Over the course of Marvel's long history, we've been introduced to countless entities with unimaginable power. The likes of Galactus, Eson the Searcher, the Beyonder, the Living Tribunal, all of them offer up something that most characters cannot: they're practically gods. The MCU is thus far lacking that calibre of character, with the Asgardians being the closest we've gotten to fleshed out godlike beings. However, with Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 now looming mercilessly on the horizon, beckoning all of us to the greatest nerdgasm of our lives, there are some characters that just have to show up. One of these, as far as I'm concerned, is Mephisto.
I've been mulling over the characters that I think could have the biggest impact on the events of the third Phase of the MCU and the end of the current Avengers strory arc. Mephisto is more or less the only consistently important character I can come up with. Obviously Mephisto had a role to play in Thanos's plans during all the Infinity stuff in the comics, but will that truly be the case whn it comes to the movies? Well, Mephisto acted as Thanos's right hand man, in a sense. He was there for his own reasons of course, but nevertheless, he was essential to helping the plot along across Jim Starlin's four piece Infinity saga.
So will he appear in the MCU? I think that at this point he has to. Thanos has been left without an ally, and it seems he quite likes it that way. After all, he did say "Fine, I'll do it myself." Perhaps that's an indication that Thanos doesn't much fancy having anyone around to help him out, or maybe he's just gonna go get the Infinity Stones alone and seek help later. You can't destroy the universe without a little help from your firends, after all, and a decent thrall has been lost to him. The death of The Other is something else that makes me think Mephisto will be turning up soon. Many people believed that The Other would turn out to be Chthon, a demonic entity not too different from Mephisto. In the Infinity books, Mephisto was with Thanos from the start, so I immediately assumed that The Other was to be his replacement, although I could not come to a conclusion on his true identity. After all, Mephisto's film rights were still over at Sony with Ghost Rider, so it's not like he could've been there from the beginning.
After Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance bombed in 2012, the rights for the character and all his associates quickly reverted back to Marvel Studios, so Mephisto came with them. Then in 2014, The Other was shrugged off and cast aside like an insect, killed at the hands of Ronan the Accuser in Guardians of the Galaxy. That signalled to me that Thanos was about receive a new thrall and once news of the development of a Doctor Strange movie came around, I began to believe more and more that Mephisto would indeed soon make an appearance in the MCU. What's the likelihood that he will though? That's the real question we need to answer.
Well, we know for certain that Doctor Strange is going to be a film that plays with the concept of parallel universes and alternate dimensions, so it's possible that some clues may pop up there as to whether or not Mephisto will play a part in the coming events of the MCU. There's also the fact that Joss Whedon has said that there will most likely be more than just Thanos to deal with in the two Avengers: Infinity War movies. Even though he's no longer directing those movies, or even writing them for that matter, he no doubt still maintains his role as one of Marvel Studios' go to guys when it comes to keeping up continuity and whatnot. On top of that, purely the fact that Thanos will need at least one supporter, and the fact Marvel Studios can now use Mephisto, is reason enough to believe that yes, he will be making an appearance in the near future. Of course, I'm just a presumptuous nerd.
What do you guys think? Is the stage set for the ruler of hell to finally make his presence known in the MCU? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments section down below.