Doomsday Opens With A Whole Team’s Death According To Harrowing MCU Movie Theory

As Avengers: Doomsday’s December 18, 2026, release date gets closer, fans are increasingly anxious to learn what this latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has in store. From theories about why Robert Downey Jr. is Doctor Doom to speculation about Steve Rogers being a multiverse variant, rumors and ideas are flying.

Now, a particularly dark fan theory has begun circulating online, and it has to do with who is going to die in Doomsday. There will almost certainly be some significant deaths in the upcoming movie, but this theory suggests that there won’t be just a few. In fact, the theory posits that an entire MCU team will be wiped out at the very beginning of the movie.

Fans Believe Every Thunderbolts* Team Member May Be On The Chopping Block

Thunderbolts*, which revealed the second, secret title of The New Avengers, presented the Thunderbolts team members as the future of the MCU. However, some fans are convinced that this name and its implications might be a red herring and that all members of the team are about to be massacred at the very beginning of Doomsday.

This theory gained momentum after John Walker actor Wyatt Russell reportedly said that all team members were originally going to die in Thunderbolts*. Because of this, some fans now see the group members as expendable and suspect that Marvel may only have delayed their deaths to begin the brand-new Avengers movie with a bang.

This theory also aligns with the ongoing theory that Bucky Barnes is high on the list of characters who could die in Doomsday, particularly because he’s reportedly in talks to join The Batman – Part II. However, if this shocking new theory was proven true, it would be a whole lot bigger than just killing off Bucky (which, given how beloved he is by fans, would be big enough).

Marvel Isn’t Likely To Actually Kill The Entire Team

While the MCU certainly isn’t afraid to kill off its characters, it nevertheless feels unlikely that Doomsday will take out the entire Thunderbolts team in one go. Even if the team was originally meant to die in Thunderbolts*, Marvel clearly chose to take that story in a different direction. Could they still take them all out to set the tone for Doomsday? Sure, but they probably won’t.

At the very least, it seems unlikely that the MCU would kill Yelena. She has become a very popular character and a compelling one, narratively. In fact, her Thunderbolts* plot was in large part meant to reflect her decision to live her life, despite her painful grief over the loss of her sister, Natasha, and her feeling that she doesn’t belong or have a place.

It would be jarring and frankly unfair for the MCU to give Yelena that arc only to use her death to kick Doomsday off with something unexpected. It seems more likely that one or a few of the Thunderbolts will be in danger, and actually, there’s another one of Natasha’s (sort of) relatives who feels much more likely: Alexei.

Honestly, it would still feel pretty brutal to take away Yelena’s father figure after everything she’s been through, but the MCU has rarely been fair (look at Wanda Maximoff’s entire story). This would be a death that would still come as a surprise early in the movie and would have an emotional impact—for the audience and for the characters—but would be more reasonable.

If the MCU really does now see the Thunderbolts team as expendable, which isn’t certain, then it feels much more likely that Avengers: Doomsday would kill one of them (perhaps Alexei) rather than the whole group. Even so, this theory is a fascinating one, and it serves as a reminder that all bets are likely off when it comes to this new movie.