The deaths in Avengers: Infinity War will have an effect on future Marvel movies, producer Trinh Tran says. Despite putting up a gallant effort in foiling Thanos' plans of wiping out half of life in the universe, Earth's Mightiest Heroes suffered their first real defeat at the hands of the Mad Titan. The galactic genocide also included several of their own, leaving the original Avengers, a few of supporting heroes plus Ant-Man and Captain Marvel with the responsibility to take down the supervillain and restore order in the universe. That said, that doesn't mean the MCU heroes who were vaporized will be permanently gone. Fans can expect some of them to return, especially those with sequels on the docket.

Dusted off heroes due to Thanos' deadly snap by the end of Infinity War will be resurrected one way or another in Avengers 4. Despite the insistence of the Russo brothers, as well as writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, that this won't be the case, there are just too many indications otherwise (case in point: Spider-Man: Far From Home and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 are both set after next year's still-untitled Avengers). Knowing this somehow weakened the emotional impact of seeing a handful of heroes turning into dust on the big screen. But it sounds like Marvel Studios knew what they were getting into, and already has a plan to preserve the integrity of these huge character deaths.

Speaking to ComicBook, Tran teased that the slew of deaths in Infinity War will factor into future Marvel films. No other details were given with regard to how, but it makes sense that one of the MCU's most impactful moments will continue to have lingering effects on the franchise even after the fight against Thanos is long over. After all, the franchise builds on a single continuity. It would be odd to see these heroes die (and brought back to life), and the occurrence never mentioned again. Tran said:

"We were meticulous about each of the characters and spent a lot of time discussing how each character’s death would affect future films. The snap' was always part of our story discussions from go. We all agreed Thanos needed that iconic moment, and definitely used the comics as a reference point. We had Brolin, in mocap, snap his finger on the day. Many other filmmaking aspects went into creating the iconic moment. The build-up to the snap was just as important as the snap itself."


Based on Tran's comment, it sounds like they knew that killing off major characters who are confirmed for sequels would get backlash from fans as it highlights the MCU's penchant for faking big character deaths, but it seems like it's going to be more complicated to bring them back compared to previous fake deaths in the franchise. While the likes of Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther and the Guardians crew will be resurrected one way or another in Avengers 4, reviving them will have repercussions on either the heroes' own respective journeys or in the MCU as a whole.

As of now, only Spider-Man has a confirmed sequel with a release date. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was expected to roll out in 2020 but due to the controversy involving director James Gunn, it presumably puts that project in limbo. Director Scott Derrickson recently teased a potential development in Doctor Strange 2, while a Black Panther follow-up is just a no-brainer. It'll be interesting to see, however, if supporting characters who were also vaporized like Bucky, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Vision will also be brought to life.