How The Marvel Brass Decided Which Heroes Would Get Dusted By The Thanos Snap

Was there a financial component to the decisions? The book specifies that the back of each card had “the salary and contractual status of the actor who played the character.” Though McFeely says they “didn’t know how much each actor made” the cards still had “either one dollar sign or up to five dollar signs” as well as information about whether the actors were already under contract or if Marvel needed to sign a new deal. Though it sounds cynical, it is a smart choice. 

If not under contract, the actors might want to renegotiate their agreement — as they should, given this was always going to be one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. From Marvel’s side, however, it doesn’t make much sense to sign a new deal to bring back an actor only to then kill them off in the same movie, especially with so many other characters around.

As for who would live, the filmmakers decided to keep the original six members of the Avengers alive to finish their stories in “Avengers: Endgame,” and then bring along characters whose personalities could fill in any gaps. “If people are joking, Nebula can come in and just kill the laughs, which is very fun to do,” Markus said. “If people are very serious, Rocket can come in and make fun of them.”