Marvel Studios is several projects deep into Phase 4, but the events of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame are still continuing to affect the MCU.
While some shows and movies have tackled the Blip more directly than others, four of the six ones that have come out in 2021 so far have addressed it and the impact it's had on the world.
What's still unknown, in many cases, is who was dusted out of existence when Thanos snapped his fingers while wielding the Infinity Gauntlet and who was spared (or, from another point of view, subjected to a possibly worse fate of living in a universe in ruins for half a decade).
Here are 13 Phase 4 characters whose Blip fate remains unofficially confirmed and what the evidence points toward for each of them.
YELENA BELOVA
Being six years old in 1995 - as seen at the beginning of Black Widow - would put Yelena around her mid-30’s in present-day MCU (2024-2025) and about 30 or close to it if she wasn’t. Either would make Yelena older than her portrayer, 25-year-old Florence Pugh, but the latter would make the gap much smaller.
Age alone is probably enough to conclude that Yelena was snapped, but it would also make for a more dramatic story than the alternative. If Yelena disappeared only for Natasha to be gone when she came back, it would make for a jarring situation and motivate her to go after Clint after being told by Valentina he was the reason for her death.
Most Likely Fate: Snapped
RED GUARDIAN AND MELINA VOSTOKOFF
These two were most likely both snapped for the same dramatic reason as Yelena. Natasha seemed to be largely alone for the five years after the snap, spending most of her time at the Avengers compound. If she knew any of her family members were alive, she’d likely spend a good portion of her time with them, but as is, it sure doesn’t seem like it.
Most Likely Fate: Snapped
DARCY LEWIS
Darcy Lewis was offscreen for a long stretch of the MCU, last appearing in 2013’s Thor: The Dark World prior to WandaVision in 2021. Of course, this gap is even longer in MCU time, with WandaVision seemingly taking place in late 2023.
In that time, Darcy earned her doctorate in astrophysics, something that takes a long time for most people. It’s not unheard of for inhabitants of the MCU to get PhDs in a faster time frame than typical (as evidenced by the seven of them earned by Bruce Banner), but it’s never stated or even hinted at that Darcy managed to do this.
Darcy also seems pretty unphased and up on things when it comes to the circumstances of the Snap and its aftermath (for example, Vision being dead for real and not blipped away by Thanos) as opposed to someone like Monica Rambeau, who was revealed to have disappeared in the Blip.
While Darcy’s fate is never stated in canon, actress Kat Dennings confirmed that she didn’t disappear, telling Screen Rant, “We decided amongst ourselves that she was not blipped. And while we don't see that flashback, I like as an actor to imagine Darcy in the blip. Because that would be hilarious.”
Confirmed Fate: Spared
JIMMY WOO
Much like Darcy, Jimmy Woo seems pretty up-to-date and at ease with what’s been going on in the world. He also managed to complete that card trick Scott Lang showed him in Ant-Man and the Wasp, and it seemed to be a tough one that would take a while to master.
Since those who were blipped experience the events of that movie just a few weeks prior to those of WandaVision, it’s probably safe to say he was around for the five years in between.
Most Likely Fate: Spared
AGATHA HARNESS
Agatha is a major Phase 4 player who has very little direct connection to the Blip. She isn't introduced until Thanos' deed had been done and never once mentions the event throughout WandaVision, even though other characters do.
Having just come back from being snapped, it doesn't seem likely that one of her first orders of business would be to investigate the Hex and the magic coming for it, so she was probably around for those five years, even though that amount of time would really be just a drop in the bucket of her extra-long lifespan revealed in WandaVision.
Most Likely Fate: Spared
HELMUT ZEMO
It’s difficult to tell whether or not Zemo was snapped, but his personality in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier being so different from Captain America: Civil War may indicate that he was not, and that spending so much time in prison changed his outlook on certain things. However, it can be argued that there’s a good chance Zemo would have been able to escape from prison in the chaos of the Snap if he did survive.
Perhaps Zemo’s fate will be revealed in a future project, but right now, neither scenario would be surprising. The personality shift theory probably holds a bit more weight between the two, but again, it’s hard to tell.
Most Likely Fate: Spared
JOHN WALKER AND LEMAR HOSKINS
The U.S. government hand-picked John Walker as “the next Captain America,” and with so many candidates presumably in contention for the position, they would likely opt for someone who had been around during the five years between the Snap and the Blip rather than someone still adjusting to the changing society.
It’s possible that they didn’t, and Walker’s hostility toward the Flag Smashers was partially because of his ignorance as to how things were during the Blip, but the show likely would have made a point to drive that home if that had been the case.
Assuming Walker was spared, Hoskins was likely as well. The two seemed to have spent a good portion of their lives together, and it’s doubtful Walker would have reacted quite so violently if Hoskins had already died once before.
Most Likely Fate: Spared
SHANG-CHI AND KATY CHEN
Based on the timeline presented in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, it appears Shang-Chi was born in the late '90s or the year 2000. If this is the case, he would have been 15 years old - the age he left his family - around 2014 or 2015, about ten years before the movie presumably takes place in 2024.
This means that he would be about 20 years old in the movie if he was snapped or 25 if he was not, and Simu Liu is more believable as a 25-year-old than a 20-year-old. More importantly, with all the talk of him being away for 10 years, it would surely come up if he missed out on five of those due to being blipped out of existence.
It appears Shang-Chi spent pretty much the entire ten-year period away from his home with Katy, with the two of them having met in high school and appearing to be the same age at the time the movie takes place. It’s a safe bet she also survived.
Most Likely Fate: Spared
XU XIALING AND WENWU
Going by the assumption that five of the ten years between Shang-Chi leaving home and returning to it took place during the Blip, Xialing would have had to be spared given that she mentioned giving up on the idea of her brother ever coming back after six years.
She also started the Golden Daggers Club after realizing this and would have needed time to establish the organization in order for it to become the hub it has by the time the events of the film roll around.
As for Wenwu, if his claims of knowing where his son was at all times through the ten years he was gone is true, he would have had to survive the Snap.
Most Likely Fate: Spared
VALENTINA ALLEGRA DE FONTAINE
Little is known about Valentina’s life before she started mysteriously showing up and recruiting people for what appears to be at least a somewhat shady organization, but her timing does make one Blip scenario seem more likely than the other.
Valentina appears to only have started recruiting members for what appears to be a Thunderbolts team (or another equivalent for the MCU). It is not currently known why she is doing this, but it seems like something that it would have made more sense to begin doing during the Blip, had she survived it.
Most Likely Fate: Snapped
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