The sun is hot in today's Louisiana sky. It's a great summer day; I should be about doing several activities Southern young men like myself like to do--fishing, swimming, riding my 4-wheeler down some country roads. Instead, I'm sitting in my room eating a bowl of Blue Bell homemade vanilla ice cream writing yet another article for your leisure. Just for you, doll.
With eleven potential Avengers in next year's Age of Ultron, I think the death of a character has been in the back of everyone's mind. And I think it's a strong possibility that someone will die--when asked about what the theme of the movie would be, director Joss Whedon replied,
"Death, death and death."
I've thought long and hard about the different options for character deaths, and
no, not one of them is Hawkeye. For a character to be killed off, it must serve the overall story, something that will cause the other characters to feel pain as well as the audience to feel pain. It must give the Avengers something to avenge, ala Agent Phil Coulson. I don't think Hawkeye's death would do that; he just hasn't been close to anyone on the team other than Natasha Romanoff, and most of the time he's not an audience member's favorite Avenger.
That said, let's take a look at five characters whose death I believe would serve the story best. That's the key here: the death has to help the story.
5). Thor
With two movies left in Chris Hemsworth's contract and a third Thor announced to be in development, I'd say Thor is the least likely to die in my list of five. Although it would show how powerful Ultron is--I mean, damn, how shocked would everybody be if Ultron managed to kill an Asgardian?-- I don't feel like it would motivate them as a team. It would definitely make them desperate and feeling hopeless.
Some people have said that Thor could reappear in Hel before making his way back to Asgard, and at first this idea appealed to me. But then again, why would an Asgardian prince worthy to wield Mjolnir go to the realm of Hel? It doesn't make sense. Unless he somehow became unworthy when he died, which I don't feel would fit the development of the character.
The reason I did list him is because there is the rumor that the events of this film will cause Asgard and Midgard to be on brink of war with each other. It's easy to see how the citizens of Asgard would blame Stark/the Avengers for the death of Thor (they're probably already upset that he chose to stay on Earth). Over all, not likely, but you gotta admit it would be amazing to see.
This one isn't very likely, either, as RDJ is contracted to return for the Avengers 3 and he is the number one face of Marvel these days. However, it makes sense. With Tony Stark, you either outright love him or you hate to love him. Easily the most likeable character. With him being the creator of Ultron, Iron Man bots flying everywhere, his A.I. J.A.R.V.I.S. becoming its own hero, and his best friend making an appearance as well.. it seems like this will be a Tony Stark-centric movie.
I'm calling it right now--people will say the movie has too much Iron Man.
I'm personally scared that Thor won't be getting enough character moments this go round. So what better way to allow all the characters to gel as the Avengers, without having Stark overshadowing them then for him to be gone entirely? For Ultron to kill his creator, by accident or on purpose, and the group of the Avengers comes together to avenge the one who started it all?
Not only that, but Robert Downey Jr. said a couple weeks ago that he had "wrapped up the Age of Ultron gig." Many people theorized that his character could have been killed. While it doesn't necessarily mean that--hell, it doesn't even mean he's done filming everything for the movie--it
would add up. And it would surprise the hell out of people, that's for sure.
Again, not that likely, but I think this is a death that would make sense story-wise.
The first time we met Natasha Romanoff, in Iron Man 2, she was working undercover for S.H.I.E.L.D., struggling to get along with Tony and Pepper. In the Avengers, she not only fought with the entire team but it was established that her and Hawkeye are basically best friends. In The Winter Soldier, she became pretty close with Captain America--let's face it, that was a flirtationship. And in Age of Ultron, she's supposedly dating Bruce Banner.
Not only these things, but she also is a fan favorite... though not exactly franchise potential. Oh, I'm sure she could hold a movie of her own, but she isn't Captain America or Thor, and that's the kind of heroes that Marvel is focused on right now.
Her death would leave scars for everyone on the team, some maybe even carrying over to various Phase 3 films. I think more than any other Avenger it would give the team as a whole the most determination to beat that bastard Ultron, as well as setting up a perhaps uneasy Cap's Kooky Quartet (Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch), which I'd love to see at some point during the film. She's had her time to shine, and the roster needs to rotate. Let's let her go.
Like I said earlier, I'm a little scared this movie will be too Stark-centric--for this movie to be about the Avengers, there needs to be dynamic and events going on with the Avengers. And I'm sure we'll be getting that--Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow are said to have key roles, along with the brother-sister dynamic of Wanda and Pietro--I'm just worried we won't be getting enough of that. Anyway, I think a great way to get Captain America focused on killing this bastard is for his "first girl" to kick the bucket. There are numerous ways this could happen, and we already know there is some sort of flashback sequence involving the two of them (and Vision). Some folks on this web site have theorized it could be Vision or Wanda letting them have their dance together specifically before she dies, and I think that would be a sweet, tender moment that Cap should have.
Out of my five candidates, I think this one is the likeliest. It really seems like this movie is going to be very "Iron Man and the Avengers," and having Tony Stark's good-son-gone-bad killing Uncle Rhodey would definitely strike Stark to his core. He's also a fan favorite, noted as being Iron Man's sidekick, and he is said to have an "integral role" in the film. Don Cheadle wasn't present with the Avengers cast at the SDCC, and War Machine wasn't present in the concept art poster released at SDCC, so I think he'll killed fairly early on, in order to make Stark absolutely desperate.
Welp, that's my article, guys. Are any of my candidates likely? Should anyone die at all, even if the theme is "death, death and death"? Let me know what you think in the comment section below!