Robert Downey Jr. is returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the role of Victor von Doom a.k.a. Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. Of course, the last time Downey appeared in an MCU flick, he was playing Iron Man, and the beloved hero sacrificed himself at the end of Avengers: Endgame. It’s a watershed moment in the continuity, but it turns out Stark's demise actually could’ve happened in a different movie. So, now, I have some questions following this major revelation.

Tony Stark’s Original Death Was To Happen In Another Massive MCU Film

Let’s be real, Downey’s Stark found himself in more than a few precarious situations throughout the Multiverse Saga, from his encounter with Obadiah Stane to the Avengers’ war with Ultron. However, the battle between Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Thanos was particularly intense, and fans more than got a taste of that back in 2018 when Infinity War hit theaters. And, believe it or not, that’s the film co-director Joe Russo said was initially meant to feature Stark’s death, and he and Downey had a funny-back-and-forth about it:

• Joe Russo: This happens a lot in these rooms, right? We try to... I'm feeling the heat now. We try to investigate. We try to investigate all angles, right? Everything's up for grabs. We always say, ‘Best idea wins.’ And a lot of the times you gotta stretch…
• Robert Downey Jr.: It's mine.
• Russo: We have to stretch…
• Downey: Mine is just, ‘Don't kill me.’

Consider me pleasantly surprised by all this! The revelation, which was revealed during a sit-down interview held by CBR, coincided with the eighth anniversary of Infinity War’s release. It’s interesting to hear that Joe Russo and brother/co-director Anthony considered having Stark die in that particular movie, though I guess it tracks, considering there’s a scene in which Thanos stabs Tony through his armor only for him to survive. As for why the Russos eventually decided against it, Joe said:

It sounds like it all came down to the Russos possibly being faced with the challenge of having to include Stark in Endgame posthumously. All in all, I’m glad they settled on their chosen direction, especially since it would’ve robbed us of Stark’s eventual sacrifice, but I still have some questions.

What Are Some Questions To Consider About This “What If” Scenario?

For starters, when exactly was Stark’s death going to take place in Infinity War? I mean, would it have been the moment he was stabbed by Thanos on Titan? Of course, there’s also the possibility that he could’ve died in a totally different way that might not have involved Thanos at all. I find it very interesting that Joe Russo doesn’t divulge any specifics, but that may be due to his desire to have fans speculate as I’m doing right now.

Something I also want to know is whether Robert Downey Jr. was aware of his character’s initial fate during the development process. And, if he knew, I’d love to know how he felt. It’s unclear based on this conversation, but I get the feeling Downey wouldn’t have been too pleased, considering the comments he’s sharing now.

Regardless of any of that, though, I’d say everything worked out just as it should’ve. And, in any case, Downey still has the opportunity to further spread his wings by way of his villainous character. I wish I could’ve been a fly on the wall and watched Downey work on set. Here’s hoping that Doom’s introduction is glorious and that Tony Stark’s memory is preserved within the MCU amid his cohort’s latest battle.

Fans can check out Stark’s sacrifice by streaming Avengers: Endgame with a Disney+ subscription. Also, see Robert Downey Jr. return in Avengers: Doomsday, which opens in theaters on December 18 amid the 2026 movie schedule.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is known for constantly putting out new content, both in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. One of its biggest successes is Avengers: Endgame, which became the highest-grossing movie ever upon its release. That movie was written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, although the latter shared how confusing it was to write for Chris Hemsworth's Thor after Ragnarok changed his vibe. What's more, he thought that Taika Waititi and company were making the hero into an "idiot" at first.

Moviegoers who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order will recall how Ragnarok brought new life to the God of Thunder. While audiences responded to that movie, McFeely was puzzled by how to write for Thor as a result of its zany and comedic-centered tone. As the writer said in an interview with Vanity Fair,

Well, he certainly didn't mince his words. Ragnarok was a huge departure from the first two Thor movies. While the movie's pivot to comedy (and inclusion of Mark Ruffalo's Hulk) helped to give Thor new life, the Infinity War and Endgame writers were understandably confused about what to do with the character. Luckily they figured it out, and pairing Chris Hemsworth's hero with the Guardians of the Galaxy ended up being a winning combination.

While Thor: Ragnarok helped to renew interest in The God of Thunder, it clearly threw McFeely and Markus for a loop. Funny enough, fans ended up not loving its next sequel Love and Thunder, which was also directed by Taika Waititi. Even Chris Hemsworth admitted the movie didn't stick the landing, and was perhaps a bit to "wacky" that time around.

It should be interesting to see what comes next for Thor as he return to the big screen this winter. Hemsworth was included in the Avengers: Doomsday cast list, with McFeely once again writing the script... this time with Michael Waldron. Although fans are worried that the OG Avenger might die in the next two Avengers flicks, which are both being directed by The Russo Brothers.

All will be revealed when Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18th as part of the 2026 movie release list. We'll just have to wait and see how goofy Thor ends up being in the movie, especially because he's an adopted father now.

Here's the thing about a good movie quote: the really great ones stand the test of time. But I'm not here to talk about really great Avengers: Endgame quotes -- at least, not in the traditional sense. If you're thinking you'll find classics like "Avengers, assemble!" or "I love you 3000" in here, you've got it all wrong. As great and iconic as those lines are, this week's movie quiz is to the advantage of anyone who's seen Avengers: Endgame enough times to remember the really random snippets of dialogue and things said in passing among the characters. Some of these are just my favorite bits and responses.

In the years since Iron Man died in Avengers: Endgame, Robert Downey Jr. has reached a new height of success. That’s because, a few years after he left the MCU as Iron Man, he took a role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which earned him an Oscar. Now, as RDJ prepares to play Doctor Doom, Kevin Feige has opened up about why they decided to bring him back for the upcoming Marvel movie, Avengers: Doomsday. And yes, it does relate to the Academy Award-winning movie the actor made after he said goodbye to Tony Stark.

Ever since it was revealed that Downey was going to play Victor Von Doom in the MCU, I’ve been wondering why they cast him. While I love the choice, RDJ is synonymous with Tony Stark, so why have him play a new character? Well, now that we’re getting closer to Doomsday’s release on the 2026 movie schedule, Marvel boss Kevin Feige is providing some more details to this answer. Telling EW about when they started forming this idea, he recalled how Downey's performance in the 2023 film Oppenheimer inspired them:

Listen, anything is possible in the multiverse, so why not, right? I totally see what they’re saying, too. Robert Downey Jr. is one of the all-time greats, and that’s in part thanks to his work in both the MCU as Iron Man and Oppenheimer. So, yeah, it tracks that if you want to get an all-time great to play your villain, you should maybe give this guy a call.

I also think it’s worth noting that for a very long time, we got to watch Downey play a hero on the big screen. People loved his take on Tony Stark, and Iron Man was a fundamental part of the Avengers and the MCU in general. Then, we got to see a whole other side of his range in Oppenheimer.

In Christopher Nolan’s biopic about the father of the atomic bomb, Downey played Lewis Strauss. He was the primary antagonist of the film, and RDJ turned in a nuanced performance that was not carried by the charisma and wit that helped make him so beloved as Tony Stark. It was far more dramatic than we’re used to when it comes to him, and ultimately, he served as a brilliant foil to Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer. Both men took home Oscars for their performances, and the film won many other awards at the 2024 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

In short, Nolan’s movie gave audiences a chance to see Robert Downey Jr. do something totally new and different as an actor.

It also proved that he is one of the best, and I hope that’s what Avengers: Doomsday will do too. Downey is clearly excited about it, with his Doctor Doom-inspired outfits and his coining of the term “Dunesday” to celebrate the fact that his Marvel movie comes out on the same day as Dune: Part Three. Kevin Feige is clearly thrilled about it, too, especially since they got the Oppenheimer actor to come back to the MCU for it.

So, now, to see Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom, you can catch Avengers: Doomsday in theaters on December 18. In the meantime, you can go back and watch the performances that made him one of the best of the best by streaming the Marvel movies in order with a Disney+ subscription and buying or renting Oppenheimer.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is known for consistently releasing new content, both in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. Right now fans are invested in upcoming Marvel movies, especially The Russo Brothers' Avengers: Doomsday. Fans have been trying to figure out how the multiversal story will come together, and there's a new theory that connects Chris Evans' return as Steve Rogers with Loki. Let's break it all down.

What we know about Avengers: Doomsday is very limited, so fans have been filling in the blanks with theories and rumors about what's going to happen. A new one just arrived over on Twitter, which connects Captain America's Endgame ending and the Season 2 finale of Loki to the forthcoming blockbuster. The tweet alleges that Steve Rogers getting his happy ending might be the cause of multiversal disaster, as it reads:

Honestly, this does kind of track. Throughout the second season of Loki, we saw how delicate the multiverse actually was. And a huge decision like Steve Rogers going back in time and having his happy ending with Peggy is the type of even that could seemingly create a new timeline entirely. So why not make this the connection that starts the chaos of Doomsday, and therefore brings Chris Evan's hero back into the action?

While Chris Evans wasn't originally on the Doomsday cast list, fans assume he has a major role to play in the next Avengers movie. It should be fascinating to see how he's actually brought back into the narrative, and the above theory thinks that he'll actually have a connection to Tom Hiddleston's Loki. The same tweet reads:

Honestly, this would be pretty epic. At the end of Loki's second season the God of Mischief ended up physically keeping the multiverse together in the End of Time. Tom Hiddleston has been confirmed to appear in Doomsday, so fans are super curious about how this narrative will continue. And seeing him face to face with Captain America would definitely thrill longtime fans who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order.

All will be revealed when Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18th as part of the 2026 movie release list. But first Endgame will be re-released, including new footage that will seemingly tie the two movies together.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a well-oiled machine at this point, consistently releasing new content in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. Arguably the most highly anticipated upcoming Marvel movie is Avengers: Doomsday, which will be the shared universe's next big crossover event. The Russo Brothers are once again behind the camera for that blockbuster, but they're also re-releasing Endgame in theaters. And the filmmakers shared why its "important" for fans to re-watch that title on the big screen.

What we know about Avengers: Doomsday has been limited, but anticipation is still at a fever pitch. There are countless rumors about what will go down in that movie, especially since the Doomsday cast announcement confirmed entire teams of heroes will appear. While appearing at the Sands Film Festival in St Andrews, Scotland (via Deadline), Joe Russo revealed why fans who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order should see Endgame when its back in theaters. In his words:

Well, I'm intrigued. It sounds like we're getting an extended cut of Avengers: Endgame, one that will include brand new footage of some characters that are set to appear in Doomsday. I'm super curious about what this new content might be; are we going to see the OG stars of the X-Men movies post-blip, or perhaps the Fantastic Four? Only time will tell, but I assume hardcore fans will be lining up at the theater to see this new footage.

When it was released Avengers: Endgame became the highest grossing movie of all time. It was eventually dethroned when Avatar was re-released, but perhaps its return to theaters might see it bump James Cameron's movie back down. Later in his same conversation, Russo spoke more about why Endgame is going to be back with new footage, saying:

I am definitely interested in what The Russo Brothers are bringing to the table, and how Endgame will end up connecting with Doomsday. Years of movies and TV shows have dropped since the 2019 blockbuster hit theaters. And since we're deep into the Multiverse Saga, there's no telling what twist and turns are coming our way with the next Avengers flick.

As previously mentioned, there are countless rumors and theories about what's coming with Doomsday. And while fans were treated to a few short teasers, we're definitely hoping for a full trailer soon.

Avengers: Endgame is currently expected to return to theaters on September 25th. As for Doomsday, that will be released December 18th as part of the 2026 movie release list.

I’ve never felt anything quite like sitting in the theater in 2018 to watch Avengers: Endgame. Captain America facing Thanos again, the powerful moment when Falcon’s voice breaks through the static and says "on your left," and Tony Stark’s ultimate sacrifice marked the end of an era, over a decade of storytelling. With Avengers: Doomsday coming soon, and directed by the same team and bringing back nearly all the original Avengers, fans are eager to see whether these films will connect as the previous ones did. However, Kevin Feige explains fans might want to temper those expectations.

The first of two new Avengers movies, Doomsday, lands on the 2026 movie schedule on December 18, with Secret Wars expected the following year. In a recent interview with Fandango, Feige discussed how these two new films will relate, similar to the comic book storylines they are based on, but in a way that differs significantly from Infinity War and Endgame. He explained:

Details on Doomsday are still pretty locked down, even after Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr reunited at CinemaCon and debuted footage for select audiences. But, if you’ve been paying attention to the Multiverse Saga, there are some pretty loud clues about where this could be headed. The idea of “incursions,” first introduced in Loki season 1, streaming with a Disney+ subscription, has been simmering in the background for a while now. It feels like Doomsday is most certainly drawing inspiration from Time Runs Out, one of the more brutal Marvel storylines in recent memory.

The Time Runs Out story arc is basically the universe eating itself while its heroes argue over how much they’re willing to sacrifice to stop it. A group of godlike beings known as the Beyonders rig the multiverse to collapse, turning every version of the Molecule Man into a ticking bomb. When Doctor Doom figures out what’s happening, he starts moving behind the scenes, trying to dismantle the system before everything goes dark.

What follows is a slow, inevitable multiversal collapse. By the end, Doctor Doom is one of the last ones standing, taking what’s left of reality and reshaping it into something new, setting the stage for Secret Wars.

If current theories track, Doomsday could be where it all collides. The MCU, the Fantastic Four world, and the Fox X-Men universe crashing into each other at once. While everyone’s busy fighting, Doom is the only one thinking ahead. He’s not just trying to win, he’s trying to survive the end of everything.

That’s where Feige’s “similar but different” seemingly starts to make sense. This likely won’t be another Infinity War/Endgame situation, where each movie feels like one half of one story. Doomsday could stand on its own, with Doom coming out on top, while Secret Wars picks up in the aftermath, throwing together characters from across Marvel’s history to fight for what’s left. And, if the comics are any guide, that battlefield has a name: Battleworld.

Of course, this is all speculation for now. We won’t know how it actually plays out until Avengers: Doomsday arrives on December 18, followed by Secret Wars on December 17, 2027.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is always expanding, thanks to new projects arriving in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. Arguably, the most highly anticipated upcoming Marvel movie is Avengers: Doomsday, especially after a number of brief teasers were released. The Russo Brothers claimed that there was a big hint about the movie in those clips, and now fans think they cracked the code. And to be honest, they might be on the right track.

What we know about Avengers: Doomsday is limited, which is why the short clips that have been released quickly went viral. They started with the Captain America teaser, before we got ones focused on Thor, the X-Men, and Wakanda. And a report by IGN claims that the key to the "clues" is in the countdown to Doomsday that ends each teaser.

The idea, which originated on Reddit, is that the countdowns in each teaser are a clue. Namely, the number that each of them begins with corresponds to scenes from the last Avengers movie, Endgame. For instance, the Captain America video offers a timestamp of 11:24:15, which fans are corresponding to The Ancient One's scene in Avengers: Endgame at 1 Hour, 24 Minutes, and 15 Seconds, where she warns of the dangers of the Time Heist removing the Infinity Stones and creating new realities. This could be a tease about why Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom and his multiversal plan came to be.

The timecode discovered after Thor's Doomsday teaser 11:17:15, which fans are equating to 1 Hour, 17 Minutes, 15 Seconds in Endgame where Loki escapes with the Tesseract. This twist kickstarted the Loki series, and had a huge impact on the multiverse as a whole.

Then there's the Black Panther Doomsday clip, which seemingly has a hidden timestamp 11:04:15, roughly translating to of 1 Hour, 04 Minutes, 15 Seconds in Endgame. This is a moment where Rocket tells Ant-Man that he'll take him to space. Considering that Ben Grimm aka The Thing is featured in the teaser, fans think that this is a reference to the Fantastic Four arriving in their shuttle.

This is just one theory, so we should probably take it with a grain of salt for the time being. But fans are curious about how the Doomsday cast will interact, and are trying to figure out what The Russo Brothers have up their sleeves for the forthcoming blockbuster. Hopefully a full trailer for the next Avengers movie arrives soon, and offers some clues about its actual plot.

All will be revealed when Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18th as part of the 2026 movie release list. The pressure is on for the project to deliver after some recent box office blunders, and there's going to be some competition since Dune: Part Three is being released on the very same day.

Gwyneth Paltrow has been part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the beginning, starring opposite Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark as Pepper Potts in Iron Man. She’s since reprised the character in six more movies, although Paltrow has also frequently demonstrated MCU cluelessness, like forgetting she worked with Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Homecoming. So when someone asked her what Pepper’s been up to since we last saw her in Avengers: Endgame, she gave a delightfully on-brand explanation.

When we left off with Pepper in Endgame, which can be streamed with a Disney+ subscription, she was attending Tony’s funeral with their daughter Morgan, close friends James Rhodes and Happy Hogan, and so many of her late husband’s fellow superheroes and allies. Six and a half years after the movie’s release, and roughly that same amount passing within the MCU itself, Gwyneth Paltrow was asked for her thoughts on Pepper’s current status while appearing on Entertainment Weekly’s The Awardist podcast. After acknowledging that she “would've had to see all the Avengers movies to get some story context for what she's doing,” the Marty Supreme star speculated:

Yeah, that tracks. Morgan was born shortly after Thanos snapped half of all life in the universe away, making her five years old post-time jump in Avengers: Endgame. So she’d likely be in middle school about now, and Pepper Potts would be balancing taking care of her daughter with also continuing her duties as Stark Industries’ CEO. Enough time has also passed that it’s easy enough to imagine that Pepper has dived back into the dating pool, although I’d argue there aren’t any men out there who have the same kind of charm that Tony had.

So that answer was reasonable enough, but then Paltrow reverted to her usual state of MCU ignorance after musing about Pepper’s dating life. Namely, she couldn’t remember where things stand with Robert Downey Jr. in the franchise, saying:

Ok, now we’re back to business as usual with her. Gwyneth Paltrow is referring to how RDJ is returning to the MCU to play Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, one of the final 2026 movie releases. While it hasn’t been officially cleared up if this take on Victor von Doom is a Tony Stark variant or something else entirely, he’s definitely not the resurrected Tony we followed along with for 11 years. But don’t expect Paltrow to remember any of this information, especially since there’s no indication she’ll appear in Doomsday.

Of course, Marvel’s known for its surprises, so maybe Gwyneth Paltrow is secretly slated to show up in the next Avengers movie. Or maybe she is indeed absent from Doomsday, but will return in 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars or a different upcoming Marvel movie. Whatever the case, I doubt Paltrow will give any deeper thought to Pepper’s status these days… not unless she’d getting paid to.

One of Josh Brolin’s most iconic roles is one in which we never saw his face. He played Thanos throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Infinity Saga story, and while he admitted that the process of playing the role had him looking pretty ridiculous, it sounds like he actually really loved the experience.

At this point, the process of doing motion capture CGI is well understood, and it’s not exactly the coolest thing in the world. In order to make a person look like an alien with digital effects, they have to wear what have been called “mo cap pajamas,” which doesn’t necessarily make for the coolest looking wardrobe. Josh Brolin has a different name for the outfit that he told The Independent. It's one that includes some colorful language, and yet he apparently loves to wear it. He said…

It’s sort of wild to see Josh Brolin refer to wearing “a fucking onesie” as “a joke,” and then follow it up by saying it’s great. He apparently loves the ridiculousness of the entire thing because it, at least in one way, forces him to become a better actor because he knows just how silly he looks.

Honestly, while I’d never thought of it quite like that before, what Brolin says makes a great deal of sense. Thanos is portrayed on screen as both a massive physical character, as well as a force of nature. He delivers his dialogue in a way that commands attention and makes everybody realize that this is somebody who needs to be treated seriously.

So the fact that Josh Brolin did all that in his “fucking onesie” is both hilarious and a testament to the actor's ability that he was able to pull it off. He had to use his imagination to understand how it would look when it was done and give a performance that matched that, not what he actually saw.

While CGI is often compared unfavorably to traditional effects, it has its place and is an art form like any other on a movie set. Josh Brolin seems to appreciate what it means for him as an actor. Other stars like, Zoe Saldaña, have come to the defense of motion capture and the work that actors do for it.

Thanos was so popular that there are those who hope we haven’t seen the last of him. Some rumors have indicated we could see another version of Thanos appear as part of the multiverse story set to unfold in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. Brolin has certainly indicated that if the Russo Brothers called, he would be at the very least interested in talking with them.

Avengers: Endgame already swings for the fences, especially when it comes to endings, but Hawkeye actor Jeremy Renner says one of the movie’s heaviest moments almost went even bigger. According to the star, Natasha Romanoff’s sacrifice on Vormir was first conceived and shot as a large-scale, “galactic” skirmish until changes had to be made. And, in a recent interview, the man behind Hawkeye explains why he’s glad they made the change.

Renner shared the behind-the-scenes nugget during a Space Con 2025 panel (via Popverse), saying that before Marvel reshot the sequence into the intimate, two-friends-on-a-cliff goodbye fans know, they planned for a whole lot more alien action. He explained:

If that sounds familiar, it’s because Marvel has flirted with an action-heavy Vormir cut before. When Endgame hit home release and later streaming for fans with a Disney+ subscription, viewers saw an alternate sequence where Thanos’ forces crash the party and Black Widow sprints through blaster fire before making the soul-for-a-soul leap. It’s cool, chaotic, and very MCU—but it also trades quiet devastation for spectacle. That version has circulated in special features and coverage since 2019–2020.

Renner says the simpler approach landed the emotional beat the filmmakers were chasing. He continued:

That tracks with how the Russos and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely have talked about Endgame’s biggest deaths: when the movie goes quiet, it goes for the jugular. The theatrical Vormir sequence narrows to two friends wrestling—literally—over who gets to make the sacrifice play. No armies. No cavalry. Just Natasha and Clint, a final nod to the smallest-scale bond in Earth’s Mightiest roster.

It’s been a minute since longtime fans of all the Marvel movies have seen Jeremy Renner suit up as Clint. His last on-screen appearance was the Hawkeye series finale on December 22, 2021, which has fueled speculation about a surprise return in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. Don’t ask the Mayor of Kingstown star for spoilers, though. As he joked to Brie Larson when pressed about a cameo: “No, girl.” Then again, in a universe where Andrew Garfield-level denials are part of the game, never say never.

If Jeremy Renner never returns (which feels unlikely), his legacy is secure. Moments like Natasha’s sacrifice on Vormir rank among the MCU’s most powerful—thanks in part to the Russo brothers knowing when to dial down the spectacle and let intimacy carry the scene.

When Avengers: Endgame was released in theaters over six years ago (my god, has it really been that long?), one of the major concerns about it was the runtime. At over three hours in length, it was quite a long movie for people to sit through. In the end, I think the runtime was used quite well, and the movie didn’t need to be significantly shorter. In fact, I’m now wishing the movie was about 20 seconds longer.

While I know that a lot of the special features that are put on Blu-rays are available with my Disney+ subscription, I guess I’ve never been through all the deleted scenes for Avengers: Endgame. I recently came across one on YouTube I had never seen before that I wish had made the final cut. It includes Rocket giving the Avengers a hard time for their battle with the Chitari in the original Avengers movie, and it’s got Rocket’s trademark humor. Check it out.

The scene is set early in the events of Avengers: Endgame. Rocket is watching footage of the Chitari attack on New York, likely as part of the group’s planning out their strategy for using time travel to get the Infinity Stones and bring back people. Rocket is shocked it took the Avengers so long to beat what he calls the “suckiest army in the galaxy.” He finds it hilarious that they didn’t know that destroying the mothership was the strategy.

While the scene is great and pretty funny, considering that Avengers: Endgame was three hours long, it’s not hard to guess why this scene was cut. It’s simply unnecessary to the plot. And with the movie being as long as it is (and it having a great deal of plot to get through) there just isn’t a lot of room for scenes that aren’t strictly needed.

The Russo Brothers clearly decided early on that this scene wasn’t going to make the cut. The CGI to create Rocket is unfinished, which means that while the work was started to include the scene in the film, the decision was made to remove it, and then work to complete the sequence ceased.

Rocket’s humor is something that will likely be missing from the next Avengers movie. Bradley Cooper and the rest of the new Guardians of the Galaxy team were missing from the Avengers: Doomsday cast announcement, which doesn’t guarantee they won’t appear, but certainly does make it highly unlikely we’ll see them. While Rocket’s story certainly had a satisfying conclusion in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, I will miss these sorts of jokes.

It’s no secret that the Avengers cast is still close. So, as Avengers: Doomsday works toward its release on the 2026 film schedule, it’s always nice to hear how the OG ensemble is supporting the actors reprising their roles. So, I asked Jeremy Renner about how his former co-stars continue to support each other in all walks of life, and his response about connecting with them in London leaves me wondering about the timing.

At this point, it’s very well known that Avengers: Doomsday has been filming in London for a while. Meanwhile, over the last year, Jeremy Renner has been working on Season 4 of Mayor of Kingstown and promoting his book, My Next Breath. He also took that book on a tour over the summer and made a stop in London. While there, he met up with some of the upcoming Marvel movie’s cast. Recalling that reunion, he told me the following during an interview for CinemaBlend:

This response came after I asked Renner about Robert Downey Jr. supporting his book's release. I also asked him if he had the chance to catch up with the Doctor Doom actor about Doomsday. It turns out, he hasn't just talked to him about it; he met up with some of the cast in London, where the movie is being made.

For context, the Hurt Locker actor was in London in mid-June for his book tour. He stopped at Cadogan Hall on June 12, specifically to chat about My Next Breath. As he told me, that trip also allowed him to “break bread” with “all of the boys” working on Doomsday.

So, considering all this, it’s hard not to wonder if there are dots worth connecting. Even though the Avengers: Doomsday chair livestream revealed an absolutely massive cast of heroes set to star in the upcoming Marvel movie, there are still tons of theories flying around about others who could join them.

When it comes to Renner specifically, there has been quite a bit of curiosity around whether he’ll ever return to the MCU in general as Clint Barton. That’s because, back in July of 2024 (which was months before the chair live stream), when he was asked about Doomsday and Secret Wars, he told Us Weekly that he’d “probably be doing it” if they could figure it all out. More recently, he was also asked if he’d ever play Hawkeye again, and he said he’s “always game to do it.”

So, his return isn’t out of the question, and his trip to London for his book has me speculating about the chance he’ll appear in Doomsday. Of course, that’s not confirmed, and as far as we know, he’s not in the cast. However, the timing was pretty perfect, and I can’t help but fantasize about another OG Avenger joining this ensemble.

Speaking of that 2012 Avengers cast, we know Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston will all be in Doomsday. Other actors who were in Avengers: Infinity War and/or Endgame – like Paul Rudd, Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie – will appear too. Alongside them, we’ll get to see some of the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and the Thunderbolts (I mean New Avengers) in the movie as well.

However, despite the already massive cast, there are still theories and questions about who else could show up. But we’ll just have to wait for Doomsday’s release on December 18, 2026, to see who appears and who doesn’t. And while there are question marks surrounding all that, one thing I feel like we can bet on is that, whether they’re in the film or not, people like Jeremy Renner will likely show up to support his fellow heroes and vice versa, just like they did on his trip to London.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe consistently releases new content, both in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. The most anticipated upcoming Marvel movie is definitely Avengers: Doomsday, which will feature Robert Downey Jr.'s return to the shared universe. Rather than Iron Man he'll play the villainous Doctor Doom, and some promo art has seemingly revealed the first look of RDJ's look in the role.

What we know about Avengers: Doomsday is limited, so there are countless rumors and theories about what might go down. While we wait for the first footage or stills from The Russo Brothers' blockbuster, promo art of Doom has seemingly made its way to Twitter thanks to the Disney 2026 Merchandise Expo. Check it out below:

I mean, how cool is that? If legit, this is the first real look at what Doctor Doom will look like in the next Avengers movie. It's a pretty awesome design, especially thanks to his detail-oriented armor and chain link. Of course, the character is most known for his mask and green cape, which Robert Downey Jr. wore while revealing his future as the character at San Diego Comic-Con. Overall it's a badass design that I hope is legit.

Fans have been patiently waiting to see Doom's look, as well as how he's introduced to the MCU as a whole. The end of Fantastic Four: First Steps saw the first (extremely brief) look at Doom, specifically the back of him. We saw him interacting with Franklin, as well as a glimpse of his mask. But he never turned around to face Vanessa Kirby's Sue Storm, so the above image is sure to go viral with Marvel fans.

Doom is one of the most iconic Marvel villains of all time, one who is usually associated with the Fantastic Four. Basically every Marvel fan loves Robert Downey Jr., so this is a great way to help inspire interest in projects like Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. Projects like The Marvels bombed at the box office, so the timing of bringing back RDJ is key. And it's a big reason why anticipation for the blockbuster is so high this far out from its release.

Aside from the inclusion of RDJ's title character, the Avengers: Doomsday cast list is massive, and includes entire teams of heroes. Namely The Avengers, Thunderbolts aka New Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men. How these characters will all enter the story and interact remains to be seen, but the mysterious blockbuster has a lot going for it. Smart money says Downey, fresh off his Oscar win, will be front and center.

Our questions will be answered when Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18th of next year as part of the 2025 movie release list. Hopefully we get a better look at Doctor Doom sooner rather than later.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe regularly puts out new content, either in theaters or streaming with a Disney+ subscription. The most highly anticipated upcoming Marvel movie is Avengers: Doomsday, which will feature a huge cast of characters. There are a ton of rumors swirling around the blockbuster, and one new one about Loki would pair him with some surprising characters. And I honestly hope that it happens.

What we know about Avengers: Doomsday is very limited, but production has been underway for some time. All sort of rumors and fan theories are online, and the latest revolves around Tom Hiddleston's Loki. Scooper Daniel Richtman claimed that he had one particularly intriguing scene, saying:

Ok, my mind is blown. This is just a rumor, but sounds like a sure way to get longtime fans invested in Doomsday. Those of us who have spent years watching the Marvel movies in order waited years for Steve and Peggy to finally get their happy ending at the end of Avengers: Endgame. So returning to their dance... with Loki? That sounds wild.

Obviously we should take this rumor with a grain of salt for the time being. While Hiddleston was confirmed in Doomsday's cast announcement, Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell didn't get chairs. Although they've both already done surprise cameos before, so it doesn't seem totally out of the question.

At the end of Endgame, Steve Rogers took all the Infinity Stones (and Mjolnir) back to their rightful place in the timeline. He reappeared as Old Man Steve, revealing he went back in time and lived his happy ending with Peggy. The movie's final moments saw these two finally get their dance, and it would be a shock to see Loki suddenly appear and interrupt the moment.

Of course, this rumored scene would also stand in juxtaposition to Loki's Season 2 finale. When we last saw the God of Mischief, he was literally holding the timelines together by force. He became the God of Stories, and seemingly could never leave his throne without creating multiversal chaos. So how will he leave this post to get into the adventures of Avengers: Doomsday?

There are a ton of questions about what's going to go down in The Russo Brothers' return to the MCU. But we're in good hands, which should help quell fears as we wait for the movie to arrive next December. Although with so many rumors and theories online, I'm hoping that we get some concrete information sooner rather than later.

Avengers: Doomsday will answer our question when it hits theaters December 18th of next year as part of the 2026 movie release list. Only time will tell if Steve and Peggy's happy ending actually gets interrupted by Loki.

There are a lot of great stories that have been told in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but one of the best has to be the relationship between Thor and Loki. Over the course of the Infinity Saga, Thor and Loki go through a lot together, but there are even more connections between the pair than I realized.

A post on Instagram, which contains a different social media post, is going viral that makes reference to the complex relationship between Thor and Loki. Specifically, it references that in each of the first two Avengers movies, Thor, who believes his brother to be dead in both cases, is wearing tributes to his Loki, though they’re not the easiest thing to see. The post reads...

Loki dies so many times in the MCU that it’s difficult to keep track. Each time Thor discovers that his brother isn’t dead, it’s kind of a big deal. When Thor mentions how terrible it was when he thought Loki was dead after the pair are reunited in Thor: Ragnarok, the trickster god asks if his brother mourned him. Clearly he did.

I had never noticed these particular costume references before, but they are certainly there. By the time we see Thor in Avengers he knows his brother is alive, but clearly his armor was made before that. I found Thor’s hair in Avengers: Age of Ultron to be an especially nice touch as it’s never made reference to in the film, but it’s absolutely there.

And of course, these aren’t the only references to Thor’s love of his deceased brother. When Loki dies for a third time, at the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War, Thor goes all out to show the love he has for his brother. As one commenter on the post above mentioned, saying…

This item is a bit harder to miss, as the shot of a naked Thor in Love and Thunder makes sure you see it, though it’s still possible you forgot it was there.

It’s been quite the journey for Thor and Loki, and it’s possible that journey isn’t quite over yet. Loki still lives in the MCU, or at least a Variant of him does, and we know that both Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston are part of the Avengers: Doomsday cast. The brothers being reunited yet again is certainly possible, even likely considering not bringing them together at least briefly would feel like a lost opportunity.

Thor and Loki have certainly been through a lot recently, with Loki taking on oversight of the multiverse and Thor becoming a father. The pair certainly would have a lot to talk about.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Multiverse Saga has been bumpy in certain places, but its conclusion is set to be a grand sight to behold. Collectively, the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars will serve as the conclusion to this chapter of the MCU. Few specific plot details are known about the movies, though it’s been said that they’ll have multiversal ramifications. Producer Kevin Feige recently teased the upcoming Secret Wars, saying that it won’t be about “endings” like Endgame was.

Avengers: Endgame marked the end of an era in the MCU, with certain characters taking their final bows and others moving towards greater prominence. While the Marvel movie’s ending may be somewhat divisive in some circles, a number of Endgame reviews were quite positive. Many hailed it as a satisfying conclusion to the massive story arc that began with 2008’s Iron Man. When it comes to the sixth Avengers movie, Kevin Feige discussed how Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribić’s 2015 Secret Wars run will inform the story:

2015’s Secret Wars is a massive story that marks the destruction of various universes across the multiverse. At the center of the story is Doctor Doom, who steals power from the Beyonders and creates a Battleworld (a place made up of a collection of Earths) of his own. He’s eventually overthrown, however, by Reed Richards and more. Surely, as with every MCU production, the 2027 movie of the same name will differ from the source material. Yet, as Kevin Feige told members of the press (via Variety), one element will remain the same:

It’s true that SW did mark the beginning of a new era in Marvel Comics. While some universes were destroyed, others were changed. Most notably, even Miles Morales (Spider-Man) and his allies were integrated into the main Earth-616 universe continuity. (Don’t expect Miles to join the MCU soon, though, per Kevin Feige). So, if anything, the film version will more so reset the board in the cinematic universe, so to speak, than it will usher in the end of long-running storylines and characters.

Of course, fans still have plenty of time before Secret Wars arrives in theaters. There is, after all, the matter of Doomsday, which will see Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and their allies taking on Doctor Doom. Robert Downey Jr. is set to play the iconic comic book villain and, based on all accounts, Downey is really committing to crafting the role. At this point, I’m eager to get a few more small plot details on the film, though I wouldn’t expect specifics on how young Franklin Richards will figure into the story.

What I’m ultimately hoping for with both Avengers films, though, is that they provide cohesive narratives that enhance the MCU, genuine catharsis and of course, some excellent spectacle. Fans will be able to see the scope of Kevin Feige and co.’s plans when Doomsday opens in theaters on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars arrives on December 17, 2027. In the meantime, stream Marvel movies using a Disney+ subscription.

Speaking as a fan of superhero movies, I actually tend to prefer the source material in most cases. However, if there is one thing I believe most films (and a few TV shows) have handled better than the comics, it is making the heroes and villains look pretty good. The following are some essential examples of comic book characters whose screen iterations had better costume designs.

Batman (Batman Begins)

I believe the nighttime attire worn by Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne in 2005's Batman Begins outshines what the comics had delivered up to that point, not just in the aesthetic sense. I also love this Batsuit for its practicality and ingenuity, boasting features that include a fully bulletproof top to cover his entire torso and a cape that turns into wings when an electric current is run through it.

Captain America (Captain America: The First Avenger)

Steve Rogers' original costume from Marvel Comics is a bit hokey, with its winged helmet and feathery finish, but the outfit worn by Chris Evans' MCU iteration had a bit of an uneven history before its preferred final form. In his debut in Captain America: The First Avenger, he bears the stars and stripes on a tactical suit that thankfully made a comeback in the third act of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, following his ridiculous uniform from The Avengers.

Wonder Woman (Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice)

Instead of a patriotic leotard (which, given her Themiscyrian ancestry, does not make sense), Gal Gadot's Diana Prince fights in Amazonian battle armor. It also bears a bird-shaped emblem at the top, instead of a "WW," which also would have been nonsense to include, considering she never actually gives herself the name "Wonder Woman" in the DC Extended Universe.

Ant-Man (Ant-Man)

In 2015's Ant-Man, when Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) first sees the suit and helmet that he would soon use to shrink to microscopic size, he points out that it looks like a motorcycle outfit. Indeed, it does, which alone makes it an improvement over the tight jumpsuit with a partially opened, antannaed helmet that Hank Pym wears in the comics.

Robin (Batman & Robin)

I am not a fan of the impractical, anatomically correct full rubber suits that plagued the live-action Batman movies of the '80s and '90s. However, I am thankful that Batman & Robin's grown-up version of the Boy Wonder (played by Chris O'Donnell) is not just wearing a leotard. I even admire the decision to replace the green and yellow in his color scheme with black for added stealth, like his older companion... not that stealth is ever really a necessity for these iterations of the Caped Crusaders anyway.

Iron Man (Iron Man)

I would say it is no wonder that more recent comic books show Tony Stark wearing Iron Man armor that better resembles the sleek design created for Robert Downey Jr.'s MCU iteration, instead of the bulkier original suit.

Superman (Man Of Steel)

I am still convinced that the all-time best Superman costume created for live-action media was worn by Henry Cavill in 2013's Man of Steel. In fact, I think Clark Kent's red and blues from the DC Extended Universe outshine that of any of his comic book iterations, and for one reason in particular: I have never been a fan of his red trunks, and I am happy to see that feature omitted here.

Black Panther (Captain America: Civil War)

In his first appearance in Marvel Comics, T'Challa's warrior outfit was merely a skin-tight jumpsuit with a cape. Chadwick Boseman's MCU iteration of Black Panther ditches the cape, thankfully, and gives him some tangible armor, complemented beautifully by the pointed charms placed between his neck and shoulders.

Hawkeye (The Avengers)

I would say it was the right call for Jeremy Renner's Clint Barton to lose the helmet that Hawkeye wears in the comics, as I doubt it would have translated well to live-action cinema. At least, the suit he wears in 2012's The Avengers and subsequent MCU installments retains some of the purple from his original color scheme.

Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man (Spider-Man)

Author Sean O'Connell's book, With Great Power: How Spider-Man Conquered Hollywood During the Golden Age of Comic Book Blockbusters, actually quotes my description of what, arguably, makes Tobey Maguire's suit from Sam Raimi's trilogy the best live-action Spider-Man costume. The early 2000s era Peter Parker looked best for his outfit's anatomically correct spider emblems on the front and back, striking platinum webbing, and some mean-looking eyes.

Falcon (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

It was easier for fans to take Anthony Mackie's portrayal of Sam "Falcon" Wilson seriously than his comic book counterpart due to the drastic changes to his uniform. Removing his red and white V-neck jumpsuit with attached, foldout wings in favor of a tactical outfit and mechanical, retractable flight gear was the right call.

Scarlet Witch (WandaVision)

We caught a glimpse of what Scarlet Witch's original design would look like if adapted for live action in WandaVision when Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) wore an exaggerated headpiece, red leotard, and cape for Halloween. This would help viewers better appreciate the outfit she settles on at the end of the series, which is more grounded but also better represents her unparalleled power as a sorcerer.

Vulture (Spider-Man: Homecoming)

There are many reasons why Michael Keaton's Adrian "The Vulture" Toomes from Spider-Man: Homecoming is considered one of the all-time best Spider-Man movie villains, including his costume. Giving the experimental weapons dealer more practical wings, powered by propellers, helps ground the character better than his design in the comics, which is just an old dude in homemade feathered wings.

Thor (Thor)

Like many other Marvel Comics heroes of his time, Thor was originally depicted as wearing a tight, sleeveless jumpsuit, in addition to his signature winged metal helmet. I would say Chris Hemsworth's God of Thunder boasts a decent-looking helmet at the beginning of his 2011 MCU debut, but I am especially glad his outfit actually includes armor that also covers his arms in a sleek fashion.

Star-Lord (Guardians Of The Galaxy)

Chris Pratt's Peter Quill simply looks so much cooler in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy, rocking a red leather duster and protective face mask, as opposed to a uniform that looks exactly like what the Nova Corps wears in the comics.

Doctor Strange (Doctor Strange)

Instead of tights and a tunic, putting Benedict Cumberbatch's Dr. Stephen Strange from 2016's Doctor Strange in a monk-like robe with the Cloak of Levitation made it easier to take the role seriously in the MCU.

Shazam (Shazam!)

You could argue that the costume worn by Zachary Levi's Billy Batson is a bit cartoonish, but that fits perfectly with the more breezy, comical tone of 2019's Shazam! The biggest selling point for me, however, is the constantly glowing lightning emblem, which is just a brilliant touch.

Two-Face (The Dark Knight)

Previous iterations of Harvey "Two-Face" Dent see half of his face become a bizarre, discolored monstrosity, inspiring him to wear custom-made, dual-colored suits. For Aaron Eckhart's version from 2008's The Dark Knight, the damaged side of his face resembles a more authentic result of a burning incident, and his suit's "evil half" is simply charred from the same event, grounding his appearance and, therefore, making the Batman villain even more unsettling.

Mr. Furious (Mystery Men)

I can't imagine seeing Ben Stiller's version of Mr. Furious in the same red and black jumpsuit the raging vigilante wears in Dark Horse's Flaming Carrot comics. However, putting him in a flame-embroidered black leather duster in 1998's Mystery Men works so well.

Nick Fury (The Avengers)

Can you even begin to imagine Samuel L. Jackson wearing Nick Fury's stealth suit from the comics instead of the black leather jacket he wears in The Avengers? Not even David Hasselhoff dressed like that for his pre-MCU portrayal of the character in the made-for-TV movie, Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Fantastic Four (2005's Fantastic Four)

I think the cast of the MCU's The Fantastic Four: First Steps looks great in their outfits, which call to mind the characters' original comic book appearances in the 1960s. However, I personally prefer the darker and more minimalistic approach in the otherwise widely despised adaptation from 2005.

M'Baku (Black Panther)

I cannot help but assume that Winston Duke's M'Baku would have looked simply ridiculous wearing a white gorilla's whole face around his head in 2018's Black Panther. However, settling for a decorative mask and a few touches of fur suit the portrayal perfectly.

Nebula (Guardians Of The Galaxy)

Originally, in the comics, Nebula was not a cyborg, but just another, otherwise fierce, blue woman with long hair like Gamora and a traditionally feminine uniform. Making Karen Gillan's iteration from Guardians of the Galaxy a victim of mechanical alterations not only improves her look, but also adds some absorbing complexity to her story.

Loki (Thor)

For 2011's Thor, it was right to get Loki out of his tight, green jumpsuit from the comics and into a more earnestly crafted outfit fit for a god, especially when played by an actor like Tom Hiddleston.

Black Spider-Man Suit (Spider-Man 3)

I realize that the Black Spidersuit from 2007's Spider-Man 3, the result of the alien Symbiote bonding with Peter Parker's red and blues, is, essentially, nothing more than a monochromatic redesign of Tobey Maguire's original suit. However, when considering how iconic that costume already was (and remains), the simple recoloring makes it pop in the same way that printing a photo in black and white tends to improve the image.

Mr. Freeze (Batman & Robin)

I don't think there is a single person who would deny that the way 1997's Batman & Robin depicts the "coldhearted" Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is egregiously over-the-top. However, I cannot deny that I believe the design of his costume, handcrafted from aircraft-grade aluminum and thousands of blue LED lights, is epic, especially when compared to the colorful jumpsuit and glass bulb helmet he was given when the comics still called him "Mr. Zero."

Charlie Cox's Daredevil (Daredevil)

The early 2000s take on non-seeing attorney Matt Murdock's vengeful vigilante alter ego (played by Ben Affleck) tried to improve on the comics' red, skintight spandex jumpsuit by replacing it with red, skintight leather. The acclaimed MCU canon series Daredevil put star Charlie Cox in a Kevlar suit with a protective helmet that combines a subtle shade of burgundy with accents of black, resulting in a suit that wins over the originals in terms of both style and function.

Pepper "Rescue" Potts (Avengers: Endgame)

In 2010, Pepper Potts took on an armored vigilante alter ego known as Rescue, whose suit was, essentially, a feminized rework of Tony Stark's Iron Man armor, color scheme, and all. When Gwyneth Paltrow brought Rescue into the MCU in Avengers: Endgame, the appearance changed things up a bit by making purple the main color of her armor.

Moon Knight (Moon Knight)

Honestly, just about all comic book iterations of Moon Knight have looked pretty cool, but Oscar Isaac's Marc Spector from the Disney+ original series, Moon Knight, boasts an outfit that is more comparatively authentic to a genuine Egyptian warrior. Not to mention, giving him actual glowing white eyes makes him infinitely more intimidating.

Yondu (Guardians Of The Galaxy)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 from 2017 pays tribute to the comic book iteration of Yondu by having Michael Rooker wear a punk rock mohawk-style fin on his head, which is certainly fun to see. However, I'm glad James Gunn refrained from bringing back the character's very revealing original outfit, which is basically two straps to cover his nipples and a skirt.

The Eternals (Eternals)

With all due respect to the late, great Jack Kirby, his original designs for the immortal Marvel heroes known as the Eternals are pretty generic. However, their outfits from Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao's 2021 movie are far sleeker and more grounded, with additional details that help them stand out from other MCU characters.

Valkyrie (Thor: Ragnarok)

Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie trades in a typical, suggestive armored leotard for awesome-looking full-body warrior garb in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok.

There’s a moment in the latest Marvel crossover comic that hits like a repulsor blast to the chest, a final stand, a desperate mission, and a message that feels ripped straight from the Avengers: Endgame finale. Marvel just said goodbye to Tony Stark all over again, but this time it’s not in a major superhero movie release but in a comic where the billionaire playboy philanthropist goes up against something darker, stranger, and dripping with acid blood. And, while the setting may be cosmic horror instead of cinematic spectacle, the emotional weight? Yeah, it still lands like a Stark Industries bomb.

The fourth and final issue of the Aliens vs. Avengers miniseries, written by Jonathan Hickman with jaw-dropping art by Esad Ribić, wraps with a sacrifice straight out of an MCU fever dream. But this isn’t the youthful genius from the Iron Man MCU flicks we are used to. This is an older, grayer Stark. A man who’s seen it all, lost even more, and chooses to go out on his own terms. What does he leave behind? Not just a trail of alien bodies, but a recorded message that hits like a vibranium punch to the gut:

Full body chills, right? “Avenge me.” Yeah, that’s a line that will stick with you for awhile.

So here’s the quick recap for those who do not keep up with all things comic book related. A corrupted Mr. Sinister decides to weaponize the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise (which is continuing with FX's upcoming 2025 TV show, Alien: Earth), and things get ugly. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes gear up for an intergalactic showdown that makes the Battle of New York look like a mosh pit. And, by the time the dust settles, Tony’s gone, but the job’s far from over.

Instead of wrapping things up with a neat little “we saved the galaxy” bow, Stark’s message basically gives the Avengers a new mission: keep fighting. Not just in their universe. In every universe. Yep, this thing just went full MCU Multiverse.

And if that sounds like the setup for a sequel? It absolutely is.

Let’s get real, when Marvel first announced Aliens vs. Avengers, plenty of folks (including this writer) assumed it was just another brand mash-up designed to sell variant covers and action figures. But then Jonathan Hickman walked in like, “What if we actually made it good?” And yeah, they did.

The result? A bloody, bold, surprisingly emotional crossover that manages to honor both franchises. You’ve got Venom screaming at a Xenomorph queen. You’ve got Mr. Sinister being his usual high-camp nightmare. You’ve got Stark being vintage Stark, brilliant, self-destructive, and ready to take one final swing for the team.

Here’s the twist: this Tony may be gone, but the multiverse means Iron Man never really dies. If Aliens vs. Avengers does get a round two, and after that final page, I’m betting it will, don’t be surprised if another version of Stark shows up to carry on the mission. Maybe one with a beard from a different timeline. Maybe one who is a Xenomorph. Or, if we want to get real “pie in the sky,” perhaps a crossover with the likes of Stark/Doom that’s presumably set to appear in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. (Okay, probably not that last one… but one can dream.)

In the meantime, Tony Stark’s latest death might just be one of his most potent demises. The story's got heart and horror, but it’s got one final mic-drop that deserves a slow, Robert Downey Jr.-esque clap.

Aliens vs. Avengers #4 is now available wherever you purchase your comics. Just be sure to bring a flamethrower. As for the next MCU flick on the 2025 movie schedule, the upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps is scheduled to land in theaters on July 25.

From the big screen to the small screen, movies and series based on video games are not only popular, but they can be quite successful. The Sonic the Hedgehog movies have all been massive hits in theaters, but another game franchise is about to drop its own sequel. According to the writer of the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2, the film could generate Avengers: Endgame-levels of hype.

The rebooted Mortal Kombat movie debuted during the pandemic and, thus, it wasn’t able to build a massive box office total. However, between its box office success and its simultaneous release for everybody with a Max subscription, it was clear to WB that the movie should get a sequel. That follow-up adds Karl Urban to the cast as the popular character Johnny Cage and will receive a full theatrical release on the 2025 movie schedule. Ahead of the film's release, writer Jeremy Slater tells Comicbook.com that fans are reacting in theaters like they’re watching Marvel's 2019 culmination film. He explained…

Mortal Kombat 2 likely isn't going to be at the level of Avengers: Endgame for a lot of people. However, certain MK fans who love the game franchise and are excited to see certain characters on the big screen, it’s not hard to imagine those fans going absolutely wild when a favorite character appears or somebody pulls off a move they’re famous for in the games.

Slater counts himself among those fans, saying he pumped a lot of quarters into Mortal Kombat arcade machine as a kid. Even he is wowed by the experience of being part of the new film. He relayed a story about being on the set and being blown away by what he saw. Slater said…

Jeremy Slater's description should be enough to keep fans pumped ahead of the first trailer's release. Specific plot details are scarce, but all signs point to plenty of action and gore as another brutal tournament lies ahead. Mortal Kombat 2 is set to hit theaters on October 24 as part of the 2025 movie schedule.

I have held my silence for too long. We need to talk about the Avengers: Endgame ending because I’m kind of tired of avoiding the topic.

When Avengers: Endgame came out, it felt like we were on top of the world. It was 2019, Marvel was undoubtedly at its peak, and some of the best Marvel films were released during that time. After the ending of this iconic film, which went on to become one of the biggest movies ever, many fans wondered what would happen next in the MCU.

Of course, 2020 happened a year later, and things within that universe ended up more topsy-turvy than a roadside carnival ride. Sooner or later, the MCU got back on track (relatively). But regardless of that, even after the film initially came out, I still had some faith that the ending of this film would pay off.

Now, it’s been six years since it came out. Yup, you read that right – six years, even though it really feels like it was yesterday. And while I will gladly rewatch the MCU until the cows come home, there’s just something about this ending that I have to talk about– and that I really don’t like anymore. Let’s get into it.

I Used To Like The Ending Back When The First Film Came Out

So, I was a huge Marvel fan from about 2012 to 2020. Don’t get me wrong—I still am—and I was in a movie theatre seat the moment Thunderbolts* and its incredible reviews were released in theaters.

But that younger version of me? From middle school to the end of college? Oh, she was a true lover of the MCU, from the first Avengers onwards, and only continued to fall more in love with the franchise as a whole. My lock screen was Bucky Barnes for the longest time before I met my boyfriend. So yeah, I was just as pumped for Avengers: Endgame as any major Marvel fan.

At first, I really did like the ending. Was it sad? Yes, but it definitely fits the vibe that the film was going for. Truly, at the end of Infinity War, I didn’t know how they were going to all make it out of this alive. Thanos seriously felt like this impossible threat that made me wonder if the villain truly was going to win in the next movie.

Of course, somehow, the Avengers (and crew) helped save the day, beginning with that iconic “On your left” scene and more. And when the movie ended with not only Steve leaving this all behind but Tony dying to complete the circuit, I really felt…complete. I had no qualms.

However, times change, and so do opinions. This one has been on my mind for a bit.

But Overtime, A Lot Of Things Haven’t Made Sense, Or Feel…Wrong

Before I dig into this, I do want to establish that I know about the Avengers: Endgame time travel rules. I know that there’s a way to split the timelines instead of invading another one, so the timelines don’t get messed up and the future isn’t rewritten and somehow, someway, Steve would be able to live a happy life.

But now I watch it, and it honestly irks me.

Time travel within the MCU has gotten so messy. As a huge fan of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, I was seriously looking forward to the multiverse saga, and I wondered how they could bring that to the live-action scene.

Of course, I was ready to watch all the Marvel TV shows that really began to dig deeper into timelines, how time works within this huge universe, and more. Even so, watching those in comparison to the end of Endgame just doesn’t sit right with me anymore.

I feel like there are just certain time aspects that don’t make sense to me, but the even bigger issues are that the endings of two characters – Steve and Tony – don’t feel earned anymore, because of how much the time-travel and multiverse have set them up. Let me explain.

Steve’s Ending Just Doesn’t Sit Right With Me Anymore, And It’s Not Just About Peggy

I was a huge Captain America fan. I will rewatch those movies until the day I die. Like I said, Bucky was my home screen; I was that fangirl. So yeah, I can totally understand why younger me thought that Steve transporting himself into a different, split timeline to be with his long-lost one-time love would be romantic.

But now, it really doesn’t feel earned.

It’s not just because I don’t think he deserves to be with Peggy. I love Peggy. I think she’s a badass MCU character that didn’t need powers to show she was a boss and would be able to accomplish literally anything she set her mind to. I wish we had gotten more of her, specifically within the MCU and not just Agent Carter.

However, I don’t think we got enough of Peggy and Steve’s relationship throughout the franchise to feel that he truly loved her and would leave everything behind to go and be with her. Yes, they had moments during Captain America: The First Avenger, and I know that there’s this cliche in some of these movies that those kinds of relationships influenced by war and passion are very strong.

Even so, I don’t see them together. I think at specific points, I can understand why Steve was so hung up on her, but I also feel like Peggy learned to move on with her life. She had a whole world without him. While I think Steve returning to the past was on a different timeline, it still felt like it ruined a lot of her character development from other parts of the MCU.

There’s also the fact that Steve never seemed like the guy just to abandon all of his friends – to just pass on the shield to Sam (even though I love him as Captain America) and, more importantly, just leave Bucky to deal with literally all his trauma on his own so that he could go and live a life with Peggy. Huh? Is this the same Steve who spent an entire movie trying to keep Bucky safe in Civil War? I am very confused.

The More I Think About It, The More It Feels Like They Betrayed Tony’s Legacy Too

And then there’s Tony. My guy, Tony. The man who started it all.

What was the point of killing him off if he’s just going to come back?

With the Human Torch cameo in Deadpool and Wolverine, I can understand why Chris Evans was brought back for that. It was long-awaited; people wanted to see the X-Men infused into the MCU, and it was an already established character. It makes sense to merge universes.

But as exciting as it is to see Robert Downey Jr. on the set of Avengers: Doomsday, this feels…wrong. So wrong. We watched him give his own life to save the universe, to save the Avengers, to save his daughter and his wife and everything else, and now you’re saying that he’s just coming back as…Dr. Doom?

I know it’s not really Tony, but obviously it’s setting up the surprise that the Avengers will see Tony’s face and be like “Oh my god, a different version of you, wow” or whatever. But it feels like fans were punched in the gut to watch his character die, only to see the actor brought back as a villain. That death feels…hollow now.

I don’t know, maybe I’m overthinking both of these. These are just superhero movies at the end of the day. But when a film is as critically praised as Endgame was, it makes you really look back on it with a critical eye…and some of these things don’t add up anymore. It might be time for another marathon while we wait for more upcoming MCU films.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe a big place, thanks to the constant release of new projects in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. Fans who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order will recall that actor Sebastian Stan has been there since Phase One as Bucky Barnes, with his tenure as the character still ongoing. Although he did admit that filming Avengers: Endgame without a full script was challenging at the time.

Stan recently returned as Bucky in Thunderbolts*, which has been successful in theaters and with critics. While we got all the information he needed for that movie, Infinity War and Endgame were top-secret operations. When appearing on an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Apprentice actor was asked if he ever has do act in the MCU without context of what's happening in-universe. He said:

That certainly sounds challenging. While Stan has limited screen time in Endgame thanks to Bucky being snapped out of existence during Infinity War. He was not one of the actors who got a full script, so he had to bring his scenes to life without understanding the context of the movie as a whole. Marvel security really is intense.

At that point, The Russo Brothers had already proven themselves as some of the best filmmakers in the MCU. Aside from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, they brought the ambitious story of Civil War to life and proved their ability to balance a large ensemble cast. So there was lots of good will when they were withholding scripts from the cast, even if that's not how Sebastian Stan likes to work.

I have to wonder which sequences Stan is particularly referencing. Tony Stark's funeral comes to mind as some of the cast confirmed this was a mystery scene ahead of cameras going up. So it's not like they had a long time to rfine their performances ahead of time.

Another memorable scene for Bucky in Endgame was Steve Rogers' ending. He said goodbye to his friend as he departed to return the Infinity Stones (and Mjolnir) to their places in the timeline. And then he was as surprised as fans were when Steve returns as an old man.

Stan can be seen in Thunderbolts* now as part of the 2025 movie release list. He's already confirmed to appear in Avengers: Endgame on May 1st, 2026. Hopefully they give the poor guy a full script this time around.

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Thunderbolts*. If you have not yet seen the new Marvel blockbuster, proceed at your own risk!

It was a little over a year ago that the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster got an odd title change. Taking the stage at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace during the Disney presentation at CinemaCon 2024 in Las Vegas, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige revealed that the developing feature Thunderbolts would henceforth be known as Thunderbolts* – with an emphasis on the new and mysterious asterisk. An explanation wasn’t provided for the new punctuation, with the executive/filmmaker instead simply teasing, “we won’t talk more about that until after the movie comes out.”

Now Thunderbolts* is out, and we know why that little elevated star exists. While the team at the center of the movie is assembled and briefly identified as the Thunderbolts (named after Yelena Belova’s terrible childhood soccer team), the big finale reveals that the roster of misfits is actually Valentina Allegra de Fontaine’s New Avengers. As an extension of this, New Avengers is actually the blockbuster’s secret title – seemingly officially confirmed by the end credits.

Overall, I like the direction in which the in-canon development points, with the New Avengers butting heads with Sam Wilson’s Avengers as the universe grapples with the arrival of the Fantastic Four and Doctor Doom. What I don’t love, however, is the attempted title reveal gambit, and in my mind, it marks the second time that Marvel Studios has whiffed in that department.

The “Big Reveal” With The Thunderbolts Asterisk Was A Little Too Obvious

With the title change I noted in the first paragraph, the goal of Marvel Studios was to create an air of mystery around Thunderbolts* and influence a year-plus of speculation. The filmmakers and executives/departments that conjured the idea clearly wanted people to ask the specific question, “What does the asterisk mean?” and ponder potential answers. It wasn’t just for niche comic book fans either; it’s the name of the film, and all movie-goers would hopefully question the punctuation. Then they would go see the blockbuster during its opening weekend in order to either affirm their suspicions or have their minds blown by something unexpected.

Ideally, a marketing plot like this would result in a nice split… but that doesn’t feel true in this particular case. The Thunderbolts, being a surreptitious way of assembling a new version of Earth’s Mightiest Heroe,s always seemed like the most obvious answer to the presented riddle, and I was hoping for something a bit more advanced.

One need not look further than the comics on which the movie is based for inspiration. The project is named after a standout development in the late 1990s Marvel Comics that saw the Avengers killed and the publication introduce a new series called Thunderbolts. It was said that the team was going to be a new group of heroes, but the first issue revealed the roster as being the Masters of Evil in disguise – eventually dubbed the Dark Avengers. It was a well-orchestrated surprise… and not one that could be replicated by Marvel Studios.

Again, I’ll note that I like the idea of a New Avengers vs. Avengers conflict brewing in the MCU, but it feels like the franchise worked really hard to drum up buzz for a shock that isn’t at all shocking.

As A Fan, I’m Not Sure What I’m Supposed To Call The Movie Now

The other issue that the reveal presents is a unique conflict regarding how the movie is meant to be discussed – and I’ll admit that this is significant in my mind specifically because, as an MCU fan and CinemaBlend editor, I’m going to be writing about it a lot in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead. Simply put: are we meant to continue to call the movie Thunderbolts* (as I have been throughout this article), or are we meant to refer to it as New Avengers from now on?

At a certain point in the theatrical run, are marquees going to change? Are there going to be new TV spots and trailers developed? Will new posters be printed and sent out to cinemas? How will the movie be marketed when it goes to home video, both on digital platforms and when it comes to cover art for 4K UHD and Blu-ray? There are no indications anywhere to dictate conversation.

The film presently feels caught in a weird no man’s land, branding-wise. Perhaps it’s a bit too spoiler-y, but it feels like the movie is missing a big opportunity to unveil itself broadly now as being New Avengers in the hopes of boosting interest and new buzz in the days leading up to its second weekend.

The Thunderbolts* Asterisk Explanation Reminds Me Of The Disappointing Title Reveal For Avengers: Endgame

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has done many things quite well in its nearly two decades of existence, effectively changing the entire landscape of blockbuster filmmaking, but I think we can now say that one thing the franchise doesn’t do particularly well is hyped title reveals. It turns out that what the asterisk in Thunderbolts* was hiding was exactly what you thought it was hiding – and the underwhelming answer reminded me of how I felt when we first learned the title of Avengers: Endgame.

Fans will remember that there was a time when Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame were dubbed Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 and Part 2, but there was a point during their development when that plan was altered: it was decided that the first movie would be called Avengers: Infinity War, and the name of the sequel was maintained as a secret. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo held on to the secret with the intention of letting people “absorb the first movie enough.”

The plan didn’t work out as hoped – and it’s not just me saying that. Prior to the reveal, Kevin Feige went on record saying that the situation had “gotten entirely out of hand” and that the spike in speculation and hype meant that the reveal was inevitably going to fail in trying to live up to expectations. He was right. The title of Avengers: Endgame is a callback to a specific line from Doctor Strange in Avengers: Infinity War, but it’s also pretty damn bland and unimpressive.

Generally speaking, I like the idea of Marvel Studios trying to trip up audiences and zagging left when there is expectation for it to zig to the right, but title reveals don’t seem to work out particularly well for the franchise, perhaps because it’s a victim of its own hype machine. I’m still lightly confused and disappointed by the Thunderbolts* title… but at least I liked the movie!

Typically, audiences can rely on seeing a movie’s protagonist make it to the end unscathed. However, every so often, filmmakers like to defy expectations by having the character we have been following meet their maker, usually at the story’s conclusion, but sometimes even earlier. Beware of SPOILERS as we revisit some iconic movies that shocked the world by showing the main character’s demise.

Ghost (1990)

The acclaimed romantic “horror” movie Ghost is a prime example of a film in which the main character is dead for the majority of the story. Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) is murdered about 20 minutes in, but his spirit remains to solve the truth behind his death and reach out to his longtime girlfriend, Molly (Demi Moore), with the help of a medium named Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg, in an Oscar-winning performance).

Titanic (1997)

The fictional romance at the center of James Cameron's Titanic comes to a tragic end when Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) succumbs to the ocean's freezing temperatures – a death many believe could have been prevented if Rose (Kate Winslet) shared her makeshift liferaft. She is later reunited with her lover, however, when she succumbs to old age at the end of the Best Picture Oscar winner based on a true story.

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Tom Hanks' Captain John H. Miller does, indeed, accomplish his eponymous mission in Steven Spielberg's harrowing war movie classic, Saving Private Ryan. Unfortunately, he does not survive the task, but not before urging Private John Francis Ryan (Matt Damon) to "earn" the life he has been given, thanks to this rescue.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Avengers: Endgame comes to a bittersweet conclusion when the team is forced to say goodbye to the hero who kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the first place, Tony "Iron Man" Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), after he saves the universe. Using nano-bot equipped armor to form a makeshift Infinity Gauntlet, he erases Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his army from existence with a finger snap that is, unfortunately, too much for his mortal body to handle.

Gladiator (2000)

Director Ridley Scott's Gladiator is the story of Roman general Maximus (Russell Crowe), who is sold into slavery by corrupt emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), who also murders his family. However, he does reunite with them in the afterlife after defeating Commodus in a duel that he does not survive, having been previously and unfairly wounded by his opponent.

Beetlejuice (1988)

The title character is not the main character in Tim Burton's ghoulish comedy, Beetlejuice, although Michael Keaton's mischievous bio-exorcist (whose name is actually spelled "Betelgeuse") is dead throughout. The plot kicks off when Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis) suffer a fatal accident and then try to rid their house of its new living tenants.

Alien (1979)

We all think of Scream Queen Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley as the hero of the Alien movies, but that is not quite the case at the beginning of the saga. Ripley is promoted to the hero of the story and captain of the Nostromo after the Xenomorph attacks Dallas (Tom Skerritt) in a shocking twist.

Pulp Fiction (1994)

There is not exactly one true protagonist in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, as each of its three non-linear stories ultimately has a different lead. However, John Travolta does get top billing for the Oscar-winning drama and his character, Vincent Vega, is mowed down with an uzi by Butch (Bruce Willis) in the second chapter, which is also the film's chronological finale.

No Country For Old Men (2007)

Technically, Tommy Lee Jones' Ed Tom Bell is the true central character of Joel and Ethan Coen's Oscar-winning adaptation of author Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men. However, much of the modern Western movie classic follows Josh Brolin's Llewellyn Moss and his struggle to outrun and outwit the sadistic Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), up until his abrupt murder.

Psycho (1960)

It at least seems like Janet Leigh's Marion Crane is the central focus of Alfred Hitchcock's masterful horror movie, Psycho, until about halfway through the story. After the real estate secretary is brutally killed while taking a shower in her motel room, we realize the true "psycho" is Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), who murders Marion and others while subconsciously taking on the identity of his dead mother.

Logan (2017)

Hugh Jackman's retirement from the role of Wolverine was confirmed by the end of Logan, in which the former X-Men member, whose healing ability had been diminishing, gives his life to protect Laura (Dafne Keen) and other young mutants. Of course, seven years later, a variant of the Adamantium-clawed mutant would star in Deadpool & Wolverine, but the emotional conclusion of James Mangold's Oscar-nominated film is no less effective for it.

Citizen Kane (1941)

The first scene of co-writer and director Orson Welles' revolutionary drama, Citizen Kane, depicts the death of the megalomaniacal title character, Charles Foster Kane (Welles). The succeeding story follows an investigation regarding the meaning of his final word, "Rosebud."

Hereditary (2018)

The marketing for first-time feature director Ari Aster's stunning A24 horror movie, Hereditary, made it seem as if the story would follow young Charlie (Milly Shapiro), making her demise all the more shocking. The unsettling twist confirmed that Charlie's mother, Annie (Toni Collette), was the film's true protagonist, but, of course, she would end up losing her head as well.

The Departed (2006)

Director Martin Scorsese's The Departed is the story of two men on opposite sides of the law, namely undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Sgt. Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), who has ties to Boston's Irish Mob. Both lose their lives by the end, with Costigan getting killed by James Badge Dale's also corrupt Trooper Barrigan, and Sullivan getting killed by Staff Sergeant Sean Dignam (Mark Wahlberg).

The Sixth Sense (1999)

In The Sixth Sense, child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) tries to help a young boy (played by Haley Joel Osment) come to terms with his ability to see ghosts. At the end, in just about the best M. Night Shyamalan movie twist, it is revealed that Malcolm himself is a ghost, but neither he nor the audience knew the entire time.

Promising Young Woman (2020)

The Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman is a unique type of revenge movie, following Cassie (Carey Mulligan) and her bid to punish those involved with the assault that drove her friend, Nina, to take her own life. In the end, she achieves her goal, but by allowing herself to get murdered by the man who assaulted Nina, Al Monroe (Chris Lowell), which finally incriminates him.

The Place Beyond The Pines (2012)

The Place Beyond the Pines is widely considered one of the best Ryan Gosling movies, despite the fact that the actor is not actually in the film for very long. Roughly halfway through the story, his character, Luke, dies whilst struggling to get away from a bank robbery job gone wrong.

A Quiet Place (2018)

In the heartbreaking final act of the acclaimed post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, A Quiet Place, Lee Abbott (John Krasinski, who also co-writes and directs) lets out a loud scream to attract the vicious, sound-hunting aliens away from his children, ultimately sacrificing himself for them. In addition to returning to helm the sequel, A Quiet Place Part II, Krasinski reprises the role in a flashback to the day the Death Angels' invasion begins.

Uncut Gems (2019)

Josh and Benny Safdie's Uncut Gems sees self-destructive jeweler Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) jump through hoops to pay off his insurmountable debt. At the shocking end of the intense, acclaimed A24 movie, just after finally landing the big win he needs, he is abruptly shot in the head by his brother-in-law's unstable goon, Phil (Kevin William Richards).

Train To Busan (2016)

An essential reason why South Korean import Train to Busan is regarded as one of the greatest zombie movies ever made is its heartbreaking conclusion in which Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) is bitten trying to protect his daughter, Su-an (Kim Su-an). The father is seen reminiscing about Su-an's birth right before he becomes one of the undead and, with all the humanity he has left, makes the decision to throw himself off the train and not bring harm to anyone else.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is not only a film that gets real about mental health, but depicts one of the bleakest realities imaginable for an asylum patient, as seen in the eyes of criminal Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), who only ended up in the institution by pleading insanity. After discovering that McMurphy has been lobotomized and that life has left his eyes, "Big Chief" Bromden (Will Sampson) mercifully suffocates his friend to death before escaping.

Soul (2020)

One of Pixar's best movies, Soul, tells the story of a jazz musician (voiced by Jamie Foxx) who dies in an accident just after landing the gig of his life. He then explores the afterlife, struggling to figure out a way to return to Earth.

Terrifier (2017)

Terrifier 2 introduces one of the most beloved horror movie Final Girls in Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera), but the woman you expect to make it out alive in its predecessor is not so lucky to be called a Final Girl. In fact, Tara Heyes (Jenna Kanell) even dies in a subversive way, as it seems she is about to put an end to Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) before the sadistic harlequin pulls out a pistol and shoots her in the head.

300 (2007)

Zack Snyder's 300 is an intense, highly fictionalized account of events surrounding the Battle of Thermopylae. One detail that the film does get right is that the Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) was killed in battle.

To Live And Die In L.A. (1985)

Director William Friedkin's intense crime thriller, To Live and Die in L.A., follows Secret Service agent Richard Chance (William Petersen) and his determination to find Rick Masters (Willem Dafoe), a counterfeiter who killed his partner. Unfortunately, Masters manages to escape as Chance and Masters' associate, Jack, fatally shoot each other.

Deep Blue Sea (1999)

One of the most essential reasons why Deep Blue Sea is a classic shark movie is the moment when the film takes a literal bite out of its biggest star, Samuel L. Jackson. The actor's character, Russell Franklin, is in the middle of a heroic speech when a genetically engineered shark leaps out of the water, pulls him underneath the surface, and eats him alive.

Life Is Beautiful (1997)

A movie dad we would be proud to have is Guido Orefice, played by co-writer and director Roberto Benigni in the heartbreaking Holocaust-era drama, Life is Beautiful. The Jewish-American man remains committed to using humor to shield his young son from the unspeakable tragedy surrounding him up until the very moment he is shot by Nazi officers.

Carnival Of Souls (1962)

In the cult horror film Carnival of Souls, Candace Hilligoss stars as Mary Henry, who takes a job as an organ player for a traveling carnival after suffering a terrible car accident. However, as the final scene reveals, Mary never actually survived that accident.

The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

Sean Connery was open about how much he disliked one of his last movies, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which is based on a comic book by Alan Moore that groups various iconic figures of literature together, including Captain Nemo and Tom Sawyer. At least, if there had been a sequel, the former James Bond actor would not have needed to show up for it as his character, legendary adventure hero Allan Quatermain, passes away at the end.

15 Minutes (2001)

15 Minutes is a buddy cop action flick in which veteran New York detective Eddie Flemming (Robert De Niro) teams up with fire marshal Jordy Warsaw (Edward Burns) to investigate the crimes of two Eastern European convicts seeking fame and fortune by selling off video recordings of their violent acts. One video they successfully sell to a popular news program is the murder of Flemming, who is suffocated to death roughly halfway through the film.

Alien 3 (1992)

Sigourney Weaver explained to the Chicago Tribune that she only agreed to star in Alien 3 if Ellen Ripley is killed off, which does occur when she jumps into a burning furnace as a baby Xenomorph bursts from her chest. Of course, the actor would come back just once more for Alien: Resurrection, but as a clone of Ripley.

The Lovely Bones (2010)

Many critics and audiences agree that director Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones is not a great movie despite its interesting plot. Based on author Alice Sebold’s novel, it stars Saoirse Ronan as a teenage girl watching over her family, and the man who murdered her, from the afterlife.

One aspect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that fans have loved since its conception is the way in which it has referenced the comics that inspired it. With that have come a plethora of Easter eggs that have been littered throughout the various movies and TV shows that make up the franchise. As great as it is to see nods to elements of the comics, though, I really love when such tidbits are introduced in MCU films and pay off in others. A clip on social media highlighted such an example, and it’s making me think of more.

What Specific MCU Payoff Moment Is Covered In The Video?

If you watch the Marvel movies in order, you’ll gradually see that there are big moments that feel as though they’ll be paid off somewhere down the line. That’s not always obvious, and I’d say that one particularly funny scene from 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron that involves Steve Rogers is a firm example. As Earth’s Mightiest Heroes party, many of them take a turn at trying to lift Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir. Steve comes the closest to lifting the weapon but doesn’t yet, as in the Instagram video below, that came back around in a later film:

User superhero_fix points out that during the third act of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, Steve does indeed lift the enchanted weapon and uses it to face off with the Mad Titan, Thanos. I don’t know about anyone else’s showing, but audience members were shook when Captain America took control of Mjolnir. There was a subsequent debate involving Cap’s worthiness but, regardless of where you stand, it was a cool moment nonetheless.

These payoffs may seem insignificant to some, but they can absolutely be used to great effect. Overall, I’d say that the Mjolnir moment is one of the best payoffs in the history of the MCU, not to mention one of Captain America's best moments in the franchise. However, there are plenty of others that are just as worthy (no pun intended).

Let’s Talk About Some Other Great Payoffs In The MCU

Over the years, Marvel Studios’ extensive media franchise has played the long game on more than a few occasions. Some keen examples that come to mind have to do with the (incredibly quotable) MCU villains. The fate of the Red Skull post-Captain America: The First Avenger was up in the air for nearly seven years, before he was revealed to be on Vormir in Avengers: Infinity War. I can also say that I anxiously waited nearly a decade for the real Mandarin – the head of the Ten Rings Organization – to show up following that tease in the One Shot All Hail the King. Luckily, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings provided those answers.

Endgame has heartbreaking moments, and it also has some incredibly sweet payoffs – some more noticeable than others. One of my favorites is a cameo from Harley – the kid who assisted Tony Stark during the events of Iron Man 3 – at Stark’s funeral. Another subtle nod is when Steve Rogers refers to pal Sam Wilson as a “good man,” before returning the Infinity Stones to their rightful times. That’s in reference to Dr. Abraham Erskine telling Steve to remain a “good man,” before taking the super soldier serum in First Avenger.

Of course, it’s Steve’s faith in Sam that prompts him to name his Captain America successor. Sam’s own eventual solo film, Brave New World, would also pay off a few Easter eggs and plot threads by including some Incredible Hulk characters (sans Bruce Banner).

The connective tissue that binds the events described above can help add layers to the MCU and admittedly, make it somewhat confusing at times. All in all, though, I wouldn’t trade anything for the excitement I had when seeing Cap hold Mjolnir or Red Skull making his return. Should you want to check out those big moments yourself, stream the various Marvel movies using a Disney+ subscription.

The first season of Daredevil: Born Again has wrapped up on Disney+, and it’s safe to say it was a big success, both with critics and fans. The show brings back the titular hero, played by Charlie Cox, and his classic adversary, Kingpin, portrayed by Vincent D'Onofrio in triumphant fashion after nearly seven years in the wilderness (save for a quick cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home), after Disney acquired the original Daredevil series from Netflix.

It’s a much grittier show than one would expect from Disney, following in the tradition of its Netflix predecessor. It’s also much more violent than anyone would expect from a Disney+ original. While those two aspects of the show are definitely strengths, that’s not what I think the broader MCU could take away from the show’s success. The MCU doesn’t need to be more violent, it needs more movies to be self-contained, smaller stories. The ever-expanding universe (or universes) needs to be reigned in occasionally. Let me explain, please.

Marvel Reached A Pinnacle In 2019, But Lately, It’s Been Dicey

Avengers: Endgame was an incredible triumph for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2019. It was the culmination of 22 movies, starting with Iron Man in 2008. If you watch the MCU movies in order, as I did during the early months of the COVID-19 lockdown with my Disney+ subscription, it reinforces just how well they built the universe up from one superhero to dozens. The 13 movies since (soon to be 14 with the upcoming release of Thunderbolts* in May) have been a mixed bag, at best.

While some of the movies have been okay, none have really reached the pre-Endgame level. The expansion of the universe into Disney+ shows like Loki and WandaVision was promising, though even there, the franchise has been uneven, with less-acclaimed shows like Moon Knight, which started strong but felt incomplete. What has worked about the shows is that they are, for the most part, self-contained stories.

The MCU Should Have Reset After Avengers: Endgame

The slow build over 11 years allowed fans of the MCU to digest everything one thing at a time. First, it was just Robert Downey, Jr. taking on a human villain, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), after building his first Iron Man suit. It’s a traditional comic book-like story, with one superhero and one villain, great action, and funny dialogue. In the first-ever post-credit scene, audiences meet Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), and the seeds are sewn for the future, and it’s big.

Over the course of the next few movies, we meet The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America (before the first Avengers movies dropped) and we got to see those core members of the collective (including Hawkeye and Black Widow) come together to fight Loki and The Other in The Avengers.

From there, the movies just kept getting bigger, and more and more heroes and villains were introduced. The Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Black Panther, and more kept joining in on the fun, and for us, as fans, it was exhilarating every time a new movie was released. Finally, we came to Avengers: Endgame, and all of it came together. From Captain America finally delivering the line “Avengers, assemble,” to Tony Stark’s death, the movie was a perfect way to close the Infinity Saga.

That should have been a signal to the powers that be that it was time for a reset. It doesn’t help that COVID hit less than a year later, slowing everything in the world, and in Hollywood down to a crawl for a while. Yet another reason it felt like time to bring everything back to earth. Of course, that’s not what happened.

The MCU Is Too Big

When I say the MCU is too big, I mean the plots and the locations are way too expansive. We’re following heroes across the universe, indeed across an infinite number of universes. There are movies to follow, TV shows to keep up on, and all along the way, there are easter eggs and teases dropped that reward those who are dedicated enough to keep up with it all, but increasingly annoying more casual fans.

What the MCU has lost is its connection to the heroes. Marvel is renowned (for good reason) for the way it has grounded most of its superheroes over the years, and there is nothing grounded about the current state of the MCU. There are heroes and villains with the power of gods, who fight their battles in the deepest depths of space. This is a great end game (pun intended), but when you reach the end, you can’t keep going.

Daredevil: Born Again Is A Blueprint

Daredevil: Born Again is a grounded, heartfelt story, set in one neighborhood in New York City, about one hero (or two, if you count a few scenes with Punisher), dealing with his own personal issues while struggling to find purpose as a person and a superhero after the death of a friend. For me, these are the superhero stories I love. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Endgame, but I need things to build up to a Thanos-size supervillain, not start with one.

This is where I think the MCU should start again. Take one hero, and honestly, Spider-Man would have been perfect, and have him go up against one of his traditional villains on the streets of New York, just like a classic Spidey comic book. Slowly reintroduce old heroes and bring in new ones for a few movies, then try to recreate the triumph of Avengers: Endgame.

Now, I’m realistic, I understand there is a business component to all of this. The execs have to, for better or worse, feed the beast they’ve created. They have to keep trying to top themselves, but as we’ve seen over the last four or five years, it’s impossible to fake the magic that 11 years of storytelling gave us just by giving movies bigger budgets and more cameos. So start over, bring things back to a human scale for a while, and build the MCU back up, so we can all enjoy a moment like “Avengers, assemble!” again.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a behemoth force in the entertainment industry, one that constantly puts out content in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. Fans who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order went crazy upon the release of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, which were the cumulation of the entire franchise to that point. Carrie Coon voiced Proxima Midnight, a member of Thanos' Black Order in the first movie, but didn't get any lines in Endgame. And her husband explained that money was part of the issue.

While fans are looking forward to upcoming Marvel movies, news about previously entries are still trickling out. Case in point: Coon's husband Tracy Letts appeared on The Big Picture, and revealed that the pair of actors have never actually seen Infinity War or Endgame. As he shared:

Honestly, I respect the hustle. Upon its release, Avengers: Infinity War became one of the highest grossing movies of all time. So when it came to be time for Carrie Coon to record Proxima Midnight's dialogue Endgame, she seemingly wanted a pay bump. But can you blame her?

Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like the studio appreciated Carrie Coon's negotiations for Endgame. And this explains why Proxima Midnight didn't get any more dialogue in the follow-up blockbuster. As Tracy Letts shared:

Shots fired. It sounds like Coon and Letts had no interest in sitting down for those pair of Avengers movies, even if they wanted to fight the fact that Proxima Midnight was featured in Endgame without her performance. Guess they're not Marvel fans like so many of us.

Carrie Coon's character only had a few lines during Infinity War, but her performances really helped to bring the other CGI character feel real. In the end we got a few brief, wordless appearances by Proxima Midnight during Endgame's final battle.

The next MCU flick hitting theaters is Thunderbolts* on May 2nd as part of the 2025 premiere list. As for Carrie Coon, she's busy starring in Season 3 of The White Lotus.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is showing no signs of slowing down, with new content arriving in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. Fans who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order will remember a popular theory that Ant-Man could kill Thanos by entering his butt and growing. And Paul Rudd trying to explain this to his Death of a Unicorn co-star Jenna Ortega is seriously delightful.

While fans have countless questions about upcoming Marvel movies like the next two Avengers flicks, there are current fan theories about past project that are still circulating online. While speaking with ComicBook about his new movie, Rudd was asked if the Thanos butt strategy could work on Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom in the next Avengers flicks. He mused on the subject, saying:

He's not wrong. Ant-Man was noticeably missing from Avengers: Infinity War, where he was shown assembling the Infinity Stones. And while he was killed in the opening sequence of Endgame, the Time Heist brought him back and once again saw him wielding the Stones. So Ant-Man trying to kill the Mad Titan via the Thanus theory might have resulted in certain death for Rudd's hero.

During this interview Paul Rudd tried to catch Jenna Ortega up on the theory involving his hero and Thanos, offering:

• Rudd: Do you know what we’re talking about? There was a theory — going against Thanos, why didn’t Ant-Man just … instead of Thanos, it was ‘Thanus,’ go up Thanos and then expand.
• Ortega: I thought he was already big … the purple one?
• Rudd: I get really small.
• Ortega: Oh, that’s right, you’re called Ant-Man!

It looks like the star of Wednesday (which is streaming with a Netflix subscription) isn't caught up on the MCU. Ortega recently reminisced about her tiny role in Iron Man 2 as a child actress, but it doesn't sound like she's kept up with the shared universe since.

Fans of the MCU have been wondering about what comes next for Paul Rudd's Ant-Man for a while now. After the threequel Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania failed to perform at the box office, its been unclear if he'll be getting another solo movie. Alternatively he could just appear in big crossover projects.

Moviegoers assume that Ant-Man and the rest of Earth's Mightiest Heroes will return for Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars. These projects are currently in development, with The Russo Brothers returning to the MCU for the occasion. But news on those projects is very limited, as they're not even in the 2025 movie release list.

When Avengers: Endgame hit theaters in 2019, it made serious waves. Plenty of fans flocked to cinemas to see the blockbuster on the big screen, and to watch the end of a Marvel era that featured box office domination for over a decade. The film was basically a surefire hit, with tons of anticipation leading up to its release and became a multi-billion-dollar success. However, Elizabeth Olsen, who famously played the Scarlet Witch in the franchise, didn’t feel the same way at the premiere, as she apparently panicked that the movie would flop.

Elizabeth Olsen sat down with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, where she chatted about her long-held role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the fact that she starred in movies that garnered so much attention. Olsen explained that her anxiety over a flop never dissipated even after years of MCU hits, and fanfare leading up to each project. Apparently, the actress still felt this stress even at the premiere of Endgame, though:

The His Three Daughters star is a tremendous actress, but clearly isn’t great at predicting a hit. Avengers: Endgame went on to gross $2.8 billion dollars, and is now the second highest grossing movie of all time behind Avatar. It was not only a box office phenomenon, but a critical hit as well, with many lauding directors Joe and Anthony Russo for pulling off such a cinematic feat.

While the culmination film didn't stumble, that doesn't mean that other MCU entries haven't, though. Despite the IP's tremendous success, franchise inserts like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels significantly underperformed, reversing a years-long streak of hits from Disney's house of superheroes. Elizabeth Olsen actually doesn’t make an appearance in either of those films, so she wasn’t able to predict the doom and gloom at either of those premieres. Yet this goes to show that any movie can underperform, so Olsen's anxiety is understandable.

Even amongst the more recent Marvel hiccups, Endgame remains a shining example of what the studio is capable of. It's honestly amazing just how the producers were able to achieve such a large task, and it's final gross is particularly impressive. Fan excitement and dedication should never be underestimated, which Olsen learned pretty quickly when the 2019 film opened. Hopefully, Marvel can regain this energy via upcoming MCU films, especially as we approach the forthcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars.

Fans can revisit Elizabeth Olsen alongside the rest of the Avengers: Endgame cast now, as the movie is currently streamable with a Disney+ subscription. Fans of the actress can also see her reprise her role as Wanda Maximoff in the animated series Marvel Zombies, which will also be available on the streamer this October.

In the world of comic books, death is one thing that is almost never permanent, and the same has been proven true time and again in comic book movies. Having said that, don’t go looking for Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow to come back from the dead anytime soon, as the actress has a pretty strong feeling about her character’s MCU future, or the lack thereof.

Considering all the Marvel characters that have died and returned in the past, and the expectations that the two upcoming Avengers movies are likely to be chalked full of characters, it certainly wouldn’t be crazy to see Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow at least make a cameo, but ScarJo doesn’t mince words with InStyle, strongly indicating that won’t be happening. She said:

There isn’t a lot of wiggle room left here. Johansson says, quite plainly, that Natasha is dead three times in a row, just to drive home the point. While it’s still possible that somebody could find a way to bring Natasha back, thus necessitating a request for Johansson to return, it certainly doesn’t sound like she’s looking for an excuse to come back.

And honestly, that’s fine. While there’s an expectation that most comic book characters who die won’t stay dead, there have also been those characters, like Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben, whose deaths have been of vital importance to the character and the story.

Natasha’s death in the MCU can, and perhaps should, be that for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As the actress points out, her character’s death is basically holding the universe together, any attempt to undo it could potentially make the whole thing collapse. That gives the death a weight that will continue to make it important even down the road when the MCU has been watched by multiple generations, presumably with Disney+.

Scarlett Johasson's last official appearance was in the Black Widow movie which was released following the character's death in Avengers: Endgame, but told a prequel story that also introduced us to characters like the Red Guardians and her sister Yelena, who will both appear in the upcoming Marvel movie Thunderbolts*.

Of course, even all this doesn’t mean that Scarlett Johansson is absolutely done with the MCU. The other death, the one that also matters, has been undone sideways now that Robert Downey Jr. is returning to the franchise, simply playing a different character. In an infinite multiverse, ScarJo certainly could do something similar. The actress could conceivably return, the character, it seems not.

The future is both bright and doom-laden for the filmmaking siblings Anthony and Joe Russo, who are handling the most important pair of upcoming Marvel movies possible in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. But before all that superheroic chaos comes their latest cinematic effort, Netflix’s original feature The Electric State, a bonkers-looking novel adaptation that unfortunately isn’t winning over critics nearly as much as their MCU features.

At least when it comes Rotten Tomatoes’ aggregated reviews, The Electric State sounds like it’s lacking in electrical power, which is disappointing to see ahead of the film’s release. (It’s available to stream on Friday, March 14, with a Netflix subscription.) The cumulative response to the Russos’ latest film, which boasts Mr. Peanut as a main character alongside Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt’s leads, is surprisingly low overall, but especially when compared to their action-packed efforts for Marvel.

The Electric State's RT Score Is Undeniably Rotten

One of the most expensive films ever produced, with a reported budget that's well above $300 million, The Electric State will almost definitely generate a ton of viewership and I wouldn't be surprised if the platform enjoys a subscriber uptick specifically from the Russo brothers' fans. And it'll be very interesting to see where the Audience score lands for Electric State on Rotten Tomatoes, because the current critical score is rather abysmal.

• The Electric State - 23% Rotten (based on 22 reviews)

And not to beat a CGI-crafted dead horse here, but even the handful of reviews that eked past the Fresh-threshold weren't exactly glowing, and fell on the side of "it wasn't so terrible that my day was ruined." To the Russos' credit, many critics appear to agree that The Electric State looks vibrant and engaging throughout, and mostly nails effects sequences, which is something they've long had experience with in the world of Marvel's heroes.

However, unlike the strong screenplays and story beats that the duo's MCU projects gave fans, The Electric State's script from Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, and Simon Stålenhag gets the biggest amount of blowback in reviews. The narrative struck many as hokey and by-the-numbers, without any of the comedy that Anthony and Joe Russo excelled with in Community and Arrested Development.

The Netflix movie drew way more comparisons to their 2022 thriller The Gray Man (45% RT score) and Cherry (37%) than Captain America: Winter Soldier and their other Marvel fare. Which is possibly telling, depending on one's mileage where those films are concerned. Speaking of the MCU...

All The Russo Brothers' MCU RT Scores Tower Over The Electric State's

Given how more recent Marvel Studios releases such as Captain America: Brave New World have fared with critics and moviegoers, it's sli-i-i-ightly easier to forget just how acclaimed Anthony and Joe Russo's four films were, and they will likely continue to set a high bar for future MCU efforts to aim for.

Here's where each of those films currently sits on Rotten Tomatoes:

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier - 90% Critics, 92% Audience
• Captain America: Civil War - 91% Critics, 89% Audience
• The Avengers: Infinity War - 85% Critics, 92% Audience
• The Avengers: Endgame - 94% Critics, 90% Audience

So much of the filmmakers' immediate future will be invested in bringing Robert Downey Jr. back into the MCU as Doctor Doom and grouping myriad superheroes and villains together again for their pair of Avengers films, which will reportedly be filmed closely together, with a relatively short hiatus between productions. And with respects to those hoping for Mr. Peanut to breakout as a character actor, maybe that's a good thing.

Some would say that glasses aren’t cool, and those people are in fact, liars. Throughout movie history, there have been iconic moments involving both eyeglasses and sunglasses that have made huge fashion statements. In some cases, they’re even seen as a signature to the characters they’re being worn by. So if you’re worried about rocking some facial furniture at one point or another, let these trendsetters ease those troubles in their own stylish way.

Christopher Reeve - Superman

Behold, the glasses so iconic they could conceal a Kryptonian. Christopher Reeve’s specs from his time as Superman were a bit oversized, but in a way that is actually endearing. So much so that eyeglass designer Tom Davies designed a replica that’s currently on sale on the market.

Audrey Hepburn - Breakfast At Tiffany’s

Everyone remembers Audrey Hepburn’s little black dress from the cinematic classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s, an image that became an eternal symbol of class and elegance. But let’s not overlook the powerful accessory that is her equally memorable pair of sunglasses. If you’re looking to add this to your own collection, Oliver Goldsmith’s “Manhattan” model will have you singing “Moon River” in no time.

Michael Caine - The Ipcress File

The legendary Michael Caine was a frequent wearer of Curry & Paxton branded eyewear, with his role in The Ipcress File being the most notable example. Rocking the Yvan model of glasses, they became a fashion statement for a very different cinematic Cold War spy. While you could debate whether it is either shown in a dark tortoise shell or black, the impact is still just as iconic.

Barbara Stanwyck - Double Indemnity

Sunglasses are as essential to film noir as mournful narrations, scheming, and murder. Double Indemnity has every one of those components, and in the case of this picture’s eyewear, Barbara Stanwyck’s shades helped cement her as a femme fatale for the ages. Not even poor Fred MacMurray knew what hit him.

Marcello Mastroianni - 8 ½

A classic example of the coolness of eyewear, Marcello Mastroianni’s thick black glasses in 8 1/2 showed the world that an everyday essential can also be a powerful accessory. Even in 2014, Mastroianni’s sunglassed look was still honored as a fashionable history lesson, when it was used as the official poster for the 67th Cannes Film Festival.

Gene Tierney - Leave Her To Heaven

Don’t let the technicolor fool you, Gene Tierney’s Ellen Berent Harland is an obsessively deadly figure. The protagonist of the 1945 film noir classic Leave Her To Heaven, Ellen is capable of scheming so devious that a fashionable pair of sunglasses can’t even hide it. Which is fine, considering the results are so compelling to watch as they unfold.

Cary Grant - North by Northwest

Even when wanted for murder, Cary Grant’s Roger Thornhill was dressed to the nines. His trip through hell in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest included the gorgeous sunglasses you see pictured here, along with that iconic grey suit. A perfect combination for fleeing a criminal conspiracy, Oliver Peoples released a line of sunnies inspired by them in 2019, for those who want to truly invest in this look.

Madonna - Desperately Seeking Susan

Just as director Susan Seidelman’s Desperately Seeking Susan put Madonna on the map as an actor, the pop music legend helped land her character’s cat eye sunglasses in movie history. You can get replicas that vary in levels of brand recognition and cost, which is only even more of a signal that this look isn’t going out of style any time soon.

Sean Connery - Thunderball

Back when Thunderball was released in 1965, Sean Connery and James Bond were already seen as the epitome of men’s style. So when that picture showed 007 rocking what appeared to be, according to Bond Suits, Cool-Ray Polaroid N135 sunglasses, everyone was immediately going to want them. Thankfully, some boutique brands still sell them, helping fans live out their Bond fantasies in a very practical way.

Grace Kelly - To Catch A Thief

One has to wonder if director Alfred Hitchcock or costume designer Edith Head shared a mutual love of sunglasses. The two used them to great effect on Cary Grant in North by Northwest, and before that, they employed them to help Grace Kelly make an impression on audiences enjoying To Catch A Thief.

Henry Cavill - The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

As he’s introduced in Guy Ritchie’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Henry Cavill’s Napoleon Solo couldn’t have made a cooler entrance. Crossing the Berlin Wall checkpoint while wearing the “Bowery” model of Thierry Lasry sunglasses, this cavalier hellraiser certainly approached his wardrobe with more care than he did other aspects of his spying career.

Linda Cardellini - Scooby Doo

Velma Dinkley is always on the verge of losing her glasses, no matter what sort of media you follow her into. With the 2002 live-action Scooby Doo, the casting of Linda Cardellini as the bespectacled brainiac was only outdone in one area. And that’s the fact that somehow, someone actually made her signature eyewear from the Hanna-Barbara cartoon into a living, breathing reality.

Tom Everett Scott - That Thing You Do!

There are many thoughts while watching That Thing You Do! that can come off as inspiring. And thankfully, anyone who wants to know “What type of shades is Guy ‘Skitch’ Patterson wearing?” while watching Tom Everett Scott drum himself into stardom, already has the answer. All you have to do is listen, as the man himself marvels at his “Percussionist Foster Grants” when they’re handed to him for the first time.

Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada

If any fictional character was a shoo-in for making eyeglasses work, it has to be Miranda Priestley from The Devil Wears Prada. Played ever so stylishly by Meryl Streep, Ms. Priestley’s arrival sees her showing off a Tom Ford model named “Collette.” So if you’re looking to force a room full of strangers to gird their loins, you’ve now got a secret weapon.

Kingsman’s Eyeglasses

Cutler & Gross really outdid themselves when they designed the standard issue eyeglasses for Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman series. A perfect match, whether you wear oxfords or brogues, Colin Firth’s Harry Hart introduced us to this modern successor to Michael Caine’s eyewear of espionage from The Ipcress File. No matter who’s wearing them in the field, they’re a piece that is pretty instantly recognized.

Carrie-Anne Moss - The Matrix

You know your character is an eyewear legend when you get an entire model of sunglasses named after them. Walking away from seeing The Matrix for the first time, it’s the glasses and the phones that really stick with you. Well, after you put the philosophical and moral debates, and the blazing stunts aside, those two things tend to stick around. For Carrie-Anne Moss’ Trinity, her official frames came from the brand Blinde - and are apparently pretty rare to come by.

Tom Cruise’s Aviators - Top Gun

Whenever someone slips on a pair of aviator sunglasses, 9 times out of 10 it’s going to inspire someone to hum “Danger Zone” to themselves. By no means invented for Tony Scott’s Top Gun, the Ray-Ban RB3025s were certainly popularized by people who felt the need for speed in their daily lives. Though you don’t have to worry about inverting your wallet, as this is a common enough style that you can go easy on the throttle and spare your life savings.

Grace Jones - A View To A Kill

007 isn’t the only person allowed to be stylish in the world of cinema. Roger Moore’s James Bond movies ended on a very ‘80s note with A View to a Kill, and that’s part of what makes Grace Jones’ May Day a sparkling addition to this very film. Her fashion sense is as on point as her assassination skills, which is shown off in the scene where she escorts an unwilling conspirator into a free fall of death.

Morpheus’ Frame-less Sunglasses - The Matrix

What if we told you that Morpheus’ sunglasses from The Matrix are made by the same brand that gave Trinity her own signature lunettes? Lawrence Fishburne’s “Morpheus” brand shades came from Blinde, a vendor who handled the “official” sunglasses for The Wachowski’s entry into the canon of best ‘90s movies. More recently, eyewear wizard Tom Davies recreated this look for the modern incarnation of the character in 2021’s The Matrix Resurrections. And yes, they still looked just as cool.

Annie Potts - Ghostbusters II

The only thing sharper than the wit and attitude of Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) is her choice of eyewear. It’s hard to narrow down the exact brand and model worn by her character in Ghostbusters II, which is a shame. Janine’s leap forward from a traditionally conservative “secretary” wardrobe to her hipper‘90s forward duds came with a pair of black circular glasses that must have been an inspiration for The Incredibles’ Edna Mode.

Christian Bale - American Psycho

Oliver Peoples “O’Malley,” in the color of “Raintree.” You’ve probably been wondering about how you could get the model of Christian Bale’s eyeglasses from American Psycho for decades at this point. So now that you’ve got that answer readily before your eyes, we can focus on the bigger questions, like what American Psycho’s ending is trying to say about Patrick Bateman.

Rachel Leigh Cook - She’s All That

In the mid-20th century, we were convinced a Kryptonian could hide their secret identity behind a pair of eyeglasses. Towards the end of that very century, teen rom-coms like She’s All That built a further case for such deceptions, courtesy of Rachel Leigh Cook’s Laney Boggs. Several other pictures would use this very same tactic as an easy makeover tip to land the prom date of your dreams.

Willem Dafoe’s Tom Davies Sunglasses - Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Willem Dafoe had a really good year of eyewear in 2024. But in choosing between his Saturday Night shades, and the Tom Davies-designed piece he wore in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the afterlife wins by a hair. Named “Wolf,” after his character in the long-awaited legacy-quel, these beauties helped Mr. Dafoe keep it real on screen - and in our dreams.

Linda Hamilton - Terminator 2: Judgment Day

While Linda Hamilton’s sunglasses from Terminator 2: Judgment Day weren’t going to block out the rays of an atomic attack on 1997 L.A., they sure were handy for normal, everyday sunlight. The exact model worn by Sarah Connor in one of the best sci-fi movies seems to be unknown, but there are plenty of quality imitators that’ll make your day.

Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible Glasses

If you were a kid about to wear their first pair of eyeglasses in 1996, Tom Cruise may have been an influence on the ones you eventually chose. While the Jean Paul Gaulthier branded frames from Mission: Impossible wouldn’t help you catch traitorous spies, they were still pretty awesome to look at.

Reese Witherspoon - Legally Blonde

Even after decades of Legally Blonde being a certified pop culture legend, fans are still in love with Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) and her sense of fashion. This makes not being able to find exact details on her appropriately pink sunglasses a bit of a pain, but worth it if you're trying to dress to impress.

The Blues Brothers’ Wayfarers

On a mission from God, you need to prepare for any sort of perils on the path laid out ahead. For Jake (John Belushi) and Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) Blues, that checklist includes a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, black suits and ties, and Ray Ban’s iconic Wayfarer sunglasses. It’s certainly not an obscure piece of The Blues Brothers trivia, but it’s definitely something you should keep in mind for next Halloween.

Gal Gadot - Wonder Woman

2017’s Wonder Woman adaptation called out the glasses worn by Gal Gadot’s titular DC hero with dialogue that reminded us of how comic books and teenage rom-coms alike have tried to pull the wool over our eyes. So while the princess of Themyscira doesn’t look too different behind that facial furniture, at least it fits her projected images perfectly.

Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter Glasses

Many a Halloween has passed where people trying to look like Daniel Radcliffe’s heroic Harry Potter have gone hunting for his signature glasses. So it’s probably not that hard to find replicas for costuming purposes, or actual eyewear business, on the open market.

Ali Maki - Always Be My Maybe

One of comedian Ali Maki’s trademarks has to be her glasses. So it’s kind of hard to choose just one pair that really speaks to her personal style, even when limited only to the Netflix rom-com Always Be My Maybe. However, the gold pair shown above certainly do the job at hand.

Robert Downey Jr. - Avengers: Endgame

Throughout his Marvel Cinematic Universe run, Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark has had some pretty impressive eyewear. And while Mr. Stark’s glasses in Avengers: Infinity War would eventually be named “E.D.I.T.H.,” the actual model name you’re looking for is Dita’s Flight 006 glasses. A.I. enhancements are not included.

Margot Robbie - Barbie

The original Barbie doll had an iconic look that has lasted through the ages. So when Margot Robbie helped bring Greta Gerwig’s vision of this classic toy to life, you know they had to include that fashionable origin story—complete with the white cat-eye sunglasses that came with Mattel’s first doll in the line.

It’s really difficult to discuss the best moments in the MCU. Usually, we have to break the conversation down into smaller segments, such as the Best Marvel TV shows, or even the best moments that use music in the MCU. As an extra challenge, try to build that list without using any of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. But any time that someone asks me my all-time favorite moment in any of the MCU movies, my answer will be the Portals scene from Avengers: Endgame, and I’m not sure what moment that could appear in any upcoming Marvel movie will top it. It’s not just the Portals opening up in that sequence – setting up the largest on-screen battle in Marvel Studios history – it’s the payoff of the “On your left” line delivered by Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) as he communicates with Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). I get chills, every single time.

A lot has changed in the MCU since Sam Wilson returned from The Blip, and the Avengers did what was necessary to stop Thanos (Josh Brolin). Steve Rogers officially retired, and passed the mantle to his former, winged partner. Then, in the limited series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier – available with a Disney+ Streaming Service subscription – the shield was picked up and sullied by John Walker (Wyatt Russell), a plot point that I assume is going to be explored in this summer’s Thunderbolts. For now, though, Anthony Mackie is back in possession of the Cap shield and title, and will use it for good in Captain America: Brave New World.

But because Avengers: Endgame was shrouded in such secrecy, and no one involved with the production did traditional interviews on behalf of that massive sequel, I wanted to use my recent time with Mackie to ask him what he remembered about the Portals scene. And like most behind-the-scenes Marvel Studios stories, this one blew me away. When I asked Mackie about filming the moment, he told CinemaBlend:

I will never watch that scene again without thinking of Anthony Mackie in his pantry, with a blanket over his head, speaking the iconic throwback line “On your left” into his phone, so that Joe and Anthony Russo could use it in this unforgettable scene:

It’s easily the most unforgettable scene in an MCU movie. And it’s hilarious because we also know that the scene almost didn’t happen, and the Russos had to fight to keep it in the movie. But it isn’t just the return of the blipped MCU characters, as cool as that was. The thing that truly blew my mind was the callback by Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) to the line that Captain America (Chris Evans) gave him in The Winter Soldier as they jogged. It made that moment surreal. It made me love it, instantly.

Captain America: Brave New World is the first of three upcoming Marvel movies that will reach theaters in 2025, leading to Thunderbolts and then The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Will they have scenes as memorable as the Portals moment? We can only help.

When conversations are flown around about the best Marvel movies thus far, Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame will undoubtedly find themselves among fans lists considering how powerful those movies were to audiences. We all remember being in the theater when half of the Avengers were snapped out of existence, and then when they all made their victorious return to defeat Thanos. Speaking of the Mad Titan, his plan is still being discussed, such as with this wild new theory.

One Avengers Fan Theory Claims Who Survived Thanos’ Snap Wasn’t Random

Over on the Marvel Reddit, fans are always discussing what’s going on in the MCU, such as Anthony Mackie’s recent Captain America comments and Chris Evans responding to rumors he’ll return to the franchise. One user posed the following thought on the Snap:

The snap wasn't fully random from r/marvelstudios

A Reddit user quickly started a conversation this week regarding who was chosen to be snapped out of existence and who got to stay. While it’s pretty well regarded and explained that the Snap would randomly dust half of the universe’s population, this fan is suggesting that Thanos had the power to make some decisions.

The fan believes that Loki gave up the Space Stone to specifically keep Thor alive, Gamora gave away the Soul Stone to save her sister, Nebula, and Doctor Strange gave up the Time Stone to save Tony Stark because he knew he would end up saving everyone.

The Simple Reason Why I Don’t Agree With This Theory

There are a lot of mixed thoughts on this theory, and it’s definitely interesting, but I personally maintain that it had to have been random for the story to work. If you get too into the weeds with it, you’ll ruin the story for yourself. Here’s my reasoning: if Thanos had the power to pick who could stay and who could go, why not wipe out every last one of the Avengers?

That being said, I do find one point of the story interesting and does have some merit. Check out what some comments are saying:

• “You're right, it was intentional who the writers decided was snapped or not.” @stillthestabbinghobo
• “It was always the plan to have the original Avengers survive. These movies have been their story.” - @Honest-J
• “The one conscious choice I could buy Thanos making was purposefully leaving the entire OG Avengers roster alive so they could see the extent of their failure.” - @Sylar_Lives

It is rather devious that the original Avengers are all left, along with other additions like Rocket and Ant-Man. Some believe that Thanos did this on purpose, which I find interesting, but most of all, it just hurts my head regarding how Thanos could even accomplish this. Does he submit a list to the gauntlet? I don’t think so. His reasoning to end half of all life of the universe is not to test the original Avengers, it’s to improve the universe. He seemed to care less about who each of them were.

Clearly those specific choices were made for the sake of the fans in order to end the chapter and do the most justice to every Marvel movie made thus far. Of course, what’s particularly fun about Infinity War and Endgame is it inspires conversation like this, so I’m all for it. You can ponder this theory yourself and look forward to the Captain America: Brave New World release date on February 14.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to be a powerful force in the entertainment world, with new projects consistently arriving in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. Fans who have spent years watching the Marvel movies in order will remember the insane hype surrounding Avengers: Endgame, which was the cumulation of years of stories. While moviegoers are looking forward to the next big upcoming Marvel movies, Chris Hemsworth shared a hilarious BTS Endgame video "working out" with Paul Rudd. And I truly can't look away.

Avengers: Endgame made an insane amount of money at the box office, and remains one of the best MCU movies. Seeing all those heroes together was thrilling for fans, and it also looks like plenty of fun was had on the set as well. Case in point: Hemsworth's recent Instagram Post, sharing a fun video in costume alongside Paul Rudd. And it looks like they're doing some... jazzercising? See for yourself:

I mean, how charming is that? While movies have notoriously grueling hours, it's nice to see get a peek behind the curtain at the laughs that are shared. And hopefully we'll get to see the sam type of clips once Avengers: Doomsday gets down to production with the Russo Brothers at the helm. Bring on the A-listers!

In this clip we see Hemsworth dressed in full Bro Thor garb, which his signature character rocked throughout most of Endgame. He's got matted hair, gained weight, and is never seen wearing anything other than sweats. And seeing him next to Rudd in Ant-Man's suit really does paint a funny picture.

Endgame hit theaters back in 2019, so it's been a number of years since the MCU featured any major crossover events. While the Thunderbolts* movie will bring together antiheroes sand antagonists from recent projects, all eyes are on what The Russo Brothers might be planning for Avengers: Doomsday and its sequel Secret Wars. Unfortunately, they weren't on the 2025 movie release list.

Luckily those movies are seemingly in active development, and what little we know it thrilling. Marvel broke the internet when it was revealed that Robert Downey Jr. would be returning, this time as Doctor Doom. Chris Evans is also expected to return, and fans are hyped to see what role he actually ends up playing in the blockbuster. The multiverse is clearly going to be at play, which means that just about anything could happen.

There's been no indication that Chris Hemsworth or Paul Rudd are exiting their roles as Thor and Ant-Man respectively, so fans are expecting them to reunite in either Doomsday or Secret Wars. Hopefully we get information soon, but that likely won't happen when Captain America: Brave New World hits theaters on February 14th.

After the Marvel Cinematic Universe largely took a break in 2024, the biggest movie franchise in the history of ever will be back in a big way with three upcoming Marvel movies on the 2025 movie schedule. The larger MCU story will likely start to come together quickly heading toward the next big crossover movie, Avengers: Doomsday, which as of this writing is less than a year-and-a-half away.

But exactly what the plot of that movie actually is is anybody's guess. We know that it will include the return of Robert Downey Jr., now playing Doctor Doom, but an intriguing theory suggests how a potentially returning Chris Evans and Captain America may factor in, and how it will actually all tie into Avengers: Endgame.

Did Captain America Bring About Doctor Doom?

While there’s a lot about the various upcoming Marvel films we don’t know, one thing we do know about Fantastic Four: The First Steps is that the movie won’t, at least at the outset, be taking place in the MCU as we know it, but in an alternate universe. Considering the long history between the first family of Marvel and Doctor Doom, it’s widely believed, though not yet confirmed that Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom may make his debut in the movie as well.

This leads to the theory, suggested on Reddit, that Avengers: Doomsday will also be set in this alternative universe, and that the branch of reality was specifically created when Steve Rogers traveled back in time to return the Infinity Stones and then spend the rest of his life with Peggy Carter. Realizing that he’s the one who accidentally broke reality, it’s up to Captain America to fix it, and this is how Chris Evans’ return as Captain America will be explained.

If Rumors Turn Out To Be True, It’s Not A Bad Theory

To be clear, this theory, while intriguing, requires a lot of unconfirmed information to turn out to be accurate. While Robert Downey Jr.’s return is confirmed, Chris Evans' reported return to the MCU is still only a rumor. Even if he does return, the rumors don’t confirm he’ll be playing Captain America, and even if he does, it’s been rumored he might go the route of Hugh Jackman in Deadpool & Wolverine and appear as multiple different characters, or different versions of Captain America, not necessarily the same one we said goodbye to in Avengers: Endgame.

But just as we can’t confirm this theory with the evidence we have, we also can’t disprove it. Because we know so little, a great deal is potentially possible, and this certainly isn’t the worst fan theory that’s ever been presented.

If any of it is on the right track, we might get the first pieces of evidence when the Fantastic Four movie debuts in July.

There’s a lot of competition on the roster of 2025 movies, especially when it comes to the world of comic movies. With the upcoming Marvel movie Captain America: Brave New World set to be the first entry in that solo series since 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, there’s bound to be a ton of pressure on all involved.

Yet when it came to Anthony Mackie learning that he was going to be the next Cap from predecessor/co-star Chris Evans, there was absolutely no pressure at all. While Mackie’s reaction to learning he’d be the new Cap is something we have heard about previously, the actor went even deeper into the tale when appearing on Fandango’s Big Movies series. The Twisted Metal lead was asked if Chris Evans ever gave him a ‘pep talk’ about inheriting the shield, and that prompted Mackie to start things off with this fond memory:

Recalling the story where he and his fellow MCU actor were “jumping around in a circle, high-fiving” once Evans had “spoiled” the Avengers: Endgame secret, Anthony Mackie showed great reverence. Well, as much one can when gleefully describing an elaborate story that involved a bit of cloak and dagger that one would expect based on what we know about Captain America 4.

But that story is apparently crazier than anyone had previously known thanks to Chris Evans inviting his castmates to hang out at his temporary residence during the production of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. While this intense shoot let the Russo Brothers to regret their back-to-back production strategy, it did give us this some more hysterical context to this historical moment.

Apparently Evans spoiled Anthony Mackie's promotion through some very MCU theatrics, part of which had convinced Mackie that a new version of Endgame's script he hadn't read was going to kill off Sam Wilson. As you'll read in this anecdote recalled below, that couldn't have been further from the truth:

Like the man himself said, Anthony Mackie is indeed the new Cap! And we’ll get to see his cinematic debut on screens in Captain America: Brave New World, which opens on February 14th. For all things Marvel streaming, don’t forget to use your Disney+ subscription, as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will more than likely be important viewing for this chapter, as well as Thunderbolts*, in the year to come.

I seriously can’t imagine Avengers: Endgame without the portals sequence. After Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) wore the Infinity Gauntlet and snapped everyone back to life, Captain America (Chris Evans) prepared to make his final stand against Thanos (Josh Brolin)... only to receive an assist from half of the MCU. It was chilling, and produced some of the most amazing theater-reaction videos we have ever seen. So when the Russo Brothers explain in an interview that they had to scratch and claw with Marvel to keep that sequence in the movie, it makes me happy that they are back for Avengers: Doomsday, because maybe they can recapture some of that magic.

Joe and Anthony Russo are the overlords of Avengers movies in the MCU. They proved they could handle major team ups by directing Captain America: Civil War, then delivered the one-two punch of Infinity War and Endgame. In an interview with Empire (via ScreenRant), though, Joe Russo explains that not everyone was on board with the portals idea, explaining:

That was a reshoot?! That’s almost as incredible as the story that Robert Downey Jr. had to be convinced to say, “And I am Iron Man” in the same movie. They’re both seminal MCU moments. Try and imagine Avengers: Endgame without this sequence. Without the applause breaks for each returning Marvel hero. Without the incredible payoff of, “On your left.” You can’t.

So, who disagreed with the Russos? Sounds like Avengers: Endgame co-writer Stephen McFeely was at least one of the people who thought the initial cut of the scene worked. He said:

I love these behind-the-scenes types stories, the conversations that could lead to alternate histories with our favorite Marvel movies. Given the existence of the MCU Multiverse, a lot of these mistakes can be chalked up to an “alternate universe take.” But doing Avengers: Endgame without the incredible portals scene would have qualified as the biggest mistake, so I’m happy to know that cooler heads prevailed, the reshoots worked, and we got the great sequence to enjoy forever.

Fans have been very excited about the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe thanks to the news that Robert Downey Jr. is returning to the franchise and that Chris Evans may be joining him. However, what may be even more important news is the fact that Joe and Anthony Russo will also be back, directing the two biggest upcoming Marvel movies on the schedule, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars.

The Russo Brothers had indicated they were done with their Marvel tenure following Endgame (which is streaming with a Disney+ subscription), so it was a big surprise to hear they were coming back. Speaking with Empire, The Russos confirms they were quite serious that they were done, but they never stopped talking to Marvel Studios producers Kevin Feige and Louis D'Esposito, and eventually, the team found an idea that they were too excited by to not be involved with. Anthony Russo explained…

That idea, whatever it is, came from Steven McFeely, who alongside Christopher Markus, wrote several Marvel films including the last two Avengers projects for the Russos. Having said that, it doesn’t mean that McFeely was instantly on board writing the film. Joe Russo says that when it was first suggested thatMcFeeley could write the film, the writer absolutely shut down the idea, using rather definitive language. Russo said…

Part of the reason that Steven McFeely might not have been too excited about writing the new films is that he’s doing so alone. Christopher Markus won’t be co-writing these films with him. Still, having most of the team back together feels right, a little like the Avengers reuniting.

It's anybody's guess just what the idea being suggested is. What we know about Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars is pretty limited right now. If it was enough to get everybody excited to return, then it might really be something special.

I first went to Sphere in Las Vegas for a concert in early 2024, and I was amazed by the visuals and the sound. When it was reported that the groundbreaking venue could be adapting The Wizard of Oz for its incredible 160,000-square-foot screen, I immediately started daydreaming about what movies I would love to see at the venue. Here is the list I came up with—well, at least some of the movies I would love to see at Sphere.

Star Wars

The first movie I thought of when I started dreaming up this list was, of course, Star Wars. Just the thought of that opening scene of the two starships flying across the enormous screen provides me with vivid dreams. Not only that, but can you imagine that famous John Williams score blasting through that incredible sound system? It's overwhelming, in the best way.

Gladiator

Do you want to be entertained? Think of Gladiator on the screen at Sphere. From the opening battle scene in the forests of Germany to the final showdown between Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix, it would be a cinematic experience like no other.

Avengers: Endgame

Really, for this one, it all comes down to that final battle with Thanos on the biggest screen in the world. So much happened in that scene, and so much work went into it, that it all seems right to see it on the massive screen with the insane resolution.

Fantasia

Really, this one is all about the music. Sure, it would be incredible to see the vintage animation on that screen, but the sound system, which includes 1,586 speakers, would deliver that amazing classical music soundtrack that would sound absolutely incredible. The visuals would be one incredible bonus. At the least, maybe Disney should make a new version of Fantasia made just for Sphere

Lawrence Of Arabia

One of the first movies I thought of that I would love to see on that giant screen is the classic Lawrence Of Arabia. It's a movie I've never had the opportunity to see in any theater, much less the largest theater in the world. Seeing those incredible, vast vistas sweeping across the screen would be a mind-blowing experience. It's worth noting that for a movie that is really long, the seats in Sphere are very comfortable.

The Dark Knight

To be honest, as much as I'd love to see the best Batman movie on Sphere's screen, I do worry that the intense (and incredible) action sequences make the audience motion sick. Being immersed in those car chases and the other huge set pieces might actually be too intense. On second thought, it would absolutely be worth the risk.

Jurassic Park

Not only do I want to see the dinosaurs 10 stories tall (or whatever it is), but there is one other feature that Sphere has that no other theater has - rumble seats. That's right, the seats vibrate. Now, imagine the scene with the T-Rex approaching, as the ground is shaking enough to make ripples in the water glass. Now imagine shaking with the ground in the movie. Wow. What an experience that would be.

The Sound Of Music

A musical like The Sound of Music would be simply beautiful on the screen at Sphere. The magical vistas across the Alps would be incredible and the clarity of the music would be unlikely any other experience in any other theater. The hills would really be alive.

The Thin Red Line

No other war film has been as beautiful as director Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line. The cinematography and the sound design are absolutely perfect for the technology that only Sphere can provide. It's an intense war movie, but it's the best war movie to see on screen like this.

Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban

Without question, I think there would need to be at least one Harry Potter movie adapted for Sphere. I can't think of a better one than Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban. Director Alfonso Cuarón's imprint is all over the movie, especially visually, and for that reason, it's the perfect choice. Plus, the bus scene by itself would make the price of admission worth it.

Dunkirk

You just knew this one had to be on the list. Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk is a visual masterpiece and one of the best war movies ever. It deserves the Sphere treatment. Nolan loves to shoot in IMAX and Sphere is like an IMAX screen on steroids. Just dreaming about watching the Spitfires move across the immense screen fills me with joy. I can't imagine how it would really look.

2001: A Space Odyssey

There are so many aspects of 2001: A Space Odyssey that would be amazing. The spacewalk and all the scenes in the spaceship would just be so trippy to watch at Sphere. That's not to mention the trippiest part of the movie, the third act with the color and light and the totally wild ending. It would be like a rock concert in there.

Top Gun

The opening sequence to Top Gun, with the souring guitar of Harold Faltermeyer's theme music and all the action on the deck of the aircraft carrier, would suck audiences straight in. By the time "Danger Zone" started everyone would be fully entranced. Then we'd get to the flying scenes. Wow.

Avatar

I'm not actually a huge fan of Avatar, but that doesn't matter, because I appreciate how amazing it looks on the big screen. Putting it on the biggest screen in the world - and in 3-D - and I'll bet I'd be a convert. I'd become a huge fan of it.

Braveheart

Braveheart is another movie I'm not actually a huge fan of. It's a wildly historically inaccurate movie, and that drives me nuts. That said, visually it's an incredible achievement and for that reason alone, I'm ready to see it on the screen at Sphere. The Battle of Stirling Bridge would be absolutely insane to watch.

Black Panther

I love Black Panther and seeing Wakanda on a screen the size of Sphere would be an amazing experience. Wakanda is one of the coolest places in the entire MCU, visually, and the final battle would absolutely incredible,

The Great Escape

The Great Escape is classic old-school Hollywood. It's chock full of larger-than-life movie stars like Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough. It's also filled with amazing vistas across Bavaria that would look absolutely amazing on a giant screen. It also has one of my favorite scores of all time, so that would be an excellent bonus through those speakers.

Saving Private Ryan

I think you all know my thoughts here. The opening of Saving Private Ryan is one of the most incredible scenes ever put on film. It's terrifying and amazing. It is one of the most white-knuckle theater experiences I've ever had and seeing it on the screen at Sphere would be a completely visceral experience that would absolutely blow my mind.

Skyfall

I love the James Bond franchise and as much as I love the Connery era, it doesn't make any sense for one of those movies to be adapted for Sphere. The Craig-era, on the other hand, has multiple choices. I landed on Skyfall because it's full of wide angel amazing shots and action set pieces. The opening scene of Spectre was tempting, but Skyfall gets the nod.

Oppenheimer

This one may seem like an odd one, but that's only if you didn't have a chance to see Oppenheimer in 70mm IMAX. Like most of Christopher Nolan, the bigger the screen, the better, so catching the Best Picture-winner on a screen like the one at Sphere would be totally bonkers. Talk about a "big boom"!

Ghostbusters

There is one reason to see Ghostbusters get the Sphere treatment. Who doesn't want to see a 100-foot-tall Stay Puft Marshmallow Man? I know I certainly do! Sure, the rest of the movie might not work all that well, a giant Bill Murray getting slimed may be too much for anyone, but I'd be willing to deal with that for the last battle of the movie on the streets of New York with the fictional marshmallow man.

Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid

The cliff. That's why Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid would work so well. That scene alone would make it all worth it. It would be such an adrenaline rush to see two of the biggest movie stars of all time, Paul Newman and Robert Redford, drop 100 feet down that huge screen.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Something like 19,000 people can fill Sphere when it's at full capacity. So how about all 19K doing "The Time Warp" together with that sound system blasting the music in The Rocky Horror Picture Show? I grew up going to midnight showings and seeing it with a huge crowd of dedicated fans would simply be amazing. Plus I keep thinking about that scene in the beginning as the camera zooms in on the criminologist played by Charles Gray. In the midnight showings, someone always "climbed" his tie as it zoomed in. I need to see that here.

The Hunt For Red October

The Hunt For Red October is rightfully criticized these days for the sketchy special effects in the underwater scenes. But the above-water stuff is still incredibly cool and watching the submarine battle take place on the screen at Sphere is totally worth having to deal with the rest. Plus I just love the movie.

The Matrix

How much really needs to be explained here? Is there anybody that wouldn't want to see The Matrix at Sphere? Of course not, it would be amazing.

Ben-Hur

This is another one that is pretty self-explanatory. Ben-Hur is one of the most legendary epics in Hollywood history and there is no place like Sphere to see an epic on this scale. The chariot race alone, especially with the chairs vibrating with every crash, would be worth whatever the cost to see it would be,

Patton

A 160,000-square-foot American flag with the great George C. Scott playing the titular Patton at the beginning of the movie would be completely overwhelming in the very best way. It's enough to make anyone patriotic!

Rocky IV

Of all the Rocky movies, Rocky IV is the "biggest." The muscles are bigger, the set pieces are bigger, and the villain is bigger. It's just a huge movie, visually, and for that reason, even if it's not the best Rocky movie, it's the one that makes the most sense for this list.

Dances With Wolves

No one can argue that Dances With Wolves isn't a visually stunning movie. Director Kevin Costner did an amazing job showing what the American frontier was once like. The cinematography alone makes it worthy of the Sphere treatment.

Bridge Over The River Kwai

Like the other classic epics on this list, Bridge Over The River Kwai is one of those movies that has always meant to have been on the biggest screens possible. Direct David Lean is a master of movies like that and really, his whole filmography would work for Sphere.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark

This one seems like another no-brainer. With scenes like the rolling boulder at the beginning and the scene at the end when they make the poor decision to open the ark, there is just so much in Raiders of the Lost Ark that would look amazing on the giant screen. Then there is the John Williams score which would be amazing by itself with that incredible concert-quality speaker system.

Tron: Legacy

When I first saw Tron: Legacy in theaters, I was completely blown away by the CGI and the visuals. While the original Tron changed the way films were made with the use of computer-generated imagery, the sequel upped the ante significantly. Seeing those amazing effects at Sphere would raise that even more, which is appropriate for Las Vegas.

The great thing about fiction is it allows people to temporarily suspend their disbelief for the sake of entertainment. Many of the most beloved movies of all time have strange and downright ridiculous premises if you try to explain them out loud, but their strangeness is a part of their charm. Here are 32 films with absolutely ridiculous plots.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

This movie was a critical and commercial darling, and its plot is utterly bizarre. A disillusioned laundromat operator traverses the multiverse, battles soldiers masquerading as IRS office workers, and dances with hot dog fingers in order to save her estranged, nihilistic daughter. It is, by far, one of the best and zaniest Best Picture winners that we’ve seen in a very long time.

21 Jump Street (2012)

On the surface this film seems relatively normal: it’s the classic tale of an awkward nerd and a dumb, handsome jock forming an unlikely duo while navigating the trials and tribulations of high school. Only this time, they’re also buddy cops going undercover as high school students in a sting operation to arrest the dealer of a new illicit drug. And, fittingly, the movie’s visuals are just as trippy as its premise.

Legally Blonde (2001)

In many ways, Legally Blonde was ahead of its time due to how it disrupted harmful stereotypes about hyper-feminine women. Its plot is still a bit goofy though, as it involves a popular, blonde sorority girl working her behind off to secure a spot at one of the most competitive law schools in the country, just to prove to her pretentious ex-boyfriend that she’s worthy of him taking her seriously. Thankfully the film ends with her ditching the loser and discovering a true penchant for law.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

One of the highest-grossing films of all time has one of the most convoluted plots of all time. A billionaire, retired superhero and his team invent time travel so that he and his fellow superheroes can travel to different timelines and capture magical, rainbow-colored stones so that they can reverse the devastating effects of a purple villain’s success in eliminating half of all life in the universe with a snap of his fingers. Don’t worry, though: you only have to watch 21 films to understand it.

Poor Things (2023)

This colorful, quirky science fiction movie earned Emma Stone her second Oscar, and by just listening to its plot, it’s clear to see why. Stone portrays a woman whose brain has been replaced by that of an infant, and in the beginning of the film she cannot even properly pronounce the word “blood,” but by the end, she is studying to become a doctor. The dramatic transformation she undergoes, while traipsing around Europe and learning philosophy, is equally strange and impressive.

Back To The Future (1985)

Back to the Future is widely thought of as the quintessential time travel movie, and the implications of its time travel are seismic. A teenager accidentally travels 30 years into the past after meeting his eccentric science friend, and while stuck in the past, he inadvertently interferes with the relationship of his teenage parents, which threatens his very existence. Now he has to ensure that the couple stays together before he is erased from history, while dealing with the uncomfortable fact that his teenage mother has taken a liking to him.

The Mask (1994)

Back in the ‘90s, Jim Carrey was arguably the King of Ridiculous Movies, and his turn as Stanley Ipkiss in the mask not only allowed him to show off his excellent comedic sensibilities, but also his amazing face acting and physical capabilities, as his character quite literally turns into a cartoon come to life with a neon green face after donning a magical mask. The bad CGI stretching and morphing only adds to the zany enjoyment of the movie.

Happy Death Day (2017)

There is no worse birthday present than death, and this film forces its protagonist to endure it every birthday. The protagonist, a mean sorority girl, dies on her birthday, and she is forced to relive the tragic day every single day until she figures out who the person responsible is. Also, she has limited time to figure out who the person is before she dies for real (as in, she stops coming back to life).

The Boss Baby (2017)

A lot of animated movies lean into the fact that they are marketed towards kids, and there are few better examples than The Boss Baby. This zany movie’s plot involves the existence of an absurd baby-making corporation in the clouds that delivers a baby with hopes of rising the corporate ladder to a family with a disgruntled former only child, and the unlikely brother duo must work together to stop puppies from becoming the most loved creatures in the world.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004)

Speaking of absurd animated movies, the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise as a whole is pretty bizarre with its takes on marine life, but its movie definitely pushes the boundaries of what’s believable. In this movie, Plankton steals King Neptune’s crown and frames Mr. Krabs for it, just so Neptune will punish Krabs and give Plankton a chance to steal his coveted burger recipe, sell those burgers at his restaurant, and become dictator of Bikini Bottom. And it’s up to SpongeBob and Patrick to retrieve the crown while driving in a car made out of a Krabby Patty.

Home Alone (1990)

The ridiculousness of Home Alone’s plot likely comes from the fact that such a scenario happening in real life would be deeply sad. A young boy, who already feels like an outsider in his own family, is left behind by said family when they go on a Christmas vacation. And if this minor being left unattended isn’t bad enough, he is forced to set up elaborate, dangerous traps to ward off persistent, home invaders.

Divergent (2014)

The Divergent movie was just one of a multitude of young adult, dystopian franchise films that became massively popular during the 2010s, and it, by far, has the most head-scratching premise. In its future, what’s left of humanity after a cataclysmic war has divided itself into factions based on rudimentary personality traits, such as kindness and honesty. In this reality, you are seen as a massive threat that must be eliminated if you dare to be intelligent, honest, and selfless at the time.

Barbie (2023)

Stereotypical Barbie spends most of her life in an idyllic, woman-ruled, plastic paradise until one day she begins to experience existential dread and the horrible tragedies of cellulite and flat feet. She must then embark on a journey from her perfect Barbie Land to the Real World and discover the meaning of life and womanhood in a male-dominated world. And Ken’s also there, but he’s just Ken.

Cocaine Bear (2023)

The ridiculousness of this movie’s plot can really be summed up with its title. After sacks of cocaine fall into the woods, a bear accidentally becomes addicted to it and attacks the residents of a small town. While this sounds like the plot of a horror movie, it’s actually quite hilarious in the stupidest way possible, because the amount of opportunities these people are given to escape from or incapacitate the bear are numerous, and yet they choose idiocy every single time.

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

Harry Potter’s story has become such a classic by now, that it’s hard to think that at one point it was another strange idea that had to be marketed to the world. In the first movie, Harry is an orphaned boy that is neglected and mistreated by his foster family, only to be politely kidnapped by a gentle giant who tells him he’s a wizard and sends him off to attend a magical boarding school. Also, a fully grown wizard has hated him since he was a baby, because that’s normal.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)

It’s normal when starting a new relationship with someone to not want to think about or compare yourself to their exes. Now, imagine that not only did you have to meet all seven of their exes, but you had to battle them to the death too, preferably in video game combat style. Those are the insane lengths Scott Pilgrim goes through to be with Ramona Flowers.

Twilight (2008)

It’s a tale as old as time: a teenage girl who hates the cold and rain moves to the Pacific Northwest to live with her distant father to allow her mother to travel the country with her new husband, and, while in the Pacific Northwest, said teenage girl meets and falls in love with a sparkly, 108-year-old vampire that not so secretly wants to drink her blood. And then, they live happily ever after or something like that.

The Princess Bride (1987)

The best part of The Princess Bride is its ridiculousness. There’s such a warmth to the film due to the fact that it obviously does not take itself seriously, exemplified by the princess herself being named “Buttercup,” she pushes the man whom she believed took the life of her former lover down a hill, only to realize said man is her true love, and rolls down the hill with him. And this is all after he incapacitates the three men who kidnap her. And that's just the beginning!

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The most-seen film in movie history also has the most beloved, ridiculous plot in movie history. A young girl and her dog get caught in a tornado, and the storm transports them to a faraway land where there are good witches, bad witches, flying monkeys, talking lions and scarecrows and more. And in order for her to get home, she has to follow a yellow brick road in ruby red slippers.

Despicable Me (2010)

In this silly tale, a villain, seeking to earn more respect in the villain community, plots to steal the moon, which is simple enough. So, obviously, the best way to go about doing so is adopting three orphaned girls and sending the girls to sell cookies at his villain competitor’s house, so that he can infiltrate said house and steal the competitor’s shrink ray to successfully steal the moon. At least, that’s what Despicable Me tries to convince its admittedly very young audience makes sense.

White Chicks (2004)

It’s common to look back at media from decades again with a modern perspective and assess whether said media from that earlier time would be made today. This movie is a clear example of one that is a product of its time, not only because of its crass racial humor, but also because of its dumbfounding plot: two Black, male FBI agents masquerade as blonde white women to protect two social heiresses from being kidnapped. Hijinks ensue, and lewd jokes abound.

Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)

When your movie is being led by comedic genius Robin Williams, it’s likely to have a ridiculous plot, and Mrs. Doubfire is no exception. In this family-friendly flick, Williams portrays an unemployed voice actor going through a difficult divorce. After he is only granted supervised visitation rights to his kids, he comes up with an outrageous plan to spend more time with him: pose as an elderly, female nanny named “Mrs. Doubtfire.”

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

In this film’s universe, all major, commercial holidays coexist with one another and have their own lands which can be accessed by secret, tree-encased portals. The Pumpkin King of Halloween Town becomes disillusioned with his life there, stumbles across the Christmas portal, and falls in love. He does everything in his power to introduce his own, twisted form of Christmas to his macabre home, to limited success.

The Parent Trap (1998)

In yet another case of questionable parenting, a British woman falls in love with and marries an American man, and she gives birth to twin daughters. The couple divorced shortly after the girls are born, and instead of trying to work out a joint custody situation, the parents decide to keep one daughter each and raise her in their respective home countries and pretend the other daughter does not exist. This eventually leads to the girls meeting each other and learning of each other’s existence for the very first time at summer camp, and after a period of rivalry, they decide to join forces to get their parents back together.

13 Going On 30 (2004)

This is another movie that shows you how weird its plot is just with its title. An awkward, 13-year-old wants to skip the uncool parts of life and live life as a successful, 30-year-old woman in New York. And on her birthday, she gets her wish, waking up in the body of a rich, stylish magazine editor with a not-so-great personality. The most bizarre, yet impressive part of this movie is watching Jennifer Gardner portray a 30-year-old woman with the brain of a 13-year-old girl who’s trying to pretend like she’s a 30-year-old woman.

Shazam! (2019)

If you were to ask a child what their dream superpower is, becoming an adult probably wouldn’t be their tenth choice, let alone their top choice, but Billy Batson in Shazam! makes it look super cool. After being chosen by an ancient wizard, the foster kid, can now morph into a fully grown man at will by yelling “Shazam!” and he gets a suite of cool powers.

Central Intelligence (2016)

Few Hollywood best friends are more endearing than Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, and their on-screen chemistry comes to life in this silly buddy cop action movie. Johnson’s character is a formerly obese nerd turned jacked CIA agent who needs Hart’s character’s accounting skills, even though the latter hasn’t seen the former since his days as a star athlete. Of course, they save the world in the campiest, most hilarious ways.

Spy Kids (2001)

Surely many kids have wondered what their lives would be like if their mild-mannered, suburban, if a little boring, parents were actually top-secret spies. Well for the brother-sister duo in this movie, that lifestyle is anything but fun as it leads to them being captured by a villain with giant, sentient thumbs for minions. And, that’s not even the weirdest part.

Matilda (1996)

A young, precocious girl is neglected by her family, so she finds solace in reading a lot. Unlocking so much of her brain’s potential at a such young age grants her telekinetic abilities, which she uses to enact revenge on her parents and awful principal, Ms. Trunchbull.

Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)

A mysterious, eccentric chocolatier, invites a select group of children with accompanying guardians to his famed chocolate factory, only to discover that there are horrors at every turn, including chewing gum that can turn you into a human-sized blueberry and fizzy drinks that cause you to float, which is fun, until you’re dangerously close to a whirring ceiling fan. The only reason this film is thought of as cheerful and child-friendly, and not downright terrifying, is because it hams up how utterly ridiculous it is.

Alvin And The Chipmunks (2007)

A live-action movie with talking animals will always necessitate some suspension of disbelief, but when those talking animals are chipmunks that also sing, and quickly become the world’s biggest pop stars, at some point a line is crossed and any semblance of realism has flown out the window. The only thing more ridiculous than the rodent singers themselves are all the times their manager, turned adoptive father Dave screams “Alvin!”

The Nutty Professor (1996)

In this movie, Eddie Murphy portrays a brilliant, obese professor who develops a groundbreaking weight-loss formula. Insecure about his size and eager to impress the girl of his dreams, the professor tests out the drug on himself, and he successfully slims down, only for the thin version of himself to develop an evil alter ego and fight to take over the professor’s life permanently. Not only are the performances of this film hilarious and outlandish, especially with Eddie Murphy playing multiple roles, but the visual gags of the professor switching between his thin and large self are something to behold.

This list is all about the most spectacular ways that some of favorite characters - the ones we love and the ones we love to hate - have been killed off on screen. Movies and TV have both produced some pretty incredible moments like this. So whether it's the hero or the villain, here are some of the most insane deaths ever seen in movies and on TV.

Marion Crane - Psycho

Almost more than any director in film history, Alfred Hitchcock wrote his own rules. One of the most interesting things he ever did was to kill off who was seemingly the main character in Psycho, Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) in the first act of the movie. Of course, her murder in the shower has become one of the most iconic scenes in film history.

Radio Raheem - Do The Right Thing

The tension in Do The Right Thing slowly simmers just under the surface until it boils over when Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito) and Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) burst into Sal's Pizzeria and demand changes. After Sal smashes Raheem's boombox, the cops arrive and in the struggle, Raheem is choked out by the police, leading to the destruction of Sal's. It's amazing that the movie is more than 35 years old and we're still talking about the same issues.

Robb Stark - Game Of Thrones

Is there any death on this list more dramatic and shocking than Robb Stark's on Game of Thrones? The Red Wedding is a legendary TV moment, among the best ever broadcasted. It shocked anyone who had not read the books and remains one of the most spectacular deaths, along with his wife, his unborn baby, and his mother, ever filmed.

John Coffey - The Green Mile

It's one of the most heartbreaking moments in film history when John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) meets his inevitable end in The Green Mile. Still, he goes out spectacularly with sparks flying and tears flowing.

Charlie Pace - Lost

ABC's Lost had some pretty memorable deaths, but none more so than Charlie Pace's last moments as he warned about the incoming boat and sacrificed himself in one of the most heartbreaking moments in TV history.

Hans Gruber - Die Hard

It's hard to believe that Hans Gruber in Die Hard was Alan Rickman's first movie role. His death, as he falls from Nakatomi Tower, looking up at the camera as he goes, is iconic. It's become one of the most meme'd scenes in movie history and is easily one of the most spectacular deaths in film history.

Gus Fring - Breaking Bad

For years, Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) was one of the most despised characters on TV. His death was worthy of such an amazing villain as he is not only blown up but survives long enough to walk out of the room where it happened and button his jacket before collapsing to the floor.

Thelma And Louise - Thelma And Louise

When Thelma And Louise was first released, the ending completely shocked people. No one expected the movie's heroes to go out like they did, by driving their car off the cliff. Still, it was on their own terms and they did it together, making it all that much more spectacular.

Adriana La Cerva - The Sopranos

There were quite a few deaths over the seasons in The Sopranos, but the episode when Adriana La Cerva (Drea de Matteo) is rubbed out is maybe the most incredible. The tension in the episode is impressive even by The Sopranos standards as no one wanted to see Adriana go, even though everyone knew why it was happening.

The Wicked Witch of the West - The Wizard Of Oz

"I'm melting" is one of the most iconic lines in Hollywood history as the Wicked Witch of the West is dying in The Wizard of Oz. There really isn't much more that needs to be said about this spectacular death.

Maximus Decimus Meridius - Gladiator

For years, Maximus (Russell Crowe) in Gladiator obsessed over avenging his family's death and taking down Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Despite Commodus playing dirty in their final showdown, Maximus finally prevails, killing Commodus before he collapses and dies.

Tony Stark - Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Endgame is the 22nd movie in MCU history and so it was only appropriate that Tony Stark - the character that started it all - would be the one to finally take Thanos out by snapping his fingers with the Infinity Gauntlet on. It led to his spectacular death, of course, but it was worth it.

Col. Kurtz - Apocalypse Now

After building for two hours, the climactic death of Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) at the end of Apocalypse Now is one of the most dramatic and violent moments in film history. The scene, juxtaposed with the sacrifice of a cow, is terrifying and amazing.

Glenn - The Walking Dead

The death of Glenn (and Abraham) was one of the most controversial moments of The Walking Dead. That was partly due to the extreme violence that turned a lot of people off, but it was mostly because Glenn was such a beloved character. Still, it was a death that was totally unforgettable.

Kong - Dr. Strangelove

Peter Sellers may be the most celebrated member of the Dr. Strangelove cast (and for good reason), but Kong, played by Slim Pickens steals the show at the end with his death by riding a nuke down as it drops towards it's target.

Kenny McCormick - South Park

We couldn't make this list without including poor Kenny McCormick, the hapless member of the South Park crew. Kenny has been killed over 100 times over the show's incredible run and in some of the most ridiculous and fantastic ways, like getting crushed by a tree, getting hit by a volcanic boulder, and dozens of other ways.

Rosalind Shays - LA Law

Rosiland Shays' death by falling down an elevator on LA Law was one of the most shocking moments in television history. It came completely out of nowhere in a time in television when a death like that wasn't common at all. It actually changed TV storytelling.

Mark Greene - ER

Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) was one of the most beloved characters on ER and his death, while a different kind of spectacular than most of the others on this list. It wasn't a shocking moment, as it was a tragic slow death by cancer. It was still among the most heartbreaking moments ever.

Zoe Barnes - House Of Cards

For the first season of House Of Cards, Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) was one of the most important characters. The journalist was both investigating and getting a little too involved with Francis Underwood (Kevin Spacey). Her surprising death shocked audiences as Frank threw her in front of a subway train. It came completely out of nowhere, and yet made total sense in the context of the show.

Roy Batty - Blade Runner

The death of Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) at the end of Blade Runner has become one of the most legendary deaths of all time. It is not at all what anyone in the audience expected when the main villain of the movie turns into a hero at the very end, saving Deckard (Harrison Ford) before smiling as he dies. Time to die.

Alec Trevelyan - GoldenEye

You knew there was no way this list was going to be complete without including at least one death by a Sean Bean character, right? There have been so many spectacular deaths over the actor's incredible career, but for our money, you can't beat the death of his character Alec Trevelyan in the James Bond movie GoldenEye when Bond drops him to his death and he is crushed to make sure it's final.

Lane Pryce - Mad Men

Mad Men was unlike any other show on TV at the time and Lane Pryce's death by suicide is the perfect example of why. The character, played by Jared Harris was a fan favorite and while story-wise his death made perfect sense, it was still shocking.

William Wallace - Braveheart

Braveheart might be one of the most historically inaccurate films ever made, but William Wallace's death at the end is still pretty spectacular ( and not all that different from what really happened to the Scottish hero). We can't go into all the violent details here, but if you know, you know.

Nick Chevotarevich - The Deer Hunter

One of the most tragic characters in '70s cinema has to be Nick Chevotarevich, played by Christopher Walken. Even after the Vietnam War draws to a close and his best friend makes it back home after escaping a POW camp, Nick gets stuck in Saigon, playing dangerous games of Russian Roulette for months. When Mike (Robert De Niro) finds him, Nick is completely checked out, and that makes his horrible death all the more sad.

Quint - Jaws

Quint (Robert Shaw) is the grizzled fisherman who promises to catch "the fish" in Jaws, but in the end, it's the fish that catches him. As has often been pointed out, one of the most effective things about the classic movie is that the shark is rarely seen, so when Quint is eaten it's one of the scariest and most exciting moments of the movie.

Cyrus 'The Virus' Grissom - Con Air

Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom (John Malkovich) in Con Air is one of the most over-the-top movie villains of the '90s, so of course he had to get killed in an over-the-top spectacular way. First, he is knocked out and handcuffed to a firetruck that crashes into a bridge, tossing Cyrus into some powerlines, and electrocuting him, but that's not all. He then falls into the path of a pile driver doing road work, which comes down on his head.

Private Pyle - Full Metal Jacket

Private Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio) is, at the beginning of Full Metal Jacket a hopeless Marine recruit who can't do anything right. As the first act of the movie plays out, he gets more competent but also starts to lose his marbles. It all culminates in an incredibly tense scene when he shoots and kills his drill sergeant before turning the gun on himself.

Marissa Cooper - The O.C.

Say what you want about about The O.C., but the creative decision to kill off one of the main characters and star of the show, Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) in Season 3 was a bold one. The way she died, in the arms of Ryan (Ben McKenzie) after a car wreck is just as dramatic as the decision to have the character die.

Jack Torrance - The Shining

That final image of a frozen Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) in The Shining is one of the most enduring snapshots of a movie filled with incredible visual moments. A spectacular villain like Jack deserves a death as memorable as it is.

Sgt. Elias - Platoon

Platoon, as is said in the movie, is a battle for the soul of Chris (Charlie Sheen) between Elias (Willem Dafoe) and Barnes (Tom Berenger). Barnes wins the battle between himself and Elias when he shoots Elias towards the end, but Elias wins Chris' soul with his spectacular death as the helicopters lift away and Elias is left with arms outstretched as the Vietnamese soldiers gun him down for good.

Gennaro - Jurassic Park

We just had to include this one. Donald Gennaro isn't the main character of Jurassic Park, in fact, he's not even one of the main supporting characters. But him getting eaten by the T-Rex while hiding on the toilet is one of the silliest, and most insane deaths, of any movie, ever.

John Doe - Se7en

The ending of Se7en is one of the most talked about and debated, moments in film history. John Doe (Kevin Spacey) completely manipulates David Mills (Brad Pitt) into doing exactly what wants, completely the complete over-the-top murder spree ever seen on the big screen.

Superhero movies are still incredibly popular on the big screen. However, while comic book characters never age, the actors playing them absolutely do. This means that at some point, an actor has to stop playing a character. Of course in the case of two of the biggest character endings in recent memory, Wolverine and Iron Man, we now know that the end isn't really the end.

Logan is generally viewed as Hugh Jackman's best work as Wolverine. It was also supposed to be the final movie playing the character. He would, of course, make a spectacular return in the recent Deadpool and Wolverine. In the recent Marvel Assembled documentary of the movie, available with a Disney+ subscription, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige says that he thought Logan's ending was amazing and that Marvel wanted to do something similar when it came time for Robert Downey Jr. to say goodbye to Iron Man. Feige said…

Most would probably agree that Robert Downey Jr's ending in Avengers: Endgame is truly special. Iron Man has probably the best character arc of any character in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe to date. Of course, like Hugh Jackman, it turns out that Downey isn't quite done with his movies either. While he is only set to play Tony Stark again at Disneyland, he will be back in the MCU as well by playing Doctor Doom, but even with that, I have concerns.

One of the things that has always excited me about the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the fact that time passes. Comic book characters can see big changes happen but they can easily be undone and things returned to the status quo. One way or another, that's not the case with comic book movies. Roles will need to be recast, or actors will age, and either way, things will change in a permanent way. But it seems studios are fighting that as long as they can.

Hugh Jackman says it was his idea to stop playing Logan and also his idea to return in Deadpool and Wolverine. That may be true, but certainly the studio was very happy to get that phone call. While I don't think Logan's return in Deadpool and Wolverine undoes the power of the ending of Logan the movie in any significant way, if Hugh Jackman does play Logan until he's 90 then that finale will lose something. the same is true when it comes to Robert Downey Jr.

While Downey may only be set to play Doctor Doom at this point, the actor is reportedly being paid quite a lot of money to return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the next two Avengers movies. We have to accept the possibility that we could see him return as Iron Man again. Fans will certainly love to see that, but depending on how it's handled, it could undo some of the power of that amazing finale.

Like Hugh Jackman returning to play Logan, Robert Downey Jr returning to play Tony Stark isn't the end of the world. It can be done well, but it has to be done carefully. Avengers: Doomsday opens on May 1, 2026, and Avengers: Secret Wars follows on May 7, 2027.

Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, was already a relatively well-known superhero before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but there’s no question that Chris Evans’ portrayal of the character boosted his profile significantly to global audiences. And much like how the funniest Tony Stark quotes have been chronicled, there are some great quotes from Evans’ Steve that can be heard when going through the Marvel movies in order. Below are the 32 best ones, some of which go hand in hand with Steve’s best moments in the MCU, too.

“I could do this all day.”

If any of the quotes on this list summarize Steve Rogers’ character, it’s this one. First uttered by a pre-Super Soldier Serum Steve in Captain America: The First Avenger when he was getting beat up in an alley, and then brought back in Captain America: Civil War, it exemplifies his unwillingness to back down in the face of adversity.

"On your left."

At the beginning of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson met Steve Rogers when Captain America himself kept running ridiculously fast laps around the future Falcon. Each time, he said “On your left,” and it was a memorable enough line that Sam got to say it himself in Avengers: Endgame’s portal sequence.

“I understood that reference.”

Steve Rogers went on ice in 1945 and woke up in 2011, meaning there were almost 70 years' worth of historical and pop culture references that he had no idea about. However, when Nick Fury mentioned in The Avengers that Loki was controlling people like “flying monkeys,” which confused Thor, Steve immediately got that reference, having seen The Wizard of Oz in 1939. This quote gets extra points for being a popular meme online.

"Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?"

After meeting with Alexander Pierce and deciding not to share the flash drive he’d gotten from Nick Fury, Steve Rogers was ambushed by STRIKE agents in an elevator at the Triskelion. Realizing something was amiss as more agents entered the confined space, he gave them one chance to back out before promptly beating them up, including Brock Rumlow, the future Crossbones.

“Language!”

By the time Avengers: Age of Ultron rolled around, Steve Rogers had been unfrozen for several years and had gotten relatively used to living in contemporary times. Still, some 1940s habits are hard to break, so when Tony Stark exclaimed, “Shit!” when he accidentally ran into a force field, Steve said, “Language!” He was given grief about that for the rest of the movie.

"I know we're not perfect, but the safest hands are still our own."

Captain America: Civil War saw the Avengers and other heroes clash over their differing views on the Sokovia Accords. Tony Stark felt international oversight was something worth supporting, but Steve was firmly opposed to the legislation, arguing that it was still the better choice for superheroes to operate unrestricted.

"Avengers! Assemble."

The Avengers may have formed in 2012, but audiences had to wait another seven years to hear the Mjolnir-wielding Steve Rogers shout out the rallying cry for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes from the comics. That wait was worth it though, because it came as the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and all their allies came together to battle Thanos and his forces.

“I don't want to kill anyone. I don't like bullies; I don't care where they're from.”

The physically frail Steve Rogers tried his hardest to enlist during World War II, but it wasn’t until he met Dr. Abraham Erskine that he finally got his shot. When the German scientist asked Steve if he wanted to go to Europe to kill Nazis, he gave the above answer, which made Erskine think more highly of him.

“Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die. Every time.”

Tony Stark may not have intended for Ultron to become sentient and kill everyone on Earth, but his and Bruce Banner’s goal to create suits of armor around the world to protect humanity definitely backfired. Steve said this quote after ripping a log piece in half in frustration over Tony’s motives, and it served as effective foreshadowing for Captain America: Civil War.

“Oh God.”

Two simple words, and yet they perfectly encapsulated what those who survived Thanos’ snap were feeling when they realized he’d won and made half of all life in the universe disappear. Falling to the ground, Steve could barely keep it together at the end of Avengers: Infinity War as he grappled with what just happened.

"No. No, I don't think I will."

After returning the Infinity Stones to their respective timelines, Steve Rogers decided to live a life with Peggy Carter in the past. The 112-year-old Steve described this life as “beautiful” to Sam Wilson went he returned to his original timeline’s present day to give his old friend a different version of his Captain America shield. And yet, when Sam noticed the wedding ring on Steve’s finger and inquired about it, the elderly man opted not to share.

“You know, the last time I was in Germany and saw a man standing above everybody else, we ended up disagreeing.”

Steve Rogers was the first superhero to show up at Stuttgart, where Loki had forced a group of humans from a gala to kneel before him. Steve saved an old man who’d stood up (figuratively and literally) to Loki, and then compared the Asgardian God of Mischief to Adolf Hitler.

"This isn't freedom, this is fear."

It wasn’t just missing out on decades of history and pop culture, as well most of the people he knew back in World War II having died, that Steve struggled with early on in the MCU. There were also changing values, as evidenced by his reaction when Nick Fury revealed Project Insight to him. In Steve’s mind, having three Helicarriers take out threats preemptively was not something that would be good for the public.

“You get hurt, hurt them back. You get killed... walk it off."

When the Avengers showed up in Sokovia to stop Ultron, Steve Rogers did these words to get everyone pumped up, as humanity itself was at stake. They emerged victorious in the end, although sadly, Quicksilver died in the process and was not able to walk it off.

“If I see a situation pointed south, I can't ignore it. Sometimes I wish I could.”

Similar to Steve saying, “I can do this all day,” this quote demonstrates how far Steve Rogers will go to stand up to adversity and do what he thinks is the right thing. He said this while talking with Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War and explaining his rationale for opposing the Sokovia Accords. However, he then acknowledged that he doesn’t actually wish he could ignore such situations.

“… Take it from a guy who's been frozen for 65 years... the only way to really be cool is to follow the rules.”

Steve Rogers made amusing cameos throughout Spider-Man: Homecoming through a series of PSAs for high school students that were filmed sometime after the events of The Avengers. These cheesy and punny lines, the above being perhaps the biggest offender, were made all the funnier by the fact that at this point in the MCU timeline, Steve was a fugitive from the law.

“And Hulk? Smash!”

When the Avengers finally came together for the first time as a team, Steve Rogers issued orders for his teammates so they could more effectively combat Loki’s Chitauri army. But Steve wisely decided to not give Hulk anything complicated to carry out, instead just telling the green behemoth to do what he does best.

"... The price of freedom is high. It always has been. And it's a price I'm willing to pay."

Steve said these inspiring words as part of his speech to all the S.H.I.E.L.D. employees at the Triskelion who had no idea that their ranks had been infiltrated by HYDRA since the beginning. It paid off, as agents like Sharon Carter rebelled against STRIKE and all the other HYDRA operatives who’d made their true allegiances known.

"I keep telling everybody they should move on and grow. Some do. But not us."

Those who were left alive by Thanos’ snap were traumatized, and five years after this genocide, those on Earth were barely coping with how life changed in an instant. When Steve met with Natasha Romanoff at the Avengers Compound, he acknowledged that he hasn’t been following his own advice, and that the two of them have stayed stuck.

“… I had a date.”

When Nick Fury and his people caught back up with Steve Rogers after he broke out of confinement and took his first steps into contemporary times, the one-eyed spy informed the super soldier that he’d been asleep for almost 70 years. Remembering his last words to Peggy Carter before he went on ice, Steve was disappointed that he hadn’t been able to keep their appointment.

"I'm not looking for forgiveness. And I'm way past asking for permission. Earth just lost their best defender. So we're here to fight. If you wanna stay in our way... we'll fight you, too."

Steve Rogers may have spent the two years between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War as a fugitive from the law, but he was still fighting for what he believed was right. So when Thunderbolt Ross accused him of acting as those all were forgiven for what went down in Civil War just because aliens had invaded, Steve told him this.

“My faith's in people, I guess. Individuals. And I'm happy to say that, for the most part, they haven't let me down. Which is why I can't let them down either.”

Things didn’t end well between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers in Captain America: Civil War, but that didn’t stop the former from trying to make peace with the latter by the end. Steve left Tony a note that included this assessment of himself, an apology for hiding the truth about Bucky Barnes killing his parents, and a flip phone that Tony could use in case he ever needed help.

"When I went under, the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."

Steve Rogers was still very much a man out of time when The Avengers began, but he’d done a fair amount of research about what happened during his time being frozen. As he learned the Allies won World War II, but he also wondered at what cost that was reflected in contemporary society, as he told Nick Fury.

“For as long as I can remember, I just wanted to do what was right. I guess I'm not quite sure what that is anymore. And I thought I could throw myself back in: follow orders, serve. It's just not the same."

When Steve wanted to serve in World War II, it was to do his part in a conflict that had a distinct line between good and evil. But during the time of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, that line was no longer as clear cut, and while he was visiting with the elderly Peggy Carter, he reflected on how being a soldier from his original time period didn’t feel the same anymore.

“I knocked out Adolph Hitler over 200 times.”

After Abraham Erskine was shot and the original Super Soldier Serum formula was lost, Senator Brandt decided Steve would be put to better use as a propaganda figure, specifically for a stage show to promote war bonds during World War II. This show involved him “punching” Adolf Hitler, so technically he could count that as an accomplishment to mention before he infiltrated Red Skull’s base.

"Let's go get this son of a bitch."

Steve cursed towards the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron when he called Nick Fury a “son of a bitch,” obviously harkening back to the “Language!” moment. But this instance of cursing hit way harder, as Steve said the above after he and the remaining Avengers discovered Thanos’ location, with the Avengers: Endgame title card following immediately afterward.

“Ultron thinks we're monsters. That we're what's wrong with the world. This isn't just about beating him. It's about whether he's right.”

It didn’t take long for Ultron to decide after gaining sentience that all of life on Earth needed to be eliminated in order for there to be peace. Naturally, the Avengers had to stop the robotic menace, but Steve also felt it was important for him and his teammates to prove that humanity wasn’t as despicable as Ultron claimed.

"This job... we try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn't mean everybody. But if we can't find a way to live with that, next time... maybe nobody gets saved."

Wanda Maximoff tried her best to get the soon-to-explode Crossbones away from civilians in Lagos during Captain America: Civil War, but the blast still hit a nearby building and killed some Wakandan humanitarian workers. Wanda took this hard, and Steve tried his best to comfort her, which included saying the above to her.

“I am Steve Rogers.”

When Thor returned to Earth to aid in fighting Thanos’ forces in Wakanda, he brought with him Rocket and Root. The latter said his standard three words when the God of Thunder introduced him to Steve Rogers, and Steve responded by sharing his own name, unaware that “I am Groot” is literally the only thing the sentient tree can say.

"We lost. All of us. We lost friends. We lost family. We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back."

Once Earth’s Mightiest Heroes figured out time travel in Avengers: Endgame, they formed teams for the Time Heist, where they would retrieve alternate timeline versions of the Time Stone to undo the effects of Thanos’ snap. Before they headed off to their respective missions, Steve Rogers kicked off his inspirational speech with these words and capped off with how they were “going to win. Whatever it takes.”

“There's only one God, ma'am, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that.”

Steve took the arrival of Thor on Earth during The Avengers pretty well. After the Odinson snatched Loki and Tony Stark flew after them, the first Captain America took it upon himself to follow after them. When Black Widow advised him to stay on the sidelines since Thor and Loki were “basically gods,” he countered that they were far from he considered to be the real deal.

"That was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm 95, not dead."

When Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff were trying to avoid being noticed by Brock Rumlow and the STRIKE team while being discreet inside a mall, the latter took it upon herself to kiss the former so that their faces would be hidden as Rumlow passed by. Later on, when Natasha inquired about if this was his first kiss since he went on ice, Steve denied that, although he didn’t share any further details.

If anything could have gotten fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe even more excited for upcoming Marvel movies, it was the reveal that the Russo Brothers will be back to direct the next two Avengers films just as they did Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, two of the highest grossing movies of all-time. A lot about the next two movies will mirror the structure of the previous Avengers films, but one thing that apparently won’t will be the shooting schedule.

Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are scheduled to be released a year apart, just as Infinity War and Endgame were. However, speaking with Collider the Russo Brothers revealed that the movies aren’t planned to be filmed back-to-back the way the previous Avengers films were. According to Joe Russo...

When multiple sequels get the greenlight at the same time, it’s far from uncommon for them to get filmed together. It happened previously with sequels to Back to the Future, The Matrix, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Sometimes the two films will get filmed one after the other with little or no break. Sometimes the movies will get filmed at the same time, with scenes from both movies sometimes being shot on the same day.

The former situation was the case for the last two Avengers movies, with there being only a small break between the two movies. The Russo's have previously indicated they didn't love the Avengers shooting schedule. The reason for the change may simply have been because the directors didn't want to go through that again.

Exactly when the two new Avengers movies will be filmed is unclear. Anthony Russo indicates that the break between shooting them won’t be very long, but the break will be significantly longer this time around. He explained...

The back-to-back filming meant that principal photography on Endgame was done a long time before it traditionally would have been completed, so it seems the plan for these two films is for each one to be filmed on its own. Shooting on major tentpoles with major post-production is usually completed around a year before release, so with the two movies coming out a year apart, it seems filming will be separated like that as well.

The reason may simply be one of storytelling as much as anything else. Infinity War and Endgame were two movies telling a single story, and while Doomsday and Secret Wars might be doing the same thing, that’s far from clear. While Secret Wars will likely be strongly inspired by the Marvel comics of the same name, exactly what Avengers: Doomsday will be about, beyond that it will include the return of Robert Downey Jr. to the MCU, is more of a mystery. The two movies may be more self-contained stories, making it easier for them to be filmed separately.

So, we all stopped caring a little about the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a time, right?

I mean that in the best way possible. After Avengers: Endgame, there was so much up in the air as to what the MCU was going to be. Obviously, we knew that the idea of a Marvel multiverse was going to become a big thing, but all we really got for a time were selected stories that didn’t seem to have a real connection to each other from new TV shows and movies, whereas it felt that in a lot of other MCU films, there were so many connections. The MCU didn’t feel the same anymore, and for a time, I really didn’t think I’d enjoy Marvel as much as I did before.

However, Agatha All Along has finally begun to release as part of the 2024 TV schedule, and while we’re only a few episodes in, I have a feeling that this show is what’s going to bring me back to the MCU – so let’s get into why.

WandaVision Was Certainly One Of My Favorite Post-Endgame Shows

Before I even get into the other movies and TV shows post-Endgame, I’ll state my bias right here – I’ve always loved Scarlet Witch and her best moments, and that means I was a massive fan of WandaVision.

I was one of those fans who fully supported the show as soon as it was announced. I watched it the first week it came out and loved that with every episode, theories came out and the series only grew in popularity. Did the show end up going any of those routes? No, not really, but man, what a time to be a Marvel fan, am I right?

That honestly means that I would probably end up liking Agatha All Along in some way because I loved WandaVision so much. But I had my doubts, especially after the shows and movies that followed.

I Did Enjoy Some Post-Endgame Films And Shows, But Most Missed The Mark

It’s not that I don’t enjoy the post-Endgame shows and movies. There are plenty I have, all of which I’ve gone over in my article regarding my rewatch of the entire MCU. There’s plenty to love.

I have always been a huge fan of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I loved Moon Knight. Of course, I was one of the many who enjoyed the heck out of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and the well-done fan service of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

But before Endgame, it just felt like hit after hit with these films, and then post-Endgame, it just didn’t have that same feeling. Some stood out, but most of the shows and movies were just… forgettable. Eternals was shot beautifully, but I can barely remember any of the characters' names. The Marvels was alright, but not nearly the same quality as other films. And Thor: Love and Thunder was… not something I want to talk about.

Even Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness could have been so much better if there wasn’t so much already spoiled beforehand or theorized. And don’t even get me started on Secret Invasion and Echo, both of which were pretty forgettable in the grand scheme of things.

Deadpool & Wolverine has undoubtedly been a winner for the MCU, but personally, I think Agatha All Along is where real Marvel fans are going to come back.

Agatha All Along Dares To Cross Boundaries The MCU Doesn’t Do As Often

Before I even get into the story, let me just give Agatha All Along its flowers for diving into boundaries that the MCU has rarely ever crossed. I mean, a straight-up confirmation of an LGBTQ+ romance in the fourth episode? A near kiss? Literally talking about child sacrifice? Come on, that sort of stuff doesn’t happen often.

Now, even with just that, the inclusivity of this show is off the charts. For someone like me, a young Latina woman, it is heavenly to see so many diverse faces in a show such as this, who are all working together and building a community. That’s something we really don’t get to see that often in the MCU, and it’s honestly a nice refresher for the types of stories that we’re going to get down the line that combine many of these characters.

And obviously there's a female-led cast. We’ve seen it before with The Marvels, but that film felt like such a joke in comparison to this. These characters have stories, ones that impact you from the moment you learn them and make you want to route for them. And for that, I have to give it praise.

The Story Is Perfect For Spooky Season

I don’t know who decides when these shows come out, but releasing Agatha All Along during this time of year was an absolutely perfect choice. If this series had come out in July, March or even December, I can almost guarantee that it wouldn’t have done nearly as well as it’s doing now.

The marketing has been perfect, but the story is absolutely stellar for the spooky season. So many people will turn into this show just for the vibes of witchcraft, wizardry and horror—and that, in turn, will bring in viewers, as we have seen after each episode.

But it’s not just that—combining the spooky elements with this idea of sisterhood (really just found family in general), mixed in with comedy, is the perfect tale for a show like this. Heck, even the addition of Teen, and how he perfectly complements the witches with his lack of experience but pure resilience, works so well.

The Characters All Have Distinct Personalities That I Can See Incorporated Into Future Marvel Projects

This is another big thing that Agatha All Along has going for it. Besides Agatha herself (because Kathryn Hahn is excellent), the characters of this coven are so distinct and memorable that you can easily see them fitting into other MCU projects – which is exactly what happened with WandaVision.

I mean, you can fit any of them into a solo Scarlet Witch movie, but I can see Teen being part of a possible Young Avengers film or see Rio Vadal being in some villain movie or the big baddie of another Marvel film. Everyone I can see incorporated in some way, and that’s what makes them such great additions.

The Series Genuinely Makes Me Hopeful For The Future Of The MCU

Look, I loved Deadpool & Wolverine as a longtime fan of that character, but everyone said that this movie was what would bring the MCU back. And sure, if you want to think box office, that’s the case, considering that movie made over $1 billion and is the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time.

But I truly think Agatha All Along is the real future of the MCU and the real measure of success, because the number of people who have tuned in to see this show is phenomenal.

It shows that, yes, we do care about pre-established characters, but we also care about new stories. We care about new characters, new details and new lore, as long as it’s delivered in an entertaining way that makes sense to the narrative of the MCU. That doesn’t bastardize the content that we all already know of from the comics. That honors the source material while also adding to it as well.

That’s what Agatha All Along does. Sure, certain people can only review-bomb it all they want, but Agatha All Along’s numbers don’t lie – people want these types of shows, and honestly, this is what makes me hopeful that the MCU could be as good as it once was. It’ll never be pre-Endgame again, but it can be something different in the same way – and that’s what I’m looking forward to.

While spooky season is still very much underway, I can’t wait to see what comes next for these characters – and what the MCU has in store for them.

When you think of the Marvel movies in order, what probably comes to mind immediately are the eclectic characters, major action sequences and iconic lines among other things. You may not consider, however, food when thinking about the allure of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yes, the franchise offers comic book-esque thrills, but there are also some excellent scenes that effectively involve fine cuisine. So, without further ado, let’s discuss some of those.

Tony Stark Eating Cheeseburgers (Iron Man)

One of the earliest instances of food being prominently featured in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in 2008’s Iron Man, specifically after Tony Stark returns home following his escape from the Ten Rings’ clutches. While asking to call a press conference, Stark also says he wants “an American cheeseburger,” leading his limo driver to stop by Burger King for a few. It’s a funny bit but also adds to Stark’s characterization (and it’s paid off during a sweet scene in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame).

Tony Stark Eating New York Style Pizza (Iron Man)

In Iron Man, the villainous Obadiah Stane (a.k.a. Iron Monger) buys Tony Stark pizza from New York while delivering the news that the Stark Industries board has voted Tony out of his position. (That move is Stane’s idea but he doesn’t reveal it at the time). The large pie looks absolutely delicious, and I can understand why Stane won’t let Stark take the whole pizza after the latter refuses to reveal his latest project (the Iron Man suit) to him.

Bruce Banner Bribes A Security Guard And Grad Student With Pizza (The Incredible Hulk)

A significant portion of The Incredible Hulk takes place in New York, so it’s fitting that pizza played a role in the story. Bruce Banner, with help from friend and pizzeria owner Stanley, uses a couple of pies to bribe a Culver City grad student and a security guard while trying to find his research. Even though Banner doesn’t find what he is looking for, the pies certainly serve their purpose.

Tony Stark Eating Donuts At Randy’s Donuts (Iron Man 2)

Iron Man 2 may be a lower-ranked Marvel movie, but it does feature a number of memorable MCU moments. Among them is a scene that involves an armor-clad Tony Stark sitting in a donut at Randy’s Donuts while eating (you guessed it) donuts. The situation is on-brand for Stark but also represents his reckless attitude amid his palladium poisoning.

Thor Chows Down At A Diner (Thor)

The God of Thunder’s first solo film sees him visiting a diner alongside Jane Foster and his other new allies from Earth. While there, Thor scarfs down plenty of food as well as coffee, before breaking the mug and asking for another. This may be played for laughs, but it perfectly sums up Odinson’s initially arrogant nature.

Colonel Phillips Enjoys A Steak (Captain America: The First Avenger)

Good food is hard to come by in the World War II-centric Captain America: The First Avenger, though Colonel Chester Phillips manages to enjoy a steak dinner, complete with potatoes and veggies. There’s a greater purpose to the meal, though, as Phillips uses it as a tool while interrogating HYDRA's Arnim Zola.

Phil Coulson Shops For Snacks At A Gas Station (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer)

The Marvel One-Shot A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor’s Hammer sees Phil Coulson skillfully thwart a robbery in a gas station while en route to New Mexico. If you enjoy food like me, though, what likely stands out the most is the fact that he’s only at the station to shop for snacks. And he ends up purchasing two sets of mini donuts, in case you were wondering.

Tony Stark And Bruce Banner Eat Blueberries (The Avengers)

You know you’re becoming friends when you start sharing snacks! In The Avengers, one of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner’s earliest “Science Bros.” scenes involves them eating blueberries while working alongside each other on the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. It truly marks the start of a beautiful friendship.

The Avengers Eat Shawarma (The Avengers)

Few scenes in the MCU are as iconic as The Avengers’ post-credit Shawarma scene, which was a last-minute addition. The moment happens after Earth’s Mightiest Heroes take down Loki and the Chitauri amid the Battle of New York, and it marks the first of many meals shared by the heroic cohorts.

Tony Stark And James “Rhodey” Rhodes Grab A Meal (Iron Man 3)

Iron Man 3 offers fans a quick glimpse of a lunch meet-up between best friends Tony Stark and James Rhodes. Rhodey’s fries and Tony’s veggies look delectable, but what truly makes the scene important is that it marks the first of several panic attacks for Stark.

Scott Lang’s Friend Kurt Enjoys Chinese Food (Ant-Man)

Before Ant-Man’s cool post-credits scenes, viewers are treated to a closing scene that sees Scott Lang meeting up with his buddies in San Francisco’s Chinatown. It’s there that Kurt chows down on good Chinese food, while Luis reveals to Scott that Avenger Sam Wilson has been asking about him. The food doesn't play a big role, but the restaurant and environmental ambiance are "sublime" as Luis would say.

Vision Tries To Cook (Captain America: Civil War)

The relationship between Wanda Maximoff and Vision really begins to blossom in Captain America: Civil War, and that’s especially evident during a scene that takes place in the Avengers Facility. It sees Vision trying to cook a meal for Maximoff and, while chatting over his lack of culinary skills, they discuss their superhuman powers. It’s a shame the meet-cute is cut short by the reveal that Vision is keeping Wanda from leaving the compound.

Peter And May Parker Have Thai Food (Spider-Man: Homecoming)

A meal is a good way for family members to bond, and that’s what Peter Parker and his (younger) Aunt May kind of do when they have dinner at a Thai restaurant in Spider-Man: Homecoming. The larb-centric scene not only further solidifies the love May has for her nephew but also the natural attraction that someone – like a friendly waiter – can feel towards her.

Hope Van Dyne Has A Fight In A Hotel Kitchen (Ant-Man And The Wasp)

Ant-Man and the Wasp features some truly creative sequences that take advantage of the titular protagonists’ shrinking abilities. Chief among them is a sequence that sees a small Hope van Dyne fending off thugs in a kitchen while avoiding being crushed like a tomato and chopped like a carrot.

Drax Eats Zarg Nuts In Front Of Peter Quill And Gamora (Avengers: Infinity War)

When discussing the funniest moments from Avengers: Infinity War, one has to mention the “invisible” scene. It sees Drax creeping on fellow Guardians of the Galaxy Peter Quill and Gamora while he’s eating Zarg Nuts. That’s funny enough on its own, but what makes the scene sing is Drax’s assertion that his movements are so slow that he’s invisible to the naked eye.

Natasha Romanoff Eats A Peanut Butter Sandwich That Scott Lang Grabs Later (Avengers: Endgame)

Peanut butter sandwiches usually represent joy and comfort, but the sight of Natasha Romanoff eating one while trying to maintain composure while meeting with the Avengers in Endgame is just tragic. It’s a representation of her grief, which is further expressed when she talks to Steve Rogers after the meeting. A glimmer of hope comes later, however, as Scott Lang – who is newly released from the Quantum Realm – arrives and takes a bite out of the sandwich.

Bruce Banner Eats A Lot Of Food At A Diner (Avengers: Endgame)

It’s rare that fans are able to witness a Hulk eat, but it’s even rarer that they see a Smart Hulk chow down. That’s exactly what happens in Avengers: Endgame, when Scott Lang, Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers meet up with Bruce Banner at a diner to recruit him for their time heist. It’s there that Banner scarfs down giant pancakes, sausage and a bowl of scrambled eggs.

Bruce Banner Shares Tacos With Scott Lang (Avengers: Endgame)

Scott Lang has plenty of good, super-powered friends, including resident Hulk Bruce Banner. That’s evidenced by the fact that after Scott’s taco is blown away – due to Nebula and Rocket Raccoon’s ship landing in front of the Avengers Facility – Banner shares two more tacos with Scott. If that doesn't represent friendship goals, then I don’t know what does.

Rocket Raccoon Teases Scott Lang While The Avengers Eat Together (Avengers: Endgame)

Aside from Infinity War, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have shared a meal in the Avengers movies. Endgame sees the crew eating while plotting their time heist and, while enjoying some tasty-looking Chinese food, Rocket humorously teases Lang for his ignorance when it comes to space travel. (And, if you look, you can also see Hulk eating a tub of ice cream.)

Wanda Maximoff Tries To Cook Dinner (WandaVision)

How does a witch cook dinner? Well, WandaVison shows that when it comes to Wanda Maximoff, cooking involves levitating pots, pans and a whole chicken. The sitcom-esque scene is funny but also exemplifies Wanda and her husband Vision’s attempts to adapt to domestic life while keeping their superhuman abilities under wraps.

Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes And Co. Have A Cookout (The Falcon And The Winter Soldier)

There’s a lot for viewers to digest in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s finale, but one of the sweetest moments sees Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes and co. digesting some good food. During the miniseries’ closing moments, a celebratory cookout is held in Louisiana, which includes succulent seafood, perfect pies and a cake brought by Bucky.

Loki Destroys Mobius’ Salad (Loki Season 1)

It’s never cool to mess up someone’s meal, and that’s what Loki does when he confronts TVA operative Mobius M. Mobius and tries to explain his theory of individuals using natural disasters to hide within points in time. Loki specifically does this by using salt, pepper and water to destroy the salad Mobius intends to have for lunch.

Shang-Chi Has Dinner With His Father (Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings)

Warm, family dinners are featured in several MCU productions, but that’s not the case in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The eponymous hero, his friend, Katy, and sister, Xu Xialing, break bread with the two siblings’ estranged father, Wenwu (a.k.a. the Mandarin) for the first time in years. The food looks good enough to eat, but it’s the tension you can cut through with a knife.

The Eternals Enjoy A Meal Together (Eternals)

After spending centuries on Earth apart, the members of the Eternals reunite in the lead-up to the Emergence. The group stops in Australia to find Sersi and Gilgamesh, who makes a scrumptious meal for his family. However, Gilgamesh’s homemade beer, which is made with corn kernels fermented in his own spit, doesn’t sound that great.

Clint Barton And His Kids Have Dinner At A Chinese Restaurant (Hawkeye)

Hawkeye sees Clint Barton making up for lost time with his family by hanging out with his kids in New York, where they see Rogers: The Musical (which spawned a real show). A particularly warm moment sees the four Bartons eating at a Chinese restaurant and enjoying an impressive spread that’s enough to make one’s mouth water.

Yelena Belova Eats Macaroni And Cheese With Hot Sauce (Hawkeye)

If there’s any scene from Hawkeye that fans need to see, it’s the moment Kate Bishop and Yelena Belova meet. Belova breaks into Bishop’s apartment to discuss her mission to kill Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye. For the meet-up, Yelena prepares macaroni and cheese and adds hot sauce to it. Few MCU feud scenes get better than this one (and it served as a “dream day” on set for actress Florence Pugh).

Steven Grant Takes Over A Cupcake Delivery Van (Moon Knight)

While being chased through the Alps by cult leader Arthur Harrow’s forces on Moon Knight, Steven Grant commandeers a delivery van full of cupcakes. He doesn’t actually partake in the scrumptious-looking treats, but is able to use some to ward off his attackers.

America Chavez Eats Pizza Balls (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse Of Madness)

Stephen Strange visits a few alternate universes with America Chavez during the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In one of them, Chavez snags some pizza balls without paying for them, drawing the ire of street vendor Pizza Poppa. What results is a gag that isn’t humorously tied up until the MoM post-credits scene.

Yusuf Khan Enjoys Food While Nakia Bahadir Asks For His Vote At Eid Celebration (Ms. Marvel)

Food, music and fun abound during the Eid al-Adha celebration depicted on Ms. Marvel. Kamala Khan’s father, Yusuf, indulges in the goodies and does so when his daughter’s best friend, Nakia Bahadir, approaches him for his support in her campaign for board member of their mosque. The food looks great, but Nakia’s pitch really steals the scene, to be honest.

Loki And Mobius Eat Key Lime Pie (Loki Season 2)

The Time Variance Authority offers up some great-looking food as evidenced by the exquisite key lime pie that’s available in the cafeteria. Loki and Mobius enjoy it while discussing their plan to interrogate rogue operative Hunter X-05 (a.k.a. Brad Wolfe) as well as Mobius’ stolen life. Hearty desserts are definitely needed when discussing such heavy subject matter.

Mobius And Hunter X-05 Eat At McDonald’s (Loki Season 2)

Not many people can withstand the appeal of a meal from McDonald’s, and that includes some MCU characters, apparently. Loki, Mobius M. Mobius and Hunter X-05 (or Brad Wolfe) seek out Sylvie Laufeydottir in a branched timeline in 1982 Oklahoma. It’s there that Sylvie works at a Mickey D’s and, while Loki confronts Laufeydottir, Mobius orders a burger, fries and a milkshake for Brad. The sight of the meal is enough to make one hungry.

Agatha Harkness Eats A Corn Dog (Agatha All Along)

After being rescued from Wanda Maximoff’s spell by “Teen” on Agatha All Along, Agatha Harkness seeks to form a coven so that she can walk the Witches’ Road and reclaim her powers. It’s while Harkness and Teen are at the mall scoping out potential member Alice Wu-Gulliver that Agatha munchs on a corn dog. Who knew gathering witches could make a person so hungry?

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been going strong for over a decade, and it's showing no signs of slowing down. Fans who have spent years watching the Marvel movies in order have seen our heroes in all sorts of battles, some of which they might have lost. And while fans are anticipating upcoming Marvel movies, there are at least 32 times where MCU heroes got beat up on screen... both in film and TV.

Fans love ranking the Marvel movies, and the way action sequences are put together often weigh heavily into that process. While the Good Guys usually win, they often take some licks before eventually overcoming in the final battle. In no particular order, here are 32 examples of heroes (and antiheroes) getting beat up. Spoiler alert for those who aren't hardcore MCU fans.

The Guardians vs Adam Warlock, The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

The opening battle of Guardians 3 is a brutal one. Adam Warlock comes to Knowhere, and quickly puts the beat down on the group of cosmic heroes. While no one actually died by the end of Guardians 3, this first battle saw Groot (briefly) beheaded, Nebula getting her arm broken, and both Drax and Nebula getting seriously beaten up.

Captain America vs Thanos, Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Endgame was jam-packed full of action, especially the final battle against Thanos. Before that iconic portals scene, Captain America took on the Mad Titan in a 1:1 fight, and took a beating. Luckily, the cavalry came just in time.

Iron Man vs Cap and Bucky, Captain America: Civil War

While Captain America: Civil War's tarmac battle is truly iconic, there are plenty of other epic fights throughout its runtime. That includes Bucky and Cap uniting in a two-on-one fight against Tony Stark, eventually laying the beatdown on RDJ's character.

Hulk vs Hulkbuster, Avengers: Age Of Ultron

Wanda Maximoff is introduced to the MCU in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and the titular villain tasks her with breaking the minds of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. After trapping many of them in a prison of their own minds, she manages to get Hulk into a rage. Luckily, Tony thought about this, and uses the Hulkbuster armor to punch him in the face until the green guy lost consciousness.

Yelena Vs. Kate, Hawkeye

Hawkeye featured Florence Pugh's first return to the MCU as Yelena (prior to joining the Thunderbolts* cast). Despite her mission to kill Clint Barton, she and Kate Bishop ended up having a delightful friendship. Although they do eventually come to blows, and beat each other up in the process.

Ant-Man vs Kang, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania

Prior to Jonathan Majors' firing as Kang, his villain was being set up as the next Thanos-level threat to the MCU. After being introduced in Loki, we met one of the many villainous variants of the antagonist in Ant-Man 3. Towards the end of the movie Scott Lang takes him on in a fight alone, and gets pretty trashed in the process.

Thor vs Hulk, Thor: Ragnarok

Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok is largely considered the best installment of Chris Hemsworth's franchise, and there are lots of iconic moments throughout its runtime. That includes Thor and Hulk being reunited in a colosseum on Sakaar. Unfortunately for the God of Thunder, he ends up the clear loser after Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster shocks him in the middle of the fight.

Iron Man vs Thanos, Avengers: Infinity War 

Thanos is arguably the most powerful villain from the MCU, so he appears a number of times on this list, usually kicking some hero butt in the process. During Infinity War, the heroes are split into two battles, one of which was on the antagonist's old home on Titan. But, everyone fails, and Tony ends up getting stabbed when trying to take him on by himself.

Hawkeye vs Black Widow, The Avengers

Throughout the first half of The Avengers, Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye is under a mind-control spell by Loki. Eventually this results in him fighting his best friend/partner Black Widow. The two non-powered heroes come to blows, with Clint Barton ultimately losing the fight.

Captain America vs Captain America, Avengers: Endgame

The Time Heist is one of the best parts of Avengers: Endgame, and included some truly iconic moments. Case in point: when Captain America accidentally runs into the 2012 version of himself, and the two face off. Eventually the Cap we know and love wins, beating the crap out of himself (before admiring his own butt).

Thanos vs Everyone, Avengers: Infinity War

Thanos faces off against just about every hero of the MCU during Avengers: Infinity War, to disastrous results for the good guys. That includes both the battle on Titan and the battle of Wakanda, where he's able to fight off the heroes easily before getting to Vision and Wanda.

Wanda vs Vision, Captain America: Civil War

After a mission gone wrong in the movie's opening sequence, Wanda spends much of Captain America: Civil War cooped up in the Avengers Compound. When Hawkeye shows up to break her out, she's forced to use her Chaos Magic to put Vision into the ground, literally.

Iron Man vs Rhodey, Iron Man 2

During Iron Man 2, Don Cheadle replaced Terrence Howard, and Rhodey became the War Machine. But his first time suiting up in one of Tony's suits came at a party, where the two besties came to blows. And surprisingly, Rhodey totally won that fight.

Matt Murdock's prison fight, Daredevil

During its three seasons on the air, Daredevil was known for having dizzying and thrilling fight sequences. Season 1's hallway fight might be its most famous, but Matt Murdock took a serious beating when Kingpin turned a prison against him.

Doctor Strange vs Kaecilius, Doctor Strange

During the first Doctor Strange movie, Benedict Cumberbatch's title character was shown struggling to master the mystical arts. When trying to face off against Mads Mikkelsen's villain Kaecilius, Stephen gets his butt kicked and ends up in the hospital with Christine.

Spider-Man vs Vulture, Spider-Man: Homecoming

Spider-Man: Homecoming was Tom Holland's first solo movie in the MCU, and showed Peter Parker struggling to be a teenage superhero. When he came to confront Michael Keaton's Vulture, he ended up seriously beaten after being trapped under the rubble of a building.

John Walker vs The Dora Milaje, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier

In The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, John Walker is hired as the new Captain America. But, he has some big shoes to fill, and makes some major missteps. That includes trying to take on the Dora Milaje and taking a beating in the process.

Vision Accidentally Hits War Machine, Captain America: Civil War 

Captain America: Civil War's tarmac battle is truly iconic, and it was thrilling to see Earth's Mightiest Heroes battle it out in a relatively safe manner. Unfortunately things got out of hand when Vision attempted to shoot a blast at The Falcon, and ended up accidentally hitting War Machine, resulting in a major injury.

Doctor Strange vs Scarlet Witch, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Wanda Maximoff returned to her villain roots in Doctor Strange 2, largely thanks to the corruption of her mind by the Darkhold. During this movie she thoroughly kicks Stephen Strange's butt multiple times, including when he's in the form of a zombie.

T'Challa vs Killmonger, Black Panther

Much of the plot of Black Panther revolves around seeing who will rule Wakanda after the death of King T'Chaka. While T'Challa beats M'Baku, eventually Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger shows up. And, without the power of the heart-shaped herb, T'Challa loses and seemingly dies after being thrown over a waterfall.

White Vision vs Vision, WandaVision

When Paul Bettany's Vision is introduced in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, he's seemingly one of the most powerful Avengers. After that, though, he never got to really show off his strength much. He held back during Civil War's tarmac battle, was injured early in Infinity War, and was dead throughout Endgame. That's why it as fun to watch him face off against White Vision in the finale of WandaVision, including taking a bit of a beating.

Captain Marvel vs Thanos, Avengers: Endgame

Brie Larson's Captain Marvel got to have her first big crossover moment in Avengers: Endgame, going toe to toe with Thanos two different times. During the final battle she looked like he had the upper hand, until the Mad Titan used the Power Stone to send her flying.

Hawkeye vs Yelena, Hawkeye

Florence Pugh returned as Black Widow's Yelena in Hawkeye, sent on a mission to kill Clint after her sister Natasha's death. They finally have a fight in the finale, where Yelena gives him a bit of a whopping before they finally settle their beef.

Shang-Chi vs Xialing, Shang-Chi

Shang-Chi brought Simu Liu into the MCU, and had some outstanding fight choreography throughout its runtime. In one of these thrilling fights, the title character reunites with his sister, Xu Xialing, in the arena, and she totally beats him up.

Falcon vs Ant-Man, Ant-Man

The first Ant-Man movie largely put Paul Rudd's character in a contained story, but we got a fun crossover when he had to pull a heist on the Avengers compound, and ended up in a fight with Falcon. Somehow, he managed to get the upper hand on the flying Avenger.

Logan vs Wade, Deadpool & Wolverine

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman's faux feud was on display for Deadpool & Wolverine, and the chemistry was off the charts. The two of them came to blows a few times throughout the movie, including that wildly gory fight in a car.

Loki vs Hulk, The Avengers

While Loki started off as a villain, he's become a bit of a hero thanks to his series on Disney+. And, he got his most iconic L when Hulk tossed him around like a rag doll in The Avengers.

Bucky vs Everyone, Captain America: Civil War 

A third of the way through Captain America: Civil War, Helmut Zemo activates the Winter Soldier by saying Bucky's trigger words. A wild battle ensues, where he successfully takes on an unarmed Tony, Natasha, T'Challa, and Sharon Carter. Obviously this fight might have changed if these characters had their signature gear, but it's thrilling to watch them all try and fail to stop Bucky Barnes.

The Illumanati vs Scarlet Witch, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 

Fan favorite character Wanda Maximoff goes on a bit of a rampage throughout Doctor Strange 2, racking up a startling body count. She's at her most deadly when facing off against The Illumanti, who were killed by the Scarlet Witch in quick succession. Reed Richards was turned into spaghetti, Black Bolt's powers were used against him, Wanda killed Captain Carter with her own shield, and then fought off that universe's Captain Marvel.

The Prison Fight, The Punisher

Netflix's MCU shows were pretty brutal at points, especially Daredevil and The Punisher. The latter starred John Bernthal as Frank Castle, and the title character took a serious beating in a prison fight where he singlehandedly took out a ton of enemies without any gear. It's a bloody and thrilling affair, bringing the Daredevil sense of action to The Punisher.

Valkyrie vs Gorr, Thor: Love And Thunder

The final battle of Thor: Love and Thunder is visually striking, as our three heroes take on Christian Bale's Gorr in black and white. He easily takes on all three, and poor Valkyrie ends up getting stabbed in the process. Luckily, the King of New Asgard wasn't killed after all, and even got to pop up in a cameo during The Marvels.

Carol Danvers vs Yon-Rogg, Captain Marvel

In the first Captain Marvel movie, we went back in time to see Carol Danvers' origin story as a superhero. Brie Larson's character starts out confused about her past, as well as her mysterious abilities. While sparring with her mentor Yon-Rogg (played by Jude Law), she ends up losing that fight pretty quickly. Of course, the ending of Captain Marvel saw her easily blasting him away.

If anything, this list proves that everyone takes an L sometimes.

As one goes through the Marvel movies in order, whether it’s with their physical/digital copies or by streaming them with a Disney+ subscription, one big truth becomes apparent above all others: Tony Stark is a funny guy. Ok, so maybe that’s not the most important takeaway from this franchise, but Robert Downey Jr. definitely got to deliver a lot of the MCU’s most humorous lines while he brought the superhero known as Iron Man to life. These are the 32 of the funniest ones.

“I don't want to see this on your MySpace page. Please no gang signs. No, throw it up, I’m kidding”

Tony Stark said this to a soldier who asked for a picture with him early on into Iron Man, joking around when the guy flashes the peace symbol for the shit. It’s a nice moment of lightheartedness before the convoy is attacked and the future superhero is kidnapped by terrorists.

“That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did.”

While aboard the Helicarrier during The Avengers speaking with Nuck Fury and most of the other starring characters, Tony calls out a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for playing a classic video game during his work time. Later on, we see that Tony was indeed telling the truth rather than just dropping one of his classic quips.

“I loved you in A Christmas Story, by the way.”

Tony Stark and James Rhodes’ conversation in that restaurant early into Iron Man 3 is a serious affair for the most part, as he learns more about the attacks on the United States and suffers a panic attack. In a brief moment of levity, though, he observed that a little kid asking for an autograph with his sister resembled Ralphie from the 1983 holiday classic.

“That's not a hug, I'm just grabbing the door for you.”

Tony Stark may have recruited Peter Parker to help him out during Captain America: Civil War, but they didn’t become close right off the bat. Sure, Tony was generous enough to let Peter keep his high-tech Spider-Man suit, but they weren’t on hugging terms yet, as evidenced when Tony said this to Peter in his car early on in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

“Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a Build-a-Bear.”

Tony Stark was near death when Captain Marvel found him and Nebula a few weeks during the beginning of Avengers: Endgame, so the beginning of his recovery back on Earth obviously shouldn’t be humorous. However, one funny line is snuck in when Tony has the above reaction upon hearing Rocket speak for the first time.

“That means get lost, Squidward!”

When Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian showed up on Earth to seize the Time Stone from Doctor Strange in Avengers: Infinity War, the Master of the Mystic Arts told them they were trespassing on New York City and Earth. Tony translated that by referring to Maw as the popular SpongeBob Squarepants character, and admittedly, there is a resemblance.

“I’m not a joiner, but I’ll consider Secretary of Defense if you ask nice.”

After Rhodey had to read a specific selection from his report about the Iron Man armor that painted Tony Stark in a bad light, he then tried to play some damage control during Iron Man 2’s congressional hearing by noting how the benefits of the armor outweighed the liabilities, even suggesting Tony be folded into “the existing chain of command.” Cue Tony’s wisecrack about his preferred Cabinet position.

“Manchurian Candidate, you're killing me. We're on a truce. Put the gun down.”

That’s what Tony said to Bucky Barnes when the latter pointed his rifle at the former, surprised that their pro-Sokovian Accords adversary had tracked him and Steve Rogers down to the HYDRA Siberian facility. It’s too bad that the truce didn’t last long after Tony found out Winter Soldier killed his parents.

“Drop your socks and grab your crocs, we're about to get wet on this ride.”

Even though Tony said this while flying through a fountain on the Stark Expo grounds to avoid being gunned down by Justin Hammer’s drones and Rhodey in his War Machine armor, which were all hijacked by Ivan Vanko, this was still a random thing for him to blurt out. Its unexpectedness, however, ironically makes it all the funnier.

“Wait a second. Is no one going to comment that Cap just said ‘Language’?”

At the beginning of Avengers: Age of Ultron when Earth’s Mightiest Heroes are fighting Baron Strucker’s HYDRA cell, Tony hits the invisible force field covering the terrorist base and exclaims a swear. Steve Rogers, a product of the 1940s, couldn’t help but blurt out his issue with the curse word, but since this took place in the 2010s, Tony of course had to give him grief for it.

“Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.”

How do you praise Bruce Banner for both his scientific work and his ability to turn into The Hulk? Just say what Tony Stark did above. Ok, maybe use a bit more tact, but Bruce didn’t seem too taken aback by the comment.

“Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing.”

Pepper Potts discovered Tony was Iron Man in his first movie when she found one of his machines awkwardly removing his armor following his mission to Gulmira. I don’t fault him for trying to break the tension with some innuendo, but obviously it failed to hit.

“Wong, you’re invited to my wedding.”

Tony Stark and Wong had only just met when they were forced to team up against Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian alongside Doctor Strange and Spider-Man. But you can count on Wong to have one’s back, as evidenced when he sent Obsidian through a portal before he could land a blow, leading Tony to invite him to his impending nuptials.

“… Which happens, dads leave, no need to be a pussy about it.”

You’d think Tony would be more compassionate towards a kid telling him that his dad abandoned his family six years earlier, especially since Harley was allowing him to hide in his shed while on the run. Instead, and frankly keeping in character, he brushes aside that piece of information and instead requests various items to help him fix his armor.

“If you douse me again, and I'm not on fire, I'm donating you to a city college.”

There were a pair of arm robots named Dum-E and Dum-U that were used in his workshop during the Iron Man movies, though they weren’t exactly the smartest machines. Dum-E in particular was a little too trigger-happy with the fire extinguisher while Tony was testing his Mark II armor, resulting in him making this threat.

“Mr. Stark displays textbook... narcissism... Agreed.”

Tony Stark may have emerged victorious at the end of Iron Man 2, but the events of the movie led to Nick Fury deciding that while the Iron Man armor was worthy of being part of the Avengers Initiative, Tony himself was not. That narcissism was just one of the reasons for this, but at least Tony had the self-awareness to recognize this was an accurate assessment.

“Uh, Shakespeare in the park? Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?”

Thor and Tony didn’t get off to the best of starts when they met in The Avengers, with the former forcefully seizing Loki back from the latter and the wholesome Captain America. When Tony caught back up and retaliated against Thor in kind, the God of Thunder warned him he didn’t know what he was dealing with, leading Iron Man to amusingly speculate it was something Shakespearean.

“Dude, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizards.”

Although Tony was obviously glad to see Bruce back in Avengers: Infinity War, he was irritated not long afterward when his fellow Avenger failed to transform into The Hulk as Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian were approaching. The Green Goliath wouldn’t emerge again for the rest of that movie, and by Avengers: Endgame, Bruce merged his two selves together to create Smart Hulk.

“Oh, you would love her. Very practical. Only a tiny bit sadistic.”

After Thanos used the Infinity Stones at the end of Infinity War, Tony and Nebula were the only heroes left standing on Titan. They fixed the Guardians of the Galaxy’s ship as best they could and attempted to reach Earth. During the trip, Tony recorded a message for Pepper Potts and described Nebula to her as seen above.

“Yeah, I’d say most countries 5, 10 years away, Hammer Industries, 20.”

There was concern from the United States government during Iron Man 2 that other countries could replicate the Iron Man suit for their own purposes. So Tony decided to commandeer the screens at the Congressional hearing to show that this wasn’t something to be worried about, especially when it came to Justin Hammer.

“Actually, he’s the boss. I just pay for everything and design everything, make everyone look cooler.”

When Maria Hill referred to Tony as “boss” in Avengers: Age of Ultron, he quickly corrected her and told her that Captain America was actually the leader of the superhero team… despite all that Tony did with his intellect and vast resources. I detect a smidge of bitterness in his response.

“What are you doing? You gonna break his finger? He's in pain. He's been injured. Leave him alone.”

When Tony Stark made it to the shed behind Harley Keener’s house, his armor was already in rough shape following the attack on his mansion and his chaotic flight to Tennessee. So naturally he was a little peeved when the kid snapped off one of the fingers, although he soon got over it and said he’d fix the damage.

“You! I swear to God, I'll dismantle you! I'll soak your motherboard, turn you into a wine rack!”

That arm robot gave Tony Stark trouble once again in the early portion of Iron Man 2. When the main protagonist returned to his workshop, the arm knocked over a blender, so Tony once again demanded it get its act together… or else!

“Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon. One out of five…”

Throughout The Avengers, Loki had no problem tapping his scepter (which we later learned contained the Mind Stone) into people’s chests and taking control of their minds. But when he tried to do it to Tony Stark, his arc reactor prevented this from happening. So when Loki expressed confusion over this development, Tony had this zinger lined up.

“Go to bed, or I'll sell all your toys.”

Tony Stark may have needed to watch the language and content of his humor around his daughter Morgan in Avengers: Endgame, but he still found ways to bring in his trademark humor with her. Case in point, after they enjoyed some juice pops together, Tony lightly told Morgan the above if she didn’t try to go back to bed.

“You screwed the pooch hard. Big time. But then you did the right thing. Took the dog to the free clinic, you raised the hybrid puppies... All right, not my best analogy.”

After defeating The Vulture in Homecoming, Peter Parker was brought to the Avengers Compound to be congratulated by Tony Stark for his victory. Unfortunately, the analogy he tried to use to show how much Peter had grown from when he’d disappointed his mentor failed to land properly.

“I will be re-instituting prima nocta.”

Tony Stark may be a superhero and a good man at his core, but he wasn’t worthy enough to lift Thor’s hammer during Avengers: Age of Ultron. No doubt dropping this line about bringing back an abhorrent medieval tradition if he becomes ruler of Asgard, even if it was just a joke, played a role in that.

“What is your job, exactly, besides making balloon animals?”

It didn’t take long for Tony Stark and Stephen Strange to start disagreeing with each other in Infinity War, as the latter shot down the former’s idea to toss the Time Stone down a garbage disposal. The conversation eventually led to Tony asking the above question, to which Strange responded, “Protecting your reality, douchebag.”

“You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?”

Fascinated by Bruce Banner’s ability to control his Hulk persona from being unleashed, a sharp contrast to how he was in The Incredible Hulk, Tony Stark went so far as to shock Bruce with a miniature electric prod to see what would happen. When that didn’t do the trick, Tony said the above in The Avengers.

“Ok, Mr. Clean is on his own page.”

Tony was understandably frustrated when Drax yawned while he was breaking down what they’d need to do to take down Thanos. When he called Drax out on it, the Guardian stopped listening after Tony said they needed a plan. The only thing funnier in this scene was Tony’s exasperated expression when Mantis said that the Guardians “kick names and take ass.”

“Sweetheart, that could be the name of my autobiography.”

Ellen Brandt, one of Aldrich Killian’s minions hopped up in Extremis, tracked Tony Stark down in Tennessee, and he had to use some ingenuity to fight her since his armor was still out of commission. When he made a pun about “dating hotter chicks” than her, she responded “That's all you got? Cheap trick and a cheesy one-liner?” The above quote is how he countered.

“Underoos!”

It’s just one word, but it’s hilarious that Tony shouted this out to introduce Spider-Man during the conflict at the Leipzig airport in Captain America: Civil War. Peter didn’t seem fazed by the amusing descriptor, and he did make a good first impression when he stole Captain America’s shield with his webbing.

Nothing breaks our hearts more than when a beloved character dies in a movie. Even the most stoic people shed a tear when characters like Goose in Top Gun don't make it to the finish line. Sometimes these characters grow through multiple movies, and sometimes it only takes one for us to end up blubbering when the end comes. Here is our list like that, our list of movie deaths that just crush us.

It goes without saying, but there are major spoilers ahead!

Tony Stark - Avengers: Endgame

Over the first 22 MCU movies Tony Stark/Iron Man was the heart of the franchise. Robert Downey Jr.'s character started the whole thing off in the original Iron Man and in a lot of ways, the Infinity Saga (the first three phases of the MCU) should have ended with Avengers: End Game and the death of Tony Stark. We all knew something like this was likely, but it didn't make it any easier when it came.

Thomas J. - My Girl

There is nothing harder in life than children dying long, long before their time. The fact that no one saw it coming in My Girl makes it doubly tough. What seems like a sweet, innocent childhood romance comes to a crashing halt with the death of Macauley Culkin's character Thomas. It's just brutal, but props to Anna Chlumsky who does an amazing job as Vada.

Ricky - Boyz In the Hood

Of all the characters in Boyz In The Hood that you most want to see get out of the cycle of poverty and despair in the movie, Ricky tops the list. You always have the sense that Tre (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) is going to make it and you always sense Doughboy (Ice Cube) won't. Ricky (Morris Chestnut) is in the middle and could go either way. That's what makes his death so heartbreaking. He's so close to getting out, but just can't escape the violence.

Mufasa - The Lion King

How much detail do we really need to go into here? Mufasa's death is the catalyst for Simba's growth, but that doesn't make his untimely death any easier to watch. Disney really knows how to tug at the heartstrings, don't they?

Jenny - Forrest Gump

Jenny (Robin Wright) never really treats Forrest (Tom Hanks) all that well in Forrest Gump. Most of the time, she kinda treats him like dirt. In the end, she does come around, and when she does, you feel the pain right along with Forrest. It's even harder than watching his mother (Sally Field) go earlier in the movie.

Marley - Marley And Me

Pets dying. We all know it's coming, yet, we're never fully prepared for it. Not in life, nor on the big screen. Marley's death in Marley In Me is inevitable, but that doesn't make it any easier at all.

John Coffey - The Green Mile

In Frank Darabont's 1999 classic The Green Mile, we know that Michael Clarke Duncan's character John Coffey is locked up for a crime he didn't commit and is facing a punishment not of his own making. Not only do we feel for Coffey for his wrongful conviction, but because Duncan plays the role with such sweet sincerity that we can't help but love the guy. His execution is like our own, it hurts way too much.

Shelby - Steel Magnolias

Julia Robert's first big break came in Steel Magnolias and like all her work, her infectious smile and great attitude endear us to her quickly. Her death, though part of life, is excruciating as a result.

Neil - Dead Poets Society

When someone dies by suicide, especially a teenager, there is an extra level of sorrow and frustration. Such is definitely the case with Neil (Robert Sean Leonard) in Dead Poets Society. It's so unfair for everyone, and you even feel for his domineering father who drove him to it. Robin Williams gives one his best performances in the movie, but it's Leonard's role as Neil that really sticks with you.

Jack Dawson - Titanic

Say what you want about Titanic, love it or hate it, but you can't deny the impact of Jack's death at the end. Leonardo DiCaprio's performance in the movie made him one of the biggest stars of all time, and his death takes our breath away every time.

Radio Raheem - Do The Right Thing

Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing is one of the best debuts by a director ever. Radio Raheem's death isn't like most of the others on this list because it doesn't just make audiences sad, it makes them mad. It's the anger part of grieving that hits the hardest here.

Guido - Life Is Beautiful

The director, writer, and star of Life Is Beautiful, Roberto Benigni, is wonderful in the movie. He makes us laugh throughout and then, near the end, he crushes our hearts with his death. Like others on this list, we sense the dread from the outset, but when the end comes, it leaves us shattered.

Old Yeller - Old Yeller

There is no one who can stop a tear from rolling down your cheek at the end of Old Yeller when Travis (Tommy Kirk) is faced with doing the inevitable after his dog is infected with rabies. Most of us see the movie as kids and the trauma lives on with us far into adulthood.

Goose - Top Gun

It's not often that a big summer blockbuster hits you as hard in the guy as Top Gun does when Goose (Anthony Edwards) is killed in a training exercise. You see it on Maverick's (Tom Cruise) in the aftermath, but when Goose's widow (Meg Ryan) tells Mav how much Goose loved flying with him, turn on the waterworks and let it all out, because you're going to need to.

Brooks - The Shawshank Redemption

If you know anything about prison movies, you probably know that someone is going to get killed. One of the many things that sets The Shawshank Redemption apart and makes it one of the best movies of the 1990s, is that you don't expect the death you get in it or how it happens. The affable Brooks seems like a good guy, and that makes his suicide in the end just brutal to take in.

Johnny - The Outsiders

Johnny (Ralph Macchio) goes out as a hero in The Outsiders and that's something even he can't believe. It's a brutal moment, as he is in the hospital after the fire when he tells Pony Boy (C. Thomas Howell) to stay golden and it's stuck with audiences forever.

Maximus - Gladiator

Given the circumstances, Maximus' death is as satisfying as it is tragic in Gladiator. Russell Crowe's character's vengeance is what drives the movie and when he finally gets it at the end, there is nothing more left to do in this world. It doesn't make it easy though.

Maggie - Million Dollar Movie

Maggie's (Hillary Swank) death in Million Dollar Baby isn't easy to ever watch. You spend so much time rooting for her, that while her death doesn't feel like a waste, it sure feels like she had so much more left in her. It's not just the injury that leads to her death, but it's her tragic desire to see things through to their natural (or unnatural) end that makes it so hard to watch.

Father - The Road

There is nothing about The Road that is easy to watch. It's not a movie you really ever want to want a second time, despite how fantastic it is. Viggo Mortensen is fantastic as the character simply known as "Father" and his death is really hard to take, because he and his son are the only hope in the movie.

Jack - Brokeback Mountain

Brokeback Mountain is a classic love story with a twist that changed cinema forever and even if Jack's denial is in some ways a predictable event in this kind of story, it doesn't make it any easier for audiences.

Dobby - Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1

Dobby may just be a side character in the Harry Potter series, but his death in Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 is still one of the hardest to take to in the whole franchise. Dobby's innocent nature and good heart quickly made him a fan favorite and watching him die is heart-wrenching.

William Wallace - Braveheart

"Freedom!" Or something like that. Setting aside just how historically inaccurate Braveheart is and looking at it as a stirring movie with some awesome action scenes, it makes William Wallace's death brutal at the end. It crushes Scotland's dreams, sure, but it's also the tragic end of a love story and that's what makes it so heartbreaking.

Brian Piccalo - Brian's Song

James Caan played a lot of tough guys over his brilliant career, but it was the softer side of a tough guy, the real-life Brian Piccalo, whose death haunts us the most. The true story about the tragic life of Piccalo and his wonderful friendship with Gale Sayers, played by Billy Dee Williams, is meant to rip out the audience's hearts, and boy oh boy does it.

Apollo - Rocky IV

Like a few others on this list, if you weren't prepared for it, Apollo Creed's death in Rocky IV is a serious blow. It's not the kind of thing you'd ever expect from a big summer popcorn-chomper of a movie. It brilliantly raises the stakes in the movie and is, in the end, what makes it such an enduring movie, despite being a relic of the Cold War.

Captain Miller - Saving Private Ryan

Audiences really come to love and respect Tom Hanks' Captain Miller in Saving Private Ryan and after all he'd been through, and all he'd done, to see him not make it to the end of the movie, or the end of D-Day for that matter, really stings. We hope Ryan made it worth it, and we think he did, aside from the cheesy ending.

Bing Bong - Inside Out

How is it that a cartoon's death can bring anyone to tears? Let alone one that isn't even "real" in the movie? Yet here we are, wiping our faces as Bing Bong sacrifices himself in Inside Out. The power of cinema indeed.

Wolverine - Logan

For decades we watched Wolverine over the entire life of the X-Men franchise. Hugh Jackman's performance was perfect every time, right up until the end when the seemingly immortal anti-hero becomes as mortal as the rest of us at the end of Logan. Deadpool may have celebrated his death, but we don't.

Rosie - JoJo Rabbit

Even the most absurd films, like Jojo Rabbit, can have devastatingly heartbreaking moments in them. Rosie (Scarlett Johansson) dying, despite the movie being about the subject matter it is about, is still a little shocking and very sad. Jojo finding her the way he does makes it even tougher to watch.

Gwen Stacy - Amazing Spider-Man 2

When you watch a superhero movie, you really never expect the hero to suffer any real heartbreak that you aren't ready for. Batman's parents are always going to die, for example, but you know that going in. Spider-man failing to save Gwen (Emma Stone) in Amazing Spider-Man 2 is shocking and completely heartbreaking.

The Iron Giant - The Iron Giant

There is, at least, some respite from the death of the Iron Giant in The Iron Giant - we know in the end that he's going to be okay. That doesn't make the initial moment of his destruction any easier though. Once again cartoons break out hearts.

Bambi's Mother - Bambi

Disney is responsible for some of our favorite cinematic moments as kids. And some of our most traumatic. There is a very good chance that everyone reading this was deeply traumatized by the death of Bambi's mother in Bambi, no matter what age you are now.

Donny - The Big Lebowski

Donnie was a bowler. He also loved to surf, probably. the Steve Buscemi character's death at the end of The Big Lebowski is not what anyone would have ever expected from the shaggy dog story we enjoyed for the previous two hours. It turns out that Donnie really tied the movie together and no one liked seeing him go.