If you’re a Marvel fan on social media, you may have heard about the theory that only two of the six original heroes will make it out of the climactic events of Avengers 4 alive. Following Infinity War, only the OG Avengers survive to take on Thanos and restore the half of the universe that he wiped out, so it makes sense that they’d suffer some serious casualties. But where does this rumor actually originate from?
Well, word has it that the Russo brothers themselves claimed that just two of the six would make it through into Phase Four of the MCU. A quick Twitter search of the phrase will show you just how many people have been attributing the quote to them, too. However, it’s proven impossible to find a source to corroborate this, so for the moment, we’ll write it off as internet legend.
The dubious evidence doesn’t stop there, though. A breakdown of the ending of Avengers 4 was posted on 4Chan before being removed, and subsequently summarized on Reddit. This doesn’t claim that four of the heroes will die but rather that four of them will effectively use the Infinity Stones to grant themselves one wish, and with that they’ll retire from active duty. According to this, the two left to protect the Earth alongside the newer heroes are Iron Man and Black Widow. Given the source, though, it’s probably not worth investing in it too much.
Finally, proving that Marvel fans can take anything and turn it into a theory, one Twitter user analyzed the cake made to celebrate production on the movie wrapping up and suggested that the four characters’ arms depicted on it could be the ones who’ll sacrifice themselves in Avengers 4. These would be Hulk, Black Widow, Black Panther and possibly Vision or Iron Man. The only problem is that T’Challa isn’t an original hero.
So, all in all, there’s no concrete evidence to support the fact only two of the original team’s line-up will survive Avengers 4. If anything, there’s more evidence pointing to there not being any major deaths, as Kevin Feige has already teased that the film is more celebratory and nostalgic instead of another action-packed, death ride like Infinity War.
Then again, he could be deliberately leading us down the wrong path. Whatever the truth is, it’ll come out next May when Avengers 4 finally arrives.