10 Mistakes The MCU Made (In Hindsight!)
6. Faking Too Many Deaths
This critique of the MCU is one that was often brought up during phase two as audiences began to realise that their favourite characters were never in any real danger.
It wasn’t until phase three that the main characters actually started to kick the bucket. Loki may be the trickster god, but we’ve seen the character die three times now but he still has a show on the way. Coulson was killed in Avengers but brought back in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury faked his death in The Winter Soldier and it’s likely that Vision will return in some form in WandaVision.
All these characters have fair enough reasons for returning that do serve the story. But it does not change the fact that when a character dies (unless they’re a one-off villain!) it is expected they’ll return. It lessens the stakes of the entire franchise as deaths become a joke amongst the fandom.
There shouldn’t be a quota of dead characters that needs to be reached, but it is worth remembering that a character death can be used to heighten the stakes, impact other characters and it also allows actors to graciously step away from their roles.
Yondu’s death in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is a prime example of how to do a character death correctly.