No hero is safe: Marvel has let the Avengers: Infinity War writers kill off anyone they want

It might be time to start buying tissues in bulk. We don’t know the identity of the superhero(es) going six feet under in Avengers: Infinity War just yet, but we now know that anyone is fair game. Iron Man, Thor, Cap; Marvel doesn’t care who you are – they’re letting the writers kill you off.

Speaking to the Toronto Sun, Infinity War writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely revealed that no word came down from on-high when it came to who can and cannot shuffle off their mortal coil in the third Avengers movie.

“Marvel allowed us big swings. So, there wasn’t a mandate that everything had to get tied up in a neat bow so that they could continue with another one and another one,” McFeely explains.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Infinity War is going to wipe out a few heroes for the sake of it, as Markus expands, “[I]f there’s a good story reason for it they were open to anything. We didn’t want to cut off a flower just as it’s beginning to bloom. But a nice big flower? Maybe.”

Reading between the oh-so-obvious lines, that’s our biggest hint yet that relatively newer heroes – your Stranges and your Spideys – are going to be safe (for now) but the old guard, Thor, Cap, Hulk, and Black Widow to name but a few, might just be on borrowed time. Is someone chopping onions in here?

We don’t know what the future has in store for many heroes, but we do know when we’ll be seeing Marvel on the big-screen again: Here’s every upcoming MCU movie until 2022.

Bradley Russell

I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.