Every Marvel Superhero The MCU Has Killed Off (Who Stayed Dead)
Here's every Marvel Cinematic Universe character who died and stayed dead. Often criticized for repeatedly including fake-out deaths, the MCU also has a string of heroes that have permanently died. Marvel Studios has built a massive interconnected franchise with 23 MCU installments since 2008 and while the franchise is currently in limbo due to the coronavirus pandemic, there are more stories to come with Phase 4 already on the horizon. As the MCU moves away into unchartered territory, it's also leaving several heroes who did not make it past the Infinity Saga behind.
Marvel Studios' approach to the concept of death is somewhat contradictory: The franchise tends to come out with villains who meet their end in the very same film they debuted and yet, on the flip-side, heroes — even street-level ones — survive intense battles with aliens and other considerably more powerful bad guys. Perhaps it's part of their effort to make sure that the MCU is kid-friendly — sending a message that at the end of the day, good always prevails.
That said, the MCU also had to say goodbye to a lot of good guys over the course of its history as part of its effort to ground the fictional franchise. From Iron Man to Groot, here are all the heroes who have died and remained dead in the universe.
MCU's inaugural hero met his end at the end of Avengers: Endgame bringing an end to his time as the founding stone of the franchise. After the remaining heroes found a way to bring back those who were affected by Thanos (Josh Brolin) snap in Avengers: Infinity War, the villain from another timeline found his way to the primary MCU universe. This compelled the Avengers and all their allies to take down the Mad Titan once and for all. Instead of risking prolonging the intense battle, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) decided then and there to wield the power of all six Infinity Stones to eradicate the villain and his army despite knowing that the movie would also claim his life. It was a total 180-degree turn for Tony Stark who started as a self-absorbed industrialist. As tragic as his final fate is in the MCU, at least he had five years of quiet family life before his death.
Like Iron Man, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) died in Avengers: Endgame. While Tony Stark was able to still participate in the final battle, Natasha Romanoff, unfortunately, died before the time heist was done. Tasked with retrieving the Soul Stone from Vormir, Black Widow and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) moved forward with their mission not knowing that one of them had to die to acquire the Infinity Stone. There was an intense battle between the pair, wanting to sacrifice themselves for the cause; in the end, Natasha bested Clint Barton and died in exchange for the Soul Stone. The character may be dead in the present MCU timeline, but Marvel Studios is bringing her back on the big screen via her long-delayed solo film, Black Widow, set in the two years between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.
Avengers: Infinity War picked up with Thanos already in possession of the Power Stone, which was last seen on Xandar at the end of the first Guardians of the Galaxy. It was belatedly revealed that the Mad Titan and his crew had ransacked the planet to acquire the first of the six powerful crystals, with the filmmakers opting to not show the battle on-screen because the movie is already jampacked. Nova Corps, the intergalactic military and police force of the Nova Empire headed by Nova Prime (Glenn Close) fought gallantly against the villain to protect the Power Stone, as well as its people. Unfortunately, Thanos proved to be too powerful for them, with the purple alien effortlessly killing all members of the team, and then wiped out half of life on Xandar.
At the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos hijacked the Asgardian refugee ship on its way to Earth and demanded that Loki hand him the Space Stone. The heroes tried their hand against the villain by unleashing the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) on him to no avail. Once the green-rage monster was defeated, Thor and Heimdall (Idris Elba) devised a plan to send him back to Earth so the Avengers could prepare for battle. Summoning all his energy to tap into dark magic, Heimdall was able to transport Hulk out of the ship and into the Sanctum Sanctorum. This drew Thanos ire, with the villain ruthlessly killing him not long after.
Marvel Studios needed to make sure that they efficiently established Thanos as the MCU's biggest threat thus far, and what better way to do that than having him kill one of the most beloved characters in the franchise early on in Avengers: Infinity War? Granted that he did some terrible things in the past, but after Thor: Ragnarok, Loki was on a path to full redemption. Sadly for him, before he could make total amends, his past caught up with him. After acquiring the Power Stone from the God of Mischief, the Mad Titan mercilessly killed Loki by choking him with his bare hands. A different version of the quasi-villain will continue his story in the MCU, however, with a Loki Disney+ series coming soon.
The adopted daughter of Thanos, Gamora (Zoe Saldana) spent the last couple of years of her life making sure that her father didn't get his hands on the Soul Stone on planet Vormir. However, with Nebula's (Karen Gillan) life on the line, she eventually heeded and revealed the location of the mysterious Infinity Stone. There's only one caveat — for Thanos to acquire the gem in Avengers: Infinity War, he had to sacrifice something he loved, which was Gamora. Fully committed to his cause, the Mad Titan painstakingly threw his child over the cliff, effectively killing her. Thanks to the concept of time travel, however, Marvel Studios was able to bring back Gamora — albeit from a different time period in Avengers: Endgame while her prime MCU counterpart remains dead.
With the Mind Stone as Vision's (Paul Bettany) source of power, Tony Stark's old A.I. was an automatic target for Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. The Earth-bound heroes spent most of their time trying to make sure that the Mad Titan didn't get his hand on the crystal while also keeping the android alive. In the end, they just didn't have the time to come up with a proper plan. Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) was forced to destroy the Mind Stone and in the process kill her lover, but, Thanos simply used the Time Stone to go back in time and pluck the magical gem from the Vision's head, killing him twice. The android wasn't among those who were resurrected by Smart Hulk's reverse snap in Avengers: Endgame, but he's returning in WandaVision seemingly living a happy suburban life with Scarlet Witch. That does not mean he's resurrected, however, because everything points to him being a construct of a fake reality.
As king of Asgard and the Allfather, Odin (Anthony Hopkins) was already one of the most powerful heroes in the MCU long before the Avengers came to be. But, just like every other character in the franchise, he's not without flaws. Thor: Ragnarok exposed his ruthless war-mongering with Hela (Cate Blanchett) and there's a case to be made about how he inadvertently pitted Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) against each other. In the end, Odin died of natural causes at the beginning of the Taika Waititi-film. While he's able to say his proper goodbyes to his sons, he left them on their own to deal with the return of their evil sister.
Before Thor found his new friends on Earth, he already had three best ones in Asgard with the Warriors Three composed of Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Fandral (Zachary Levi/Josh Dallas), and Hogun (Tadanobu Asano). The elite team of Asgardian warriors was tasked to protect the people of Asgard with any harm that came their way. Often assisting Thor and Lady Sif (Jamie Alexander) in their adventures, all three met their end at the hands of Hela in Thor: Ragnarok while the God of Thunder was banished to Sakaar leaving the Asgardians vulnerable to the Goddess of Death. Hela first killed Volstagg and Fandral after traveling through the Bifrost Bridge, and then slew Hogun who led the Asgardian army in an attempt to contain the villainess.
Doctor Strange's mentor, The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) was the Sorcerer Supreme. She wasn't perfect, however, as it was revealed that she also drew magic from the Dark Dimension. The Sorcerer Supreme met her end after Kaecillius (Mads Mikkelsen) fatally stabbed her during their final encounter. Strange was able to rush her to the hospital, but she explained to him that it was her time to go. The Ancient One made a final appearance in Avengers: Endgame during the heroes' visit to the Battle of New York where she explained to Smart Hulk how tampering with time would result in branched realities.
The death of T'Chaka (John Kani) in Captain America: Civil War made his son, T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) the King of Wakanda and the Black Panther. During his time as king, T'Chaka maintained the advanced nation's low profile, which was something that his successor eventually changed. T'Chaka was in attendance at the United Nations assembly to discuss the Sokovia Accords when the venue was hit by a terrorist attack; he was among those whose life was claimed by the tragedy. He made another appearance in Black Panther when T'Challa visited the Astral Plane.
Steve Rogers attempted to settle in the modern times after being frozen on ice for decades, but that didn't mean that he didn't try to hold onto his past and the life that he lost. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, he visited a very old Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), and together, they reminisced about the old times and talked about moving forward in life. That was the last MCU's sighting of the SHIELD co-founder as she died off-screen as revealed in Captain America: Civil War. She returned to the franchise, however, at the end of Avengers: Endgame after Steve went back in time to live a full life with her.
For the most part of his MCU arc, Yondu (Michael Rooker) was presented as a quasi-villain to Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), but it was revealed in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 that he genuinely cared about Peter Quill, he just wasn't good at showing emotions. As it turns out, his decision to keep the young boy to himself stems from his worry that his biological father, Ego the Living Planet (Kurt Russell) was going to harm in. Yondu proved his love for Peter when he sacrificed his own life on the heels of the heroes' battle with Ego to save his foster son in arguably the most emotional moment in an otherwise humorous MCU sub-franchise.
Introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron alongside his twin sister, Wanda, Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) also drew his power from the Mind Stone. After being experimented on by HYDRA, the twins worked alongside Ultron briefly until they joined forces with the Avengers. Sadly, the speedster died a heroic death after saving Hawkeye and a child civilian during the climactic battle in the Avengers sequel. Over the years, rumors of the Quicksilver returning to the MCU have been persistent, but there's no concrete evidence of that happening thus far.
A member of the intergalactic military and police force of the Nova Empire, Garthan Saal (Peter Serafinowicz) played a pivotal part in Guardians of the Galaxy. He was involved in arresting the titular characters, resulting in all of them convening inside prison and forcing them to band together and he was responsible for titling them a bunch of A-holes, memorably. Eventually, however, he and the rest of the Nova Corps. assisted the ragtag team of heroes as they battle Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace). Saal died a heroic death during the Battle of Xandar after his ship blew up trying to make sure that the Dark Aster didn't land.
Whether the original Groot (Vin Diesel) or the new one hanging out with the Guardians of the Galaxy are the same is a subject for fierce debate, but crucially, according to director James Gunn, they're different. When the grown-up sentient, bipedal tree sacrificed himself to save his friends at the end of the first Guardians of the Galaxy, he truly died despite the introduction of Baby Groot who grew from one of his branches, which many had assumed to be reincarnation.
Serving as the Queen of Asgard and wife of Odin, Frigga (Rene Russo) was the caring but fearless mother of Thor and Loki. She also took it upon herself to take care of Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) when the God of Thunder brought her to Asgard to protect from the powers of the Aether in Thor: The Dark World. Staying true to her commitment to his son, Frigga sacrificed her life at the hands of Malekith (Christopher Eccelston) when she refused to give up Jane's location. Avengers: Endgame's time heist featured a return to Asgard just before her tragic death, allowing Thor to see his mother, Frigga and find comfort from her one last time as he struggled with his personal failures against Thanos, but she is still permanently dead and is unlikely to return in the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.