Avengers: Age Of Ultron - 15 Theories That Were Utter Bull

The Theory: Hawkeye, War Machine and Quicksilver would all die, because they're entirely expendable.

The Supposed Evidence: Joss Whedon likes killing people, for one thing, and all of the pre-release hype building seemed to suggest raised stakes and a villain who would actually hurt the Avengers.

The Reality: No mater how much they might have seemed like Red Shirts, Joss Whedon resisted the urge to kill his two most expendable characters, instead lampshading their Dead Meat status by calling Rhodey a second rate hero and setting up countless cliches that pointed to Barton's death.

Quicksilver wasn't so lucky, but that wasn't surprising given the fact that Aaron Taylor-Johnson had to be convinced to take the role with assurances that he wouldn't be locked into multiple films.

Would It Have Been Better? Rhodey remains a Dead Meat candidate, especially now he's been promoted to the main Avengers team, so no change there. And it has to be said that the unexpected validation of Barton as a character - and as a heroic component - was actually very good.