SPOILER

“Avengers: Infinity War” is Marvel’s self-proclaimed “most ambitious crossover event in history” and has been ten years in the making. Ever since 2008 with the release of “Iron Man,” Marvel’s Cinematic Universe has been a dominating force.

After the latest installment in the “Avengers” series, though, audiences and critics alike must ask the burning question: What’s next? And after a film like “Infinity War,” it could be easy to pack a few sidebar movies in (for example, the expected release of “Ant Man and the Wasp” later this year) and end it all with Avengers 4.

But we all know that with ten years already invested in the MCU, Marvel isn’t going to cap it at a fourth Avengers movie.

“Infinity War,” no doubt, was filled with an incredibly large number of deaths for being the first movie that puts all our favorite Marvel superheroes together. From Loki’s death within the first fifteen minutes of the film, to the final scenes where we watch some of the most beloved characters of the MCU simply disintegrate right before your eyes.

In fact, the very choice of who turned to dust in the end is the single most telling fact that those deaths, if not all of the “Infinity War” deaths, are reversible, despite directors Anthony and Joseph Russo’s claims otherwise.

While many of the “older” Avengers remained unharmed – Thor, Captain America and Iron Man, to name a few – Thanos’ victory gives rise to some of the newest Avengers turning to dust, including newcomers Doctor Strange, Black Panther and Spider Man.

After having such successful first movies (especially Black Panther, with a $1.185 billion profit at the box office as of March 18), it is unlikely that these deaths are final. It is far more likely that Marvel will remove some of the “older” Avengers, even if some of them (such as Iron Man) are considered foundational characters of the MCU.

It is far more likely that we’ll see all the new faces in Avengers 4 trapped in the quantum realm, with the older Avengers working on a way to get them out.

That aside, I left “Infinity War” perplexed. Ending the movie with a post-credit scene in which even Fury is shown crumbling away, the only hope comes from a glimpse of the Captain Marvel logo on a transponder of some sort. Which had me asking the question, what exactly did Fury believe Captain Marvel could do to fix what Thanos had unleashed?

With movies planned out through 2025, it’s clear that I won’t be getting an answer quite as soon as I hoped, but it is obvious that both “Captain Marvel” and “Ant Man and the Wasp” will not only have significant roles in setting up the stage for Avengers 4 (why bother producing them if not?) but even more likely, we will see their characters play important roles in Avengers 4.

Either way, “Infinity War” left far more questions than answers, which isn’t exactly new for a Marvel movie, but it is new for what stakes are at place, and for the number of characters fates that now hang in the balance.