Once upon a time, it was shocking for a comic book character to be killed. When Captain America died shortly after the events of Civil War, it made headlines across the globe (including mainstream media outlets). Unfortunately, in recent years, Marvel Comics has made it so that death is pretty much meaningless, with frequent resurrections robbing any character's apparent demise of drama and believability.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe, however, has taken death a little more seriously. Aside from those who vanished when Thanos snapped his fingers in Avengers: Infinity War, no one has really died and come back, with Gamora the only possible exception (but even then, she's technically a different character).
James Gunn killed Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - breaking all our hearts in the process - and has now taken to Twitter to explain why, to him, death needs to mean something in the MCU.
"For me there’s a difference between truly meaningful deaths & plot twist deaths where someone seems to die [and] then hasn’t," Gunn explains. "But if you milk that death - like, say, Yondu or Tony Stark - it’s cheap storytelling to bring them back."
He makes a great point, and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has made similar comments about death in the MCU in the past.
The question is, will Gunn kill more characters in his upcoming finale, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3?
For now, check out the filmmaker's full comments below: