Avengers: Age of Ultron featured the first death of an Avenger in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Pietro Maximoff, aka Quicksilver. The speedster gave his life to protect Hawkeye, who was in the middle of saving a child from the titular villain. Because this was also Pietro's MCU debut, audiences were surprised to see him killed off so soon. Although many MCU characters have come back from the dead, there has been little indication that Quicksilver will ever return.

When Age of Ultron initially released, there were a lot of rumors about why Pietro had met his untimely demise. Because the film came out before Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, some believed the death resulted from issues over the two companies' shared rights to the character. At the time, who owned the rights to Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver was a grey area, particularly thanks to the latter's notable involvement in the X-Men and as a primary Avenger. While rights may have been a factor, there's been no official confirmation on the subject.

Updated June 30, 2024 by Robert Vaux: Whatever reason the filmmakers decided to kill Pietro Maximoff, there is no denying the scene had a powerful impact on audiences and the characters. Even though he was barely a part of the team, he was the first Avenger to die. This was a sign to everyone these heroes were not immortals, and it added mortal stakes to the films. It was also a moment that had repercussions, particularly for his sister Wanda Maximoff, some of which were explored in WandaVision. This article has been updated to add details about this decision and to reflect CBR's current formatting standards.

Marvel's Justification for Killing Quicksilver

According to various interviews with the president of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, and Joss Whedon, writer and director of Age of Ultron, there were a couple of reasons why Quicksilver had to die. Not only did his death subvert viewers' expectations, but it was also supposed to raise the story's stakes by demonstrating that Ultron's actions had lasting consequences. Even though they shot an alternate ending where Pietro survived, Marvel insisted that the character's death was always a part of the plan, and the other ending was mainly meant to prevent people from spoiling the real ending.

Given these explanations, Pietro's Age of Ultron death makes sense. Despite criticisms about the MCU's inability to let characters stay dead, as well as various fan theories about Quicksilver's return, Pietro still hasn't been resurrected. That said, the speedster's death was a safe choice since viewers weren't attached to him in an emotional way. While Pietro's sacrifice was sad, if the audience had more time to get attached to the character, the choice could've been devastating. Moreover, the characters didn't really connect to him as one of their allies. Pietro's death has barely been mentioned in later films and Disney+ shows, beyond how it affected his twin sister, Wanda, and Hawkeye naming his son Nathaniel Pietro Barton.

Quicksilver's Death Came as a Huge Shock

As for subverting expectations, Pietro was right: audiences didn't see that coming. Although some believed not every hero would survive Age of Ultron, many assumed that Quicksilver would live because he was a brand-new character. Instead, most fans predicted Hawkeye would be the one to die since, at the time, Marvel hadn't announced any plans for him to star in his own project. The film even foreshadowed Hawkeye's death from his injury in the opening battle to his emotional assertion to his wife that he'd be coming back from the mission.

In fact, Age of Ultron leaned into this expectation by introducing Clint's secret family, building up his and Pietro's mutual animosity and making him more sympathetic than he had been in previous movies. This made it even more shocking when Hawkeye survived and Quicksilver died. Regardless of how fans felt about it, Quicksilver's death was definitely a surprising twist. Because his time in the MCU was so short, he is one of the few characters in the expansive continuity who didn't get "enough" time.

How the Death of Her Brother Elevated Wanda Maximoff's Journey to Becoming Scarlet Witch

Only one character in Avengers: Age of Ultron had any kind of deep, emotional connection to Pietro: his sister. While the death of her brother isn't mentioned in Captain America: Civil War nor Avengers: Infinity War or Endgame, this is likely because those films were packed with characters and had to establish her relationship with Vision. However, in WandaVision, her brother's death becomes a major story point in tracking Wanda's grief from the moment that Stark Industries bomb crashed into her Sokovian home until her emotional outburst led to the creation of Westview. For once, the death of a male character death gave pathos to a woman superhero.

The series even brought back her brother, though it wasn't really him. As a meta-joke for the fans, they cast Evan Peters who played Quicksilver in the X-Men films. Grief is a powerful thing, and one way that trauma can manifest is in people forgetting what their lost loved ones look or sound like. Sure, he was a trick by Agatha Harkness as she tried to figure out Wanda's power, but throughout the episode even Wanda seems unsure if her brother is her brother — not because of a supervillain's plan, but because she truly cannot remember.

Did the Fox X-Men Movie Play a Role in the Decision to Kill Quicksilver?

Kevin Feige and the filmmakers maintain the decision to kill Pietro was one made for story reasons alone. However, there may have been some rights issues at play. Because they were mutants, both Wanda and Pietro were characters covered under the agreement Marvel Entertainment had with 20th Century Fox. Yet, because they were also Avengers, it meant that Marvel Studios could use those characters, as well. Killing off Pietro in the MCU might have been a precautionary measure to avoid future litigation should Aaron Taylor Johnson and Peters each become major fixtures in their respective universes.

Timing matters on that front. Days of Future Past was released in 2014, a year before The Age of Ultron. Peters' Quicksilver was an immediate stand-out amid a typically crowded cast, and his slow-motion takedown of a roomful of prison guards to the sounds of Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle" was the movie's unquestioned highlight. Taylor-Johnson -- who almost completely disappeared into the character -- didn't make quite as strong an impression.

Disney announced its purchase of 21st Century Fox studios in 2017, which was some time later, but it's not difficult to see the writing on the wall. Of the pair, Peters made a more memorable splash, and rather than just competing with him, Age of Ultron opted to kill him off rather than damaging what would soon become Disney's new IP. Peters' appearance in WandaVision suggests they knew who the more popular version of the character was.

Splitting the Twins Reinforces the Theory

The other detail that lends credence to this theory is that while Quicksilver appeared in both universes, Wanda didn't. "Peter" in the X-Men universe has a sister, but she's barely seen and plays no role in the story. (She's billed only as "Peter's Little Sister" in the credits, dropping the twins notion completely.) Peters' Quicksilver returned in X-Men: Apocalypse, delivering another scene-stealing rescue to Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" that once again marks the movie's high point. It firmly established Peters' version of the character as a part of Fox's X-Men movie universe.

Wanda, meanwhile, was already firmly ensconced in the MCU at that point, starting with Age of Ultron where she made a much stronger impression than her brother. She followed that with Captain America: Civil War -- released just three weeks before X-Men: Apocalypse -- where she again stood out amid a crowded cast. While no official agreement may have been in place, it seems more than a coincidence that each studio ended up with one twin. Nonetheless, that point is moot today, since Disney purchased 20th Century Fox, and the two universes are now moving together more closely.

Avengers: Age of Ultron is available to own on Blu-ray, Digital and streams on Disney+