I can't believe which of the original MCU movie release may also demand a sacrifice if some theories hold true.
With many theories having emerged about the idea that Thor is in the cast of Avengers: Doomsday in order for his story to come to an end, the number of living characters who were in the original MCU Avengers team could well be reduced to smaller numbers than ever before, making the matter of who is alive - and who's still an active hero - all the more notable. This is doubly true given the fact that the remaining heroes would be one retired Avenger, and two of the MCU's more overlooked characters, who would then be in a uniquely important position.
The MCU's Original Avenger Roster Has Seriously Dwindled Due To Avengers: Endgame
The original Avengers lineup faced a lot of developments over the course of the Infinity Saga, with half of the team's stories coming to an end in Avengers: Endgame, as the epic conclusion to much of what had come before. Black Widow is the first of these heroes to get a conclusion to her story, thanks to her early sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame in order to get the Soul Stone back from Vormir during the team's adventures to gather the Infinity Stones.
Following this, the MCU's two figurehead heroes also got their endings, with Iron Man's being arguably the most important and notable single death in the MCU, having sacrificed himself in the climactic final moments of Endgame in order to finally defeat Thanos and his forces for good. Not long after, Captain America gets his own ending of sorts - though in this case a non-lethal one, with Steve Rogers instead choosing to retire after fighting the good fight for so long, and traveling back in time to be reunited with Peggy and on the hero mantle.
While these endings are all suitably emotional - even if the specific ways they close off these respective character arcs are more divisive in Black Widow and Steve Rogers' cases - they also mean the original team that helped bring Marvel's movie empire to new heights and cement the MCU have been drastically reduced since its creation. This setup makes the fates of the remaining original MCU Avengers all the more key - which also adds crucial context to the theory that Thor may die in Avengers: Doomsday that's easy to perhaps overlook.
Thor Dying In Avengers: Doomsday Would Mean Only The MCU's 2 Most Consistently Overlooked Avengers Would Be Left As Active Heroes
With Chris Hemsworth having previously discussed the prospect of Thor's MCU story coming to an end sometime soon - and an official Thor MCU tribute post and video adding further fire to the theory that Thor will face his end in Avengers: Doomsday, given he's a confirmed part of the movie's cast - it's worth noting how this would change the roster of still existing and active original MCU Avengers over 10 years after their first crossover movie released. This is namely because it would mean that all but three of the heroes are dead, and that of those three, only two are active heroes.
This theory becoming true would result in Thor dying 7 real-world years after Iron Man and Black Widow, despite Avengers: Doomsday being the next Avengers movie after Avengers: Endgame.
In a complicated twist, this would mean of the first six-member Avengers roster, only the Hulk and Hawkeye are still active heroes - and, with Hawkeye training Kate Bishop in Hawkeye, it seems entirely possible his own full hero retirement could be impending. As perhaps the two most consistently overlooked of the Avengers in of MCU focus - since Hawkeye has no solo MCU movies of his own, and the Hulk has historically had his story told by appearing in other heroes' movies - the prospect of these two being the last remaining of the original Avengers is certainly striking.
Given Avengers: Doomsday is set to debut the new iteration of the team, it does seem possible that the franchise could seek to end Thor's story to welcome in the new group more directly, since Thor would be the last member of the team to have his own more focal arc and movie story. However, this would put the MCU in the potentially awkward setup of having two of its most historically overlooked heroes in a more important than ever role, so it's also very possible this could dissuade the franchise from killing Thor also.
Thor Dying In Avengers: Doomsday Would Make Steve Rogers' Retirement Look Even More Notable
An equally fascinating way that Thor's theorized Avengers: Doomsday death would affect how the original Avengers roster would look is in of Steve Rogers' own arc as Captain America, and his conclusion in Avengers: Endgame. Rogers' story ending with him alive when Natasha Romanoff and Tony Stark died in Avengers: Endgame beforehand is already a matter of some controversy - with audiences divided over whether this was a fitting end for Steve that brought his story full circle, or an out-of-character move for the otherwise self-sacrificing hero - and this would no doubt only exacerbate things.
Thor dying in Avengers: Doomsday would mean not only that half of the original Avengers died in Avengers movies, but also that of the four original Avengers' endings, three ended with deaths, and only one ended with a retirement. This would make Rogers' conclusion more of an outlier, but also highlight that his perspective - that he'd fought in enough conflicts and wars to deserve some happiness before his death - was perhaps more understandable than it may have previously appeared to some, given otherwise his fate would more likely than not have been a fatal one also.
Currently, the chances of Thor dying in Avengers: Doomsday don't seem as definite as some theories would suggest, though it's certainly not an impossible scenario either. However, if the movie does decide to oust Thor at this point in its story, hopefully it will do so while keeping in mind how this will affect the lay of the land for the remaining characters who were in the original MCU Avengers team, since this initial group holds such an important place in the franchise's history.
- Created by
- Kevin Feige
- First Film
- Iron Man
- Films
- Deadpool & Wolverine, Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, Blade (2025), The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Avengers: Doomsday (2026), Avengers: Secret Wars
- First TV Show
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
- TV Shows
- Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Ironheart, Daredevil: Born Again, Wakanda, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Marvel Zombies, Wonder Man, Vision Quest
- Cast
- Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Edward Norton, Paul Rudd, Tom Holland, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Brie Larson, Chadwick Boseman, Sebastian Stan, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Pom Klementieff, Josh Brolin, Karen Gillan, Clark Gregg, Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Simu Liu, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Angelina Jolie, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, Richard Madden, Barry Keoghan, Gemma Chan, Ma Dong-seok, Brian Tyree Henry, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Lia McHugh, Jonathan Majors
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a multimedia superhero franchise that began in 2008 with Paramount's Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. The franchise quickly grew in popularity, with Disney eventually buying out Marvel Entertainment in 2009. The MCU consists of dozens of movies and TV shows, most notably Avengers: Endgame, WandaVision, and Loki.
