No one ever dies in comic books. You could watch a hero get completely dismembered and somehow an anti-dismemberment crystal would stitch them back together. So, when Avengers: Infinity War ended with Thanos snapping his fingers and killing all the best superheroes along with half the universe, it was pretty much understood that these characters would be back in the upcoming Avengers 4 (and the other previously announced Marvel films still to come).
Now, thanks to a slip-up from Dave Bautista, who plays Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers, it's almost certain that these deaths will be undone. As he said on Good Morning Britain this weekend:
We definitely see more Guardians in the upcoming Avengers, which we’ve already shot. Oddly enough, I guess I wasn’t supposed to say anything, but I was already saying before Avengers 3 was released that I had already filmed [Avengers 4] and I was signed up for Guardians 3. So I must come back somehow… It’s comforting, but at the same time I felt a sense of guilt because I don’t know if I was supposed to say anything. And nobody told me not to say anything.
So now, as we wait for Avengers 4 in April of next year, it's no longer a question of if they will return but how they will return. Naturally, there are a lot of theories out there about that, too:
What's interesting, is even though Bautista has confirmed his Avengers 4 appearance, Guardians 3 is still very much uncertain. In another interview on The Jonathan Ross Show, Bautista said of Guardians 3: “They’re putting the movie off ... It’s on hold indefinitely. To be honest with you, I don’t know if I want to work for Disney.”
So, even if Star-Lord, Groot, Drax, and Mantis—who died during Thanos' dusting—return, could Avengers 4 mark the end of our Guardians? Additionally, if the dusting deaths are undone, what happens to Gamora, who was killed separately by Thanos? Of all the plotlines surrounding the next Avengers film, theirs remains the most interesting to watch.
Matt Miller is a Brooklyn-based culture/lifestyle writer and music critic whose work has appeared in Esquire, Forbes, The Denver Post, and documentaries.
