Avengers; Infinity War ended with the biggest downer since The Empire Strikes Back, so it’s
no wonder that everyone’s trying to figure out what’s going to happen when Thanos returns
to the screen in 2019.
From clues we’ve picked up from the comics to hints that we’ve already seen, here are
our predictions for the possible outcomes of Avengers 4.
Spoiler warning: we’re going to be talking a lot about the end of Infinity War.
The New Black Panther
The most shocking part of Infinity War came when Thanos snapped his fingers and killed
half the universe, and it only got more surprising when it turned out that half included heroes
like Spider-Man, Bucky, Doctor Strange, and the Black Panther.
Since there are about 1.3 billion reasons and counting to keep that last guy around,
we’re guessing that most of those deaths are probably going to be undone by the end
of Avengers 4.
"As you can see, I am not dead."
Even if it’s just for now, though, T’Challa’s death leads to the most obvious idea for the
next one: Shuri becoming the new Black Panther.
With the heart-shaped herbs gone at the end of Black Panther, Shuri would be able to use
her expertise with technology to step into the role.
We've even seen her in action, fighting with panther-shaped energy gauntlets.
All she needs is the costume.
The other strong possibility would be that Nakia takes over instead, but Shuri's the
one who becomes Black Panther in the comics when T’Challa is incapacitated.
With Marvel Studios' track record of using elements from stories like Winter Soldier
and Infinity Gauntlet as road maps, that seems like one they'd want to stick with.
King of the Dead
If Shuri does become the Black Panther, that leaves us with the question of what could
happen with T’Challa.
We’re pretty sure he’s going to come back to life somehow, but something in the comics
gives another possibility: he might just become the King of the Dead.
In the comics, T’Challa found himself conflicted after Shuri took over as the leader of Wakanda.
He wanted to be Black Panther again, but he doesn't want to interfere with Shuri’s reign.
Obviously, he solves this problem by going to the secret necropolis under the Golden
City so that he can talk to Bast, the cat goddess.
You know, pretty standard cat stuff.
To give him a new purpose, she made him King of the Dead, with all the strength and wisdom
of every Black Panther before him.
Who better to lead a team of superheroes back to the land of the living than him?
Asgard Reborn
Infinity War’s shocks aren’t limited to the end of the movie.
Right at the beginning, we find out that Thanos and the Black Order killed all of the Asgardian
refugees that Thor worked so hard to save in Ragnarok.
That might not be the end of Asgard, though.
In the comics, Ragnarok isn't the end of the world, it's the end of a cycle.
As gods, Thor and the other Asgardians are creatures of mythology — they live, die,
and are reborn into new forms, eternally bound by their nature.
If we're following that logic, then the next major quest for a Thor who's more powerful
than ever could be the rebuilding of Asgard by tracking down the reborn souls of the other
gods — including an all-new, all-different Loki.
The return of Korg, Miek, and Valkyrie
They couldn’t really kill the three best new movie characters of 2017 offscreen between
movies, could they?
Until proven otherwise, let’s just assume that Korg, Miek, and Valkyrie weren't on the
refugee ship for some reason.
Maybe they were out scouting for groceries, or fighting the Skrulls.
Anything to get them back for next time.
Seriously: If Happy Hogan can be in like six of these movies, then Valkyrie needs to be
in at least ten.
Tony Stark, R.I.P.
A lot of moviegoers predicted that we’d be bidding a fond farewell Robert Downey Jr.
in Infinity War.
That didn’t happen this time, but it may have been set up for Avengers 4.
Doctor Strange traded Thanos the Time Stone in exchange for sparing Tony Stark's life.
That's surprising, first because Strange swore an oath to protect it, and second because
he did it knowing that if Thanos got the stones, he was going to kill half the galaxy anyway.
Even if Strange and Stark were BFFs and not just dudes who didn't actually seem to like
each other, there's no way anyone should trade Iron Man's life for uncountable trillions.
Unless…
Shortly before that scene is the one where Strange uses the time stone to take a peek
at 14 million alternate outcomes, and says that the good guys only win in one.
Given the bargain he makes, you have to assume that the one reality where Thanos is defeated
has to be one where Tony Stark lives long enough to do something to turn the tide.
We’re betting it’s a heroic sacrifice that's been building for 11 years.
The All-New Iron Man
Tony Stark might be on the way out, but Iron Man could stick around.
It's just going to be Jim Rhodes under the helmet instead.
Like Shuri, this one follows the precedent set in the comics.
Before he was War Machine, Rhodey was Iron Man from 1983 to 1985.
It also seems like a logical continuation of the story.
He's the only one besides Tony to fight in the Iron Man armor, and the big airport battle
in Civil War left him injured, needing Stark's tech to walk.
That puts him in a very similar position to the way Tony was back in his early comics
appearances, when he needed his armor to keep his heart beating.
If Rhodey does take over, that provides proof-of-concept for the idea that the MCU can continue after
the departure of big-name actors, something that was already done on a small scale when
Don Cheadle took over the role of Rhodey from Terrence Howard.
"Next time, baby."
Keep waiting for Adam Warlock
Adam Warlock is a huge part of the original Infinity Gauntlet story.
While his role for the most part is limited to standing around in space watching the big
battle go down, he actually winds up in possession of the Gauntlet itself at the end.
Between that and his imminent arrival being teased in the post-credits scene of Guardians
of the Galaxy Vol. 2, it might have been surprising that he didn’t make an appearance in Infinity
War.
He’s even the focal point of the comic book crossover that gave the movie its name.
If you’re thinking they might have saved him for the sequel, though, it doesn’t seem
likely.
One of the few movies to have actually been announced for the next phase of Marvel movies
was Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3.
With Adam being set up as Ayesha’s genetically engineered instrument of revenge, it’s way
more likely that he’ll show up there.
That leaves the role open for a space-faring hero who can explain galactic conflicts, and
it seems pretty obvious that it’s going to go to Captain Marvel, who was summoned
at the end of Infinity War by Nick Fury’s cosmic beeper.
That makes sense structurally, since Captain Marvel and Ant-Man and the Wasp are the only
MCU movies coming out between Infinity War and Avengers 4.
As much as we like Scott Lang, he’s not the guy who’s going to be getting everyone
up to speed on the Kree/Skrull War.
Carol Danvers, on the other hand, has experience battling against and wielding exactly the
kind of cosmic power that the heroes are going to need to beat Thanos once and for all.
That leaves the Guardians free to fly back into their own movie, and the only question
left is whether they’ll fight Adam Warlock or the Magus, who is Adam Warlock’s evil
self from an alternate future.
Comic books can be pretty complicated.
Capwolf at last
We’ll admit that this one’s pretty unlikely, but if Infinity War has proven anything, it's
that the Marvel movies can do anything and make a billion dollars.
They've spent ten full years and 19 movies getting to that point, but they just put out
a movie about a giant purple man trying to get his hands on magic space rocks, featuring
characters like Proxima Midnight and the Collector, and a major plot point was that a space dwarf
made a magic hammer out of a talking tree.
We’re not complaining, but you have to admit that stuff’s pretty weird.
Clearly, there’s nothing stopping them from doing a movie where Captain America becomes
a super-powered werewolf and delivers an inspirational speech to a bunch of other werewolves.
It might even make sense from a movie-making standpoint.
If Chris Evans really does want to scale back his acting work and devote his time to remodeling
his house, then why not replace him with a CGI wolfman with an indestructible shield?
It would definitely be a weird direction to lift from the comics, but they already did
the part where Thanos starts turning people into cubes.
There’s no way a wolf is any weirder than that.
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