The Marvel Cinematic Universe just concluded Phase 4 with the release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. While past phases have had almost a year wait, Phase 5 of the MCU is just around the corner with the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in February 2023. Currently, the Phase has six films and seven Disney+ series which will span across 2023 and conclude in the middle of 2024.
While many are already theorizing how Phase 5 will set up The Multiverse Saga more and lead into Phase 6, or what the future holds for characters like The Fantastic Four and the arrival of the X-Men, another point of discussion has been around what characters can and will die in Phase 5. After all, the franchise is getting so large that a few characters may need to die just to give breathing room to other heroes.
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While the MCU has typically been pretty averse to death in their projects, with many characters coming back from the dead, Phase 4 did actually feature the death of quite a few characters. Some due to story reasons (Jane Foster in Thor: Love and Thunder) and some to tragic real-world circumstances (T’Challa in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever). Despite bringing back half the universe from the snap, death is now something many of the MCU heroes have been grappling with in very real ways and one that will likely continue into Phase 5. These are the MCU characters that are likely to die in Phase 5.
Rocket
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Of all the characters in Phase 5, Rocket Raccoon seems like the character with the biggest target on his back. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is set for release on May 5, 2023, and will mark not only the end of this incarnation of the Guardians of the Galaxy but also James Gunn’s tenure at Marvel as he is now one of the head creative voices for DC Studios. Gunn has spoken in the past when he was first offered Guardians of the Galaxy, he kept thinking about Rocket and how lonely his existence must be. Both Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 have teased the character’s origins, one that will finally be explained in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
While Star-Lord might be the lead of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, in many ways Rocket has been the heart of the series. Death has been hanging over him throughout the MCU, losing Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy, being moved by Yondu’s sacrifice in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and then losing all of his closest friends to Thanos snap in Avengers: Infinity War. Rocket has escaped death so many times, it may finally catch up with him.
Rocket will finally meet his creator in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and will likely die saving his found family. Rocket was the inspiration for Gunn to take on Guardians of the Galaxy, so it feels thematically appropriate for the final film in the franchise to give the character a proper send-off.
Hank Pym
Hank Pym has had quite a journey in the MCU. He has reconnected with his daughter Hope, brought his wife Janet Van Dyne back, and has passed on the Ant-Man mantle to Scott Lang. Hank in many ways is happy, so one has to wonder what his role in the franchise is moving forward. In his upcoming appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, he is likely to uncover some hidden secrets about his wife’s time in the Quantum Realm which could lead to his demise.
Much like Kylo Ren killing Han Solo established him as a major threat for the rest of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Kang the Conqueror killing Hank Pym would not only establish him as a major threat for the rest of the Multiverse Saga but also becomes a major driving motivator for many of the heroes. Kang likely will kill Hank as punishment to Janett for something she did in the Quantum Realm. His daughter Hope, now the Wasp, will likely want to avenge her father setting her up for a major role in the upcoming Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. As for Scott Lang, it becomes a mirror for his life as Ant-Man and what might happen to him if he continues down his path, possibly setting the stage for him to retire and let his daughter Cassie Lang fully step out as a full fledge superhero.
US Agent
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John Walker was introduced in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as the new Captain America, yet he became so consumed with wanting to be a hero and wanting to live up to the mantle that he injected himself with an experimental super soldier serum and killed a man in cold blood. Walker was stripped of his title and was recruited by Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine, who rebranded him US Agent. Walker will next appear in Thunderbolts, which is one of the final entries in Phase 5.
The Thunderbolts roster has plenty of characters that could die, and Marvel is essentially treating them like their version of the Suicide Squad. Yet of all the characters, Walker seems the most likely to die, as there is not much for his character to do in terms of the larger picture of Phase 5. Of the team’s roster, he seems the safest bet to die as opposed to Winter Soldier and Yelena Belova, who seem to have a big future in the franchise. In many ways, his death might be the only way to properly give his character a sense of redemption for his actions in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which the series did try to tie up quickly to mixed results.
Kang the Conqueror
This one might at first seem impossible, given Kang the Conqueror is set to be the main villain in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. How can Kang die but still be the overarching villain of the Multiverse Saga? Well, audiences have seen Kang die before, or at least a variant of him in Loki named He Who Remains.
There is a chance that Kang the Conqueror is defeated in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantuamania, only for another more dangerous variant of Kang to emerge. In a vast multiverse, there is bound to be a number of Kang variants, and killing him off in his first film would be a great misdirect for the audience. That feeling of security only to see another version of the villain from another timeline emerge, one even more deadly than before.
