Why Marvel Would Be MAD To Kill Off Thor In Avengers 4
1. The MCU Still Needs Its Big Brands
It might be great that we're getting to see a new dawn of the MCU led by Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, Doctor Strange and Spider-Man, but it would be a travesty if we didn't get more continuity from the earliest days of the series than just the Guardians. We need some Phase One representation in there.
With Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans likely out and Mark Ruffalo's Hulk tied up with weird rights issues, Black Widow is the only Phase 4 player and that's likely to be in a prequel movie. And who knows what will happen with Hawkeye (maybe a TV show on Disney's new platform?) Sure, there will be supporting characters out there, but if Thor dies, we'll have very little of the original Avengers going forward.
From a purely business-minded perspective, the idea of Marvel Studios killing a billion-dollar property like Iron Man, a billion-dollar property like Captain America AND a near billion-dollar property like Thor (Ragnarok made $850m plus, remember) all at once is pretty much like burning your own stocks. They need SOME continuity even with huge new characters in the driving seat and the possibility of more coming and Thor is the best one to continue with.
Hemsworth has openly talked about the prospect of a fourth Thor movie - in contrast to RDJ and Evans who seem to talk like dead men walking - so it'd be silly not to take him up on his offer.