All The MCU Characters Missing In Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers: Infinity War includes a massive cast. Not only do we see all the stars we would expect from the previous two Avengers films, but new arrivals like Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Tom Holland, and the cast of the Guardians of the Galaxy films. Not to mention Josh Brolin as Thanos, all the members of the Black Order, Wakandan characters like M'Baku and Okoye, Spider-Man's best buddy Ned, Doctor Strange's ally Wong, Gwyneth's Paltrow's return as Pepper Potts, and of course the absolutely mandatory cameo of Stan "The Man" Lee.
But the filmmakers couldn't fit everyone into the narrative, and you don't even have to be particularly nitpicky to notice it. There are some glaring absences from the film, even as early as the opening scene. Some of the absences are mysterious, some are totally understandable, and others may worry you over the fate of those involved.
Here's a spoiler-filled look at all the MCU characters missing from Avengers: Infinity War.
Valkyrie
Avengers: Infinity War opens with the Asgardian refugee ship under attack by Thanos' ship. When the camera cuts to the interior of the refugee ship, there are bodies everywhere. Out of the characters who were on the ship at the end of Thor: Ragnarok, we see only four survivors — Thor, Heimdall, Loki, and Hulk.
Which leaves the question of what happened to Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson). She was on the ship at the end of Ragnarok, but we don't see her corpse among the dead, and neither Thor nor Banner make any mention of her afterward. It's possible we're supposed to assume she's among the dead — the scene ends with Thanos destroying the Asgardian ship and presumably most of the survivors on board (if there were any left, beyond Thor). But there are a few possibilities.
First, Thor was able to survive in space after the destruction of the ship, and Valkyrie is Asgardian as well. It's possible she was left floating in space just as Thor was and, like Thor, was able to survive and hopefully was rescued somehow. Second, she could've left the ship before it was attacked. We don't know how much time passed between the beginning of the Ragnarok credits and the mid-credits scene, after all. It could've been minutes, months, or anything in between. Maybe the idea of going to Earth and helping settle a new home for the surviving Asgardians didn't appeal to her. Maybe she'd gotten too used to getting drunk and brawling with aliens. Third, Thor makes a comment later about Thanos killing "half" the Asgardians. It's a curious thing, because it doesn't look like he killed half of anything. It looks like he killed every single Asgardian, period, save Thor. Possibly some Asgardians managed to escape the ship before Thanos and the Black Order boarded it?
Korg and Miek
Look closely and you can spot some Sakaarian gladiator bodies among the dead on the refugee ship in the opening scene, but the corpses of Korg and Miek aren't among them. Or Korg might be there, if you just assume any random pile of rubble might be him.
It was perhaps too much to hope that the hilarious Kiwi-accented alien warrior and his de-limbed insect friend would get parts in Infinity War, particularly considering they were largely comic relief characters and the scene on the refugee ship was one of the darkest in the film.
Like Valkyrie, it's possible Korg and Miek might have survived. Perhaps the home release will give us deleted scenes showing exactly what happened to them. If it turns out they did leave the ship before the attack and are wandering the spaceways, they could always show up in cameos for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
In the meantime, we'll just have to let our imaginations fill in the blanks.
Lady Sif
In 2017, fans were disappointed to learn that Lady Sif (Jaime Alexander) wouldn't be returning for Thor: Ragnarok. While Alexander said she wanted to return to the role, there was a scheduling conflict with her show Blindspot and she said Marvel didn't give her much notice.
"I was hoping for more of a notice from [the studio] so I could make it work, but it was a short notice thing," Alexander told Yahoo. "They called and said, 'Hey, by the way, would you come do this?' I said there is no way I can make that work that fast."
President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige said the assumption was that Loki (in disguise as Odin) would want Thor's allies as far away as possible, so he would've banished her just as he falsely accused Heimdall of treason. "She's off somewhere," he suggested.
So Sif wasn't on the Asgardian refugee ship, and she wasn't one of the Asgardians killed by Hela or her undead hordes. Could she return for Avengers 4? If so, it could possibly answer some questions about the other absent Asgardians (and friends).
Hawkeye
Earlier in the month of Infinity War's release, the Russo brothers addressed concerns that Hawkeye wasn't showing up in the marketing materials for the flick. They didn't necessarily confirm that he would be in the film, but they did say he would show up somewhere in the larger story. "We keep saying patience is a virtue," said Joe Russo. "We cooked up a story for him that is a little bit of a long play. Not a short play."
Well, we can confirm that Hawkeye does not appear in Avengers: Infinity War, unless he was up in a tree in Wakanda shooting arrows while no one was looking. He's mentioned briefly when Team Cap is reunited with Rhodey and Banner. We learn Hawkeye, along with Scott Lang, took some kind of deal with the government after the events of Captain America: Civil War, but the details of the plan aren't revealed.
Some theorize this will lead to Clint Barton's evolution into Ronin, the identity he briefly had in the comic book New Avengers. Whether he's Hawkeye, Ronin, or Goliath, one thing's for sure — his buddies could use all the help they can get.
Ant-Man & The Wasp
In spite of reports to the contrary — unless they were in it but just really, really tiny — there was no Ant-Man or Wasp in Avengers: Infinity War.
Like Hawkeye, Scott Lang cut a deal with the government after the events of Captain America: Civil War. While we don't know yet exactly why Ant-Man and the Wasp weren't in Infinity War, it seems likely that will be explained fairly soon: Apparently, Ant-Man & The Wasp is set before the events of Infinity War. Which, if you think about it, makes sense. If half the people in the universe, including half the people on Earth, are killed at the end of Infinity War — and if you set Ant-Man & The Wasp after Infinity War — how could Ant-Man & The Wasp be about anything but that massive body count? How could Ant-Man & The Wasp director Peyton Reed tell his cast, "Well yes, half the people in the world are dead without explanation...but still we want a lot of laughs"?
Whatever's going on with these particular heroes while Infinity War is going down, it won't be long until we learn why Scott Lang and Hope Pym weren't willing or able to lend a hand this time around.
Kraglin
James Gunn's brother Sean was a lot more visible in his role as Kraglin the Ravager in the second Guardians of the Galaxy film. His loyalty to the late Yondu seemed to extend to the Guardians. He referred to Peter Quill as "Captain" at the end of the second Guardians flick, and his appearance in the first mid-credits scene accidentally hitting Drax in the shoulder with Yondu's arrow seemed to further imply that Kraglin was going to stick around for the long haul — or at least long enough for Drax to get even.
Kraglin, unfortunately, was nowhere to be seen in Avengers: Infinity War. There are any number of narrative explanations. The simplest could be that he parted ways with the Guardians, or perhaps the Guardians were on some kind of mission when they picked up the Asgardian refugee distress signal and were planning to return to Yondu's old ship where Kraglin was waiting.
While Kraglin wasn't there, Sean Gunn did appear in Infinity War in another role: In an interview at a London convention, he said he'd be doing the motion capture work for Rocket.
Nova Prime and Xandar
For invested fans of the MCU, one of the most potentially depressing moments in the film comes when the audience learns Thanos "decimated" Xandar when he took the Power Stone from the Nova Corps. The first Guardians of the Galaxy was one of the best of the various MCU films, and the heroes sacrificed a lot saving Xandar from Ronan. To learn that after all that, the world was "decimated" anyway? Offscreen?
Neither Nova Prime (Glenn Close) nor anyone from the Nova Corps make any kind of appearance in Infinity War. It's possible something was filmed and cut, or planned but cut before filming. Guardians director James Gunn confirmed that Close had a cameo in the second Guardians film that didn't make it into the final version.
One unanswered question is what "decimated" means. Did Thanos do what he normally does when he got to Xandar? Did he wipe out half the population? Or did he go further? Did he consider their ownership of an Infinity Stone a personal affront, and dole out the murder a bit more generously?
Phil Coulson & the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans hoping to see the show's characters pop up in the films, or vice-versa, are likely used to disappointment. Chloe Bennet certainly is.
That disappointment won't be cured anytime soon. Neither Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) or any other Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. cast members show up in the Avengers' war with Thanos. At least, not yet. The Russos have continued to dodge questions about the Avengers reuniting with their old recruiter, and it seems likely they'll keep doing it for a while.
Frankly, you can hardly blame anyone for not bringing Coulson into this film. Avengers: Infinity War brought in stars from almost all of the MCU's different franchises, expanded upon perhaps the studio's most memorable villain, introduced a quartet of memorable underlings, gave us a story taking place across four different planets not to mention the void of space, and featured not only the average superhero battles in New York City and on alien landscapes but a huge battle in Wakanda grand enough to get respect from any Lord of the Rings filmmaker. So what are you going to do? In the middle of all that, throw Phil Coulson in there and say, "Hey guys, you've thought I've been dead for six years and I haven't. Why don't we deal with that exposition and the inevitable emotional fallout in the middle of all this?"
Yeah. Not a very realistic expectation.
The forces of Kamar-Taj
After he lends a hand with the New York battle against the Black Order, Wong (Benedict Wong) returns to the Sanctum, explaining someone must be watching it in Strange's absence.
However, you wouldn't be out of line to ask where the rest of the forces of Kamar-Taj were. Certainly, their numbers were thinned in the struggle with Kaecillius and his followers in Doctor Strange, but they weren't wiped out. Wong had a small army to help him defend the Hong Kong Sanctum at the end of Doctor Strange, and those who died would've been resurrected when Strange used the Time Stone.
In fact, one lingering question from Doctor Strange is what exactly happened to Kamar-Taj. While the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) named Strange a Master before she died, no one named him Sorcerer Supreme. Who leads Kamar-Taj now? Does it even exist? Perhaps the answer to those questions could explain why no one sent a contingent of wizards to help with the defense of Wakanda.
Regardless, one thing's for sure — with his talk of "the bill always comes due," Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is likely somewhere watching the events of Infinity War unfold and laughing his magic hiney off.
Happy
Sure, it's not like he would've been much help. Tony Stark was there to browbeat Spider-Man, so that was covered. Stark was in space, so he didn't really need anyone to drive him anywhere. And it doesn't seem like obsessively checking everyone's security badges would've helped the situation with Thanos. But considering Jon Favreau's contributions to the MCU as actor, director, and executive producer, we would be remiss to not point out that his character Happy does not appear at all Avengers: Infinity War.
In fact, the very emotion which Happy is named after doesn't appear much in Avengers: Infinity War. There are definitely a few good laughs, and if the audience you're in doesn't break out in applause when Thor shows up in Wakanda with Stormbreaker, then clearly all their souls are dead. But Happy? No. Whether you're talking about the concept or the dude (and Drax would probably agree Happy qualifies as a dude), neither is present in Infinity War.
Happy isn't gone for good, however: During a livestream of the Infinity War world premiere, Favreau confirmed his character will be appearing in Avengers 4.