Marvel Cinematic Universe fans have had to say goodbye to their favorite characters time and time again over the last decade or so. Incorporating hundreds of heroes, villains, and side characters into more than 40 movies and TV shows in the last 17 years, the MCU has chosen to retire many fan-favorites over time, thus depicting their deaths in most cases. Phases 3, 4, and 5 brought on the most devastating character passings such as the losses of Iron Man, Black Widow, and T’Challa. The aforementioned fallen heroes represent only some of the MCU’s heartbreaking deaths, and there are many others that never fail to turn any enthusiastic fan somber.
Videos by ComicBook.com
A testament to the comic book franchise’s ability to endear its characters to audiences, the most painful losses remain engraved in viewers’ minds. In no particular order, these are 10 of the saddest character deaths in the MCU.
Gamora
Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) died in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War when Thanos (Josh Brolin), her adoptive father, tossed her off a cliff on Vormir to obtain the Soul Stone. One of the more disturbing character deaths, Gamora’s final moments were defined by the realization that even though Thanos really loved her, he easily sacrificed it for his genocidal quest to eliminate half of all life in the universe. An alternate version of Gamora appears in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but Marvel makes it clear that the Gamora who fans know and love from the first two Guardians films is gone for good.
Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
Avengers: Endgame saw Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) perish in a similar fashion to Gamora. Traveling back in time to receive the Soul Stone from Vormir, Natasha and her longtime friend Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) fought over who would sacrifice their life, but the former Red Room assassin couldn’t be be stopped. Natasha’s death was especially painful considering that, at the time, she had never headlined a solo movie in the MCU. The fan-favorite hero’s repeated employment as a supporting character was disappointing, making her demise all the more heartbreaking. The post credit scene of 2021’s prequel-esque Black Widow movie depicted Natasha’s younger sister Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) visiting her grave. The emotional sequence brought a tear to the eyes of many MCU viewers three years after seeing Natasha suffer her fatal fall from the mountain.
Tony Stark/Iron Man
The final act of Avengers: Endgame left tons of moviegoers in tears after watching Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) sacrifice himself for the Avengers’ victory over Thanos in the Battle of Earth. Tony snapped his fingers with all six Infinity Stones attached to his hand. The ensuing burst of energy mortally wounded the Avengers’ leader. Although it was sad, Iron Man’s final heroic act was a fitting ending for a complex, yet totally lovable, character. His death marked the end of an 11 year-long era that began with 2008’s Iron Man. The early days of the MCU were built around Iron Man, and when he died, he left a hole in many hearts.
Jane Foster
When Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) reappeared in 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder, viewers quickly learn that the character has cancer. This plot development immediately injects a dreadful air of familiarity into the movie for many people, as almost everyone knows someone who has dealt with or died from it — if they haven’t had it themselves. Jane’s eventual death at the end of the film wasn’t entirely somber, though. Throughout Love and Thunder‘s story, Jane reconnected with her former lover Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and wielded Mjolnir as the Mighty Thor, fighting in the final battle against Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale). Still the tragedy of Jane’s loss stems from the relatable nature of her illness — which takes far too many too early in the real world.
[RELATED – How Marvel’s Fantastic Four Reboot Could Introduce a New Black Panther]
T’Challa
King T’Challa, the Black Panther of Wakanda, died off screen due to an incurable illness at the beginning of 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The character’s passing followed the real-life death of actor Chadwick Boseman, who lost his battle with cancer in 2020. The real-world resemblance between T’Challa and Boseman’s passings makes the character’s retirement unspeakably devastating. Director Ryan Coogler deserves a ton of credit for paying tribute to Boseman and T’Challa through the film’s beautiful funeral sequence and specialized Marvel Studios intro.
Queen Ramonda
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever also saw the death of Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Queen of Wakanda. The nation’s leader perished during the flood brought on by Namor (Tenoch Huerta) and the Talokanil. Another loss following T’Challa’s passing inflicted unimaginable pain on Wakanda’s people, especially Shuri (Letitia Wright) — T’Challa’s brother and Ramonda’s daughter. The movies emotional heaviness prior to Ramonda’s death made her demise that much sadder.
Lylla, Floor, and Teefs
2023’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 introduced Lylla the otter (Linda Cardellini), Floor the rabbit (Mikaela Hoover), and Teefs the walrus (Asim Chaudhry) — all of whom bonded with Rocket (Bradley Cooper) while in captivity at the High Evolutionary’s testing headquarters many years before the raccoon joined the Guardians of the Galaxy. A flashback revealed that while attempting to escape, Lylla, Floor, and Teefs were all killed. Rocket made it out alive, and was left to mourn his friends all alone, a burden he carried across the trilogy. Movie lovers know that animal deaths reach another level of heartbreaking, and the losses of Lylla, Floor, and Teefs are no exception. The brutal nature of their deaths and the fact that they followed years of horrible experiments performed on them makes this one of the saddest moments in MCU history.
Maria Hill
Maria Hill’s (Cobie Smulders) death in the 2023 Disney+ series Secret Invasion was a baffling development. The character, who had featured in the MCU since 2012’s The Avengers, suddenly perished following an bombing attack in Moscow, Russia. Hill and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) intended to intercept the explosives from the Skrulls they believed were carrying them. However, the bombs were planted around the square and caught the agents off guard when they detonated. During the chaos, the Skrull Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir), disguised as Fury, shot Hill in the stomach, killing her. Hill’s death was shocking, especially given the fact that the MCU had not written a major character death into a TV show at the time. The loss of Hill was disappointing because it happened at the end of Secret Invasion‘s first episode, and there was so much more potential for her to feature alongside Fury in the show and in future projects. A lot of fans were not pleased, especially after Secret Invasion failed to live up to any expectations by its finale episode, making her death feel like even more of a waste.