It is widely believed that Joss Whedon would kill a character in the upcoming MCU movie Avengers: Age of Ultron, given his track record of killing beloved characters like Wash and Coulson (I would like him to stay dead but I digress).
Now, personally I am rather fed up with the cliche of "killing a character to up the ante and make the audience think 'it is serious' ". It was done in X2 (Jean Grey), The Dark Knight (Rachel), The Amazing Spider-man 1 and 2 (Captain Stacy, SPOILERS sorry), as well as in a few other movies; heck, How To Train Your Dragon 2 did it too (SPOILERS sorry). But as stated above, given that it is Joss Whedon, it is very likely that he would like to do it again. And to be fair, it is a matter of how to use the cliche that counts. So I am open to the idea of killing someone in the movie
Therefore, if I were Joss Whedon, I think I must ensure that:
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killing that character would not disrupt MARVEL's future movie plans,
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the death of the character I chose has to be unexpected, and
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the death of the character I chose causes real sadness, in other words, no "ah, sucks, s/he is dead now, great use of cliche Joss!"
I would first elaborate on Criterion 1.
Obviously, that crosses out Cap America and Thor, unless Kevin Feige is crazy enough to introduce the female Thor and the Falcon Cap America in the planned sequels.
As Hawkeye is more or less confirmed to be in Cap 3, he is also crossed out.
Iron Man is also kinda sorta crossed out. MARVEL just paid RDJ a lot of money just to make sure that he would be in Avengers 2 and Avengers 3, it would be crazy to kill Iron Man off after all that effort and money. Granted, in the unlikely event that Iron Man is killed in Avengers 2/ Avengers: Age Of Ultron, he could still be ressurected in Avengers 3, but I think that is very unlikely.
On Criterion 2, I cross out Black Widow and Nick Fury.
A lot of these editorials I read online suggest that Black Widow, Nick Fury and/or Hawkeye (which I had already crossed out) would be killed in Avenger: Age Of Ultron because they are merely human, thus they are vulnerable and could be killed; and if I were given the choice, I would not do that, because it is too obvious, and it is very likely that when the death takes place on screen, a significant amount of the audience would shout, "called it!" instead of the desired "OMG!"
On Criterion 3, I cross out the twins, Falcon and Rhodey (if either or both of them are included, too lazy to look up imdb), and Maria Hill.
Simply put, we don't really care about Maria Hill, no one would bat an eye if she kicks the bucket, so it would be really cheap if she was killed in the movie, it would be nothing but a plot device to articially up the stakes.
Personally I don't care about Rhodey, yeah 1 movie with Terence Howard and 2 movies with Don Cheadle and I still don't care about him (and I want to erase the memory of Cheadle's second outing as Rhodey as well, but I digress). If you care about Rhodey, more power to you, I just don't, and same as Maria Hill, killing him would be a cheap plot device to me.
Killing either or both of the twins would be beyond stupid, why would MARVEL dedicate so much time and energy just to strike up a deal with FOX and get the rights to use the twins, just to kill them in their first cinematic appearance in a MARVEL movie? Case closed, they will survive.
Falcon is a little bit tricky, I had considered crossing him out in criterion 1, but I think he should be put here, in criterion 3. All the same, he is crossed out from the "Character-to-kill" list.
(Or in the very unlikely event that Pepper Potts are included, I would cross her out because of 2 reasons: A), cheap shot, a few people want her dead anyway; and B), they had already done that in Iron ... I swore to never mention that POS again, sorry.)
Which leaves us with...
Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk
Think about it.
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MARVEL currently has no plans on doing another solo HULK movie; and to be honest, I don't see how another HULK movie would work. He runs from the military. Ross is looking for him. Another Ross is looking for him. He hulks out, wrecks shit. Big climatic fight. Credits. That sounds quite like a retread. Or MARVEL could make a HULK movie, with more HULK and less Bruce Banner. Problem is, people seem to like Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner more; his mannerisms, facial expressions, and his way of showing a range of emotions; and it would be very very hard to showcase these qualities of Mr Ruffalo if HULK would be on screen most of the time, not Bruce Banner. Therefore, killing HULK would not affect MARVEL's plans (provided there is no secret HULK movie being planned).
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Let's be honest, have you ever pondered on the possiblity of HULK being killed in Avengers: Age Of Ultron before reading this article? I came up with the answer with logical reasoning, pondering on the criteria I set, and elimination; and I blew my mind when I reached the conclusion. Sorry if I brag but you have to agree that not a lot of people considered killing the Hulk after seeing Mark Ruffalo's brilliant portrayl of Bruce Banner in Avengers.
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As stated above, Mark Ruffalo's portrayal of Bruce Banner/ the Hulk is universally loved. Between killing him and killing Maria Hill, I believe 99 people out of 100 would have a bigger emotion response towards killing Bruce Banner compared to killing Hill.
Now I am NOT saying that I know for sure that Joss would kill someone in the movie, and I don't know how the Hulk be killed without breaking the set rules in the cinematic universe. All I am saying is that were I Joss Whedon, I would kill Bruce Banner.
So there you have it, my two cents on who I think Joss Whedon should kill in Avengers: Age Of Ultron. If you disagree/ agree/ think I am high/ have any comments, please sound off below, and please click the red glove on your left!