Avengers: Infinity War - Predicting The Fate Of Every Avenger

With the Marvel Cinematic Universe turning ten years old next May - it's been a decade since Iron Man, the one that started it all - it feels incredibly poetic that Avengers: Infinity War, which will release in that special birthday month, could be the end for some of the characters we've come to love over the last decade.

After Marvel have repeatedly killed and resurrected many of their characters (some of them more than once) there's almost an expectation that the next Avengers movie will have to pull the trigger on someone, permanently, in order to make the fight against Thanos feel as important as we all want it to feel.

But, at the same time, Infinity War is about beginnings as much as it is endings.

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and the film's directors, the Russo Brothers, have frequently reiterated that the movie will be the start of a new direction for the MCU, with many of its core characters being changed in hugely impactful ways.

Or, to put it another way, The Avengers are about to be put through the wringer, and it won't all be sunshine and rainbows for our galavanting group of heroes come the movie's end.

So where will each Avenger end up by the time the credits begin to roll, and how will the Infinity War change them?

Nobody has really mentioned Hawkeye in the run up to Avengers: Infinity War, with the prospect of characters like Iron Man, Rocket Raccoon and Doctor Strange being in the same room overshadowing the inclusion of - generally - a candidate for everyone's least favourite Avenger.

It's also hard to see where characters like he and Black Widow (i.e. the two human assassins) will factor into a battle with an Infinity Gauntlet-wielding space-God.

Still, since Clint Barton is appearing in the movie, he does have a part to play. He'll surely be capable enough to face Thanos' minions rather than the big man himself, and that's really the only way we see him being useful.

What Will Happen To Him? People have been pegging Hawkeye for the chop for years, but in all honesty, Marvel are not likely to kill him off. They won't murder a character that has a wife and kids at home - that's a little too dark for a family-oriented movie universe.

But we do think he'll be one of the first Avengers to be written out, though. He's toyed with retirement before, and at the end of Infinity War - given how risky being a superhero can be - we think he'll return home to care for his family.