Marvel Studios Head Kevin Feige Talks Ant-Man And A Death In ‘The Avengers’ Film

Posted Monday, April 16th, 2012 04:15 pm GMT -4 by 0
Head of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige

Head of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige

I’ve got more ‘Avengers’ news for you. I know we’re adding to the huge pile of things rolling out to promote the movie, but trust me, this is HUGE. Since there’s so much coming at you in the form of interviews, clips, featurettes, and photos, I’m doing my best to bring you the most important stuff that you need to know. Even if it might be a tad spoilery. So consider yourself warned and move on to a different article if you are avoiding spoilers.

In a recent article by the Toronto Sun, producer and head of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige spoke about excluding Edgar Wright’s version of Ant-Man and a DEATH in ‘The Avengers’. For the benefit of those who are trying to avoid spoilers, I’ll keep the death bit at the end so you can remain spoiler free until you see the movie on May 4th.

As most of us know, ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs The World’ director Edgar Wright has been tapped to develop a movie based on the incredible size-altering Avenger who can control ants. However, due to schedule conflicts, among other things, the movie has yet to be shot. Some speculated that Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne would make appearances in ‘The Avengers’ to set up for Wright’s movie, but that doesn’t look like that’s the case, despite the fact that both characters were founding members of the team back in the 60s. That’s not to say that the superhero alter ego of Pym couldn’t have been in the Avengers movie. Feige had this to say about Ant-Man being excluded:

“Edgar’s still working on that project, and it’s closer than ever. But it’s been eight years we’ve been working with him, and we finally decided we couldn’t keep putting more people in. If Ant-Man had come out four years ago, it would certainly have been part of the puzzle.”

Hank Pym as Ant-Man

We got a small glimmer of hope a few days ago when we received news that the cast got together to shoot one more scene the day after the premiere. Edgar Wright tweeted on April 5th, “Was just back behind the camera for the first time in nearly two years. Can’t say on what, but it was cool…” Could this mean that he was prepping to shoot a post-credits scene for ‘The Avengers’ featuring Ant-Man? After all, Joss Whedon shot the post-credits scene for ‘Thor’ months after the film had wrapped.

Well, in an interview with Collider, Fiege debunked our speculation, cleared up Wright’s involvement in the bonus scene business, and gave us a vague update on ‘Ant-Man’. On whether or not the director shot something for Marvel recently, Fiege said:

“He did not. But I saw that tweet as well and thought, ‘Did he do something for us? No?’ No, it wasn’t for us. But pay attention to his tweets in the coming months; that answer might change.”

It really is a shame that the stars couldn’t align for Ant-Man to take his rightful spot among The Avengers, but that just leaves a greater possibility that we’ll see the hero in ‘Avengers 2’.

The Avengers

Will one of these Avengers die?!

And now for the spoiler. I’ll say it again for good measure: ***SPOILER ALERT*** There. That was your last chance to bail.

In the same interview with Toronto Sun, Feige said that it was his idea to kill off a favored character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Here’s the quote:

“We wanted the audience to understand the stakes and not just assume because it’s a franchise, no one will ever get hurt. So I was watching J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movie – and I’m a big Star Trek nerd so this may have hit me more than other people – but when they killed Spock’s mom, I was like, ‘We have to do that!’ “

When Joss Whedon was first announced as the director of ‘The Avengers’, a lot of people joked that one of our beloved heroes would probably kick the bucket because he’s known for killing off characters that the audience loves. Apparently, that joke has now become a reality.

I don’t know about you, but I’m dreading the scene where we find out who dies. I’d like to think that it won’t be a member of the team, but like Feige said, we shouldn’t assume that no one will ever get hurt.

I’ll bet that Agent Phil Coulson, Hawkeye, or Maria Hill are the most at risk, but that’s just my own speculation. Even though the old adage goes that no one ever really dies in comics, I don’t think it applies for comic book movies, does it?

Who do you think will die in ‘The Avengers’? Are you excited for Edgar Wright’s ‘Ant-Man’? Let us know in the comments!

  • NoBody

    Agent Coulson dies and is reborn as the Vision

    • yoyo95

      Vision is a ROBOT!

      • bsilverio20

        I could see them changing Vision into a cyborg for the MCU. Or, instead of Iron Lad’s brainwaves being put into Vision, it could be Coulson’s brainwaves.

  • Brent Stewart

    We know Thor, Cappy, and Stark are safe because there are sequels in the works for their characters. Yes there’s been pictures about the net with pictures of what looks to be a dead Stark with his armor completely crushed. But I would say that’s most likely a fake death if anything at all. I doubt Banner as well because there’s rumors of another possible Hulk film. Don’t think Hawkeye either because I also heard rumblings about a spinoff Hawkeye film. I doubt seriously it’s Maria Hill since she hasn’t been in any other films to garner any sort of emotional attachment to her character. Unless they count supporting characters I also doubt it will be Pepper Potts (who’s not really in much of The Avengers). It’s remotely possible that they’ll kill off Nick Fury. But my money is on Agent Coulson since he’s been getting a lot of additional background added. Usually when they go in depth with a character it’s their death knell.

    • bsilverio20

      I just thought of something. What if they kill Fury and it turns out to be a Life Model Decoy and Fury is just in hiding? That would be interesting…