Seven Years Later, Quicksilver’s Death Remains One Of The MCU’s Worst Decisions

Despite the MCU's unprecedented success, their portrayal of the Sokovian speedster is a major blight on its resume.

Introduction 

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) is perhaps the least discussed MCU movie today. This seems strange on account of how it’s one of four Avengers movies, and all its other counterparts made immense cultural impacts in their own right. Age of Ultron, despite how highly anticipated it was, generated a lukewarm reaction among fans.

One of the most significant parts of this movie was the introduction of the Maximoff twins, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, into the MCU. 

Wanda Maximoff has become one of the most complex characters in the MCU. She’s starred in several movies since Age of Ultron, most recently Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness and has had her own Disney+ series, Wandavision.

The same cannot be said for Pietro Maximoff, who had about 10 minutes of screen time in Age of Ultron before meeting his untimely death. 

Pietro was, unfortunately, fighting an uphill battle before he even spoke his first line in Age of Ultron; X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) just premiered a few months prior and starred Evan Peters in the role of “Peter” Maximoff, Quicksilver. The fact that audiences were just treated to a fun, charismatic Quicksilver only made Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s portrayal of the character that much more bland. 

To this day, the MCU’s portrayal of Quicksilver, including his premature death in Sokovia, remains one of the franchise’s biggest blunders since 2008. 

“You Didn’t See That Coming”

Not only did Pietro lack personality, but the circumstances surrounding his death were incredibly odd, to say the least. 

To summarize: Ultron is flying a fighter jet above Sokovia and firing down on civilians below. Hawkeye is rescuing a child from rubble, sees the wave of gunfire coming toward him, holds the kid close, and braces for impact. When the plane passes, he realizes he and the kid are both still alive. He looks up and sees Pietro, riddled with bullet holes. Pietro says “You didn’t see that coming?” before dropping to the ground, lifeless. 

One of the biggest oversights with this scene is that you can see the bullets went through Pietro, meaning Hawkeye should’ve been hit anyway. The fact that no one on this million-dollar movie set thought about that is… weird. 

Marvel humor has become a trope by this point. Characters can’t go more than 10 minutes without making some sarcastic quip. The humor often lessens the emotional impact of scenes, and this is no exception. Did Pietro really need to repeat the snarky line he and Hawkeye were throwing at each other? It feels so out of place.

Wanda, Pietro’s twin sister, doesn’t directly witness Pietro’s death. Instead, she senses that he died telepathically. Elizabeth Olsen’s performance is devastating and emotionally gripping, but you can’t help but wonder if it would’ve been more effective for her to be with Pietro in the moments after his passing. Her position by Ultron’s machine makes sense but also lessens what could have been one of the most heart-wrenching scenes to come out of the MCU. 

The Magic of the Multiverse 

Comic book fans know that no one ever really dies. This is potentially the case for Quicksilver, depending on what tricks Marvel has up their sleeves.

Quicksilver returned (kind of) in the Disney+ series Wandavision, but it wasn’t the Pietro Maximoff we saw in Age of Ultron. Instead, it was Evan Peters’ interpretation of the character. 

Darcy Lewis, supervising Wanda for the organization SWORD, makes a quip at the appearance of Evan Peters’ Quicksilver, joking that Wanda “recast Pietro.” 

We learn later on that this Quicksilver isn’t actually Wanda’s brother at all. He’s a guy named Ralph Bohner, manipulating Wanda on Agatha Harkness’ behalf. 

Pietro could’ve been played by anyone, but Evan Peters being picked to play the role complicates things. Some fans online believe that Ralph Bohner is an alias chosen by Peter Maximoff from the X-Men timeline, who's been in some sort of witness protection program since he crossed the multiverse. 

Maybe a real Quicksilver will return to the MCU, but in what capacity remains up in the air. The fact remains, though, that Quicksilver was never given a fair shot in the MCU. 

The franchise, surprisingly, doesn’t have any living speedster heroes now. Quicksilver could’ve made fight scenes more dynamic and opened up interesting storytelling avenues. Instead, Joss Whedon decided to kill Pietro off just after introducing him. Besides being a peripheral part of Wanda’s character development, Pietro became a total afterthought. He remains one of the MCU’s biggest blunders to date.