10 MCU Characters Who Absolutely Died At The Wrong Time

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is littered with the corpses of characters that died at the wrong time, negatively affecting the overarching story of the franchise as a whole. The MCU has long struggled with getting the deaths of its characters right, killing them off at awkward times that do a disservice to their personal arcs. For every poignant death in the MCU, there’s at least a handful of other heroes and villains that simply went out at the wrong time.

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For the most part, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s biggest problems with killing off characters come about from premature deaths. Before many new heroes have a chance to establish themselves as important players in the series, they’re often unceremoniously dispatched of in the same film they’re introduced. The MCU’s villain problem also extends to this issue, with far too many villains being neatly dealt with in the space of one film rather than taking advantage of the MCU’s episodic format.

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10

Scarlet Witch

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

Wanda Maximoff has had one of the most interesting arcs of any character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Going from villain to hero to villain again, Scarlet Witch’s MCU journey has been a complicated one full of loss and tragedy. By the time she redeems herself at the last minute in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, collapsing under the destroyed evil of Mount Wungadore, it’s hard to feel like her longstanding arc had been brought to a close in a satisfying way.

Granted, the off-screen nature of Wanda’s death means the fact that she died at all can be called into question. Even if she does come back, however, it will likely be too little, too late in properly securing a fitting end to her story, considering how long it’s taken Marvel Studios to pay off old teases in recent years. Wanda’s death should have been given much more fanfare, and her redemption from her return back to villainy needed far more time to breathe before feeling organic.

9

Quicksilver

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Scarlet Witch isn’t the only Maximoff twin to have died at an unfortunate time in the MCU chronology. As disappointing as Wanda’s death was, she at least got to appear in many projects before eventually meeting her demise. Few Marvel heroes have been treated as disrespectfully by the movie franchise as Pietro Maximoff, a.k.a. Quicksilver.

Quicksilver is one of the few MCU heroes to have the morbid honor of being killed off in the same film he’s introduced in, being unceremoniously gunned down by Ultron’s drones while saving Hawkeye and a random bystander. For someone whose whole gimmick is speed, having Quicksilver die from being too slow felt quite anticlimactic. Not only that, but the character had a tone of wasted potential with Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s intriguing performance and his relationship with a sister.

8

Maria Hill

Secret Invasion

Few legacy characters in the MCU have been treated as poorly as Cobie Smulders’ Maria Hill. A high-ranking Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury’s trusted right-hand-woman, Maria Hill survived some intense action throughout the first two Avengers movies, becoming almost as valuable a member of the team as the heroes themselves. Case in point, she was the only non-Avenger the group was comfortable with joining them for the after-party in Avengers: Age of Ultron, proving her importance.

That makes it all the more insulting that Secret Invasion made the choice to kill her off so flippantly, murdered by a Skrull taking the shape of Nick Fury. Not only did Maria die suddenly and without warning, but she passed on believing her long-time friend and comrade had betrayed her. Maria Hill truly deserved a better sendoff, if she had to be killed at all, contributing to the negative reviews that mark Secret Invasion as the single worst MCU Disney+ spin-off.

7

The Mighty Thor

Thor: Love and Thunder

Thor’s gradual shift from a mythical hero stranded on Earth to a spacefaring warrior viking with few remaining ties to the planet left a huge power vacuum for another Thor-like hero to step in as a replacement on Earth. The MCU had the perfect opportunity to do this with the re-introduction of Jane Foster as The Mighty Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder. Wielding the broken Mjölnir, Natalie Portman brought a renewed vigor to the character that stole every scene of Thor: Love and Thunder she was in.

Unfortunately, Jane Foster’s return also came with the reveal that she was also dying of cancer, a sickness made worse by the intense strain using Mjölnir had on her body. By the end of the film, Jane succumbs to these ailments, leaving the Earth once again without a Thor-like protector. It would have been amazing to see Jane take Thor’s place on the Avengers roster as resident Thunder God, but the series felt it more important to toss another corpse on the pile of Thor’s motivating losses.

6

Gamora

Avengers: Infinity War

It’s hard to say that Gamora’s death in Avengers: Infinity War was a waste, as the poignant scene of her ritual sacrifice was one of the most heartbreaking elements of a film already filled with loss. That being said, her demise on Vormir at the hands of Thanos represents one of the few times in which the greater MCU storyline pulled away from the potential of an individual series. Specifically, Gamora’s originally planned death in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 may have been even more compelling.

Originally, James Gunn planned for Gamora to die in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. However, he was forced to swap her death for Yondu’s after Marvel Studios intervened, bookmarking Gamora’s death for Avengers: Infinity War. This decision may have prevented the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy from being even better, and Gunn essentially uses Star-Lord as a mouthpiece to bemoan this fact when he discusses Gamora’s death in the elevator scene of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

5

Killmonger

Black Panther

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Sometimes the Marvel Cinematic Universe suffers from its own success, and that was certainly the case for Michael B. Jordan’s Erik Killmonger in Black Panther. On paper, Killmonger is just another dime-a-dozen “evil version of the hero” villain like Yellowjacket or Iron Monger, destined to be introduced and killed off within the space of one movie. But Michael B. Jordan’s killer performance and Killmonger’s surprisingly prescient points on Wakanda’s absenteeism should have been recognized as too good to confine to a single film.

At the very least, Killmonger got one of the most poignant deaths in the MCU, meaning he didn’t get off nearly as bad as other villains. It’s easy to tell that the MCU has clearly been kicking themselves over the death of Killmonger after seeing just how much the character resonated with audiences. In fact, it could be argued that the entire plot of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was constructed so that Michael B. Jordan could return as Killmonger, however briefly, during Shuri’s experience in the Ancestral Plane.

4

Ultron

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Quicksilver wasn’t the only new character introduced only to be killed off too soon in Avengers: Age of Ultron. It’s hard not to feel like the titular villain himself wasn’t massively wasted in the MCU, especially considering his importance in the original comics. Despite posing a world-ending threat and dealing lasting damage to the Avengers, Ultron is ultimately killed by his sibling, Vision, apparently not creating a backup of himself that wasn’t in the midst of the action in Sokovia.

Luckily, James Spader’s Ultron is confirmed to return in the upcoming unnamed Vision series. That being said, the prime moment for him to return may have already passed a long time ago, and Ultron truly deserved to be a multi-movie crossover villain in the same vein as Thanos, Loki, Kang, or Doctor Doom. It’ll be interesting to see if his return can finally do the killer robot justice in the MCU.

3

MODOK

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

MODOK is one Marvel character that wasn’t just killed off wrong, but fumbled in nearly every aspect of his adaptation. In the comics, MODOK is a classic Avengers villain and the mastermind criminal behind the terrorist organization AIM, regularly waging war against Iron Man and the other heroes. Meanwhile, the MCU’s version of MODOK confined him to the Quantum Realm, revealing him to be the deformed body of Darren Cross, who was fashioned into Kang’s enforcer via cybernetics.

The problems with MODOK extend well into his death. One of the most selfish and petulant voices in the comics, the idea of giving MODOK a redemption arc is an ill-conceived one, to say the least. His dramatic final stand was even turned into a joke, screeching “I am not a d*ck!” before dying enthusiastically. MODOK deserved to break out of the Quantum Realm and fight the Avengers at least once before his life was turned into a punch line.

2

Ulysses Klaue

Black Panther

It says a lot that both of Black Panther‘s two villains should have survived to see the end credits. Andy Serkis’ Ulysses Klaue is first introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron, a Vibranium thief and long-time enemy of Wakanda who eventually gets his comeuppance when he’s killed by Killmonger. Klaue’s death essentially only serves to heighten Killmonger’s own threat level, but considering the arc of his comic counterpart, Klaw, more interesting ideas could have been had with him.

In the comics, Klaw becomes a being of pure sound whose body ends up becoming strangely crucial to the plot of the Secret Wars crossover comic. Considering Avengers: Secret Wars is on the docket for the MCU’s upcoming releases, it would have been a good idea to keep Klaue breathing for just a while longer. Even outside of his plot relevance, Serkis clearly has so much fun playing the deranged war criminal that his stage presence alone should have kept him above ground.

1

Gorr The God Butcher

Thor: Love and Thunder

Another MCU villain whose performance was utterly wasted, Gorr the God Butcher is a missed opportunity on so many levels. To his credit, Christian Bale tries his hardest to embody the desperate evil of Gorr the God Butcher, stealing every scene he’s in and easily being the best part of Thor: Love and Thunder. Like most Marvel movies, Thor: Love and Thunder doesn’t allow Gorr to live to see the end credits, though he is able to resurrect his daughter, Love.

Gorr’s premature death is also a missed opportunity to finally connect Tom Holland’s Spider-Man with the symbiote. Gorr’s blade, the All-Black Necrosword, was originally forged by Knull, the creator of the symbiotes, and the monsters Gorr summons using it are decidedly symbiote-coded. Losing out on both a great performance and a great connection to another character, Gorr the God Butcher’s death is among the MCU’s most disappointing.