5 Most Shocking MCU Deaths in 2025, Ranked

Marvel Studios has shown us some shocking death scenes in 2025, as not every character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been lucky enough to see the year through to the end. Marvel Studios released eight projects throughout 2025, including three feature films (Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps) and five TV shows, set both in the MCU’s main continuity of Earth 616 and across the multiverse. Unfortunately, not everyone in these movies and shows were lucky enough to survive.

Honorable mentions include the likes of Hector Ayala’s White Tiger (the late Kamar de los Reyes), Natalie Washington (Lyric Ross), John (Manny Montana), Achilles (Adam Gold), and countless heroes in Marvel Zombies. All these characters lost their lives in Marvel Studios’ 2025 projects, but five more had seriously shocking, unexpected, or particularly gruesome exits. With Wonder Man, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, VisionQuest, The Punisher Special Presentation, more Daredevil: Born Again, X-Men ’97, and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and, of course, Avengers: Doomsday coming in 2026, we can expect even more deaths in the MCU’s upcoming stories.

5) Taskmaster in Thunderbolts*

Sure, we all expected Antonia Dreykov’s Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) to die in Thunderbolts* back in May 2025, but we didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. Taskmaster was shot and killed by Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) during the New Avengers’ first meeting in Thunderbolts*, where they had been sent by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) to take each other out. It was a shame that Taskmaster was killed before she was able to get any real character development in the MCU, but many will be happy to see the back of the divisive character.

4) Commissioner Phil Gallo in Daredevil: Born Again

Daredevil: Born Again included many shocking deaths, but that of Commissioner Gallo (Michael Gaston) was the most gory. In season 1’s finale, “Straight to Hell,” Gallo vocally opposed Wilson Fisk’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) actions as Mayor of New York. This ultimately led to Kingpin literally crushing Gallo’s head with his bare hands, showcasing his unbelievable strength and his sheer brutality. This was one of the most boundary-pushing, unexpected, and nightmarish scenes in the entire MCU, but makes us even more excited for the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again season 2.

3) Kate Bishop in Marvel Zombies

Marvel Zombies continued the story of What If…? season 1, episode 4, “What If… Zombies?!” from 2021. Episode 1 was headlined by Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), the latter of whom lost her life when the trio came across a zombified Captain Marvel and Ikaris locked in their eternal battle. Bishop tried to fire a trick arrow at Carol Danvers, but this just made her even angrier, and caused the Infinity Stone-empowered zombie to swiftly kill the new Hawkeye. Quick, painless, and wholly unexpected, it was sad to say goodbye to Bishop.

2) Sue Storm’s Invisible Woman in The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Going into Marvel Studios’ official reboot of Marvel’s First Family, nobody expected any member of the team to lose their life. The Fantastic Four: First Steps ended with Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), the Invisible Woman of Earth 828, sacrificing her life to push Galactus (Ralph Ineson) into the open teleportation bridge. Her newborn son, Franklin Richards, however, imbued with the Power Cosmic, managed to resurrect his mother. Kirby will reprise the role in the MCU’s future, as soon as Avengers: Doomsday in 2026, but it was still shocking and emotional to see how far she would go for her family.

1) Foggy Nelson in Daredevil: Born Again

We were thrilled to hear that Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll would be returning in Daredevil: Born Again as Foggy Nelson and Karen Page. We expected them to have a crucial role in the revived series, but the opening moments of Born Again episode 1, “Heaven’s Half Hour,” marked Foggy’s demise at the hands of returning villain Bullseye (Wilson Bethel). It was later revealed Vanessa Fisk (Ayelet Zurer) had hired Bullseye for this hit, breaking the deal between Kingpin and Daredevil (Charlie Cox). Foggy’s death informed all of Matt Murdock’s actions in Born Again, and will continue to as the series continues—though we hope Marvel finds some way to bring Foggy back to life.

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