What Is the Marvel Character Lineup for Avengers 4?
If you’ve seen Avengers: Infinity War, chances are likely that you’ve got some major questions about what’s next for the Marvel Cinematic Universe generally, but specifically for Avengers 4. After all, Thanos isn’t exactly a character known for his peace and tranquility. It’s not a spoiler to say that the Mad Titan’s appearance in Infinity War has changed the game in big ways.
What are spoilers, though, are everything that comes after this paragraph. As you may have guessed from the headline this piece is speculating about character lineup for Avengers 4 and to get to that, there are going to be some plot spoilers for Infinity War. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you might want to turn back now. You’ve been warned.
In Infinity War, Thanos killed a lot of people. Loki and Heimdall met their end early on even before he had all the Infinity Stones and both Gamora and Vision were killed to get Infinity Stones. Then, with all six stones assembled in his Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos snapped his fingers and half the life in the universe crumbled, literally. In a snap, a large swath of heroes disappeared. It was both a dramatic moment, but also a significant thinning of the character lineup going into Avengers 4.
And what might that Avengers 4 lineup look like? Well, outside of those viewers saw survive Thanos’ “balancing” of the universe there are a handful of other characters who could be part of the action. Nick Fury was able to send a distress call to Captain Marvel before he vanished, and we know that Hawkeye was elsewhere. There’s also Ant-Man and the Wasp to consider, too. To that end, we’ve come up with a list of who we think will be players in Avengers 4. Some are more obvious than others and a few are potentially still question marks, but we’ll explain that when we get there.
Read on for what we think the character lineup for Avengers 4 will be.
SLIDE 1/16 – THORThor survived Thanos’ attack on the Asgardian ship. He watched Thanos kill Heimdall and Loki, he nearly died to hep create Stormbreaker, a battle-axe that may be the only weapon capable of killing Thanos. He even made it to Earth to help battle in Wakanda and almost saved the universe when he drove Stormbreaker into Thanos’ chest. Unfortuantely, he needed to aim for the head. Thanos still snapped his fingers, people still vanished. But Thor was not one of them and seeing as how he has that battle-axe, there’s no doubt he’ll be part of whatever the resolution to things is.
SLIDE 2/16 – ROCKETRocket is the last remaining Guardian of the Galaxy now, even if he isn’t aware of that yet. Rocket being the last Guardian standing — and losing everything dear to him — is something Infinity War tragically foreshadowed. However, if there is one positive thing in Rocket’s situation is that he is on Earth with the bulk of the remaining heroes and, as we’ve seen before, he’s not exactly a character who stays down. Rocket may not be an Avenger, but we can expect to see him avenge his team in 4.
SLIDE 3/16 – CAPTAIN AMERICABucky and Sam may have disappeared, but Captain America remains. The first Avenger survived the Nazis, being frozen for 70 years and now Thanos. We’re pretty sure he will have a large role in Avengers 4.
SLIDE 4/16 – IRON MANHe may be on Titan where he saw his worst nightmare come true — specifically Spider-Man dying right in front of him, a death that he will carry on his conscience — but Iron Man survived. He’ll be back in Avengers 4. We’re just hoping that when he makes it home Pepper is okay and that he and Steve set their differences aside to avenge their friends and make things right again.
SLIDE 5/16 – HULK/BRUCE BANNERBruce Banner? He’ll be back in Avengers 4. The real question is will the Hulk be back. Hulk faced off with Thanos early on and got a thrashing in the process. It was enough to scare him into not coming back out during the events of Infinity War. Seeing what happened when Thanos snapped his fingers probably isn’t going to be something the Hulk finds reassuring, though we think we’ll see the big angry guy in Avengers 4, too.
SLIDE 6/16 – BLACK WIDOWAnother “OG Avenger”, Black Widow will be back. Maybe she can help lure Hulk out?
SLIDE 7/16 – NEBULAWe expect to see Nebula return, though it will be interesting to see what her role is. In comics, specifically in Infinity Gauntlet, Nebula is the one who undoes Thanos’ devastation. Unfortunately, she becomes the villain in the process.
SLIDE 8/16 – WAR MACHINEWith so many heroes gone, it’s likely that we could see War Machine/Rhodey take a larger role than he has in previous MCU films and that’s a good thing. Iron Man is going to need his friend now more than ever.
SLIDE 9/16 – OKOYEWe can see Okoye fighting alongside Black Widow in Avengers 4. After all, seeing the two fo them come to aid Scarlet Witch in Infinity War was a epic moment and thanks to Black Panther we already know just how formidable Okoye is. With T’Challa gone, it’s easy to see Okoye stepping up to protect Wakanda — and the world — as best as she can.
SLIDE 10/16 – M’BAKUWith T’Challa gone, one major contender for who will lead Wakanda in Avengers 4 is M’Baku. With the king gone, it is easy to see M’Baku stepping up to protect the African nation, though we’re not sure how invested he will be in any attempt to go after Thanos.
SLIDE 11/16 – HAWKEYEOkay, so we didn’t see Hawkeye at all in Infinity War and we don’t really know if he survived or not, but set photos from the filming of Avengers 4 showed actor Jeremy Renner filming along side Scarlett Johansson while wearing a costume similar to his Ronin outfit in comics. That alone makes us think we will see Clint Barton, but he might not be in the best place. After all, Thanos’ snap may have destroyed his family and could be the nudge that sends Hawkeye into Ronin territory.
SLIDE 12/16 – ANT-MANAnother character we didn’t see in Infinity War, but he was mentioned and with Ant-Man and the Wasp coming up, we think we’ll see him in Avengers 4. After all, he’s helped out in time of need before. It’s how he ended up on house arrest…
SLIDE 13/16 – WASP
We know Wasp will make an appearance in Avengers 4. Evangeline Lilly confirmed that. However, she also confirmed that her role in the film is limited. Limited or not, if Infinity War showed us anything it’s that even a small amount of screen time can pack a big punch so we’re not counting Wasp out.
SLIDE 14/16 – CAPTAIN MARVELFury did send a distress call out and it was her symbol that lit up his pager screen… Carol Danvers might just be coming to save the day and we’re here for it.
SLIDE 15/16 – WONGWong disappeared from the movie early on, but for good reason. He went back to guard Sanctum Sanctorum with Doctor Strange gone. We’re pretty sure that’s not insignificant so provided Wong isn’t ash, we think he’ll have an important role in Avengers 4.
SLIDE 16/16 – SHURI
Shuri is one of the brightest minds in the world. The heroes are going to need someone to help them with science and technology so that is reason enough for Shuri to be around. However, T’Challa’s vanishing also opens the door for her to take on a much larger role: that of Black Panther.
