EDITORIAL: Character Deaths in AGE OF ULTRON

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.
   
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.