Seven years ago, it looked as though the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe might run straight through three women.

Natasha Romanoff was one of the six original Avengers, the spy who had been fighting beside Steve Rogers, Tony Stark and Thor since the team first assembled.

Carol Danvers arrived just before Avengers: Endgame as Captain Marvel, a cosmic powerhouse powerful enough to go directly at Thanos.

Then Wanda Maximoff moved from supporting Avenger to the center of two of Marvel’s most important post-Endgame stories, WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Now Avengers: Doomsday is approaching — and none of those three women has a simple place in it.

Black Widow is dead. Scarlet Witch disappeared beneath a collapsing mountain. Captain Marvel survived her most recent movie, yet Brie Larson still will not say whether she is returning.

Meanwhile, Marvel has confirmed a sprawling Doomsday lineup filled with Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four members and newer MCU heroes. Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Olsen and Larson remain absent from the publicly confirmed cast.

That makes their stories three very different mysteries.

Black Widow Is the One Case That Almost Has an Answer

Natasha Romanoff’s fate appeared definitive in Avengers: Endgame.

On Vormir, she and Clint Barton discovered that obtaining the Soul Stone required a life to be exchanged. Both tried to sacrifice themselves. Natasha ultimately succeeded, falling to her death so the Avengers could complete their plan to undo Thanos’ destruction.

Marvel later gave Johansson the long-awaited Black Widow solo movie in 2021, but it did not reverse that ending. The film was set years earlier, after Captain America: Civil War and before Natasha’s final Avengers missions.

More importantly, Johansson herself has repeatedly resisted the idea that Natasha needs another resurrection.

Asked about the continuing hope for Black Widow’s return in 2025, she was unusually direct: “Natasha is dead.” She argued that the character should be allowed to keep the heroic significance of what she did, adding, “She saved the world. Let her have her hero moment.”

That would seem to close the case.

Except Marvel has spent the road to Doomsday demonstrating how flexible “the end” can become.

Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers finished Endgame as an old man after choosing to remain in the past with Peggy Carter. His story looked complete, but Marvel has now officially confirmed that Steve Rogers returns in Doomsday.

Robert Downey Jr. is back too, although with an important distinction: Marvel is not simply resurrecting Tony Stark. Downey is playing Doctor Doom, giving one of the MCU’s most recognizable faces an entirely different identity.

Neither situation is identical to Natasha’s death.

But both make Johansson’s absence stand out even more.

If Marvel is willing to reopen the door for other foundational faces from the Endgame era, is Black Widow truly the one ending it refuses to touch?

For now, Johansson appears determined that the answer should be yes.

Scarlet Witch Is a Much Bigger Mystery

Wanda Maximoff never received an ending nearly as clean as Natasha’s.

At the climax of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Wanda finally recognized the damage she had caused while pursuing alternate-universe versions of her children. She destroyed the Darkhold and brought Mount Wundagore down around herself.

The mountain collapsed.

A burst of red energy appeared.

But the movie never gave audiences the kind of unmistakable farewell Natasha received on Vormir.

That ambiguity has fueled years of speculation about whether Scarlet Witch actually died.

Elizabeth Olsen has not provided a clearer answer.

In 2025, she indicated that scheduling commitments meant she was not participating in Doomsday. Then, during C2E2 in March 2026, she sounded even further removed from Marvel’s plans, saying she knew “nothing” about the next Avengers films and preferred it that way because knowing less made it easier to avoid accidentally revealing secrets.

Olsen is also still missing from Marvel’s announced Doomsday cast.

That leaves several possibilities — but they remain possibilities, not confirmed developments.

Wanda could genuinely be dead. Marvel could be saving her return for another project. Olsen could appear in an unannounced surprise. Or Multiverse of Madness may ultimately stand as the conclusion of this version of Scarlet Witch’s story.

Marvel has confirmed none of those theories.

And that uncertainty is exactly what makes Wanda different from Natasha.

Black Widow has a death and an actress defending it.

Scarlet Witch has an unanswered question.

Captain Marvel May Be the Strangest Absence of All

Then there is Carol Danvers.

Unlike Natasha, Captain Marvel did not die.

Unlike Wanda, she did not disappear beneath a mountain.

At the end of 2023’s The Marvels, Carol was very much alive. Monica Rambeau became trapped in another reality while closing a dimensional rupture, but Carol survived, helped restore the Kree homeworld’s sun and returned to Earth.

There was no retirement.

No sacrifice.

No obvious story reason preventing her from answering an Avengers-level crisis.

Yet Larson’s name remains absent from the confirmed Doomsday lineup.

When she was directly asked about Captain Marvel’s whereabouts and a possible Doomsday appearance in 2026, Larson did not deny it.

She did not confirm it either.

“Ah, you know I can’t talk about that, nice try,” she replied.

That answer could mean almost anything under Marvel’s famously secretive system.

But it creates the article’s biggest unanswered question.

Natasha has a reason not to be there.

Wanda at least has a mysterious ending that can explain her absence.

What about Captain Marvel?

The Avengers Are Already Filling Up Without Them

Perhaps the biggest clue is not who Marvel has left out.

It is who Marvel has brought in.

Florence Pugh is confirmed to return as Yelena Belova. Letitia Wright is back as Shuri. Vanessa Kirby joins the Avengers crossover as Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman. They are part of a much larger ensemble that also pulls characters from the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and the Thunderbolts/New Avengers side of the MCU.

Yelena’s presence is particularly striking.

Natasha may be gone, but the younger sister introduced in Black Widow is moving directly into the kind of massive crossover movie Natasha once occupied.

That does not necessarily make Yelena a replacement for Black Widow, just as Sue Storm or Shuri should not be viewed as replacements for Wanda or Carol.

But it does reveal something about Marvel’s changing center of gravity.

The MCU no longer needs to rebuild exactly the Avengers lineup it had in 2019. It now has several generations of heroes, legacy characters and entire franchises available at once.

And that may ultimately explain the strange situation surrounding these three women better than any resurrection theory.

Black Widow’s chapter may truly be over.

Scarlet Witch’s ending may still contain another page.

Captain Marvel’s future may simply be something Marvel is refusing to reveal.

Seven years after Endgame, the surprising question is no longer which of these women would inherit the MCU.

It is whether Doomsday will bring any of them back at all — or confirm that the Avengers have already entered a new generation without them.