At least one Marvel favorite didn't die horribly in 'Avengers: Infinity War'
Spoilers ahead, obviously.
A big Avengers: Infinity War no-show survived, as it turns out. It was strange to many that the character never appeared to begin with, but at least now we know for sure that she's safe.
The movie's first moments open on a gruesome scene aboard the Statesman, home of Asgardian and Sakaarian refugees from Thor: Ragnarok. Thanos and his criminally underused cronies show up and kill basically everyone not named Hulk or Thor.
We see Heimdall eat it. We see Loki eat it. We see all sorts of other recently murdered corpses scattered around. But one notable Asgardian is missing from the bunch: Valkyrie.
Tessa Thompson's character made her debut in Ragnarok, and she was a key player in both the story and the surprisingly prevalent comedy. An instant fan-favorite. Now, Infinity War director Joe Russo has apparently confirmed that she escaped Thanos.
This does come from a Reddit post, so take it with the appropriate levels of skepticism. But Russo swung by an Iowa high school for a Q&A (there's a photo), and one student shared some of the revelations from that chat, including the status of Valkyrie.
Russo revealed that a number of fleeing Asgardians found their way to safety aboard the Statesman's escape pods. It's not all good news, however: Russo did say Valkyrie is safe, but he refused to answer a similar question about Korg, Ragnarok's hilarious rock alien.
Korg had better still be alive, that's all I'm saying.
If we all want to take a moment to read into this far too deeply: Russo's revelation that a number of Asgardians fled to safety raises some interesting questions/grounds for speculation. With Loki and Heimdall both dead, and Thor actor Chris Hemsworth possibly on his way out, there had been some speculation that the sun was setting on Asgard's contributions to the MCU.
If Russo is able to specifically confirm that Valkyrie is alive and that Asgardians, plural, escaped Thanos, that means someone's thought about it. Valkyrie could factor into Avengers 4? Or perhaps there are more Asgard adventures coming in Phase 4 of the MCU?
It could also simply be a case of Russo wanting to give folks some closure for a character the franchise doesn't have any plans to revisit. We'll have to wait and see. Avengers 4 won't be here until 2019, so we all have lots and lots of time to speculate.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
