It’s been just about a month since AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR hit theaters. Needless to say, the film crushed both the box office and many of our hearts. It’s lived up to practically all the hype. Is it the best MCU film? No, probably not. But it’s still an incredible movie. Top six, I’d say, at least.

The cast for this film was gargantuan. It just might be the biggest all-star lineup for a film, ever. Downey, Evans, Hemsworth, Johansson, Cumberbatch, and so many others. Josh Brolin steals the show as Thanos, hands down. And who doesn’t love Tom Holland as Spider-Man? I mean, come on, he’s a gem.

However, there were a number of people missing from INFINITY WAR. Of course, the most notable names would be Hawkeye, Ant-Man, the Wasp, and maybe Captain Marvel. We’re sure to see these heroes in AVENGERS 4, but where were they during INFINITY WAR? Hawkeye and Ant-Man are briefly noted, but the others are a bit up in the air. That’s not to mention the dozens of other characters in the MCU who aren’t in the films.

Now, I was never expecting the Defenders or Ghost Rider to show up in INFINITY WAR, but I’m still very curious as to where they may have been during all the events of the film. I can’t imagine Jessica Jones or Luke Cage didn’t see the Children of Thanos’ ship in New York.

I’m gonna take a few guesses as to where some other MCU characters have been in general, as well as where they may have been during the events of AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.

Hawkeye

Of course, the absence of Clint Barton from AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR came as a bit of a shock to a lot of people. He was one of the founding Avengers in the MCU, so, where’s he been off to?

Well, judging by the after-credits scene from CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, it’s assumed Cap broke Clint out of the Raft along with the rest of his team. Clint, however, took a deal to go under house arrest. According to Black Widow in INFINITY WAR, the stress on Clint’s family was too much, so he decided to stay indoors for a while. Seems fair. So, we basically know where Clint was during INFINITY WAR.

He was home with his family, having to watch all the news about some of the terrible events of the film. But, what’s going to pull him into AVENGERS 4? My guess? His family will probably die because of Thanos snapping his damn fingers. That’s going to set Clint off big time, in a manner that might lead to him becoming Ronin.

Set photos from AVENGERS 4 show Jeremy Renner wearing costume pieces resembling that hero’s outfit. So, frankly, I’m willing to bet that Clint’s future won’t be the brightest. Only time will tell what gets him back together with the team in the wake of INFINITY WAR.

Ant-Man and the Wasp

I figure these two can be bundled together, especially since their film comes out in a few weeks.

These whereabouts of these two are actually a bit trickier to guess than you might think. We know from AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR that Scott Lang is under house arrest, like Clint. We also know that over the course of ANT-MAN AND THE WASP, Scott’s not going to follow the rules and violate his house arrest. Of course, Hope van Dyne will be joining Scott in whatever mess he finds himself in.

We know ANT-MAN AND THE WASP will take place before AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. It’s only logical. However, I’m willing to bet the film takes place weeks, if not months before INFINITY WAR. So, unless ANT-MAN AND THE WASP is taking place at the same time as INFINITY WAR (which I highly doubt), it’s kind of tough to say exactly what Scott and Hope might be doing.

We won’t have to wait too long to figure all this out. ANT-MAN AND THE WASP comes out July 6th. We’ll get some solid answers then. My guess is that the post-credits scene will be Scott and Hope (and maybe Hank) together, they witness INFINITY WAR related things, and someone important to them dies. Crossing my fingers that it isn’t Scott’s daughter.

The Defenders

Like I said earlier, there’s no way New York’s street-level heroes missed the “flying donut” invading the city. Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist undoubtedly caught a glimpse of that. To figure out where they may have been during AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, we’ll have to take a look at where each of these heroes most recently left off.

Daredevil

At the end of THE DEFENDERS, Matt Murdock found himself in some kind of convent, with nuns taking care of him. Season three of DAREDEVIL will likely pick up from there and take place before AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. It sounds like the season will be loosely adapting the “Born Again” storyline.

Matt Murdock’s future doesn’t look too good. Casting rumors imply that Bullseye will be present in DAREDEVIL season three, which could only spell disaster for the Man Without Fear. With everything lining up like this, it’s very likely Daredevil would be in a very broken state of mind come the events of AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.

If things pan out the way it seems they will, Matt Murdock would be in no position to take on Thanos and his minions. He’d likely be watching everything from the sidelines. Which, given all the crap he’s been through, is probably well-deserved. I just hope he wasn’t one of the few who got turned to ash because of Thanos.

Jessica Jones

The ending of JESSICA JONES season two left Jessica’s future sort of open-ended. She’s still got her PI practice going, but more importantly, she’s dealing with the loss of her mother. Surely, that’s something that will be sticking with Jessica for a long time. Jess isn’t the biggest fan of being a superhero.

Even if she saw aliens invading New York City, she’d likely choose to not get involved. Though she can certainly handle herself in a fight, the one that comes with AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR isn’t really hers to face. Frankly, there’s not much she or any of the other Defenders could really do that the Avengers can’t. So, like Murdock, it’s likely Jessica Jones is off on the sidelines for the most part during AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.

Again, really hoping she didn’t die because of Thanos.

Luke Cage

The Hero for Hire is still around doing what he does best. He’s keeping his neighborhood safe and being a total badass while doing so. So, where was he when the big purple dude decided to come to Earth?

Well, again, it’s a tough call. Season two of LUKE CAGE is right around the corner, and we don’t know where Luke will end up by the end of it. Luke is very much like Matt Murdock in that his future is sort of up in the air. We know he’ll be taking on Bushmaster. Judging from the trailer, Luke will have no shortage of scraps to get into with him.

But, again, we’ll have to wait and see how the season caps things off for Luke. I think it’s likely for him to be in a similar position as Daredevil and Jessica Jones. When Thanos’ invasion comes, he’ll likely be far away from the action. Not even because he wouldn’t want to fight, but because Harlem isn’t at all close to the Sanctum Sanctorum. The action would be over before he could get to it.

If Luke died because of Thanos, I’ll start a riot.

Iron Fist

Danny Rand has a lot on his plate right now. Between K’un-Lun disappearing and teaming up with the Defenders, the Immortal Iron Fist has hardly had a minute to breathe. At the end of THE DEFENDERS, Danny took on the task of protecting the city in Daredevil’s place. There’s no doubt that he’s been keeping himself busy with that job, as well.

Danny Rand has proven to be sort of impulsive. He charges headlong into fights that he may or may not be prepared for. On top of that, he’s now taken up this oath to protect the city as a whole, in Daredevil’s place. Given all of this, there’s no doubt that when Iron Fist heard about an alien invasion, he was probably ready to throw himself right into the fight. Frankly, were Danny to go up against Proxima Midnight or Corvus Glaive, he could handle himself very well.

However, against Ebony Maw or Cull Obsidian, Danny would get wrecked. The latter two members of the Children of Thanos were the ones to visit New York, so really, the best thing for Danny to do would be to keep clear of the action for once. Basically, the Defenders were probably no-shows for everything involving AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. I don’t just mean they weren’t on-screen. They were all probably sitting on the sidelines during this fight.

Given that Danny is the least likable Defender, I wouldn’t be torn up if he bit the dust at the end of AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.

Punisher

If there’s any one character I really would have enjoyed seeing in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR other than Daredevil or Luke Cage, it’s the Punisher. Can you imagine him, for whatever reason, joining up with the group in Wakanda and mowing down Outriders like they were nothing? I sure can. It’s a beautiful, bloody picture.

Of course, that’s just wishful thinking. There’s no way they’d include the Punisher in INFINITY WAR. He doesn’t exclusively match the other MCU heroes. And even though INFINITY WAR was a pretty dark film, it wasn’t so dark that it featured the brutality of the first season of THE PUNISHER.

It’s likely Frank Castle is still lying low after the events of THE PUNISHER. He doesn’t have to really worry about law enforcement coming after him, but he’s still a pretty hot target. He’s probably not in any rush to see even more violence. It’s more likely that he’ll wait for that to find him in season two of THE PUNISHER. So, he’s probably doing his best to just kick back and relax during AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.

I’ll be very upset if he died.

Ghost Rider

This is another character who would have been awesome teaming up with the Avengers. Hell, he’s doing so now in the comics. Ghost Rider (in the MCU, it’s Robbie Reyes) was last seen parting ways with the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He took the Darkhold either to someplace secluded on the Earth, or to some other dimension entirely. Basically, though, we’ve got no idea where Ghost Rider is, currently.

As awesome as it would be to see Robbie Reyes team up with the Avengers, he’s got enough going on as it is. Ghost Rider doesn’t just deal with problems on Earth. He’s got a few other dimensions to worry about, too. At least, in the comics, he does. It’s likely Robbie has now gotten mixed up in all that. For him, the threat of Thanos may not seem like that big of a deal.

Then again, he might not know what it is Thanos is doing. If Robbie knew Thanos was after the Infinity Stones, he’d probably show up to help take him down. Unfortunately, though, that wasn’t the case in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. Not that it would be, though. Seriously, the MCU needs to get better about incorporating the shows into the films.

Can Ghost Rider die? I’m not entirely sure. If he can, then I hope Thanos didn’t kill him. If not, then we’re good.

The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Season five of AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. saw the team taking on aliens and dealing with altered timelines and just a bunch of over-the-top sci-fi stuff. It was quite a lot to take in, but boy if it wasn’t fun. The season finale featured an intense fight between Daisy Johnson and General Talbot, who essentially became the MCU’s version of the villain Graviton.

Seeing as though Coulson and the team have been off-world for a while, they didn’t have the slightest clue what’s in store for the Earth. That changed in episode 20, titled “The One Who Will Save Us All.” Coulson and Talbot learned about Thanos’ imminent invasion. However, even though the team was made aware of the threat, they weren’t able to return to Earth to stop it.

They had more pressing matters to deal with in space. Not to mention, they were caught in some kind of time loop or alternate timeline. They were basically working to make sure the Earth doesn’t blow up. We’ll have to wait to find out how the show ultimately ties into the events of INFINITY WAR.

Any number of the team could die because of Thanos. It’s anyone’s guess as to who may take the fall.

Captain Marvel

I thought I’d save the best for last. We knew Captain Marvel wouldn’t be appearing in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. But, thanks to the singular post-credits scene of the film, we now know that Nick Fury is still in contact with her and that she’ll no doubt be appearing in AVENGERS 4.

But, where’s Carol Danvers been all this time, then? Why didn’t Fury think to call her for the first Avengers film? What’s she been up to all these years? CAPTAIN MARVEL will take place in the 90s. That means Carol Danvers has been doing Captain Marvel related things for almost thirty years. That’s a lot of time between the events of CAPTAIN MARVEL and AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR.

I’m assuming she’s been off-planet all this time dealing with alien problems. After all, she’ll be facing the Skrulls in her solo film. Either that, or maybe she’ll undergo some kind of cryo-stasis, and what Nick Fury did was actually wake her up. I don’t know if I’d entirely buy that, but it could work.

Whatever the case may be, we know Captain Marvel is out there somewhere in the MCU during AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. We’ll have a better understanding of that when CAPTAIN MARVEL hits theaters early next year.

The Long March from AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR to AVENGERS 4

There are probably a ton of minor characters I’ve left off this list. But, here, I think I’ve covered the big ones, at least. We know we’ll be seeing Hawkeye/Ronin, Ant-Man, the Wasp, and Captain Marvel in AVENGERS 4. As for everyone else, they’ll just have to deal with the aftermath.

With all of this laid out, though, now it’s time for the long march to AVENGERS 4. A short synopsis for the film has already been released. Whatever happens, you can be sure it’ll be just as explosive as AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, if not more so. May 3, 2019, can’t arrive soon enough.