TAGGED AS: comic, Comic Book, Marvel, MCU
In the lead up to Avengers: Endgame, we invited fans to take part in a mammoth survey to find out your favorite movies, characters, and moments from the Marvel Cinematic Universe – so far! Hundreds of Rotten Tomatoes fans took part, weighing in on their favorite Avengers, their favorite villains, their most heartbreaking Infinity War deaths, and which post-Endgame movie they’re most excited to see. (Because it may be the “endgame” this week, but the MCU will go on). We dug deep into the data to spot some fun trends, seeing if there were divides along gender lines (ladies love M’Baku, who’d have thunk it!?) and generations (our Millennial/Non-Millennial split told us a bunch). Check out the results and major findings below, and let us know your own answers in the comments section.
(Photo by @ Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, @ Marvel Studios)
In one of our survey’s most unsurprising results, the two Avengers whose relationship underpins the entire MCU came out on top when we asked Who Is Your Favorite Avenger? Some 53% of fans cast votes for Tony Stark and Steve Rogers; Thor came in a close third with 50% of respondents naming him one of their favorites.
Cap’ was the clear overall favorite when it came to younger fans: 64% of Millennials named him one of their favorites (compared with 55% for Iron Man). Female fans were slightly less into Steve, though, with 44% of female respondents saying he was a favorite, compared with 59% of males. For the ladies, it was all about the God of Thunder: Thor got the highest percentage of female votes, with 55% of female respondents designating the Asgardian one of their most beloved heroes.
Spidey was surprisingly divisive, both between the sexes and among generations. While 46% of male fans called Peter Parker one of their favorite Avengers, just 29% of female fans did the same. Not surprisingly, the youngest Avenger has some serious Millennial appeal, getting 44% of Millennials to name him a fave, compared with 36% of Non-Millennials.
The top nine favorites in our survey were all characters who have had standalone MCU films (Hulk, whose standalone film did not star Mark Ruffalo, came in last amongst those). The bottom eight have not had their own films, although one is on the way for Black Widow (ranked 10th), and Scarlet Witch, Vision, Bucky Barnes, and Falcon will all appear in limited series on Disney+.
Here are the full results from the question, Who Is Your Favorite Avenger? (Note, people could vote for multiple characters.)
(Photo by @ Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, @ Marvel Studios)
Yes, we know he’s not dead dead, but that didn’t make the heartbreak any easier. When asked which character’s Infinity War death was the saddest, some 61% of respondents ticked the box marked Peter Parker. Gamora came in second with 36% of respondents including her in their selections, and Groot came in third with 35%. Peter Quill did surprisingly poorly, with only 17% of respondents admitting they were torn up about his death – perhaps they still haven’t forgiven him for letting his emotions get the better of him.
Here are the top five saddest Infinity War deaths, according to the fans. (Note, people could vote for multiple characters.)
(Photo by Peter Parker Endgame Poster)
Groot took out this category in a landslide, with 66% of respondents selecting him as one of their favorite supporting characters or sidekicks; Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) came in second with 39%. Black Panther’s Shuri (Letitia Wright) was not far behind with 37%, followed by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) at 36%, and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) at 31%. We were happy to see folks have not forgotten Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), seventh with 25%.
There were plenty of generational splits when it came to favorite sidekicks, with Valkyrie creating one of the biggest: Millennials are all about the booze-swilling rebel, with 41% naming her one of their favorite supporting characters, but just 25% of Non-Millennials felt the same. Millennials similarly showed love for Korg (Taika Waititi), Bucky, and JARVIS, while Non-Millennials were left relatively cold by them.
One of the bigger gender divides was over M’Baku (Winston Duke), with 27% of female respondents naming him a fave compared with 18% of males.
Here are the top 10 favorite sidekicks/supporting characters. (Note, people could vote for multiple characters.)
(Photo by @ Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Sure, we could get into the whole “but is he really a villain?” debate, given his trajectory in the films, but we’re not going to. For a number of Phase 1 movies, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) was a villain – pure and simple. And you guys love him when he’s at his most devious. The god of mischief received the most votes for favorite villain, at 63%, followed by Thanos (Josh Brolin) at 48%. Hela (Cate Blanchett) was number three at 30%.
Black Panther’s Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) was the highest-ranked human villain on the list, coming in at number four, just ahead of the Winter Soldier, with 29%. But Killmonger was generationally divisive, with 41% of Millennials naming him one of their favorites (he actually ranked third for Millennials, above Hela), but just 21% of Non-Millennials doing the same.
Interestingly, critic favorite Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl), who sowed the seeds of the Avengers’ internal breakdown in Civil War, came in near the bottom of our villain list, with only 4% of fans naming him one of their favorites. In terms of major MCU villains, only Iron Man 3’s Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) came in lower, with just 3%.
Here are fans’ top 10 favorite villains. (Note, people could vote for multiple characters.)
(Photo by @ Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Fans’ top 10 favorite standalone MCU movies contain some of the MCUs’ Freshest offerings on the Tomatometer – though the Freshest movie, Black Panther (97%), is fans’ fourth favorite. Number one for fans is Guardians of the Galaxy, which 51% of respondents named as one of their favorites, followed by the similarly funny and space-set Thor: Ragnarok. Just one Phase 1 origin movie features in the top 10: Iron Man came in at number three, with 40% of respondents saying it was among their faves. Only two franchises are represented twice in the top 10: Captain America, with The Winter Soldier and Civil War both among fans’ favorites, and Guardians, with Vol. 1 and 2 both in the top 10.
Fans’ least favorite standalone movie? No shocks here: The Incredible Hulk, which is also tied for the MCU’s lowest Tomatometer score with Thor: The Dark World at 67%. Incidentally, that latter film is fans’ second least favorite MCU movie.
Here are the fans’ top 10 standalone MCU movies. (Note, people could vote for multiple movies.)
(Photo by @ Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, @ Marvel Studios)
Groot’s cuteness reigns supreme again, with 55% of fans saying that baby Groot in the Guardians post-credits sequence is their favorite of the after-movie stingers. His closest competition is one of the MCU’s most recent: The Captain Marvel credit sequence in which Carol shows up to meet the rest of the Avengers.
Here is the rest of the top five favorite post-credits scenes. (Note, people could vote for multiple scenes.)
(Photo by @ Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, @ Marvel Studios)
Familiarity was key for fans when we asked what post-Endgame movie they were most looking forward to. Three sequels topped the list, with one familiar character’s first solo flick coming in close behind, and less-familiar properties rounding out the bottom of the list. Of course, The Eternals and Shang-Chi are at a massive disadvantage here, given that we have not had time to fall in love with those characters (they’re still being cast!). Given the talent involved behind the camera on those projects (acclaimed indie director Chloe Zhao is helming The Eternals and Short Term 12 filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton is directing Shang-Chi), we have no doubt folks will be much more excited as we get nearer to their release dates.
Here are fans top six most anticipated post-Endgame movies. (Note, we included movies that are in production/active development, and people could vote for multiple movies.)
Thumbnail image courtesy Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Marvel Studios
