10 Marvel Deaths That the MCU Should Change After Avengers: Secret Wars

Now that Kevin Feige has confirmed that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will undergo a continuity retooling after Avengers: Secret Wars (akin to how the 2015 Secret Wars comic run combined the mainstream and Ultimate Marvel comics continuities), all bets are off as to what this series will look like next after the year 2027. Heck, Feige even teased that beloved characters like Tony Stark and Steve Rogers could return to the big screen with new actors, a previously unthinkable proposition in this franchise. Whatever the MCU looks like after Secret Wars, it certainly won’t be the current status quo.

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If the MCU is eager to establish a new timeline (and bring back deceased characters like Stark and Rogers), now could be an ideal time to bring back some deceased characters from the first five Phases of this franchise. For whatever reason, these characters never quite got the time in the spotlight they deserved. A post-Secret Wars continuity shake-up could be just the opportunity to reverse these 10 Marvel deaths and bring these figures back to the MCU.

1) Ajak from Eternals

Movie legend Salma Hayek had to agree or decline to play Ajak in Eternals without ever reading a script for the Chloe Zhao directorial effort. Hayek took a chance and plunged into the project anyway, which ended up killing her off very early on in the story. Ajak, the ostensible leader of The Eternals, was relegated to a lengthy third-act flashback showing her slain at the hands of Ikraris. Whether she’s played by Hayek or not again, bring Ajak back and give her something more substantial to do. Also, maybe let the next Ajak performer look at what’s in store for the character before they sign on to the project.

2) Maya Hansen from Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3’s Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) went through countless overhauls during the production of that 2013 feature. Originally intended to be the actual main villain of the piece, she was eventually relegated to just being a fleeting supporting character after toy executives expressed concerns over whether or not they could sell aciton figures of a female villain. It’s time Hansen got her time in the sun in a new era of the MCU to compensate for getting jilted in her Iron Man 3 presence.

3) The Warriors Three from Thor

Because the original two Thor movies didn’t focused too much on Asgard, Thor’s comrades The Warriors Three (Volstagg, Hogun, and Fandral) never got much screentime before getting killed off early in Thor: Ragnarok. There could be some real fun in bringing this trio back now that the MCU has gotten more touch in with its stylized side, especially since so much potential was left on the table with their initial appearences.

4) Obadiah Stane from Iron Man

Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) was originally meant to survive the first Iron Man and endure for multiple MCU outings. However, like so much of the initial Iron Man script, Stane’s fate changed as production progressed. Though the MCU hasn’t exactly needed his return, it could still be fun to see a radically new version of the character materialize as a post-Secret Wars threat over multiple movies. Finally, Obadiah Stane could become a multi-movie foe.

5) Mysterio from Spider-Man: Far From Home

To tee up Peter Parker’s turmoil in Spider-Man: No Way Home (plus, presumably, because Jake Gyllenhaal is tricky to tie up for multiple movies), Quentin Beck/Mysterio (Gyllenhaal) died at the hands of his own drones at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home. In the comics, Mysterio has proven such a fun incessant foe for this web-crawler, though, it’d be a shame not to bring him back in a post-Secret Wars world.

6) Gilgamesh from Eternals

Perhaps to get audiences invested in a bunch of characters that are basically Gods, Eternals killed off a surprising number of its titular leads. That includes Don Lee’s Gilgamesh, who was such a fun presence in his screentime. Gilgamesh’s entertainingly conflicting personality (he’s a bruiser who loves to cook and listening to Merle Haggard tunes) is too entertaining to be a one-off MCU figure.

7) The Howling Commandos from Captain America: The First Avenger

Because they were introduced in the 1940s period piece Captain America: The First Avenger, Dum-Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough) and his Howling Commandos haven’t physically appeared in any other MCU movies. Save for some Agent Carter episodes and the original Carter One-Shot, they’ve vanished from the MCU. It’d be a hoot to see them again in a new streamlined MCU continuity, especially if they finally got to rub shoulders with their comics leader, Nick Fury.

8) Jane Foster from Thor

In Thor: The Dark World, Jane Foster mostly just snoozed while being infected with an Infinity Stone. In her Thor: Love and Thunder return, she was dragged down by poor screenwriting and a puzzlingly mis-directed Natlaie Portman. Jane Foster’s deserved a lot better in her MCU appearences. Though she went to Valhalla at the end of Love and Thunder, post-Secret Wars continuity upheavals could let her come back and finally get something substantial to do in this franchise.

9) Natasha Romanoff/ Black Widow from The Avengers (among many others)

Though she appeared in a ton of MCU projects from 2010’s Iron Man 2 to 2021’s Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) was often hampered by poor screenwriting choices that left her with little to do on-screen. Resurrecting her after Secret Wars could let a new actor leave their imprint on the role, while also opening up new dimensions to her character as she becomes more of an elder statesman in this saga.

10) Kang the Conqueror from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

This is not an argument to bring back Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror: that ship has fully sailed and it’s best to move on. However, it’d be nice to see a version of Kang in a new post-Secret Wars continuity who is actually a super gripping villain. The Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania iteration of Kang was so vaguely-defined in his motivations and personality (presumably so that the eventually unrealized Avengers: The Kang Dynasty could fill in the blank spaces) that the character was a vacant snooze on-screen. Deliver a new vision of Kang that’s concretely-defined and full of vigorous personality rather than solely concerned with setting up future MCU blockbusters. There’s serious potential here: Kang’s existence doesn’t begin and end with Majors.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and other MCU movies and TV shows are now streaming on Disney+.