SDCC Week: Live, Die, or Heel Turn? Our Avengers: Doomsday Guess List

SDCC Week: Live, Die, or Heel Turn? Our Avengers: Doomsday Guess List

Who lives? Who dies? Who joins Doom in his plan to reboot the multiverse?

In Avengers: Infinity War, the first chapter of the last two-part Avengers duology, half of all life in the universe was destroyed. That’s a tough act to follow… at least in terms of body count. Sure, most of the lost were restored to life in Avengers: Endgame, but many big names like Loki, Gamora, Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff), and of course Iron Man/Tony Stark sacrificed themselves along the way. From the looks of it, none of them are coming back.

Now that the next Avengers film, Doomsday, is almost here, how will it make good on its namesake by making us feel that our heroes are more doomed than ever? Well, probably by killing a bunch of them. Or worse, watching them become evil, the way that Robert Downey Jr. is trading one metal mask for another. 

Here are our best guesses on which of the characters seen in the new trailer (and a few that weren’t) will live, die, or turn bad.

Black Panther (Shuri)
Lives: The latest Black Panther will likely hang up her cat costume after Avengers: Secret Wars (the second part of Avengers: Doomsday), but she won’t likely die as early as Doomsday. Losing another Black Panther so soon after the passing of both her predecessor T’Challa and the Killmonger iteration, all after losing Shuri’s father T’Chaka in Captain America: Civil War... that’s just too many dead Black Panthers.  There’s only so many times you can be submerged in that type of tragedy before you grow numb to it.

So, Shuri will likely move on. There are potentially other multi-verse friendly ways to continue the character, but it won’t be because she died. It will be because T’Challa’s son, or even an alternate version of Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger, will show up to take the responsibility from her.

M’Baku
Dies: Shuri’s rival and friend is almost definitely going to die. He’s got a big personality and is always fun to watch, but he serves no narrative purpose at this point. Moving him out of the way—maybe to save Shuri’s life—would be a great full-circle moment for the man who once fought to become the next Black Panther.

Namor
Turns Bad: Namor was a crowd-pleaser in Wakanda Forever, but he didn’t get to do much besides look good and eventually give Shuri the opportunity to prove herself by besting him. He still needs to live long enough to tempt Sue Storm into making out with him (one of his primary narrative powers in the comics). He’ll live for now, but mostly because killing him at this rate wouldn’t mean that much to people. And he won’t exactly “turn bad,” since he was morally grey to begin with, but chances are high he’ll side with Doom. He likes leaders who will do whatever it takes to protect their people.

Steve Rogers
Turns Bad: Speaking of, this former Captain America isn’t going to die before he has the chance to join Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom and start kicking all his would-be friends squarely in the pants. If “Evil Steve” is ever going to appear in the MCU, now’s the time. If it happens down the line, Rogers going rogue would just look like a rerun of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man-to-Doom face-to-heel turn.

“But Steve held Thor’s hammer! He must be good, right!?” Exactly. Seeing Steve grab Mjolnir, then hit Thor in the face with it, would turn the MCU upside-down in ways that people would never forget. Maybe it will turn out that Steve and Doom were right all along, and all it would take would be a good smack in the face for Thor to see that.

Thor
Turns Bad (for a movie or two): He’s going to live, but only so he can join Steve and Doom in their new evil Avengers in Doomsday. After that, it could go either way, but chances are that he’ll stick around and become a good-ish guy again. Thor’s one of the few MCU characters who works as both a lead and support character. His headlining days may be over, but he makes every movie he’s in feel like a critical moment for the MCU. They’ll let him stick around to add color and history to the MCU for as long as Chris Hemsworth wants the role.

Loki
Lives: Since Loki already died two Avengers movies ago, he’ll live through this one and will oppose his brother Thor yet again. Except this time, he’ll be the good guy while Thor will play the villain. Like so many aspects of this movie, the goal will be to bring that “Dogs and cats, living together, mass hysteria!” feeling that Peter Venkman warned us of all those years ago to the screen.

Ant-Man
Dies: The ageless Paul Rudd is finally starting to look a little too old for this stuff, and he’s so beloved that seeing him die would make a lot of people cry. So, that’s what Marvel is likely to do. Plus, he’s taken his powers to all the interesting places he can go, and his comic relief spot is likely to be filled by Deadpool in future MCU films. He’s used up most of his juice.

Sam Wilson
Dies: He’s going to die, and it will likely be Steve that kills him, to prove just how evil Evil Steve truly is. Sam Wilson is a great Captain America, at least in theory. In practice, the MCU just doesn’t seem to know what to do with him. He’s also like one of four guys in this movie who either are/were/sort of were Captain America at one point or another. Out of all of the Caps in this movie, he’s the one who’s the most consistently nice and supportive, which is precisely why killing him would show audiences that even the best of us are set to lose against Doom.

Bucky Barnes
Lives:  Bucky will live, but only so there’s a guy who knew and loved Steve around to really, really hate Evil Steve enough to try to kill him. He may earn his own Captain America suit too, taking the mantle from Sam after he dies—but most likely not, because pretty much everyone looks better without that mask covering their face. 

US Agent
Dies: Wait, this guy is still alive? Well, he won’t be for long.

Ghost
Dies: This is a tough one, because keeping her alive won’t mean a lot, but killing her won’t mean much, and turning her evil would just be a replay of her original role in Ant-Man & The Wasp. So, they’ll probably kill her just make room in this already overcrowded movie, much like they did to Black Widow/Taskmaster in The Thunderbolts.

Black Widow (Yelena Belova)
Lives: She’ll live, mostly because, like Shuri, there’s only so many times you can kill a Black Widow before it feels like an expectation, not an event. Her sister died a few movies ago, and her Black Widow/Taskmaster semi-sister died a movie or so after that. So if she dies now, it will be less of an, “Oh no!” and more of a, “Here we go again. Again….”

Red Guardian
Turns Bad:  One of the two members of the Stranger Things cast in this cast are going to live through this movie. Our bet is that Red Guardian will scrape by… but only because without him, Yelena has no one to bounce off of. And she will literally bounce off him, as either he or Yelena will end up joining Doom. It could be Yelena, as having Steve and Red Guardian on the same side would sort of be like putting Peanut Butter and Bearded Russian Peanut Butter on the same sandwich. That said, one of Red Guardian’s best bits is when he teams up with another Super Soldier and announces they are like brothers, only for them to roll their eyes and wish that Bearded Russian Peanut Butter would develop a social filter. 

Sentry
Turns Bad:  Killing Sentry would be a great way to show how powerful Doom is, but this movie is likely to show that in a bunch of other ways. Instead, Sentry will probably turn evil. That’s where the character was most potent and interesting in his prior film appearance. But this time, Sentry won’t turn bad because he slips into his persona of The Void. He’ll be his “good self” when he joins Doom, further causing the heroes to question if they’re actually the bad guys or not. Seeing his smiling face say, “C’mon guys. I don’t want to have to kill you. Just join us…” would make everyone feel utterly hopeless against the Doom Squad.

Shang-Chi
Lives: This poor dude barely got to get started in the MCU before he essentially disappeared. Even his sidekick Trevor, the powerless thespian, has gotten more screen time since his film debut. Killing him here would be like if the first Shang-Chi movie ended as it does, but there was a post credits scene that cut to a black screen with text that said, “Then a few years later, he died…” It would feel like his whole intro movie was for nothing. He’ll stick around just to give people someone to root for and to give him the chance to meet Spider-Man and other heavy hitters in Secret Wars, but it’s totally possible that after that, he’ll give the rings to Awkwafina and be put out to pasture.

Gambit
Lives: Channing Tatum waited so long to get to play this character. And after his crowd pleasing “6^th most important character in the movie” status in Deadpool & Wolverine, he’s a lot like Shang-Chi in that he’s really just getting started. Many of the other X-Men here have had their full character arcs fulfilled once or even twice in prior films. Gambit, though, still needs to live long enough to meet his universe’s version of Rogue and play out one of the most popular love stories in comics history.

Mystique
Dies: Speaking of characters who have already seen their arcs crest and fall, Mystique has already gotten a beginning, middle, and end to her story two times already in prior X-Men films. There won’t be much new for her to do here other than look cool and trigger nostalgia. It would be great to see her stick around, but realistically, she’s probably going to use her powers to trick Doom into thinking she’s his biggest fan before the villain uses his magic to see through her and stab her in the back.

Magneto and Professor X
Double Dies: For a variety of reasons, Marvel isn’t likely thinking long term for these iterations of Magneto or Xavier, so they’ll likely just be here to hold each other’s hands as they watch their world come to an end.

Beast
Turns Bad: It’s hard to imagine a fully CGI character who has never really made a splash in the MCU staying alive for very long, but seeing the smartest member of the X-Men join Doom would do a lot to add to Doom’s credibility while also giving us a version of the “Evil Beast” variants that have been so popular in the comics. Kelsey Grammar also does a great job of sounding pompous and punch-able, so seeing him join the antagonists will make us all the more excited to see them lose (in the next movie).

Cyclops
Turns Bad: This is a tough one, because Cyclops already died near the start of X-Men: The Last Stand. Seeing him die again here would feel like another of those reruns. That said, he’s also not exactly near the top of most people’s favorite X-Man list, so people aren’t likely thirsting to see him take up a spot among the surviving heroes. Our bet is that Beast will join Doom first, then Cyclops will follow. Showing the brave leader of the X-Men’s combat team aligning with Beast by joining Doom will show that it’s not a coward’s way out. And it will also give us a chance to see him melt the skin and muscle off a very angry Wolverine before getting clawed in the chest by his largely cleaned off skeleton once Secret Wars finally hits.

Reed Richards
Lives: Not all of the Fantastic Four are going to live through this movie. There’s certainly a chance Reed will be the first to go, chances are higher that he’ll live to make it to the end of Secret Wars in order to make some grander sacrifice to save the multiverse. There are also a fair number of people who will be seeing this movie in part because they love Pedro Pascal. Marvel wouldn’t want to alienate them quite so soon. Plus, we need some time to see him get super jealous while Sue stares longingly at Namor in his speedo.

Sue Storm
Turns Bad: Sue will live, if only because she already died for a hot minute in her last movie. As with Black Panter and Black Widow, another death would feel uninspired. Plus, she needs that time to prove that someone in the MCU has a sex drive by flirting with Namor, potentially making a terrible choice that will doom her entire universe. Plus, there’s in here due to the time Sue spent as the maniacial Malice in the comics. Seeing her join Namor (and presumably Doom’s crew)—perhaps to ensure a better future for her son Franklin—would give Reed plenty to be angsty and relatable about.

Johnny Storm
Dies: If anyone in the Fantastic Four is primed to die, it’s Johnny. He’s not young enough to be the cute college hunk anymore. He doesn’t do much besides fly around and blast heat beams at people. So, he’s basically a flying variant on Cyclops. The only thing that might save him is the fact that it would feel a little repetitive for him to die after his alt-universe counterpart (played by Chris “Steve Rogers” Evans) died in Deadpool & Wolverine. But that’s all the more reason to kill him quick, before he ends up on-screen with Evans, and people’s brains explode from a hotty overload.

Ben “The Thing” Grimm
Lives: Ben will live to grieve his loved ones, hate Doom, and look awesome, because he’s really good at doing all three of those things. Actually, that’s the main job of all the characters who end up surviving Doomsday long enough to make it to Secret Wars. After that, and the whole MCU reboots, who knows, but if anyone deserves to get into the new MCU, it’s Aunt Petunia’s favorite nephew.

So, that’s what we’re thinking. Set a reminder to come back here after Doomsday hits theaters to see how well we did with our predictions. If we whiffed more than 50% of them, the next bucket of popcorn is on us.