Avengers: Doomsday Insider Report Claims At Least Five Major Character Deaths Across Avengers and X-Men

Every promo for Avengers: Doomsday has painted a somber tone unlike anything we've seen from an Avengers movie, or the MCU as a whole. There's no levity, no comic relief anywhere in the marketing, and it's going a long way toward telling us the stakes are higher than ever. If that's true, there's a great chance those stakes translate into major character deaths, and not the Infinity War kind that get undone when the multiverse is remade after Avengers: Secret Wars. We're talking permanent deaths, tied to the character shift reportedly happening during Secret Wars rather than after it.

We already had a decent idea on the X-Men side of who might not make it, but now there's a fresh industry insider account covering both the Avengers and X-Men sides of who is apparently not walking away from this film.

An Industry Insider Says At Least Three X-Men and Two Avengers Won't Survive

The latest comes from an industry insider on Twitter. As always, take any scoopster claim with a grain of salt since nobody gets everything right, but this insider has built up a real track record over the last couple of years, including getting recent 2026 calendar details correct.

The latest update on how many characters die in Avengers: Doomsday and who they might be states there are at least three X-Men and two Avengers deaths. That update qualified these aren't the type where the multiverse ends and, quote-unquote, everybody dies. These are singular, individual deaths, which lines up with the expectation that the film would deliver a couple of genuinely poignant losses.

The longer a character has been part of the MCU, the more weight that death carries. There are no shots at any of the newer additions from the multiverse saga, but there's no world I'd be convinced that Bucky dying on screen, in front of Steve Rogers or not, could ever hold the same weight as any way they might think up to kill off Red Guardian.

Bucky Barnes Could Be the Most Poignant Avengers Death

There are two different Avengers teams at play here, the old-school Avengers and the New Avengers, but I don't think the claim of two Avengers deaths is meant to split evenly across both teams. I think it more likely refers to characters we've known as part of the Avengers going back to the Infinity Saga.

One of the most poignant deaths Marvel Studios could serve up to establish Doctor Doom as the villain he is would be Bucky Barnes. Sebastian Stan has been part of the MCU pretty much since its inception, and outside of the remaining OG Avengers, his death might be the one that holds the most emotional weight for the audience.

The longer someone has been in the MCU, the more likely one of these next two Avengers films serves as a permanent off-ramp to leave for good, the way Scarlett Johansson has seemed uninterested in returning, though her Black Widow legal dispute with Disney may factor into that too. Even Hawkeye has reportedly been confirmed to return, which we believe is for Secret Wars rather than Doomsday. But outside the remaining OG Avengers, what death could mean more than Bucky Barnes, especially if it happens in front of Steve Rogers?

Shuri May Be the Other Avengers Casualty

I'm not certain this next character technically qualifies as an Avenger, but going by characters who've been around since the Infinity Saga, and knowing for certain we're getting a new Black Panther in the MCU in 2028, I think there's a real probability that Shuri does not make it out of Avengers: Doomsday alive, and that she's the other poignant Avengers death.

There are plenty of other Multiverse Saga characters to choose from, including members of the Thunderbolts and Shang-Chi, but they just don't carry the same weight as the older characters. Some may point out that Ghost also comes from the Infinity Saga, but those characters simply don't mean as much to us as an audience. The connection isn't the same.

Yelena, the Fantastic Four, and Shang-Chi Are Unlikely to Die Here

The more recently a character has been cast, the more likely they still have movies left on their contract or plans in the MCU's future. I don't see Yelena Belova going anywhere, and certainly none of the Fantastic Four, who were only cast in the last couple of years, are getting killed off in this movie.

Shang-Chi has been waiting on his sequel since the beginning of the multiverse saga. These characters could theoretically die in one of these movies, but as I put it, "that would be a very short-lived MCU stint." One of the lessons Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios likely learned this time around is that they shouldn't clean house before all the new X-Men arrive. Instead, they should plug holes for characters who may need recasting, similar to what's happening with Black Panther, so there's a full roster in place at the same time.

Magneto and Professor X Are Toast, and the Fox X-Men May Not Survive Either

As far as the X-Men deaths go, Magneto and Professor X are toast. I've lost count of how many times Professor X has died on screen, three or four, but there's not a chance either of them makes it out of this film alive. They've already been recast for the MCU, and I think Marvel Studios will want to use Avengers: Secret Wars to take a beat between the Fox X-Men and the new cast, possibly bringing in additional new X-Men alongside Sadie Sink, who's been confirmed by the Hollywood trades to appear in Secret Wars.

I don't see any of the Fox X-Men surviving this film, whether because their timeline gets fully incurred and they never make it to Battleworld, a one-on-one battle with Doctor Doom, or the movie's major final battle. There's a real likely possibility that all these X-Men from the Fox universe, aside from Deadpool and Wolverine, who are disconnected from this storyline entirely, don't make it out alive.

Secret Wars Could Be Where the MCU Fully Reboots

Secret Wars may introduce some new X-Men, or it may simply take a beat between the two character teams so that when a fresh team debuts in 2028 immediately after Secret Wars, audiences aren't watching a bunch of Fox X-Men in the same roles all over again. That matters a lot for Marvel Studios' strategy, especially now that Avengers: Secret Wars is confirmed to be the reboot movie itself rather than the film before the reboot.

None of the Fox X-Men characters making it to Secret Wars has probably been the plan since day one. We used to say, before knowing much about this film, that the final scene in Secret Wars would be the last hurrah for anybody who's played a Marvel character across any cinematic universe, and with variants and Battleworld that could still happen. But it looks more and more like Avengers: Doomsday is that final hurrah for the Fox X-Men, while Secret Wars is where new characters arrive, like a new Professor X, a new Cyclops, or even a new Black Panther, echoing the concept art the Russos claimed wasn't theirs that showed a new T'Challa in Wakanda, reportedly for Secret Wars.

Who do you think would make the most poignant death in Avengers: Doomsday?