Only Four of Over Twenty Superheroes in ‘Infinity War’ Were Actually Avengers

For a film with “Avengers” in the title, Avengers: Infinity War has relatively few members of the Avengers team.

By one Reddit user’s count, out of the 21 heroes in the film, only four were actually Avengers. Iron Man, War Machine, and Vision were the only officially sanctioned Avengers left after the Avengers Civil War. Spider-Man didn’t actually have to sign the Sokovia Accords, but Iron Man did recruit him in Captain America: Civil War. Iron Man then christened him an Avenger during the events of Infinity War.

As for the rest, Captain America, Black Widow, Falcon, and Scarlet Witch were all fugitives after the Avengers Civil War and their refusal to sign the Sokovia Accords. Thor and Hulk were Avengers, but they have been in space since the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Since they didn’t sign the Sokovia Accords, their status as Avengers is in doubt.

Black Panther and Okoye are representatives of the Wakandan government, which is hiding the fugitive Winter Soldier. Doctor Strange and Wong are both more focused on arcane threats and thus have never bothered with the Avengers directly or the Sokovia Accords.

The rest – Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, Groot, Mantis, and Nebula – are all members of the Guardians of the Galaxy (or, in Nebula’s case, a frenemy of the Guardians fo the Galaxy). There are actually more Guardians of the Galaxy in Avengers: Infinity War than there are Avengers. Perhaps the film should have been titled Guardians of the Galaxy: Infinity War.

Of course, the lack of Avengers was a major part of the plot of Infinity War. In the fallout of Captain America: Civil War, the Avengers are no longer together and can’t present a united front to defend the Earth from Thanos. Without Earth’s Mightiest Heroes operating on the same page, Thanos is able to complete his mission and snap away half of all life in the universe.

“We did Infinity War and Endgame at the same time, but those have been the longest gestating movies we’ve ever made,” said Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige on a recent episode of the iHeartRadio podcast. “Four years now, almost five years. And it was always about delivering on the promise that we had set up. And the way the world received Infinity War was amazing, it was exactly what we wanted.”

What do you think of the number of actual Avengers in Avengers: Infinity War? Let us know in the comments!

Avengers: Infinity War is now available on home media, and can currently be streamed on Netflix.

Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019; Avengers 4 on May 3, 2019; Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th, 2019.