Will Only Two of the Original Six Avengers Survive 'Avengers 4'?

If you're looking around for Avengers 4 spoilers, you have probably come across reports that the film will get rid of most of the original Avengers, leaving only two survivors going forward into the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

A quote to that effect has been attributed to filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo on social media, with no sourcing attached. At the same time, a thread on Reddit has popped up, purporting to share an ending which would validate that quote. Neither, though, can be confirmed as true and in fact it looks as though they all come from one shared source.

That has not stopped fans online from building their own fan theories out of it, speculating who the two might be. Our favorite is somebody who used the Infinity War wrap cake to construct a workable theory. Yum!

In fact, the "leaked" ending mirrors a popular fan theory from before Avengers: Infinity War even came out.

When a rumor lines up closely with an expectations, it will often become accepted wisdom -- even when there is no solid evidence to back it. Fans tend to gravitate toward the rumor as validating their existing theory, and the popular trend of news outlets reporting on particularly cool or fun fan theories and fan art has made it easier for those lines to be crossed.

Based on a little bit of looking around, this particular fan theory is just that: a theory. The thing that has elevated its place in the discourse around Avengers 4 is the supposed quote from the Russo brothers, but we cannot find where that quote supposedly came from.

This particular rumor is complicated (or, depending on your perspective, supported) by the well-documented ends of several actors' contracts. The idea seems to be that either the actors and/or Marvel have no interest in continuing on together, and have decided to make the Avengers 4 curtain call as epic as possible by writing certain characters out of the MCU entirely. There is likely some truth to that, but the idea that it has "leaked" appears to be a misunderstanding of a fan theory, while the idea that the Russos confirmed said "leak" appears to be untrue.

Only 11 months and change until we find out the real scoop...!

Avengers: Infinity War is now playing in theaters. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6th, Captain Marvel opens on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.