Ten MCU Villains Shockingly Dead in Their First Marvel Film
Many fascinating comic book villains have been added to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but tragically the franchise murdered many of them in their first film. Strong villains accompany the MCU's best films; examples of these include Josh Brolin's Thanos, the most significant villain in the most recent two Avengers Movies, and Sebastian Stan's Winter Soldier in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and many more.
The MCU suffers, though, in being trigger-happy with its enemies. The way someone may resurface out of the blue issues or runs later is among the most fascinating features of the comics. Although there are some such instances in the MCU, many of the villains that could have appeared in next MCU films were murdered on opening scenes. Marvel seems not to be reversing the trend in spite of objections.
Kang the Conquester
Given Jonathan Majors' exceptional case, his Kang the Conqueror comes top on the list. Disney+'s Loki season 1, which explored multiverse variants and had Majors perform He Who Remains, a rendition of Kang, set up the villain. The character then formally debuted in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, when Kang apparently dies following a battle with the lead couple of heroes.
Nobody anticipated Kang the Conqueror to remain dead since he was slated to be the major enemy of the Multiverse Saga. Majors is out of the MCU, though; Marvel has announced that Robert Downey Jr. will play Doctor Doom, substituting Kang's position. Kang is thus deceased in the MCU following Quantumania, and it appears that this will remain the case.
Guardiola
Since he was the principal enemy of Marvel Studios' flagship series, the Avengers, in 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ultron is a quite significant villain in the MCU. The character is a killer robot with unbounded knowledge and so limitless potential. Marvel chose to make ATK a one-and-done foe, but the company also made extra effort to demonstrate that the Avengers eradicated every last Ultron bot.
Vision killed ATK's last sentry at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron; the character only appeared in Marvel Studios productions via the animated What If...? series. With another MCU appearance and a different approach from his usually humorous words in his debut, the show unveiled Infinity Tsukuyomi, a threat to the entire multiverse, therefore highlighting how fascinating the character may have been.
Ego.
As Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2's Ego, Kurt Russell brought one of the MCU's best villains life. The character, Star-Lord's father, gave the film a significant emotional component that further MCU installments might have explored. But in his MCU premiere, the James Gunn movie killed Ego; the living planet exploded when the Guardians detonated a bomb within his brain.
Although the arrangement was decent, Ego has enormous potential to be a villain in later MCU cosmic entries since Star-Lord decided to be a regular guy instead of a god. With the Nova series under development, another movie like Eternals may have had Ego play a part using the known villain. Russell also made the enemy among the most horrible MCU characters, hence a single appearance was insufficient for such a tremendous character.
MalekITH
Malekith is among the most forgettable major villains in the MCU as it exists right now. Still, it was not necessary that way. It all begins with his actor, Christopher Eccleston of Doctor Who, a seasoned performer in both dramatic and humorous parts. He could have therefore done more with the villain had Marvel chosen to bring Malekith back and really give the part some weight.
Marvel Comics developed the ideal MCU plot in 2019 for Malekith. Based on Marvel Comics' "The War of the Realms" tale, which saw Malekith as its primary enemy trying to rule all ten realms, Thor 5 or an Avengers movie may adapt But Malekith was crushed to death by his own massive ship in the MCU, hence a comeback is most unlikely.
Mod OK
Quantumania did not only slay Kang the Conqueror; Ant-Man and the Wasp did more. MODOK, with an innovative twist to the MCU version of the character, also had a live-action premiere in the film. Rather than being scientist George Tarleton, the MCU chose to create Yellowjacket, Darren Cross, the franchise's rendition of MODOK. Given the character's past MCU story point—getting shrunk into the Quantum Realm—it seemed appropriate.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania employed Stoll's MODOK as humorous relief. Still, Stoll managed to capture a few poignant moments in the part, with MODOK "becoming an Avenger." Stoll had prior performance in Ant-Man. But that came when the character perished from injuries received attempting to assist the Ant-Man family in stopping Kang. Major comic book villain MODOK has the potential for a more sinister MCU performance that never would come to pass.
Gorr the Butcher God
Having gained recognition for portraying Batman in filmmaker Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy at DC, Christian Bale is among the best performers in comic book Movies. The actor's choice to go back to the superhero genre as a villain in Thor: Love and Thunder surprised me. As Gorr the God Butcher, Bale gave one of the MCU's best villain performances; but, the film he worked on failed the actor.
Thor: Dream and Love and Thunder With filmmaker Taika Waititi's signature comedy undermining huge dramatic events with Natalie Portman's Jane Foster and Bale's Gorr the God Butcher, ended up had a tremendous conflict of tones. Long chunks of time were also absent from the villain, hardly slaying gods — what he is known for — onscreen. To cap it all, Gorr passed away at the end of the film, and Bale's prospective appearances in multiple MCU films murdering gods was shelved.
Killermonger
Black Panther's Killmonger by Michael B. Jordan was a somewhat complex villain. Although the character's actions might not be condoned, he observed the wrongs in the world and the mistakes committed in his youth and looked for a means of righting them. The fact the character came to have such a mixed death while seeing the sunrise his dad had promised would see when they returned home in the future was painful. Killmonger's suffering made sense.
Marvel keeps bringing Killmonger back since he was such a great villain; but, his death reduces the MCU's narrative possibilities. Though Killmonger only made an appearance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, appearing to Shiri in the Ancestral Plane, he might have been a key actor in every Black Panther film. Maybe the multiverse Killmonger from What If...? can get on Earth-616.
Misterio
It was unexpected to have Marvel choose Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home. The MCU had gone for such a well-known actor to play a villain who has been the butt of numerous jokes in the comics, which made sense when the film was released. Tom Holland's Peter Parker depends on Mysterio, who reveals his secret identity to the world and basically causes all the negative events the hero experiences in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Unfortunately, the death of the enemy had to accompany that major portion of Spider-Man's narrative. Given Spider-Man being blamed for his death, Mysterio's death makes more logical than other villains on the list. But the villain is famed for his illusions, hence he might have just pretended to die. Like in the comics, Mysterio is a timeless Spider-Man enemy who might have made a regular MCU presence.
Hela
Another big grab for the MCU was casting Cate Blanchett as Hela in Thor: Ragnarok. Completely turning around Chris Hemsworth's God of Thunder, it produced not just one of the franchise's best villains but also one of the best MCU films. Blanchet obviously was having fun in the part, but Hela was terrifying and lethal.
Hela has great potential to be a full-on franchise villain or return in a Loki-like capacity later on as the second season of the film and What If...? demonstrated. Given Hela died in the Ragnarok event, that is not feasible. Hela was last seen fighting the giant Surtur in Asgard as the realm burned, with the character's giant sword seemingly obliterating Hela as it came down. The character could have come back for a reunion with Thor and Tom Hiddleston's Loki variant from his Disney+ series in Thor 5.
Cassandra Novae
Finally, Cassandra Nova closes the list of MCU villains who were killed in their first movie, falling short of their potential. Emma Corrin was perfectly cast in the role, with Cassandra Nova being a formidable foe who took quite a bit of ingenuity from the heroes to be able to defeat in the Void. However, the character's master plan ended up being too generic.
Cassandra Nova's backstory with Charles Xavier and some of her past exploits could have been explored in the movie. The character's experience in the Void and powers also made the villain a great one to appear in the two upcoming Avengers movies, taking on several MCU and multiverse villains at once. It made little sense to kill her when the MCU had perfectly set up projects that could have used Cassandra Nova, but that is what Marvel did.
