The Marvel Cinematic Universe has gone a little too far with certain deaths in movies and TV shows, with some of them ranking above the rest. The MCU movie timeline includes many shocking moments. Even though ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine is the MCU’s only R-rated movie, many characters have had brutal deaths in PG-13 projects. MCU TV shows also make the list.
Multiple series have had gory deaths that might have gone too far in terms of violence. However, that is not the only aspect that counts for the MCU’s slate of projects going too far with deaths. That can also be applied to controversial decisions to kill characters, the way they died, and so on. Here are the MCU deaths that went too far:
Loki
First, it is important to note that the list is in no particular order. That said, Tom Hiddleston’s original version of Loki had quite the sad death in the MCU. After pretending to die earlier in the franchise, Loki would die for real in Avengers: Infinity War. Marvel Studios decided to make an example out of the character.
Loki’s death came early in the movie, showing fans that no one was safe when it came to Thanos. However, the MCU took it a step too far with how he died. The audience had to watch a fan-favorite character get choked to death slowly, with Loki turning purple as Thanos killed him in front of Thor. It was too brutal.
Black Bolt
Another graphic death comes in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The movie featured quite a few deaths, with a couple making the list due to the violent nature in which Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch murdered Earth-838’s Illuminati. Of the team’s deceased members, the first on the list is Black Bolt.
A mere sound made by him can decimate characters, cities, and more. When the Scarlet Witch turned that against the Inhuman, the result was one of the MCU’s most shocking deaths. Black Bolt exploded his head from the inside after Wanda Maximoff took away his mouth. The moment was disturbing and gory.
Mister Fantastic
Another death from the Doctor Strange sequel on the list is that of John Krasinski’s Reed Richards. There is a different component to it in comparison to Black Bolt, as fans had been asking for the actor to play the MCU’s Mister Fantastic for years before he finally did so. However, the result was unexpected.
Marvel brutally killed Krasinski’s Reed Richards shortly after his debut, which was not at all what MCU fans wanted. The Scarlet Witch dismantled the hero piece by piece, turning Reed into strings of himself before she eventually exploded his head. Having Wanda torture Reed and kill him after taunting the hero about his family was too far for her redemption chances.
Vision
Vision’s death in Avengers: Infinity War was not too far a move for the MCU due to any violence. It made it onto the list due to the context of the death. The Scarlet Witch had to kill the love of her life in order to keep the universe safe. We watched Wanda heartbreakingly kill Vision.
Sadly, his sacrifice did not matter, as Thanos quickly reversed time to kill Vision again himself. This time, it was more graphic, crushing Vision’s head to get the Mind Stone. The double death made the event one of the MCU’s most tragic, adding a lot of trauma to Wanda when he could have died just once.
Quicksilver
Quicksilver’s death was quite shocking. Marvel went too far in deciding to kill the MCU’s main speedster by making him too slow to save Hawkeye and get out of the way of the bullets aimed at the marksman in time. Plainly, Quicksilver should have been fast enough to still be alive after that.
Pietro’s death is still one of the most controversial choices the MCU has made to this day. If Marvel wanted to kill the hero, using Ultron to do so would have been more believable. That said, killing a character like Quicksilver in his MCU debut would always have been a step too far, no matter how Marvel did it.
Rocket Raccoon’s Friends
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is easily one of the MCU’s darkest projects. Rocket Raccoon’s backstory is heartbreaking, and the fact that James Gunn did not shy away from showing exactly what happened to the character when he was young made for a tragic sequence. When they try to escape, Rocket’s friends all die.
Seeing humans and creatures die or get injured in superhero movies is par for the course. However, the same does not apply to animals, who hardly get to go through dark fates in these stories. Rocket’s friends had visceral deaths, and the sequence in a movie with a villain, the High Evolutionary, who practices animal cruelty, was viewed as too far by some fans.
Maria Hill
Maria Hill was never a major character in the MCU. However, in the Infinity Saga, she was a recurring fixture in the franchise, and it always seemed like there was more that Cobie Smulders’ SHIELD agent could be doing. That is why many were excited about her return in Secret Invasion.
Sadly, the MCU decided to kill Maria Hill at the end of Secret Invasion episode 1. Her death threw away all the potential the character had, as the show could have explored her fractured relationship with Nick Fury after he spent years in space. Killing Hill to set up higher stakes for Fury in a poorly received series was too far.
Professor X
Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier is the final character to die in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to make it onto the list. Stewart is one of the most iconic and beloved stars when it comes to live-action superhero movies. As such, his first appearance in the MCU was a big deal, and Marvel went for a controversial move.
Killing Professor X in the movie was a step too far for the MCU. Many fans had been waiting years for Stewart to join the MCU, only to see his X-Men character get brutally murdered. Unlike John Krasinski’s Reed Richards, Stewart had many years as Charles Xavier under his belt, making it all worse. The visual of Wanda snapping his neck was also quite graphic.
Foggy Nelson
It is no secret that the main reason why Netflix’s Daredevil is so beloved is due to the chemistry between its lead trio. Due to that, Marvel Studios choosing to kill Elden Henson’s Foggy Nelson in Daredevil: Born Again‘s first episode was way too far a move for the show. Instantly, a key part of that world was gone.
It becomes worse when taking into account that his death scene was part of a creative overhaul. Originally, Foggy would have died offscreen, which would have been even worse, so at least that changed. Still, killing Foggy without giving the character even a full episode in the MCU disappointed many.
Anatoly Ranskahov
Finally, while the list is in no specific order, I wanted to leave the MCU’s most violent death for last. If there was a moment where the franchise might have gone too far in terms of violence, then it was surely when Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin brutally bashed Anatoly Ranskahov’s head with a car door.
Wilson Fisk did so repeatedly, using the car door to fully decapitate the lesser criminal. Seeing brain matter fall and a pool of blood form as Kingpin bashed the car door on Anatoly’s head made up the MCU‘s most brutal moment. It went on for quite a bit, too, making it too far for part of the fanbase.
Marvel Cinematic Universe
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Kevin Feige
- First Film
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Iron Man
- Upcoming Films
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Blade, Avengers: Doomsday (2026), Avengers: Secret Wars
- First TV Show
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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Upcoming TV Shows
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Marvel Zombies, Wonder Man, Vision Quest
- Cast
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Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Edward Norton, Paul Rudd, Tom Holland, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Brie Larson, Chadwick Boseman, Sebastian Stan, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Pom Klementieff, Josh Brolin, Karen Gillan, Clark Gregg, Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Simu Liu, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Angelina Jolie, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, Richard Madden, Barry Keoghan, Gemma Chan, Ma Dong-seok, Brian Tyree Henry, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Lia McHugh, Jonathan Majors
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