be perfect.
(Via Huffpost)