10 Important Milestones The Marvel Cinematic Universe Must Pass

2. Killing A Top-Billed Character

Now, this might seem like the dumbest thing a studio in Marvel's position could possibly do: kill a character that has netted them billions of dollars, thus slitting their own throats by preventing any more sequels from happening. But stories have to have an end, and comic stories especially have a lot of death in them; you'd be hard-pressed to find a popular mainstream superhero who hasn't actually died and been resurrected at least once. Speaking of which, some of those stories are incredibly moving and well-told and could translate wonderfully to the big screen. One of those, in fact, could already be in the process of being adapted. The Death of Captain America was brought about in the comics by the end of the Civil War event, which saw Iron Man and Cap butting heads on the subject of superhero registration, and it saw a huge ripple effect on the rest of the Marvel Universe, most notably in that Bucky Barnes, aka The Winter Soldier, took up the mantle of his buddy Steve Rogers. Seeing as how Sebastian Stan is contracted for far more future films than Chris Evans (who recently stated that he's looking to retire from acting in the near future), it seems pretty likely that Cap's swansong might be coming sooner than many think - but it'll probably only be the death of one Captain America. Speaking of heroes getting replaced...