Avengers 4: Why Captain America NEEDS To Be Sent Back To The '40s

By Simon Gallagher / July 23, 2018

With almost a year to wait for Avengers 4 to wrap up the first era of the MCU and possibly retire some of the most famous characters in the history of comic book movies, the question of what will actually happen to those outgoing heroes is probably the biggest one facing MCU fans. Sure, we all want to know how Thanos' fatal snap will be undone, but we at least KNOW that's going to happen. Less clear is what comes later, at the end of Avengers 4.

It seems likely that Marvel Studios and the Russos WILL kill some of their original heroes, to deal with the end of contracts (or to at least temporarily retire actors before they find some way of replacing them). But they'll also face the difficulty of how they're supposed to get around killing off some of their most valuable in-universe brands.

Imagine knowing that you're having to actively stop making Captain America movies or Iron Man ones, when both of them have pulled in the most money of any of the MCU movies. That might actually inspire them to kill off the characters will supreme malice, as a means to begin the new era without any shadows looming over everything.

But for Captain America, there's a far more appropriate way of dealing with his "demise" - just as in the comics, Marvel need to send him back in time rather than killing him.

4. Captain America Lost In Time

In the wake of his "assassination" at the end of the Civil War comic arc, it turns out that Cap has actually been transported between time and finds himself back at D-Day, where he fights alongside Bucky once more. It was a clever way of making sure they could still use the character without entirely compromising the emotional impact of his death.

Marvel Studios need to take a leaf out of their comic book arm's book and have Thanos actually transport Cap back to his own time (or even to that point on the timeline of another alternate dimension, if you're looking for a means to preserve the MCU timeline). It's not like the Infinity Stones couldn't manage it: they'd already cleverly dealt with Red Skull when he appeared to be dead and instead seemed to be trapped in a different realm.

And it's not just the comics that offer a reason why Cap's story needs to end in his own time, either. It would actually be the most fitting way for his arc to end.