How ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Uses The Same Cliffhanger Strategy as ‘Sherlock’ Season 2

(This post contains MAJOR SPOILERS for Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the

Wasp, and Sherlock Seasons 2 & 3) Avengers: Infinity War ended on a bold, heartbreaking note, with Thanos winning and half of the Avengers perishing along with half of the rest of the universe. Of course, as the credits start rolling, it doesn’t take long for the audience to realize that a lot of those characters will be returning. After all, Spider-Man and the Guardians have sequels that were announced months before Infinity War and a sequel to Black Panther is all but guaranteed. In addition, a lot of characters have been confirmed to return in some capacity. Instead, after recovering from the heartbreak of seeing Peter cling to Tony and Groot call Rocket “Dad” in his own language, fans had something even more exciting to look forward to in Avengers 4: the answer to the question of how they come back. This isn’t the only time that a series has ended on the cliffhanger of how someone survived after dying or seemingly dying. One such series that comes to mind is Sherlock, which ironically also involves Benedict Cumberbatch returning from the dead in some capacity. The final episode of season 2, “The Reichenbach Fall,” deals with Sherlock being framed by Moriarty and ends with a confrontation on a rooftop. After Moriarty kills himself, Sherlock is forced to jump to save his friends. The only witness is John Watson, played by fellow MCU actor Martin Freeman (who wasn’t in Infinity War), but by what he witnesses, Sherlock is dead. Except at his funeral, it’s revealed that he isn’t dead at all and that he faked his death, leaving fans with the agonizing wait of two years to find out exactly how he pulled it off. I personally was fortunate enough that I started watching the show right before season 4 aired, so I didn’t have to wait that long. However, for the fans that watched it on air, they had plenty of time to study it and come off with plenty of fan theories, which the show even poked fun of in the first episode of season 3. Granted, the cliffhanger endings for both Sherlock season 2 and Infinity War are based off the source material. Each of the Sherlock episodes is inspired by an existing Sherlock Holmes story, and “The Reichenbach Fall” is specifically inspired by The Final Problem. Meanwhile, Infinity War is inspired by multiple issues, including The Infinity Gauntlet comic, which opens with the snap and people disappearing. While for The Final Problem, Sherlock was meant to originally stay dead, this was changed due to fan complaints. Granted, because of the modern day setting, the original stories couldn’t provide too many clues as to how he survived. However, for the Avengers, we have to comics as source material and the possible solutions, including the one included in time travel, Nebula (or someone else) using an Infinity Gauntlet, and the fact that our heroes could be trapped in the soul stone (it’s been confirmed that Gamora is trapped there). Granted, since Adam Warlock has only been teased and Captain Marvel is supposed to play a much larger role, it’s almost guaranteed that they’ll stray from the source material to surprise us, but include Easter eggs to the original solution. For Marvel fans, we only have to wait one year to find out what happens, but already, plenty of fan theories are pouring in, and anticipation for Avengers 4 has never been higher. I’ll admit, I sort of forgot all about the fourth film while watching it, partially because of the marketing and partially because of all the “ten years in making” hype. Now the marketing team doesn’t have to make as much of an effort to inform anyone who saw Infinity War that there’s a fourth film, and they just need to remind us to when it’s being released. Any fan who saw it and wasn’t angry at the ending will be coming back to find out what happens, and considering the fact that its currently the highest-grossing film of the year, that means a lot of people have seen it and many have seen it multiple times. And the fact that we’ve known some of these characters for ten years, especially all the characters who survived, might make it as such that Avengers 4 is a bigger film than Star Wars IX, which is also coming out the same year. The decision to end Infinity War the way they did helps ensure this because these agonizing questions will bother us fans for the next year. It also helps that Ant-Man and the Wasp ended on a similar cliffhanger in its mid-credits scene, with Hank, Janet, and Hope disintegrated and Scott Lang trapped in the Quantum Realm. This builds on the cliffhanger of how these characters will come back while providing major clues as to how, even if it does toy with us by adding the question mark to the standard “Ant-Man and the Wasp Will Return” statement at the end of the credits. In addition, it also raises massive hype for their remaining film before Avengers 4, Captain Marvel. I’ll admit, I was only initially going to maybe see it in theaters (I haven’t seen all the Marvel films in theaters) but after that post-credits scene, I’m already hooked and I know I want to see it without having to see a trailer. Just like the season 2 finale of Sherlock, ending with the cliffhanger of “how will/did they survive?” and how can sometimes be a much more compelling and nagging question than why. They both did the cliffhanger just right, and since Sherlock’s opening to season 3 was worth the cliffhanger with a hilarious episode with a lot of heart so here’s hoping Avengers 4 ends Phase 3 of the MCU with the bang they’ve set up.