4 Years Later, One of the MCU’s Most Powerful Characters Just Returned (And A Fan-Favorite Died Soon After)

September 27, 2025, 2:30pm

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is no stranger to bringing back long-forgotten characters even if it’s been over a decade. Just this year the MCU saw the return of Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns aka The Leader in Captain America: Brave New World, with his only previous MCU appearance being in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. Usually, when this occurs it’s because the character can be slotted into the plot in a big way, one that makes it seem like Marvel Studios was playing the long game with their planning. This week however, saw the return of a very unexpected character, one whose potential for a Marvel sequel was dashed by Kevin Feige himself.

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All four episodes of the highly anticipated Marvel Zombies premiered on Wednesday on Disney+, and with them came the return of several Marvel returns (along with spoilers in the rest of this article). Not only did Simu Liu return as Shang-Chi in the series, but other MCU favorites were back, including Paul Rudd, Florence Pugh, Wyatt Russell, Hailee Steinfeld, Dominique Thorne, and Iman Vellani. F. Murray Abraham even came back as Egyptian deity Khonshu from Moon Knight, plus MCU darling Elizabeth Olsen marked her as Wanda Maximoff for her ninth different project. The first episode has a return no one saw coming: Ikaris from Marvel’s Eternals.

Marvel Actually Acknowledges the Eternals Characters

Though much shorter than the 17-year gap that Nelson’s Marvel villain saw, the four-year absence since Ikaris made his MCU debut is a pretty major one. At the time of its release, Marvel’s Eternals was not very well received, but the cast of characters that it introduced included a few heavy hitters. Ikaris is as close to Superman in the MCU as has been seen (including The Sentry) in part because he has laser eyes in addition to all the powers one might expect (flight, super strength, durability, etc).

In Marvel Zombies, Ikaris has a peculiar place in the larger story. As explained by Blade/Moon Knight in the series, Ikaris and the zombie Captain Marvel are locked in an eternal battle where there is no clear victor. The pair only stop fighting long enough to fight anyone who draws their attention faway rom each other. In the series, the trio of Kamala Khan, Riri Williams, and Kate Bishop gather their attention. Not long after they appear and try to get away does Captain Marvel turn her sights from Ikaris and completely dissolves Kate Bishop with her energy powers. It’s not exactly Ikaris’ fault that Kate gets killed in the series, but he didn’t stop it either.

Marvel Confirms Ikaris Is Among The MCU’s Most Powerful

As is made clear in the Eternals movie, even the other Eternals make a note that their powers combined can’t defeat Ikaris. In fact, the only way the character is defeated is by taking himself off the board, flying into the sun, and ending his own life. Though this means he’s not going to show up again in the proper MCU, his appearance in Marvel Zombies just further solidifies where he lands on the larger power rankings of Marvel characters.

Ikaris’ being locked in an eternal battle with zombie Captain Marvel not only offers a major clue to how powerful he really is, but also how powerful she really is. The MCU has often had to find reasons to keep Carol Danvers away from Earth conflicts because her powerset is so high that there would be almost no reason for the conflict of any given movie’s stories; she could simply just stop it on her own (EG: Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame). Putting the two of them on the same level is a clear sign that Ikaris’ was one of the MCU’s best.

That said, it is unclear in the grand scheme of the MCU where Ikaris’ lands. Though we can see he’s clearly on the same level as Captain Marvel, that definitely puts him in the running for also being as powerful as the likes of Thor himself and The Hulk. One thing is clear from Marvel Zombies though, no one in the MCU is as powerful on their own as Wanda Maximoff, who not only controls the zombies themselves but is capable of atomizing some of the heroes without batting an eye.

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