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Frequently Asked Questions

General

1. What franchises are part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

If it isn't listed in the filmography section, then it isn't part of the MCU.

2. Where can I legally watch/buy the MCU?

	Disney+ - US	Amazon - US	Youtube - US	Google Play	STARZ
Iron Man	✔	$16.99 HD	$16.99 HD	$12.99	N/A
The Incredible Hulk	N/A	$12.99 HD	$12.99 HD	$9.99	N/A
Iron Man 2	✔	$16.99 HD	$16.99 HD	$12.99	N/A
Thor	✔	$16.99 HD	$16.99 HD	$12.99	N/A
Captain America: The First Avenger	✔	$16.99 HD	$16.99 HD	$12.99	N/A
The Avengers	✔	$16.99 HD	$16.99 HD	$12.99	N/A
Iron Man 3	✔	$16.99 HD	$16.99 HD	$12.99	N/A
Thor: The Dark World	✔	$16.99 HD	$16.99 HD	$12.99	N/A
Captain America: The Winter Soldier	✔	$19.99 HD	$16.99 HD	$12.99	N/A
Guardians of the Galaxy	✔	$16.99 HD	$16.99 HD	$12.99	N/A
Avengers: Age of Ultron	✔	$16.99 HD	$16.99 HD	$12.99	N/A
Ant-Man	✔	$16.99 HD	$16.99 HD	$12.99	N/A
Captain America: Civil War	✔	$16.99 HD	$16.99 HD	$12.99	N/A
Doctor Strange	✔	$18.99 HD	$18.99 HD	$13.99	N/A
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2	✔	$18.99 HD	$16.99 HD	$13.99	N/A
Spider-Man: Homecoming	N/A	$18.99 HD	$18.99 HD	$14.99	Available
Thor: Ragnarok	✔	$19.99 HD	$19.99 HD	$14.99	N/A
Black Panther	✔	$19.99 HD	$19.99 HD	$14.99	N/A
Avengers: Infinity War	✔	$19.99 HD	$19.99 HD	$19.99	N/A
Ant-Man and The Wasp	✔	$19.99 HD	$19.99 HD	$19.99	N/A
Captain Marvel	✔	$19.99 HD	$19.99 HD	$19.99	N/A
Avengers: Endgame	✔	$19.99 HD	$19.99 HD	$19.99	N/A
Spider-Man: Far From Home	N/A	$19.99 HD	$19.99 HD	$19.99	N/A
Black Widow	✔	$19.99 HD	$19.99 HD	$19.99	N/A
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings	✔	$19.99 HD	$19.99 HD	$19.99	N/A
Eternals	✔	TBD	TBD	TBD	N/A
Spider-Man: No Way Home	✔	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD

3. What order should I watch the MCU?

It is preferred for new viewers to simply watch these movie in release order, which can be found here, but if you intend on watching them all again, you could watch them in chronological order for a different viewing experience, which can be found here (however it should be noted this list is not affiliated with our subreddit and contains entires not considered as MCU canon in this subreddit).

If you want a more compact chronological order with only the films, shows and One-Shots produced by Marvel Studios (no web series, no canon promotional material and no series produced by Marvel Television the canonicity of which are in the air at the moment), you can check this one out.

And if you're looking for the chronological list of the Defenders Saga, you can check this out.

We also had a post with our users discussing their preferred viewing orders with some of them being quite unique.

4. Do I need to watch any of the television shows to understand the movies and vice versa?

As of right now, you are not required to watch the Netflix, ABC, or Hulu shows to understand anything in the movies or watch the movies to understand anything on the Netflix, ABC, or Hulu shows. However, this will not be the case with the Disney+ shows, which will be just as crucial to watch as the movies.

With the recent return of "Defenders Saga" characters in the MCU though (Matt Murdock, Wilson Fisk), it is still unclear how much of a required viewing those shows will become in the future. It is very likely the characters will undergo what's known as a "soft-reboot". This happens often in the comics when a comic run has gone on for too long and new readers feel lost with all the required reading they have to do, so writers start a new run (from issue #1) which follows the same version of the character but a new plot-line, which is unrelated to the character's old plot-lines and new readers can start from there.

With that said, it is unlikely Marvel Studios will show the origin story of these characters again, so if you want to understand who these characters are, you should consider watching the Defenders Saga, which is now streaming on Disney+.

5. What is a post-credits and end-credits scene? What's the difference?

A post-credits scene is a short clip that plays before the closing credits of the movie. Typically, it's humorous in nature, a sequel hook, or sometimes it's crucial to the plot of future movies. An end-credits scene is exactly like a post-credits scene, except that it takes place after the closing credits.

6. Which movies have post-credit and end-credit scenes? How important are they?

Movies	Post-Credits Scene	Important?	End-Credits Scene	Important?
Iron Man	✗	N/A	✓	✓
The Incredible Hulk	✗	N/A	✗	N/A
Iron Man 2	✗	N/A	✓	✗
Thor	✗	N/A	✓	✓
Captain America: The First Avenger	✗	N/A	✗	N/A
The Avengers	✓	✓	✓	✗
Iron Man 3	✗	N/A	✓	✗
Thor: The Dark World	✓	✓	✓	✗
Captain America: The Winter Soldier	✓	✓	✓	✗
Guardians of the Galaxy	✓	✗	✓	✗
Avengers: Age of Ultron	✓	✗	✗	N/A
Ant-Man	✗	N/A	✓	✗
Captain America: Civil War	✓	✓	✓	✗
Doctor Strange	✓	✗	✓	✓
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2	✓	✓	✓	✗
Spider-Man: Homecoming	✓	✓	✓	✓
Thor: Ragnarok	✓	✓	✓	✗
Black Panther	✓	✓	✓	✓
Avengers: Infinity War	✗	N/A	✓	✓
Ant-Man and the Wasp	✓	✓	✓	✗
Captain Marvel	✓	✓	✓	✓
Avengers: Endgame	✗	N/A	✗	N/A
Spider-Man: Far From Home	✓	✓	✓	✓
Black Widow	✗	N/A	✓	✓
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings	✓	✓	✓	✓
Eternals	✓	✓	✓	✓
Spider-Man: No Way Home	✓	✓	✓	✗

7. Are the Marvel TV shows canon to the MCU? Will any of the Netflix or television characters appear in any future movies? What about the shows on Disney+?

The TV shows made by Marvel Television were created with the intention to inhabit the same continuity as the movies of the MCU. ABC's Agent Carter was even produced by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and co-president Louis D'Esposito, who also directed one of its episodes, while the architects behind the show were writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely who have written the Captain America films, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

However, due to a corporate division between Marvel Studios and Marvel Entertainment, which owned Marvel Television, in 2015, only 2 years after the release of Marvel TV's first show, 2-way-crossovers between the movies and the TV shows never became a thing, despite the willingness of the Marvel Studios execs.

Specifics can be read in the Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years book, which goes into detail about the story of the studio. Below is a segment of the book:

By this point in Marvel Studios' lifespan, Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, and Victoria Alonso- along with their internal creative executive producers-were finding themselves progressively at major impasses with the powers that be at Marvel Entertainment in New York.

Around this time, on the business side, a progression of choices made by New York would impact the continuing development slate of Marvel Studios- and that impact would be ongoing, years into the future. In 2013, when the 2012 deadline for 20th Century Fox to make a sequel to their 2003 Daredevil film lapsed, Matt Murdock and Elektra reverted back to Marvel's pool of usable characters. New Line likewise gave Blade back to Marvel in 2012. And when Sony's Ghost Rider franchise fizzled with 2011's Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, he also came back in-house, along with Sony's license for a never-produced Luke Cage movie. Last but not least, Lionsgate's license for The Punisher also reverted back to Marvel Entertainment.

While many observers assumed that this entire stable of characters would go directly into Marvel Studios' movie development process, it was decided by Marvel Entertainment's higher-ups that because the movie side was already deeply committed to their successful Avengers characters, and the impending Guardians of the Galaxy characters, that the returnees would instead help build a planned TV empire under the direct control of Marvel Entertainment (entirely separate from Marvel Studios). The film side had no control over those characters, despite their interest in developing them. Instead, they all went to Marvel Entertainment. Ghost Rider appeared in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, and the others were placed in different streaming series.

According to Kevin Feige however, the Marvel TV shows are still supposed to be part of MCU.

As he said in October 11th 2016, while talking about Blade:

“They did ask a long time ago and I think our answer was, ‘No, we’ll do something with ‘Blade’ at some point.’ That’s still the answer,” Feige says. “We still think he’s a great character. He’s a really fun character. We think this movie going into a different side of the universe would have the potential to have him pop up, but between the movies, the Netflix shows, the ABC shows there are so many opportunities for the character to pop up as you’re now seeing with Ghost Rider on ‘AGENTS of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ that rather than team up with another studio on that character let’s do something on our own. What that is? Where that will be? We’ll see. There is nothing imminent to my knowledge.”

And as he had earlier said in 2014, while talking about the TV characters' potential involvement in Infinity War:

"Is there room to include them in the features at some point if Infinity War is gonna be big. There are a lot of people from the movie in Infinity War, a lot of it is about space and a lot of it is about what happens between now and then, but all of those things, inhabit, however far in the outskirts, the same continuity. So certainly, that opportunity exists."

In 2017, he had also made this comment, about how, there was no plan, at that point, to include the Defenders in the movies, but it could happen one day:

"Maybe someday. No plans right now. Maybe someday, but we have a lot of characters in the MCU, and one of the things that is so special about those characters on the Netflix shows is their dynamic together. They are all combining to become The Defenders later this year and are doing their own thing."

On top of that, there have been many anecdotes from Marvel TV creators claiming that Marvel Studios oversaw their projects to an extent and told them what they can or can't use from the Marvel Studios catalogue of characters, locations, plot points etc, indicating a willingness for Marvel Studios to keep maintaining a continuity with the shows even though Marvel Entertainment wouldn't allow them to use anything from Marvel TV's catalogue.

Finally, the book mentioned above also confirms for good that Agent Carter inhabits the same canon as the movies.

Notably Agent Carter marked the first-time an MCU-originated character would transition from the big screen to the small screen, with canon storytelling that would eventually dovetail back into the films.

Indeed, Edwin Jarvis, Howard Stark's butler from Agent Carter, did have a cameo in Avengers: Endgame with actor James D'Arcy reprising his role.

What is more, Marvel.com recently confirmed that the Matt Murdock that appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home is indeed the same version of the character that had previously appeared in the Defenders Saga, and not just a variant who happened to be played by the same actor (as it happened with J. Jonah Jameson). This also confirms for good that the Defender Saga will remain canon in the MCU.

While the canonicity of the shows cannot be questioned in any way at the moment (remember canon does NOT equal crossover), whether more characters jump from the small into the large screen is remained to be seen.

The Disney+ shows on the other hand are produced by Marvel Studios and will be completely interwoven with the movies with characters and storylines actually crossing over.

For more information on the long and turbulent history between Marvel Studios and Marvel TV and regarding the canonical state of the *Marvel TV shows, you can read this very informative essay on the subject

8. Who is Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter and what is the Creative Committee? Why do fans mention them a lot?

Ike Perlmutter is the chairman and former (as of January 2017) CEO of Marvel Entertainment and for a time Marvel Studios was a subsidiary of Marvel Entertainment. To put it simply, Ike Perlmutter was Kevin Feige's old boss. The Creative Committee was formed by Ike Perlmutter - a board of comic book writers who would give periodic feedback on every Marvel Studios production.

The reason that they are frequently discussed (negatively) is because they were often seen as a detriment to Marvel Studios and its movies - making numerous changes to them for the worst.

• They're the primary reason that Ronan was such a poor villain in Guardians of the Galaxy

"There is some messy villain plot stuff in the first movie I'd like to deal with again. There was a committee working for Marvel at the time now defunct who had a lot of input, and that was primarily where it ended up. It just got a little messy."

• Iron Man 3 was originally going to have a female villain, Maya Hansen, but Ike Perlmutter demanded that be changed, since he believed female toys sell poorly

"All I’ll say is this, on the record: There was an early draft of Iron Man 3 where we had an inkling of a problem. Which is that we had a female character who was the villain in the draft. We had finished the script and we were given a no-holds-barred memo saying that cannot stand and we’ve changed our minds because, after consulting, we’ve decided that toy won’t sell as well if it’s a female. So, we had to change the entire script because of toy making. Now, that’s not Feige. That’s Marvel corporate, but now you don’t have that problem anymore."

• It is highly suggested by producer Craig Kyle that Ike Perlmutter was the reason Black Panther and Captain Marvel were on the back burner for so long

"We had a lot of plans on the hopper… We had Black Panther, which we're doing now, other projects that I can't mention… We want to make those movies, but we answered to people who have different ideas. Even Kevin Feige answered to people who had different ideas at the time. But after ten years, we finally scraped them off our boots, and now you're seeing those movies, you're seeing Captain Marvel. Those fights have had rooms for a long time."

• Ike Perlmutter did not want Robert Downy Jr. to appear in Captain America: Civil War because he would be too expensive

Sources say the budget on Civil War ballooned accordingly, which didn't sit well with the famously frugal Perlmutter. "New York wanted to scale it down," says one insider.

This last one is likely the last incident that triggered the massive restructuring of Marvel Studios within the Disney hierarchy, as described in Bob Iger's memoir, "The Ride of a Lifetime".

"Kevin is one of the most talented film executives in the business, but my sense was that the strained relationship with New York [Isaac Perlmutter] was threatening his continued success. I knew I had to intervene, and so in May 2015, I made the decision to split Marvel’s movie-making unit off from the rest of Marvel and bring it under Alan Horn and the Walt Disney Studios. Kevin would now report directly to Alan, and would benefit from his experience, and the tensions that had built up between him and the New York office would be alleviated."

9. Why aren't Marvel Studios planning any more Hulk movies?

A combination of the rights to The Hulk not entirely belonging to Marvel Studios and The Incredible Hulk being the lowest grossing movie of the entire franchise.

...Universal currently retains the right of first refusal to distribute any Hulk films in the future. If for some reason Universal chose to forgo distribution, then Disney would immediately pick up the distribution rights for the Hulk movie. So Universal has no claim at all to the production rights, and their distribution rights are dependent on exercising their option, which remains in full effect at the moment.

10. How does the Spider-Man deal with Sony work?

Sony still owns the film and distribution rights to the character of Spider-Man and all associated characters, along with all of the box office profits from solo Spider-Man movies. This remains as long as they make a movie every five years, otherwise all the rights for Spider-Man revert back to Disney and Marvel Studios.

Marvel Studios does NOT own Spider-Man.

Marvel Studios won’t pay Sony Pictures for the rights to put Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War, the Avengers franchise or its other superhero films, as part of its new partnership with the studio, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. At the same time, Marvel won’t receive a cut of the box office for any of Sony’s films that feature Spider-Man. Sony won’t receive a percentage of the revenue Disney makes from Marvel’s films that have Spider-Man, either.

11. Does Marvel Studios own the rights to Namor?

It's...complicated.

"It’s slightly more complicated than that. Let’s put it this way – there are entanglements that make it less easy. There are older contracts that still involve other parties that mean we need to work things out before we move forward on it. As opposed to an Iron Man or any of the Avengers or any of the other Marvel characters where we could just put them in."

12. When will the X-Men appear in the MCU?

“It would be years away,” Feige cautioned. “We’ve announced everything through 2019, so none of those would be adjusted.”

This would mean that we wouldn't see them integrated until, at least, 2022.

13. Is Marvel Studios referencing or hinting at the character Annihilus with their encoded URL "annihil.us"?

No, that is simply the name of the media server that Marvel Studios and Marvel Entertainment have used for years. For example, if you were to enter annihil.us into the URL space right now, it will redirect you to marvel.com - not to mention that they legally couldn't use the character until March 20th, 2019.

Movie Related - Beware of Spoilers

Iron Man

1. Did the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement & Logistics Division change its name to S.H.I.E.L.D. in "Iron Man"?

No, this was without question retcon'd, as later movies and shows have the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement & Logistics Division being referred to and called S.H.I.E.L.D. decades before Iron Man, which took place in 2008. This is shown in the One-Shot Agent Carter, flashbacks in the television show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the flashback from the opening of Ant-Man, and all throughout Captain Marvel.

The organisation has always been named S.H.I.E.L.D. from its inception and they didn't change it to that at the end of Iron Man.

As for an in-universe explanation, Coulson could have simply been messing with them (which would be in-character for him).

Iron Man 2

1. Why was Terrence Howard replaced as James Rhodey?

He left due to a pay disagreement.

"We did a three-picture deal, so that means that you did the deal ahead of time. It was going to be a certain amount for the first one, a certain amount for the second one, a certain amount for the third. They came to me with the second and said, 'Look, we will pay you one-eighth of what we contractually had for you, because we think the second one will be successful with or without you.' And I called my friend [RDJ] - that I helped get the first job - and he didn't call me back for three months."

2. Is Peter Parker the kid Iron Man saves in the Stark Expo battle in the climax?

Officially, he is not. There was no way Marvel Studios could plan that far ahead, especially when they didn't own the movie rights to the character of Spider-Man at the time.

Unofficially, it has been accepted by the fans that this is the case. Additionally, Tom Holland said so too during an interview with the Huffington Post.

“I can confirm that as of today. I literally had a conversation with Kevin Feige only 20 minutes ago. Maybe I’ve just done a big, old spoiler, but it’s out there now,” said Holland. “It’s cool. I like the idea that Peter Parker has been in the universe since the beginning.”

But later in the same day, in an interview with io9, Tom retracted his statement as it was not official.

"It’s funny, I literally had a conversation with Kevin like 20 minutes before [The Huffington Post] interview and he didn’t confirm it, I took it upon myself just because I thought it would be a good story and it’s exploded."

So, unless the movies contradict it, you can believe what you want, but no, officially, that kid was NOT Peter Parker.

Thor

1. What exactly are the Nine Realms?

The Nine Realms are nine planets/realms in the universe that have been conquered by Odin and his ancestors.

These planets/realms are the following:

• Asgard
• Earth/Midgard
• Nidavellir
• Svartalfheim
• Nilfheim/Hel
• Anaheim
• Jotunheim
• Muspelheim
• Vanaheim

The Avengers

1. Why was Edward Norton replaced as Bruce Banner?

Unlike most actors in the MCU, Edward Norton hadn't signed a multi-picture deal and decided to step out of the role because he wanted a more diverse career.

"My feeling was that I experimented and experienced what I wanted to," Norton said. "I really, really enjoyed it. And yet, I looked at the balance of time in life that one spends not only making those sorts of films but then especially putting them out, and the obligations that rightly come with that. I think you can sort of do anything once, but if you do it too many times, it can become a suit that’s hard to take off, in other peoples' eyes."

2. Why did Thanos give Loki the scepter, if he knew it contained the Mind Stone?

In Thanos' official biography on Marvel.com, they state that...

Thanos has also given powerful artifacts to individuals who he believes will use them to spread the cause of death in certain important spots among the galaxies.

In other words, Thanos had thought Loki capable to rule Earth, kill half its population, and bring him the Space Stone, which was known as the Tesseract at the time. To help Loki accomplish these tasks, Thanos gave him the Mind Stone in a calculated risk to gain another Infinity Stone.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

1. Why is Doctor Strange mentioned by Sitwell in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"?

Zola's Algorithm doesn't LITERALLY predict the future. This is how Jasper Sitwell explains how the algorithm works.

"The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it. Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e-mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores... Zola's Algorithm evaluates people's past to predict the future."

Strange was mentioned not because HYDRA predicted that he would become a wizard or that Strange already was one, but simply that he was one of millions of normal citizens that would oppose HYDRA due to his personality, education, and upbringing. After all, HYDRA was targeting millions on the east coast - are you telling me that they were all secretly superheroes or would become one?

It was just an easter egg, nothing more.

Guardians of the Galaxy

1. Why do all alien species speak English?"

They don't. During the scene where the Guardians are apprehended by the Nova Corps and Corpsman Dey gives another Corpsman information on who they are, you can see in the details that pop up on the screen, that all Guardians have "Translator Implants" on their necks, which allows each of them to speak their own language, while everyone understands everyone. The audience simply hears "English", as if the translator chip works on us too and we hear our mother tongue despite each alien speaking another language. This was reiterated again in Captain Marvel when Carol arrives on Earth and asks if her translator chip is working, because she was brainwashed to think she was Kree and the humans wouldn't understand her without a chip.

Doctor Strange

1. What year does "Doctor Strange" take place?

It takes place in at least 2016 or later due to the award plaque displayed in his apartment that is dated 2016.

2. In "Doctor Strange" the titular character is listening to a list of potential patients and there is mention of a man with a spinal injury due to experimental armor - is this Rhodey after he was paralyzed in "Captain America: Civil War"?

We held an AMA for the director, Scott Derrickson, who said it wasn't Rhodey.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

1. Is the Groot from "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" the same Groot from the original "Guardians of the Galaxy," but younger?

No, Groot for all intents and purposes died in "Guardians of the Galaxy" and when he was regrown, he lost all of his memories and was essentially reborn anew.

He is basically Groot's son.

2. Is Stan Lee a different person in each of his cameos or are they connected? What does his cameo in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" mean?

Stan Lee was long theorized to be a Watcher by fans. In the comics books, The Watchers were a race of beings that would observe everything, but not intervene. James Gunn liked this idea so much that he decided to establish Stan Lee as a "Watcher Informant" in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

“Yes, we always thought it [the theory] would be fun,” Feige said. “Stan Lee clearly exists, you know, above and apart from the reality of all the films. So the notion that he could be sitting there on a cosmic pit stop during the jump gate sequence in Guardians was something very fun. James had that idea and we shot that cameo and loved it so much, you know, you see it a couple of times in the movie. It wasn’t in for a long time and we put it back in towards the end of the process where he references that time he was a Federal Express agent — we thought it would be fun to put that in there because that really says, ‘So wait a minute, he’s this same character who’s popped up in all these films."

3. In his cameo for "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," Stan Lee mentions to The Watchers of being a Federal Express Man from "Captain America: Civil War," but "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" takes place only two months after the first, in 2014, while "Captain America: Civil War" took place two years later. Is this a mistake?

Yes, James Gunn admitted that this was an oversight on his part.

As for an in-universe explanation for this inconsistency, it is established in the comics that Watchers can observe the universe non-linearly, so Stan Lee likely can too.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

1. Why does "Spider-Man: Homecoming" say that it takes place 8 years after "The Avengers" in the opening, while still taking place a few months after "Captain America: Civil War" which takes place in 2016? Isn't this incorrect?

Yes, it is a legitimate continuity error that has been acknowledged by Joe Russo in an interview. It was eventually corrected with Tony's line about the events of The Avengers having happened six years ago in Avengers: Infinity War when speaking to Doctor Strange.

"It was eight years, I believe. It was a very incorrect eight years.”

Thor: Ragnarok

1. Why couldn't Hela just use the Tesseract to travel with her army through space and conquer more planets / realms?

From what we have been shown from Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, and Avengers: Infinity War, the Tesseract, or Space Stone, is in a way sentient. Throughout every movie it has appeared, the Tesseract can only be wielded through machinery, such as HYDRA draining its energy, Erik Selvig creating a giant portal, Loki and Thor using a device container to teleport back to Asgard, or Thanos himself using it with the gauntlet.

Hela likely did not know how to properly wield it without an external device.

While it was shown in Avengers: Endgame that one could use the Tesseract to create worm holes without the need of an external device, this could be limited to small openings. Which would not work for Hela, since she wanted to bring her entire undead army.

Avengers: Infinity War

1. Is Groot worthy of Stormbreaker since they were able to lift it?

"Stormbreaker does not have the worthiness enhancement cast on it, only Thor's old weapon, Mjölnir had it."

So, anyone with sufficient strength can wield Stormbreaker.

2. Why didn't Thanos just double all resources in the universe?

As said in the commentary track for the movie...

"Well, he was told no to an idea that he had that he felt was the only solution," Joe Russo said. "And then was proved right to himself when that solution was not acted upon. So, his messianic complex. He is now committed to following through on the idea that he had many, many years ago. He's not a stable, although he appears stable at times, he's not a stable individual."

Essentially, Thanos simply wants to prove himself right and to the universe that his idea, his ultimate solution, is the right one. Him doubling resources would be him essentially admitting his plan and ideology is wrong.

3. What did Thanos mean when he told Gamora that he "...ignored his destiny once..."?

He was referring to when he "ignored his destiny" by not wiping out half the population of Titan, his home planet, when he had the chance before they went extinct from a lack of resources and overpopulation.

4. Is Loki really dead?

Yes, as confirmed in the commentary.

"Part of what we wanted to do, out of the gate, was to unsettle you as you're watching the film," said co-director Joe Russo. "You're sitting in the theater thinking, 'Most characters in the Marvel Universe have been safe for a decade.' And we wanted to knock you off-kilter and make the audience understand that the stakes were going to be significant and the cost was going to be very high in the movie."

Thanos' line about "no more resurrections" is also meant to tell the audience that this death for Loki is real.

5. When Tony asked where Spider-Man came from when he suddenly saved him from Cull Obsidian did Peter say it was "the future"?

No, Peter said that he came from a field trip from "MoMA" (The Museum of Modern Art).

6. Did Hulk not want to come out because he was scared?

Hulk wasn't scared to come out, he was frustrated and tired of always bailing Banner out, as confirmed in the commentary by Joe Russo.

"His was an interesting journey that we went on with Banner, trying to decide how to move him forward in the Marvel Universe. What makes him unique as a character is that there’s this host body that is being fought over by two distinct personalities who hate each other. Both want control of the host body. We thought an interesting direction to take him in is 'Well, what if Banner, who typically uses the Hulk to solve crisis situations, what if the Hulk were no longer interested in solving those problems for Banner?' So the relationship is becoming increasingly dysfunctional and that’s what’s going on here.”

7. Why was Captain America willing to sacrifice Wakandan lives for Vision?

Answered by /u/kevvinfeige

Hear me out, I've noticed how so many people on this sub are calling Cap a hypocrite for "letting hundreds of Wakanda die to save the life of a robot (Vision)" and honestly speaking, there's just too many things wrong with this statement. So I made a list of reasons which I believe Cap considered before making the call.

1. Wanda was basically like his own daughter and she was in love with Vision, asking your daughter to bust apart her boyfriend's head is just gross and disgusting.
2. At that point of time, Stark was out in the space with no news of him returning, Thor was presumed dead and Hulk won't come out, so from Cap's perspective, half the heavy hitters of the team weren't available, destroying the mind stone would've killed Vision and removed Wanda's powers, you don't write off your biggest guns just before you're about to encounter your biggest foe.
3. There was no guarantee The Black Order and Thanos would stop looking for them after they had destroyed the stone.
4. There's a reason Thor happily let Vision keep the mind stone, and the reason for it wasn't just because he was powerful but because he was worthy.
5. The call to open up Wakanda's force-fields was T'Challa's, Cap was not consulted before doing that, even if he silently agreed with the decision.
6. The most important point, committing suicide because you're afraid of the enemy isn't the same as sacrificing your life fighting for the integrity of your country and the lives of the whole universe, the soldiers who die fighting off the terrorists or the cops who valiantly risk their lives to save the innocent ones don't "trade" their lives with the bad guys, despite being fictional characters, I think saying Wakandans "traded" their lives in place of Vision is pretty much insulting them. feel free to add more.

8. Why didn't Thor aim for Thanos' head in the climax?

Because Thor wanted Thanos to know that he was the one killing him and to gloat. After all, Thor snidely says to Thanos "I told you. You'd die for that" in a callback to his promise to Thanos for killing Heimdall at the beginning of the movie.

9. What and who did the snap affect?

Half of all life.

Plants, animals, and sentient species. Confirmed by Kevin Feige in an interview.

"Yes! Yes. All life."

10. Did Pepper say "I'm going too" before she was cut off when Tony was leaving Earth? Was she saying she was going after Tony?

No, that was F.R.I.D.A.Y. saying that and the full quote is "We're losing her [Pepper]. I'm going too".

11. What happened to the half of the Asgardians that survived in the beginning?

According to Joe Russo, they escaped.

"Prior to that scene, escape ships were deployed for Asgardians," he explained. "Including Valkyrie."

Furthermore, we see of what remains of The Asgardians in Avengers: Endgame.

12. Why did Wanda lose her accent?

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Joe Russo explained there was a very good reason for that.

"We intentionally tried to strip that accent away for a couple of reasons," he noted. "One is that you'll notice at the beginning of Civil War, Black Widow is training her how to be a spy. Two, she has now been on the run and one of the most distinguishing characteristics she has is her accent. So if you're going to try to disguise yourself and not be caught, you're going to try to limit those trigger warnings that would make it easy for someone to identify you which would be inclusive of her accent."

13. How did Thanos know Tony's name?

In the commentary, Joe Russo says Thanos knows that Tony is the one that redirected the nuclear missile to his invading force of Chitauri and stopped his invasion of Earth.

"He's aware of Stark from the original Battle of New York as the person who undid the plan. It's interesting because, as Thanos moves forward from this moment, once he disposes of his armor, he almost becomes a holy warrior where he doesn't spend a lot of his energy intentionally trying to murder people unless they are, in some way, a threat to his agenda. Almost no one ends up being a threat to the agenda except for Tony, who I think he feels has a sort of existential connection to Thanos."

This is clarified in Avengers: Endgame by showing a past-version of Thanos knowing who The Avengers - recognizing them as the ones who stopped his first invasion of Earth.

14. Where was Thanos when he met young Gamora in the climax?

As said by Joe Russo, he was inside the Soul Stone, also known in the comic books as Soul World, where all the Souls devoured by the Stone reside.

"Yeah, it’s implied [that] it’s the Soul Stone. It’s all orange around, then he’s inside the Soul Stone with the amount of power that it took to snap his fingers – he has this out of body experience with Thanos. When he goes inside the Soul Stone he has this kind of conversation with the younger version of his Gamora.”

15. Did the Asgardians and the other races Thanos had already culled, decrease by half again after the snap?

Yes.

When a fan asked the Russo brothers about the fate of the Asgardians after the snap during a Collider Q&A, Joe Russo replied:

"Half of them die again."

16. Did Thanos use the Power Stone to beat Hulk?

No, he did not use the Power Stone to defeat The Hulk. Thanos is merely that strong, along with a skilled fighter, while Hulk only relied on his brute strength. Additionally, it's established throughout the movie that in order for Thanos to use an Infinity Stone, he must clench his fist and the Infinity Stone being used glows brightly. Neither happens throughout the fight.

17. Why did Thor go to Wakanda and not Titan if he was looking for Thanos? And how did he know of Wakanda and that the Avengers would be there?

It has been mentioned quite a few times in the MCU, and more specifically the Thor movies, that the Bifrost (which Stormbreaker can summon) allows someone to travel only to anywhere in the Nine Realms and Titan isn't one of them. Traveling to Titan was simply not an option. However, the Russos provide an answer on Twitter, saying that Thor simply followed Thanos and his forces to Earth and Wakanda.

"Thor knows Thanos is going after the Stones, and he knows that there are Stones on Earth, so that's what leads him to Wakanda."

18. Why did Heimdall send Hulk to Earth, instead of Thor, using the Bifrost?

Because The Hulk was directly in front of Heimdall and closer to him, unlike Thor. He acted quickly and sent Hulk to Earth in hopes of him warning the rest of Thor's comrades of Thanos.

19. Why was Hulk hiding until Loki said "We have a Hulk" to Thanos?

Many reasons are possible:

1. Hulk had reverted to Banner as Thanos attacked and transformed during that moment
2. Hulk decided to take Thanos by surprise
3. Hulk had been (seemingly) subdued by Thanos' children and got back up

20. With the Soul Stone taken what happens to the Red Skull?

He is free to do as he wishes.

"Red Skull is free to leave Vormir, and he is also free to pursue his desire for an Infinity Stone."

21. How was Stormbreaker able to take the brunt of the six Infinity Stones

In a Collider Q&A, Joe Russo says it is because Stormbreaker is the greatest weapon ever created.

"Stormbreaker is the greatest weapon ever made."

Anthony Russo chimes in too, saying that Thanos was caught off guard.

"Also, Thanos didn't know what that weapon was. I don't think he knew what he was up against. I think that the key moment is that Thanos was caught off guard. He literally just didn't know the power of what was coming at him. I mean, maybe he could have used the stones in a different way, had he understood what that weapon was; but it came out of nowhere at him."

22. Why does Thanos take his armor off after acquiring the Space Stone?

Thanos essentially thinks he doesn't need it any more. As Joe Russo explains in an interview with IGN.

"[Thanos] has a more casual approach in this film, and it's very philosophical for him," explained Russo at San Diego Comic-Con. "It's part of his character definition. It's a spiritual journey for him to collect the Stones, and one with which he doesn't need armor. Once he starts acquiring the Stones, he doesn't need armor in the same way he did when he was a war lord. It's a very symbolic costume."

23. Why do the people who were snapped disappear with their clothes, armor, and other belongings?

It could be because these people consider them to be a part of themselves.

For example, Bucky disappeared with his new arm given to him by T'Challa because he felt that it was part of him or an extension of himself, unlike the gun he was carrying, which doesn't disappear with him. Additionally, it's how it worked in the comic books too, with all the heroes disappearing with their clothing, armor, and other belongings.

24. Does the snap kill half of all the universe completely at random or does it kill half of every planet's population? In other words, is there any way that one planet may have been completely unaffected, while another one lost of its inhabitants?

There are three facts that reject this being the case.

1. Thanos' motivation is to save all planets from extinction by decreasing the mouths each planet has to feed because each planet has finite resources. With the snap, all he wanted to achieve was a quicker way to do that rather than travelling to each planet separately. On a side note, that is also why he used to hire other people to do some of the work for him, since the planets in the universe are countless and he can't travel to all of them.

2. Thanos tells Tony that "When [he's] done, half of humanity will still be alive". That seems to indicate again that Thanos is planning to eradicate half of the population of each planet.

3. The counter of human beings dying in the snap in the post-credits scene of Captain Marvel shows that more than 3.2 billion people died on Earth, which is close to earth's population in real life (almost 7.7 billion in 2019).

Captain Marvel

1. Why does Nick Fury say that Thor is the reason that S.H.I.E.L.D. began designing weapons based on the Tesseract in "The Avengers," despite the fact that he knew about aliens since "Captain Marvel"?

Simply put, Marvel Studios did not plan this far ahead, but, Joss Whedon wrote in a line of dialogue to example away such inconsistencies said by Tony Stark in The Avengers.

"He's a spy. He's the spy. His secrets have secrets."

He simply lied to them.

2. I'm confused about why Mar-Vell had the Tesseract and how S.H.I.E.L.D. got it back? How does the timeline work?

Here is a full timeline of who had the Tesseract when - from beginning to end.

Red Skull claims at the beginning of Captain America: The First Avenger that it was centerpiece of Odin's treasure room. At some point in time, Odin places it on Earth for safe keeping. Red Skull finds and takes it to develop Hydra's new weapons. At the end of the movie, when he picks it up, it transports him to Vormir and the Tesseract falls to the ocean floor. In Howard Stark's search for Captain America at the end of the movie, he finds the Tesseract, which is presumably later kept at the newly formed S.H.I.E.L.D. which means that it is in possession of the the U.S. Government.

Lawson, who is a Kree double-agent named Mar-Vell, joins Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. (a joint project between S.H.I.E.L.D., NASA and the USAF) to develop faster-than-light technology using the Tesseract. Everyone believed that it was destroyed when the engine for the experimental aircraft exploded and S.H.I.E.L.D. proceeded to bury the project and leave it at that.

Six years later, Carol and company find the Tesseract on Mar-Vell's ship orbiting, cloaked, above Earth and store it in a lunchbox. Goose proceeds to eat it. Later, during the end-credit scene of Captain Marvel and not long after the events of the movie, Goose spits out the Tesseract on Fury's desk. Fury presumably finds it covered in flerken spit and returns it to S.H.I.E.L.D. to be stored for later development and use.

The next time it is seen is when Fury shows it to Selvig at the end of Thor, where Loki sees it too through Selvig. Loki proceeds to steal it at the beginning of The Avengers and uses it in the battle of New York to open a portal. The Avengers get it back and give it to Thor to take back to Asgard for safekeeping. It remains in Asgard until Thor: Ragnarok where Loki steals it, again. However, the Tesseract is taken by Thanos when he boards the Asgardian escape vessel.

Thanos then crushes the Tesseract and places the stone into the gauntlet where it remained, until he destroyed it with the other Infinity Stones at the beginning of Avengers: Endgame.

3. During the post-credit scene of "Captain Marvel" in which Carol Danvers appears to the rest of the Avengers, why does she appear to not have aged after more than 20 years?

Yon-Rogg mentions that in order to save Carol, the Kree had to alter her DNA by mixing it with their own. While not said in the movie, the Supreme Intelligence does say in a TV spot that because of this, it made her able to live longer.

In addition to that, in Guardians of the Galaxy, Ronan calls other species mortals, so it can be inferred that Kree have a slower aging process similar to the Asgardians.

4. I'm confused at what Mar-Vell, Lawson, was creating using the Tesseract and why the Kree and Skrull wanted it so badly?

Mar-Vell was working with the Tesseract, the Space Stone, to develop faster-than-light (FTL) travel. Much quicker than using the space ports seen in Captain Marvel and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 which require "jumps" at specific points in the universe. For example, Yon-Rogg says to Carol in Captain Marvel that it would take 22 hours for him and Starforce to reach a space port to Earth. If they had the new technology that Mar-Vell was developing (or the Tesseract) travel could be instantaneous from anywhere without the need for these ports.

That's why Mar-Vell's work was so important and why the Kree and Skrull wanted it.

5. Why didn't Fury call Carol during big events where the Earth was in danger like The Battle of New York or Sokovia?

As seen at the end of the movie, Carol set out to travel the universe to find the Skrulls a suitable new home and overthrow the Supreme Intelligence, which means that if the Earth was in great danger again, Fury would need a response team (as said in The Avengers). Heroes that would be ready to assemble at a moment's notice, which would be really difficult for Carol, since she might be in a different galaxy at the time said danger was threatening Earth.

But as Feige says in an interview with Slash Film, the beeper was only for real emergencies and that we don't know if Fury hasn't pressed it before, only for the matter to be resolved before Carol arrived or even receiving the message.

"Well, I’d say two things. One, she does say it’s gotta be a real emergency, right? Yeah. The other thing I’d say is how do you know he never hit it? How do we know he never pushed it before? We’ve never seen him push it before. That doesn’t mean he never did."

Or since the Avengers were assembled, Fury might have thought that he didn't need to call her, since he had confidence in the Avengers and could take care of (most) situations. But when the Avengers are split up, Tony Stark is reported missing from Earth, and everyone around him (including Maria Hill) are turning to dust after aliens attacked New York, it's truly the greatest emergency of all and the Avengers aren't there to handle it.

Calling Captain Marvel is his only choice.

Avengers: Endgame

1. How does time travel work in the MCU and what are its implications?

The time travel mechanics in Avengers: Endgame are actually pretty straight forward and follow the set rules consistently throughout the movie. The time travel used is called the multiverse theory, one of three kinds of time travel most used in Hollywood movies. This means that the mere action of entering the past would itself create a branch in the timeline and not affect their own. Meaning there is no danger of a Grandfather Paradox occurring like in other movies and stories. Which is why, for example, our Nebula doesn't disappear when she killed an alternate timeline version of herself.

Additionally, no, taking an Infinity Stone from the past is NOT what causes the timeline to branch into new, alternate timeline. Them simply traveling to the past and being present there is what causes a new timeline to be created. You may have been confused because of The Ancient One explaining to Bruce Banner what would happen if the Time Stone were not returned to her timeline. She was simply talking about how they would need the Time Stone back in their dimension, since the stones BEING there maintain their own timeline.

2. How does Captain America return all the Infinity Stones as they were by himself?

Simple. He really can't. The best he can do is simply return them to their respective timelines the moment they left, even if the Power Stone is missing the Orb, the Mind Stone no longer being held in Loki's Scepter, the Space Stone not being contained in the Tesseract, or the Reality Stone no longer being inside Jane Foster. As for the Time Stone and Soul Stone, he simply returned them to their original owners from where they took them.

What really matters is returning them to their original timelines, not as they were.

Plus, it's not like that would really change much considering how they already messed up and altered those timelines with their actions irreversibly.

3. How did Captain America end up on that bench at the end of the movie? Did he break the rules of time travel?

No, he simply spent the rest of his life with an alternate timeline version of Peggy Carter and then returned to his own timeline, presumably, when she died of old age. Joe Russo gives the same answer in a Q&A in China:

Q: Did Captain America's action at the end affect the timeline? Does that mean there was a time where two CA existed in a same universe?

A: To me, Captain America's action in the end wasn't the fact he wanted to change anything, it's more like he has made a choice. He chose to go back to past and lived with the one he loved for the rest of his life. The time travel in this movie created an alternate reality. He lived a completely different life in that world. We don't know how exactly his life turned out, but I'd like to believe he still helped many others when they were needed in that world. Yes, there were two Captain Americas in that reality, it's just like what Hulk said, what happened in the past has already happened. If you go back to past, you simply create a new reality. The characters in this movie created a new timeline when they went back to the past, but it had no effect to the prime universe. What happened in the past 22 movies was still canon.

Q: Endgame's plot, is it a parallel universe or a closed time loop?

A: Nope, not a time loop. Both Ancient One and Hulk were right. You can't change the future by simply going back to the past. But it's possible to create a different alternate future. It's not a butterfly effect. Every decision you made in the past could potentially create a new timeline. For example, the old Cap at the end movie, he lived his married life in a different universe from the main one. He had to make another jump back to the main universe at the end to give the shield to Sam.

4. The writers of "Avengers: Endgame," McFeely and Markus contradict the Russos and say that it was a closed time loop. Who is right?

Both the writers' and the Russos' theory could be correct, after the revelations about the Multiverse that were made in Loki. For a better explanation, visit the FAQ for Loki below.

5. Did Bucky know what Rogers was going to do in the end?

Yes, it's why he's the first one to notice Steve and that he says goodbye to him before he makes the jump. Additionally, the Russos directly confirm this in an interview with Yahoo.

Also, they confirm — Bucky knew. When Cap was preparing to for the trip, which is only supposed to last a few seconds in the main timeline, his old friend from the Brooklyn days gives him a surprisingly heavy farewell.

Somehow, and it’s probably more than just intuition, he was aware that Cap was going to live in the past. “Especially when he says goodbye,” Joe explained. “He says, ‘I’ll miss you.’ Clearly he knows something.

This is also acknowledged by McFeely and Markus too in their interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

"That's not our intent, no. It's just honoring their relationship," said McFeely. "Steve, clearly, before he stepped on that platform...told Bucky what he was going to do. Whether he knew he was going to appear on that bench, I don't think so. Why would Bucky say, 'I'm going to miss you pal,' if it was only going to be five seconds?"

6. Why did Rogers decided to give his shield to Sam Wilson and not Bucky?

Because Bucky is done with that life and feels like he still has much to make up for. It's also likely he agreed with Rogers on his decision ahead of time, as he isn't shocked and even encouraging towards Sam when Rogers offers him the shield. Additionally, Sam has worked with him for years, he's known him as an honest and trusting man, who was formally in the military, and who even held counselling for veterans. Rogers considers Sam to be a good man and worthy of the mantle.

7. Why couldn't Doctor Strange use the Time Stone to reverse Tony back to life?

This would mean reversing Tony performing The Snap, which would cause an enormous paradox as established in Doctor Strange. When Strange attempts to reverse time around a book with missing pages, they return, but, since those pages are now with Kaecilius it isn't long before that causes a paradox and reality begins to fracture. This is only stopped when Strange ceases using the Time Stone and returns the book to the way it was - without the pages. The same would apply to Tony, since undoing his snap would undo defeating Thanos and his army, causing a paradox. This means that his death could not be undone this way.

8. Why don't they travel to an alternate timeline to get another Natasha/Tony before they died?

They can't for two reasons:

1. That would be kidnapping and it's unlikely that those versions of themselves would be willing to go with them and abandon their timelines
2. Both of them played key roles in helping bring those killed by Thanos back to life and defeating Thanos himself. They can't leave before doing those things and both involves them dying

9. How did alternate timeline Thanos bring his entire army and ship through with only one vial of Pym Particles?

He didn't. He and Ebony Maw analyzed it and manufactured more of it.

Q: How did Thanos bring his army to the future?

A: There is a guy called Maw in his army, he was a great wizard. Thanos himself was a brilliant genius as well. Those two easily reverse engineered and mass produced Pym Particles.

10. How and when was Captain America worthy of Mjolnir and how could he wield its powers?

The Russos and even Joss Whedon imply that Rogers was capable of lifting Thor's hammer ever since Avengers: Age of Ulron.

According to the Russos in an interview with Screen Rant:

"In our heads, he was able to wield it. He didn’t know that until that moment in Ultron when he tried to pick it up. But Cap’s sense of character and humility and, out of deference to Thor’s ego, Cap in that moment realizing he can move the hammer, decides not to."

And Joss Whedon had teased this question way back in 2015 when Avengers: Age of Ultron originally released:

“How is Steve Rogers not worthy?” a fan asked. “Is he not? Are we sure?” Whedon responded, a hint of teasing in his voice. “Did he fail? Or did he stop?”

Finally, Kevin Feige says this bluntly in the AMA we hosted:

"We think he was always worthy and was being polite in Age of Ultron."

As for how Rogers had Thor's powers, Odin did enchant the hammer, saying to it that "Whomever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall have the power of Thor". Captain America was worthy, and thus, had the power of Thor.

11. Who was the teenager at Tony's funeral at the end?

Harley Keener, who was the child character from Iron Man 3, still played by a now teenage Ty Simpkins.

12. What was that post-credits sound?

Simply a tribute to Iron Man. The sound was him hitting the Mark I helmet with a hammer from the original Iron Man.

Or as Joe Russo outs it an interview in China, it was their way of saying good-bye to the character.

Q: There were some metal smashing sound when the movie ended. Was that easter egg? Or just a tribute to Iron Man, or maybe an implication that Iron Man will return?

A: It was our way to say goodbye to him.

13. How did all those portals appear and how did all those heroes know when and where to come to fight Thanos?

Doctor Strange saw the future and knew that this would happen. When Peter is recounting what happened to him, he say that he woke up and that Doctor Strange was telling them to come to this big battle. So, he probably did the same with the rest. He also likely asked Wong to tell other sorcerers to open portals for every one of our heroes and armies. This is more apparent in their exchange with one another before the final battle begins.

Doctor Strange: Is this everybody?

Wong: You wanted more?

There was also plenty of time for them to accomplish this coordination, since Captain America, Thor, and Tony were keeping Thanos busy long after Hulk had brought everyone back.

14. How did Tony get the stones so fast from Thanos?

Tony's armor is made of the same material and nano-technology that the Stark Gauntlet is made off, meaning that he used his armor to steal the Stones off of Thanos without him noticing as they magnetized to his armor instead.

15. How did Tony create a gauntlet of his own when Thanos had to go to Eitri to make him one out of the Uru metal?

The Avengers likely kept and studied Thanos' original Gauntlet that they cut off his arm. Tony could have then reverse-engineered one using his nano-technology, along with the additional help of Rocket and Bruce Banner.

16. Why didn't Hulk or Captain Marvel snap instead of Tony since they are powerful enough to survive?

When Carol was in temporary possession of the gauntlet, that wasn't the plan at the moment. The plan was to get the gauntlet with the stones back to their original timelines, so that Thanos wouldn't get his hands on them. But once he did, there was no other way to stop him besides Tony using the aforementioned nano-technology armor to steal the Stones from Thanos and snap him and his army away.

In addition, according to Joe Russo, Tony was the only one who could have done it at that moment.

Q: Why Iron Man has to be the one to do the final snap, couldn't the people like Thor, Star-Lord or Captain Marvel whom all previously have handled the power of Infinity Stones done it instead?

A: Thor in this movie couldn't do it, only Hulk was strong enough to do the snap without dying. We are still not sure whether Captain Marvel can also withstand all the power of Infinity Stones at once. The reason we choose to let Iron Man do it in the end was because he was the closest one to Thanos at the time. In all the futures Doctor Strange foresee, Iron Man was the only one who could get close to Thanos and do the snap. People usually think the death of a hero is a horrible tragedy. But we think this is different. When his death was able to bring back hope, to save half of the universe, then his death was powerful and meaningful. We shouldn't feel too sad or anger about it.

17. Why didn't Nebula tell Clint and Natasha about what they were going to face on Vormir?

All she knew was that Thanos killed Gamora in the time he was on Vormir. He never made it clear to her what the rules were, or that there were even any rules at all, when obtaining the Soul Stone, so she didn't know. However, even if Nebula did know, she likely kept it from them because of exactly what ended up happening. Fighting over who would be the sacrifice or risking them not willing to make that sacrifice at all. She couldn't let that happen, so, she didn't tell them.

18. Where did Valkyrie get that pegasus and where did all those Asgardian soldiers come from if most of them were killed by Hela and Thanos?

They had five years to train new soldiers and for Valkyrie to find a pegasus. Plus, Hulk just brought back half of them back.

19. Why didn't Captain Marvel help with the time heist?

She was away from Earth for more than 20 years and all the timelines and places that our characters visited would be unfamiliar to Carol. Additionally, she was dealing with problems across the galaxy at that time and wasn't available to help.

20. How did Captain Marvel find Tony at the beginning of the movie and how is that connected to her movie's post-credits scene?

As shown in the post-credit scene in Captain Marvel, Carol met with The Avengers, who likely directed her to where Tony and Nebula were located. Either Rocket was able to track the Benatar or the recordings Tony was sending to Pepper were actually received and they were able to triangulate his location using them.

21. Is the sacrifice for the Soul Stone reversible and could returning the Soul Stone undo it?

No. Bruce says that when he snapped he tried bringing her back with everyone else, but couldn't. As for returning the Soul Stone in exchange for the soul you sacrificed, that is not possible.

Q: Can you get the soul you sacrificed for the Soul Stone back when you return it?

A: No, the process is irreversible. Even if you have returned it to its original location, you wouldn't be able to get the person back. In fact, it's not really returning the stone, more like putting it back properly. The tribute soul for the soul stone will forever be sealed in that place, therefore Black Widow is gone forever.

22. How did Steve Rogers give back the Soul Stone to Red Skull?

He simply gave it back.

Q: How would Cap react when he encounters Red Skull when he returned the stone?

A: Red Skull would probably put the Soul Stone back to its location, and wait for the next unfortunate stone seeker to make a sacrifice. Captain Ameria and Red Skull probably won't fight. It's because it's his mission to return the stone to its original place. The Red Skull is also no longer the same Red Skull from Captain America: The First Avenger. He is more like a ghost, you could almost say he's a completely different entity now. He only exist to guard the stone, his past conscious may or may not exist anymore.

23. Why does Natasha Romanoff have to die and why didn't she get a funeral like Tony?

She didn't "have" to die, but her sacrificing herself to make up for the "red in her ledger" made the most thematic sense.

McFEELY: Her journey, in our minds, had come to an end if she could get the Avengers back. She comes from such an abusive, terrible, mind-control background, so when she gets to Vormir and she has a chance to get the family back, that’s a thing she would trade for. The toughest thing for us was we were always worried that people weren’t going to have time to be sad enough. The stakes are still out there and they haven’t solved the problem. But we lost a big character — a female character — how do we honor it? We have this male lens and it’s a lot of guys being sad that a woman died.

They also note that she didn't get a big funeral because that didn't fit her character.

MARKUS: Tony gets a funeral. Natasha doesn’t. That’s partly because Tony’s this massive public figure and she’s been a cipher the whole time. It wasn’t necessarily honest to the character to give her a funeral.

24. How can characters like Clint or Captain America hold the Infinity Stones?

Only the Power Stone has been shown to have the effect of consistently harming its wielder when held on bare skin or used. Throughout the franchise we're shown that every other Stone can be held by human hands and weaker characters, besides the Reality Stone due to being made of liquid. This is actually shown again in Avengers: Endgame when Thanos rips the Power Stone out of the Stark Gauntlet and holds it in his bare hand to attack Carol. Burning him and causing him pain before he puts it back in the Gauntlet.

25. How come Scott's five years in the Quantum Realm felt like five hours, while Janet aged regularly in those 31 years she was in it?

The Quantum Realm is shown to be entirely inconsistent in regards to time and space. It could be as simple as Scott not being at a similar level or depth in the Quantum Realm as Janet was for all those years.

26. Who was Katherine Langford playing in the movie and why was she cut?

She was going to play a teenage Morgan, Tony's daughter, as seen in the Soul World when Tony had snapped. It was cut because it confused test audiences.

As Joe Russo explained to HappySadConfused, "There was an idea that we had that Tony was gonna go into the metaphysical way station that Thanos goes into [in Infinity War]. There was going to be a future version of [Stark’s] daughter in that way station."

According to the directors, Langford’s character would have provided Tony with a sense of peace and forgiveness. Anthony Russo likened the interaction between father and daughter to a previous scene featuring Thanos and a younger Gamora that occurred in Avengers: Infinity War.

Although Langford’s scene was shot and included in a test version of the film, the directors felt it "was too many ideas in an overly complicated movie." Additionally, Joe Russo revealed that viewers reacted negatively to the clip, saying, “We showed it to a test audience and it was really confusing for them. What we realized about it was we didn’t feel an emotional association with the adult version of his daughter."

27. Why didn't Adam Warlock appear in "Avengers: Infinity War" or "Avengers: Endgame," since he was a big part of Jim Starlin's Infinity series?

They just didn't use him. The reason that James Gunn had him appear in one of the post-credit scenes in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was to simply introduce him for a sequel.

"I had to fight for Adam in the post-credits sequence. Because I really thought that's where that should go. And I thought one of the main reasons to have the Sovereign in the movie was to give audiences the hint that Adam Warlock is coming. That was one of the reasons for them to exist. And I wrote that post-credits sequence in the first draft of the script. And then there were a lot of questions about whether or not we should put that in there, because people were going to expect Adam Warlock in Infinity War. So one of the things I promised -- which I do all of the time on Twitter -- is letting everyone know that Adam Warlock is not going to be in Avengers 3 or Avengers 4. It's just not going to happen. Because I didn't want people to have false expectations of what they thought was going to happen with Adam."

He was never at all intended to appear in either movie.

28. Why didn't Nebula immediately return to the present when she realized that Thanos knew about their plans?

She had to inform Clint and Natasha about Thanos knowing what they were doing and that he would also know that they were after the Soul Stone in that same timeline. In previous cuts of the movie, Thanos would have actually gone to Vormir in an attempt to get the Soul Stone from them, but this was cut in re-shoots.

"On script and what we first shot was an excellent scene," Schmidt said. "Thanos and his soldiers show up on Vormir and a small battle ensues between them and Natasha and Clint. Natasha decides to run off the cliff. Clint tries to stop her while also fending off the attack."

Schmidt said Black Widow's original death scene was shown to test audiences and the reaction was positive, but after some time with the footage a new idea for the scene began to take form.

"It was reshot to make it more intimate between Clint and Natasha, which fully worked in the end version of the movie," Schmidt said. "We just came up with a better idea, something that serviced Natasha a little bit more."

29. Did all the people Thanos snapped away on 2018 appear in the same places in 2023 when Hulk brought them back?

No. Bruce was smart enough to avoid this when using the Stark Gauntlet. He consciously brought everyone back safely.

Q: Hi Kevin, thanks for doing the AMA!

People have expressed views that, in Endgame, those brought back by the snap could have died in accidents (like someone being brought back 100 ft in the air where a plane used to be). Is it possible that Hulk, when doing the snap, not only brought everyone back, but also brought them back in a safe place?

Thanks and have a good one!

A: We refer to the version of Hulk in Endgame as Smart Hulk. So, yes.

30. Was there a Namor reference in Endgame?

No, they weren't clever enough for that.

"I wish we were that smart," said Markus.

But, who knows. It could be a reference retroactively in the future.

31. Where did War Machine's new armor come from in the final battle?

Not sure you can see, but the idea was that Scott Lang ended up in the armor room - so he saw the armor there before he rescued them, then grabbed it on the way to the surface. - Stephen McFeely

Scott wakes up in the armor room. He shrinks one down and brings it to Rhodey. There used to be a shot of it in the background. - Christopher Markus

You can see the armor in the background of the shot of Scott waking up in the rubble.

Spider-Man: Far From Home

1. Since Mysterio was lying in the movie does that mean the Multiverse doesn't exist?

No, the multiverse exists in multiple states in the MCU.

The latest example is Avengers: Endgame itself and its method of time travel which used the Multiverse theory. With each jump creating an alternate timeline in big and small ways, which even happens in similar fashion in the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. However, the multiverse was first confirmed to exist in 2016 with Doctor Strange as The Ancient One sends Stephen Strange through multiple dimensions, including the Dark Dimension.

2. What's the timeline of Peter's school years and how old is he?

Peter mentions he's a sophomore in the car scene with Toomes in Spider-Man: Homecoming and that scene takes place in September 23rd 2016, since that's the date the homecoming dance takes place according to these tickets from the Japanese promo art, which makes sense considering the Academic Decathlon is on the 14th of September according to this poster from the movie.

So he is at the end of his Freshman year (2015-2016) in Captain America: Civil War, begins his Sophomore year in Spider-Man: Homecoming, ending of his Junior year in Avengers: Infinity War which takes place in Spring 2018, and then had to repeat his Junior year in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

"It was purposefully done like this. Like how the events of Captain America: Civil War impacted Peter as he was dropped off by Tony and expected to go back to continue his sophomore year, how the hell are the events of Infinity War and Untitled [Avengers] going to affect him as he, yes, goes back to his junior year?"

In Spider-Man: Far From Home, Betty mentions it's been 8 months since the blip, the action which brought everyone back, and the movie starts on the last day of school, so in late June, meaning the blip occurred in October 2023, allowing the school to put Peter and his classmates through Junior year again, to their frustration.

As for Peter's age, his passport states he was born on August 10th, so he was 14 in Captain America: Civil War, 15 in Spider-Man: Homecoming, 16 in Avengers: Infinity War, and in Spider-Man: Far From Home he would only be a few months away from turning 17.

3. Was Talos impersonating Fury for all this time since 1995, or just this movie?

According to director Jon Watts, it was only recently.

"I think it's the real Nick Fury at the funeral, and I think Talos got a debrief from Nick Fury about this the last time they saw each other," Watts explained. "Talos is really good, so he would have gotten a lot of tips along the way how to play this character."

Also, as the movie makes it clear, Talos' mission was only to give Peter the EDITH glasses and as he describes to the real Fury, "...everything went off the rails after that."

4. Why didn't Fury (Talos) call any other Avenger to help Mysterio with the Elementals?

Talos directly addresses this when talking to Fury in the end-credit scene, saying that "Everybody is asking [him] about the Avengers and [he] doesn't know what to say." Presumably because his only mission was to give Peter the EDITH glasses and nothing else. So, it's likely that Fury never gave him such information because he would not have needed it for such a straight forward and simple task.

WandaVision

1. Who was Jimmy Woo's missing person that brought him to Westview in the first place?

Director of the series Matt Shakman and actor Randal Park have hinted that we will learn this in another project down the line.

Matt Shakman: In terms of the missing person, there's an answer for that and, you know, hang in there.

Randal Park: That's a good question. That's a good question that I will just leave a question.

2. Could the missing person be Ralph Bohner? He had a headshot laying around at his home. Could it be another potential character being set up for the future?

No. Jimmy Woo saw Ralph in the sitcom during episode 6 and he didn't recognize him, so he wasn't the person in witness protection that Jimmy was checking up on. His headshot looked more like that of an actor/model. Jac Schaeffer later revealed that he was indeed an actor.

During a podcast, she also says this about Evan's character:

"Anybody who's a fan of Marvel knows it's a long game. If there's something you feel is missing or didn't deliver, chances are there's gonna be another project down the line that does that thing or scratches that itch or satisfies that need. As far as Evan... it's complicated. I love what it is and I'm gonna stop talking because I can't say anything more."

3. In episode 4, the cops said Westview doesn't exist, but we clearly see Wanda driving to Westview in episode 8's flashback. Is Westview real?

Yes, Westview is real. Those cops were put under the same collective amnesia that the associates of Jimmy's witness were under. That amnesia was induced by Wanda's hex, so that outsiders don't come looking for their loved ones inside the hex. As Monica and Jimmy theorized, the amnesia must have affected only those with a personal connection to Westview.

Director Matt Shakman explains it like this:

"In terms of nobody knowing that Westview exists, Westview does exist and that's why Jimmy’s there. But the people in the environment have forgotten it because Wanda has made it so," Shakman told ComicBook.com's Phase Zero podcast about the "Hex" spell cast by Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). "She's created a kind of black hole there so she can be uninterrupted and people won’t find their way in too much.

4. How did director Hayward track Vision inside the hex and why was he tracking him if he had the original Vision's body?

The Vision that Wanda created inside the Hex was made of Vibranium as well. Wanda can use her chaos magic to spontaneously create matter out of nothing as Agatha explains to her in episode 8. So, Hayward uses the decaying signal of Vibranium to track Vision. In addition, Hayward wants the Hex's Vision, because after years of meddling with the original Vision, he still couldn't bring him back to life. Only thing that managed to do that was Wanda's magic that was imbued in the Stark drone that SWORD sent inside the Hex in episode 5.

5. How did Wanda believe that Ralph Bohner was her brother since they don't look alike?

She didn't exactly believe it; she was constantly questioning him throughout episode 6. But she fell for the fact that there's a chance this might actually be her brother in some form. The basic reason is that, as Agatha says to her in Episode 8, she was so broken and full of self-doubt that she held out hope that somehow her brother was alive, just as Vision was. Secondly, Wanda doesn't know the extent of her powers and doesn't even remember making the hex, as she basically put her magic on autopilot and let her emotions and subconscious take control of it.

So it only stands to reason that when a person looking even slightly like your long-dead brother, knocks on the door of your fake home in a reality that you don't even fully, actively control, inside of which, you have brought your dead, synthezoid boyfriend back to life, you're gonna hold out hope that it might actually be him.

6. So what was the point of casting Evan Peters as Quicksilver, if they're not gonna use him?

Evan Peters was cast as Ralph Bohner and then was controlled by Agatha to play Pietro Maximoff in Wanda's sitcom, so that Agatha could learn more about how Wanda created the hex. The casting choice of Evan was on purpose so that the audience would question whether he truly is Pietro or not, since from the audience's perspective, Peters played the character in Fox's X-Men universe. That's a parallel to how Wanda kept questioning the same exact thing. Had it been any other actor in that role, it would feel obvious that Wanda is being played.

7. But why did Ralph laugh when he heard his last name (Bohner)? Surely, he wouldn't laugh at his own surname.

At that moment, Ralph was still under Agatha's control, so we don't know whether he remember who he truly was.

8. Why didn't Wanda just create a smaller Hex that would surround her home so that her family could survive?

The whole point of the show is that we shouldn't cling to the past and our emotional attachments to the point where we try to literally change reality itself instead of facing it and moving forward with what we have left. Had Wanda done that, not only would she confine herself and her made-up family in a prison of sorts, but it would also lead her further into depression because she wouldn't be able to truly experience the real world with a real family ever again. Her only choice is to accept the loss she's been through and focus on learning more about her powers so that she can become fully in control of herself and use her abilities to make up for the mistakes that she's done in the past.

9. How do Jimmy, Darcy and Monica know so accurately what happened during the Battle of Earth?

In Ms. Marvel Season 1 Episode 1, it is revealed that Scott Lang revealed the details of the Battle of Earth in his Podcast Interviews.

10. What is a Nexus being? Is Wanda one?

A Nexus being is an entity with the ability to affect the probability of an event. Wanda did that for the first time instictively (as she is also the Scarlet Witch, which means that she doesn't need to be taught magic or consciously use spells to perform magic) when she lowered the probability of the second Stark bomb exploding down to 0%, thus saving her and Pietro.

There is only 1 Nexus being in EACH universe!

While Wanda is a Nexus being in the 616 universe (the main comic universe), it is never mentioned explicitly that Wanda is a Nexus being in the MCU, but the afforementioned scene implies it.

11. Monica Rambeau passed through the hex's barrier 3 times and her cells mutated enough to give her powers. Does that mean that other Westview citizens are mutates as well?

According to Kimura's Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution, most mutations in our DNA are neutral and have no effect on our phenotype. Also, according to statistics models in Evolution, it has been concluded that most of the non-neutral mutations are deleterious and could possibly cause diseases. A mutation creating a positive change to a person's phenotype is extremely rare, so giving someone powers is even rarer. It's safe to say Monica was the exception and not the rule.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

1. Was Bucky's powers nerfed in this show? Does he still have the super soldier serum?

Yes, he still has the serum, but in the beginning of the show, he's trying to pull his punches due to his therapist's rule number 2: Don't hurt people. He's trying not to let loose and accidently kill somebody again.

2. Is Steve Rogers still alive? What does the public know about him?

The public knows only what's stated in the Smithsonian museum: that Steve Rogers retired after the events of Avengers: Endgame. There are conspiracies that he's in the moon (as mentioned by Torres in Episode 1) or that he's dead (as he was seen in the Midtown High memorial video shown in Spider-Man: Far From Home).

Steve is probably not dead yet, despite being 113 years old (or 179 if you count the 66 years he spent on ice) as the serum offers him faster regeneration rate, and the most possible situation is that he's living out his days with his family in the alternate timeline that he created in Avengers: Endgame.

3. What is the Flag-smashers' goal?

It seems that Thanos' plan worked and during the blip, resources were more equally distributed, while at the same time, the whole world became more united seeing as everybody had gone through the same tragedy. After 3.5 billion people were blipped back, the world prioritised their resources for people who had recently come back to life and also tried to give them their homes and jobs back, while disregarding people who had been poor their whole lives and who only had a decent life during the blip.

The Flag-smashers took it upon themselves to redistribute the Global Repatriation Council's (GRC) resources more equally to everyone in need, whether they were blipped or not. They also want a world without borders, with all the people in the world united, just like it was during the blip.

They used the super-soldier serum, because it offered them better chances at succeeding on their plan. But it also made their leader, Karli, more unhinged, as she was the most extremist to begin with.

4. Did they retcon Zemo's backstory? I thought he was regular guy who just wanted to take revenge on the Avengers for killing his family?

Zemo was never a regular guy. Even in Civil War, he was the leader of an elite kill squad and had money to buy an EMP, buy a snow-vehicle to navigate through Siberia, make high-tech face masks to resemble Bucky, buy a bomb and place it in the UN building unnoticed, buy tickets to America, Germany and Russia and the knowledge to decrypt hundreds of files and learn everything about the Winter Soldier program.

He also seemed to hate Hydra from that first scene with Karpov and wanted to eradicate them.

This show filled in the blanks. Zemo had the money because he was a Baron, which is a nobility title given to commonfolk due to their service in the military (meaning his family has been a military family for quite some time) and he hated Hydra, because he had been trying to eradicate them since before his family died, most likely as part of the Sokovian military.

5. Who is the man who blew up the police truck with the rest of the Flagsmashers in the final episode?

That is Oernik, Zemo's butler. The scene with Contessa Valentina "Val" Allegra de Fontaine right after also implies that Val is working with Zemo to an extent and that she orchestrated the whole assassination.

Loki

1. Why didn't Loki turn blue in the TVA since magic doesn't work there?

Because Odin permanently changed his appearance and physiology like he made Thor a human or enchant Mjolnir. It wasn't a spell that required the constant use of magic to work.

2. Why do some variants look the same and some others look different?

Because of Mendel's first law of Inheritance. Each person has 2 alleles of each gene in their DNA. Each sperm and each ovum contain only 1 random allele for each gene, which means that each sperm and each ovum that an organism creates during its lifetime has a completely different set of alleles, which is called a haplotype. That means that the same set of parents can give birth to a huge number of offsprigs each with a unique haplotype, and hence physical appearance (based on the genes expressed by said haplotype).

In simpler words, variants are genetically siblings and in a large enough sample, some siblings will look the same and some will look differently.

Black Widow

1. Why didn't Natasha try to kill Dreykov from afar (with a bomb or by sniping him) since she already knew about the pherormones?

Because she tried to do the same a decade prior and she had failed. She needed to be sure this time. She also needed to interrogate him and get the information she needed about the Black Widows that Dreykov had around the world, so that Melina and Yelena could save them.

2. How did Natasha escape General Ross at the end of the movie?

Considering she opened her tracker willingly, she probably offered him what was left from the Red Room in order to let her go.

3. Why did Natasha and Yelena fight each other when they reunited?

Because Natasha didn't know if Yelena was still under the Red Room's mind control or whether she could trust her in general.

4. Was Natasha taken to be a member of the Red Room after the events at Ohio?

No, only Yelena was. Natasha was already training to become a Black Widow by the time the Ohio events start in 1992. She just went back to continue her training in 1995.

What if...?

1. How can Ultron use the Infinty Stones in other universes? I thought the stones can only be used in their respective universe. Even Ultron says that each set of stones is unique.

That's a comic rule. In the MCU, this isn't true. The Avengers also used stones from other universes in their own. As far as we know, the stones are only useless in the TVA, as is magic, and we don't really know why. But the most likely answer is because the TVA exists in the 4th dimensional plane, outside of the Multiverse itself.

As for Ultron's comment, each set of stones from each universe being unique has nothing to do with where they work and where they don't. Each home hasa different set of household appliances, but all of them are useable in all houses.

AC Bradley, head writer of What if...? however has another theory:

Just a reminder that Ultron is using the Infinity Stones to power himself (same universe being).

2. Who is the Watcher talking to?

To us, the audience.

3. Why are some things different in the alternate universes that we see in What if (e.g. the Red Skull finding the Tesseract in 1943 instead of 1942 in episode 1, Thanos coming to Earth with 5 stones in 2015 in the 8th episode etc)?

Because those universes existed since the beginning of time. When a universe "branches", it means that it deviates from a general path that all the other universes follow and NOT that it was JUST created. So there are bound to be some differences between universes. This is better explained in our Guide to Time Travel and the Multiverse.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

1. Who sent Shang-Chi the postcard from Macau?

It is hinted that it was Wenwu who did because he wanted to reunite with his kids. So he sent the postcard and then sent assassins to Shang-Chi trying to take the pendant, knowing that Shang-Chi wouldn't give it willingly, but also wouldn't die in the fight. That made Shang-Chi afraid for his sister which lead him to Macau where Wenwu reunited with his family.

2. Is the Ten Rings organization in the film the same one that captured Tony Stark in Iron Man 1 in Afghanistan?

Yes, they are! Members of the organization also had smaller cameos in Iron Man 2, Ant-Man and the one-shot All hail the king.

As explained in the beginning of the film, The Ten Rings spread all across the world and have cells operating in most countries.

3. The Ten Rings is the third secret organization (after Hydra and the Red Room) to be controlling world governments and crave domination. How have the 3 organizations not interacted in the past?

Well each organization is seen following a different method of world domination. Hydra is infiltrating governments, the Red Room was threatening people in power and the Ten Rings were organizing terrorist attacks and then made demands.

A better illustration of the interaction of all the different organizations accross time can be found in this post

Eternals

1. Why didn't the Celestials stop Thanos from eliminating half of all life, since it would delay the emergence of Tiamut? How do the Celestials operate and what exactly was their plan?

Well first of all, even without Bruce's snap bringing everybody back, the population of Earth, and of most planets, would eventually bounce back to its original number.

Thanos' plan was flawed because he based its success on the assumption that the beings in the universe would treat him like a Messiah and try to sustain the balance that he created in the name of their savior.

Since that wasn't the case, at least on Earth, the population would definitely grow back, be it in 100, 1,000 or even 1,000,000 years. Those numbers, compared to the Celestials' billion-year lifespans are miniscule.

Similarly, the plague virus and Hitler killed millions on Earth and delayed the emrgence by a few years, but the Celestials didn't intervene, as that was a very minor inconvenience to them.

And in general, they don't interfere in mortal affairs or the natural order of things, allowing for total free will.

The only thing the Celestials do is create new stars so that planets can be formed and life can flourish.

Only once did Arishem decide to speed up the process of natural evolution by creating the Deviants to kill the non-sentient apex predators in planets around the universe (like the dinosaurs), and allowing for sentient life forms (like humans) to become apex predators themselves and dominate their planets.

And even that, Arishem did after having waited billions of years for sentient life to emerge (sentient life on Earth appeared only half a million years ago, which is 0.01% of the Earth's existence and 0.004% of the universe's existence).

However, immediately once he realized that Deviants were evolving and becoming apex predators themselves, he created the Eternals to kill the Celestials and correct his mistake and neither did he interfere again or allowed the Eternals to interfere.

Even when his own creations, the Eternals, didn't follow his orders, Arishem didn't kill them or try to stop them, he only wanted to judge if their choice was correct.

TL;DR: Celestials are benevolent gods who allow for total free will and barely intervene in how the world works, even if that means that an emergence is delayed by a few years, because their one and only interference turned out badly.

2. To whom did the voice at the end-credits scene belong to?

Marshella Ali's Blade.

3. Did any of the Eternals get blipped?

According to Chloe Zhao, they can't get blipped.

Well, I can't say this out loud, but if you think about... if you think about what the Celestials told them. If you think about what the Celestials told them about themselves, technically they can't get blipped.

4. When does Eternals take place within the MCU timeline?

Nate Moore said a few months before the movie was released that it takes place "around the same time as Spider-Man: Far From Home" (8 months after Avengers: Endgame).

The writers of the movie, the Firpo brothers, said that it takes place "almost concurrently with the Falcon and the Winter Soldier" (a little bit over 6 months after Avengers: Endgame).

In the Disney+ timeline order, it is placed after Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier which happen almost concurrently in April 2024.

In the movie, the characters are dressed in warm clothing, the weather in the Northern Hemisphere resembles Fall and there are Halloween Decorations in Phastos' home indicating an October setting.

It's very likely this movie was initially supposed to take place right after Endgame since it is mentioned that it's been 5 years since Thanos' snap, and Endgame happened during October as well. What's more the movie was supposed to be the first to take place in "present day" coming out in Phase 4 (after Black Widow which was a prequel).

But with the COVID-related delays, they might have decided to have it happen around Fall 2024 (1 year after Endgame) to line-up the release timeline with the universe's timeline.

Hawkeye

1. Is Wilson Fisk/Kingpin dead?

Most likely not. First of all, they wouldn't bring him back after 3 years just to kill him in 1 episode. Second of all, she is basically Maya's archnemesis and she is getting a solo Disney+ show, so he most likely will appear there. Finally, Maya shooting Fisk point black in the face happened in the comics as well and he survived (but faced some consequences).

2. What's the significance of Laura Barton's watch and the SHIELD symbol with the number '19' on the backside?

In the comics, Laura does not exist. Clint is instead married to Bobbi Morse, special agent 19 of SHIELD, also going by the codename 'Mockinbird'.

Bobbi Morse showed up in the show Agents of SHIELD, but she was never called 'Mockingbird' or 'Agent 19'. The show reveals that Laura was Agent 19/Mockingbird in the MCU and makes a nod to Hawkeye's wife in the comics.

The watch was important to Laura because it revealed an identity (SHIELD Special Agent 19) that she had thrown away when she married Hawkeye. Clint probably kept it with him in the Avengers compound, which is how it salvaged and ended up in the black market auction.

It was not made clear why the Tracksuit Mafia/Maya/the Kingpin were looking for that watch.

3. Did Val or Eleanor hire Yelena to kill Clint?

Eleanor hired her through Val. Val is essentially a handler/middle-man that has many mercenaries working for her and people who want a mercenary can book them through her.

4. What's so different between what Clint did as Hawkeye vs what he did as Ronin?

Not much. Clint says so in episode 4. He was always a weapon.

The main difference (as he also points out) is that he was pointed at the right targets by people who had investigated on those targets when he was Hawkeye, but as Ronin, he was blindly killing anybody in his wake with no moral compass or supervision and he was filled with rage and emotion, instead of simply doing a non-personal job.

It's the basic difference between the armed forces and vigilantes. Not that either of them can walk scott-free for killing, but the armed forces kill targets after heavy investigation and under strict supervision.

Spider-Man: No Way Home

1. How was Spider-Man avoiding Dr. Strange's attempts to steal the cube since Peter's astral form/consciousness had been knocked out of his body?

It was implied that it was his Spidey Sense/Peter Tingle that was inherently reacting to danger.

2. How did Dr. Strange's spells work exactly?

The initial spell that Dr. Strange wanted to try was a memory wipe spell that would make people forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. That would mean that Ned would only remember their time as friends before he found out about Peter's secret identity, and MJ would forget everything they've been through as she realized he was Spider-Man almost since the beginning of her stalking him.

Peter didn't want this and Strange changed his spells too many times mid-spell, so the result was that everybody who knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man in all other universes would come to the main universe (including Peter Parker variants themselves).

Strange contained the failed spell pretty quickly and the only people that made it through were Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Sandman and Tobey's Spider-Man from the 'Raimiverse' and Lizard, Electro and Andrew's Spider-Man from the 'Webbverse'.

At the end, Strange couldn't contain the spell for much longer, so the rest of the people who knew Peter Parker is Spider-Man from all accross the Multiverse started coming through, and for some reason Strange couldn't perform the same spell as the previous failed spell was out of control.

Thus, he made a spell that made everybody forget of Peter Parker, as a person, entirely.

That means Peter has no government records (which is why he's studying for his GED exams at the end in order to get a certificate of high-school-level knowledge, because he can't enrol back in high school), and nobody remembers he ever existed. That most likely means all digital records are gone too, so Mysterio's videos are not on the Internet anymore.

People do remember Spider-Man though, so it's safe to say that the Avengers remember battling with Spider-Man and Ned and MJ remember that they are Spider-Man's best friend and girlfriend respectively, similarly to how Happy remembers that he knows May through Spider-Man.

3. Why was Tom Hardy's Venom from the SSU (Sony's Spider-Man Universe) teleported to the MCU through Dr. Strange's spell if he doesn't know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man?

Because, as Venom explains in the Venom: Let There Be Carnage post-credits scene, all the symbiotes have a Multiversal hive mind, and thus have access to the memories of every symbiote in the Multiverse, including the symbiote that Tobey's Peter fought in Spider-Man 3.

4. Were the villains sent back to the point in the timeline they were taken from essentially leading to their deaths?

While it is left up to interpretation, it wouldn't fit the film's theme of second chances, redemption and the responsibility to help everyone you can if that was what happened. It is highly likely, the villains are sent to/cause the creation of alternate timelines where their survival causes different events to unfold.

5. Why did the general public react so negatively and were so hostile to Spider-Man when they learnt his identity in a universe already filled with so many heroes with public identities?

Well for starters, The Avengers' identities were not only public since the beginning, but half the group were agents/soldiers (Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain America, War Machine, Falcon) and the team itself was formed and initially operated under a government agency (SHIELD). The Avengers were more like super-powered law enforcement officers and less like vigilantes, so the public always trusted them to an extent.

The public have always had a slight mistrust against Spider-Man because from their point of view, he is an illegal masked vigilante, but they gave him the benefit of the doubt as long as he was helping the Avengers. And seeing someone you barely trust being accused for murder would surely lower your perceived image of him even more.

Add to that that in the post-blip world, the world has seen everything and is ready to believe anything, so it's a world people like J. Jonah Jameson and Mysterio thrive in.

Finally, Peter being a minor would hurt his image more as people can potentially see him as irresponsible, immature, inexperienced and unreliable.

6. Why does Matt Murdock advise Happy to get a good lawyer?

Because Happy had stolen Stark Fabricator

7. Why did Happy steal the Stark Fabricator?

Because the DODC confiscated most of Peter's Stark Tech indlucing EDITH, access to the Stark servers and the Nano-charger, and Happy wanted to help Peter make any type of gear he needed under the authorities' nose.

Moon Knight

1. What are the Egyptian gods?

They are extra-dimensional beings that hail from the dimension known as Overvoid.

**2. What is up with the psych ward? What is real life and what was in Marc/Steven's imagination?"

The psych ward is an illusion they made up in their heads and is a manifestation of their insecurity that they are indeed crazy and all the Moon Knight stuff has been in their heads the whole time.

Dr. Harrow specifically is a representation of their subconscious who constantly asks them what is real and what is part their imagination as Marc and Steven ask this question to themselves quite often as well.

At first, they thought the psych ward was the real world, but as time moved on and they opened up to themselves about their past experiences and trauma and learned to communicate and understand, but also accept, each other, they mustered the strength to eliminate that insecurity and prove to themselves and to their subconscious (Harrow) that their reality (the events we have been watching throughout the show) is the actual reality!

3. What happened in the Duat in Episode 6? How was Marc and Steven able to be freed and pass the gates of Osiris to return to the real world?

As Taweret explained in Episode 5, the Gates of Osiris act as a doorway between the real world and the underworld. If Marc/Steven's body was alive in the real world, their souls could pass through the gates and be reincarnated. But that was only possible after Khonshu was brought back from his imprisonement to give them their healing powers.

4. Why doesn't Steven remember his mother's beatings if it was him who was taking them?

DID stands for 'Dissociative Identity Disorder'. A big part of it is dissociation. Steven was dissociated from reality at that moment. That's evident from the fact that he wasn't responding or reacting to his mom's presence (when she was knocking at the door, when she was talking at him or when she was beating him) at all, as if she wasn't there.

5. Was the person in the psych ward with the nose bandage in Episode 5 Jake?

No, that was Marc.

1. At the end of that scene when Marc is about to stab himself with the pyramid, Harrow's people inject him with a sedative. The scene immediately changes to Marc and Steven in the boat reacting to Taweret and on 5:25 Marc exclaims "Oh man! Those meds are amazing!". The transition here and Marc's disbelief about Taweret's existence here obviously implies that he believes the boat is a hallucination caused by the meds that were just injected into him by Harrow's people, which means he remembers the previous encounter in Harrow's office.

2. Further proof is given when Marc returns to Harrow's office on 27:44 and the first thing he does is touch his neck at the point of the injection and then touch his nose in disbelief that it's not injured anymore. Right afterwards, on 28:00, he asks Harrow: "Did you inject me with something?". Again, this very clearly proves without a doubt that Marc remembers the previous instance in the office, which means that could NOT possibly be Jake.

3. The finale adds one more thing on top of all this: Jake speaks Spanish. He might have been a New Yorker in the comics, which confused many because Marc does a Brooklyn accent at one point in the scene in question, but it's pretty clear Jake, just like Steven has been changed from his comic counterpart quite a lot.

4. Finally, the creators of the show had an interview with Marvel.com where they explained all the Jake teases throughout the season. They mention the fact that all of the mirrors in the show were 3-ways and the 3 Oscar Isaac heads in the credits and of course the sarcophagus and the 2 times were Marc blacked out, but it wasn't Steven who took the wheel in episodes 3 and 6. But they don't mention any other instance where Jake is teased, let alone actually appeared on screen.

6. There are 3 costumes in the credits of every episode (apart from episode 1). Is the "rugged mummy" one Jake's costume?

No.

Costume Designer has confirmed they never designed a suit for Jake.

That thing isn't even a costume, it's Marc's suit while forming.

Considering Steven's suit showed up in the credits only from episode 2 forwards, which was its on-screen debut, it's very doubtful they would show Jake's costume without Jake, let alone his suit, having appeared on screen.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

1. I thought the MCU was Earth-199999, and the comic universe is Earth-616. Why do they call the MCU Earth-616 in the film? Did Mysterio and Erik Selvig know it or did they just make a lucky guess?

Designations are man-made. Christine just happened to name the main MCU universe Earth-616 and someone in the comics (where the Earth-199999 name originated) just happened to name the main MCU universe Earth-199999 and the comic universe 616.

It's all subjective.

If I were naming universes as well, I would probably give each of these universes a different designation as well.

Besides, the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse is not the same as the Marvel Comics Multiverse as explained in our Guide to Time Travel and the Multiverse confirmed by a variety of evidence: TVA and He Who Remains exist outside of space and time and there is one of each in the Multiverse, but the one in the comics Multiverse is different compared to that in the Cinematic Multiverse. Similarly, Uatu the Watcher who showed up in What if...? is different than the Uatu from the comics, despite the fact that there is 1 of each Watcher in each Multiverse. Finally, the rules that the govern the Infinity Stones and the Cinematic Multiverse are slightly different than the ones in the comics.

So Christine's designation is not only an Easter Egg, but a way for Marvel Studios to give an easier, more iconic name to their main universe in the Cinematic Multiverse and once and for all cut itself completely from the Comics Multiverse.

As for Mysterio and Selvig, they made a lucky guess.

2. Are 838-Illuminati characters that we have seen previously on screen or new variants?

None of them are characters from universes we know or seen on screen.

This Professor Xavier has some attributes of the X-Men: TAS/X-Men '97 variant (yellow floating chair), some attributes of the FoX-Men variant (Patrick Stewart). But he is neither of them. The X-Men: TAS Prof X was American, this one's British.

Captain Carter is similarly not the same as the one from What if...? Episode 1, since the 828-Carter died and the one from What if...? will be in Season 2.

3. Why didn't Wanda...?

All these types of questions can be answered with the followings logic: Wanda was corrupted by the Darkhold and blindsided by her depression and desperation. She had a very specific plan in her head and nobody could ever change her mind about it. That's not a olot-hole, it's part of her arc, it's who she's become. And the fact that there are other ways for Wanda to solve her problem is part of the main theme of the film: alternative choices, a theme brought to life through the concept of the Multiverse. Dr. Strange's arc in the film also consists of him learning that there are other ways to deal with problems and he is not always the person most qualified to find the solution.

4. Dr. Strange said the Fantastic Four "charted in the 60s. Does that mean the 616-Fantastic Four existed in the 60s?

From a RollingStones interview with screenwriter Michael Waldron:

When John Krasinski’s Reed Richards is introduced as being from the Fantastic Four, Dr. Strange says, “Didn’t you guys chart in the 1960s?” Was that just a Beatles-referencing joke about the name, or was it meant to suggest that perhaps in the main MCU there actually had been a Fantastic Four in the 1960s?

MW: I think Benedict riffed that, and I think that was just a joke about Fab Four, Fantastic Four. Yeah, I think that was just a gag.

5. Why didn't Wanda look for her brother, her parents, Vision etc in the Multiverse?

According to Elizabeth Olen:

The idea really is that the most important thing once you become a mother in the world are your children, and that's why.”

6. Mordo says in the original Dr. Strange film that with a sling ring, sorcerers can travel anywhere in the Multiverse. Why is America's powers such a big deal in this film?

In Dr. Strange, the term Multiverse is used to refer to the collection of alternate dimensions.

Ms. Marvel

1. Is Ms. Marvel a mutant or a Djinn/being from the Noor Dimension? Where exactly does she get her powers from? And what's the role of the bangle in all this?

Kamala's great-grandmother, Aisha, is a local of the Noor Dimension. She and a few others of her kind, who call themselves the ClanDestines, were exiled to Earth a few hundred years ago. They found themselves in South Asia where they were dubbed "Djinn" because of their abilities.

The ClanDestines' genetics are different than human genetics and offer them a longer lifespan as well as the power to manipulate the Noor, the energy of their home dimension, but only when they are in that dimension.

Kamala and her family from her mother's side are only partially "Djinn" and because of that, they can't normally access the powers of a "Djinn", but Kamala can because of her mutation.

The bangle is an ancient Kree artifact that somehow can open portals in space and time and because of that, the ClanDestines were looking for it to return to their home. When worn by Kamala, the bangle's energy activated the dormant X-Gene, which, as explained above, allowed Kamala to use her Noor-manipulation powers that she inherited from Aisha.

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law

1. Does She-Hulk: Attorney At Law S01E02 take place concurrently with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings?

No, it does not!

In the post-credits scene of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Bruce is in his human due to wearing his Hulk inhibitor. In addition, his arm is still injured. Bruce's inhibitor broke during She-Hulk: Attorney At Law S01E01 and he managed to fully heal his arm with Jennifer's blood.

That means Shang-Chi takes place before She-Hulk's origin story, which itself takes place months before the main events of the show, including of course its second episode.

This is also pretty clearly indicated by the Disney+ timeline which shows She-Hulk just before Ms. Marvel, meaning it takes place during Summer 2025, while Shang-Chi takes place during March-April 2024, more than 1 year earlier.

What happened at the end of S01E02 is that the video of the cage match between Wong and Abomination was publicly leaked, so the Breaking News program was covering the leak and not the actual escape, since it had already happened long ago.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

1. Is M'Baku king of Wakanda at the end of the movie?

Yes. Shuri essentially gave him her blessings and didn't show up at Warrior Falls indicating that she has no intention of becoming Queen. With no competition, M'Baku became the new King.

Phase 4 General Questions

These are questions that get asked about Phase 4 in general and don't fit in any of the above categories. This section will be updated as more new films and series come out. Warnings: SPOILERS FOR EVERY PIECE OF PHASE 4 MEDIA BELOW

1. Are the Sokovia Accords still active? Why are the heroes who were previously on the run now free to operate?

Sam Wilson said in the The Falcon and the Winter Soldier that all of the heroes who helped with bringing back half the world's population and defeating Thanos got presidential pardons and were thus absolved of their past crimes. This created the whole issue with Sharon who was not pardoned, despite having sacrificed her whole life in the US intelligence community, simply because she did not help with the battle against Thanos, displaying the US government's hypocrisy.

This is why there have been no repercussions on the heroes who had gone on the run in the past.

Matt Murdock also mentioned in She-Hulk: Attorney At Law that the Sokovia Accords have been repealed, probably some time after the events of WandaVision since SWORD Director Tyler Hayward was accusing Wanda of breaking the accords when she supposedly stole Vision's body and experimented on it without supervision, which is in reality what he had done and why he was arrested at the end of the series.

That means that enhanced individuals are allowed to act on their own free will either as heroes or villains, without any form of legislative oversight.

However, the Department of Damage Control (DODC) are actively hunting down, restraining and imprisoning enhanced individuals who pose a threat to society.

2. I don't understand how the Multiverse, Time Travel, Variants etc work!

For a complete Guide to Time Travel and the Multiverse, you can read this document that we've prepared for you!

You can also find a shorter version here

3. What's the hierarchy of gods in the MCU?

The Celestials are at the top of the Universal hierarchy as far as we know as they have existed since before the big bang and the creation of the Infinity Stones. But they can be killed, as we have already seen the severed head of a Celestial acting as the mining colony of Knowhere in Guardians of the Galaxy and Infinity War.

Once the Celestials created the Universe, Eternity and Infinity were born, the first sentient beings in the universe, brother and sister, the personifications of time and space respectively. These 2 along with Death (the personification of Death) and one of Eternity's sons, Entropy (the personification of the Passage of Time, the Universe's Expansion and the Decay of Life and of the Universe itself) forged the Infinity Stones, 6 gems that control 6 aspects of the universe and without their energy, the universe cannot exist.

The statues of Eternity, Infinity, Death and The Celestial Above All can be seen in Eternity's Temple in Thor: Love and Thunder along with the statue of Eternity's other son, Eon, the Lord of Time.

The Eternals, Asgardians, Olympians and the Ennead (the members of the Egyptian pantheon) and many other super-powerful beings from alien planets or other dimensions have been worshipped as gods by different human civilizations accross the centuries, and have control over the Astral Plane, an alternate dimension where the soul exists separately from the body and is occupied by dead souls. The Astral Plane consists of many different subrealms like the Duat and the Field of Reeds (Egyptian afterlifes), Valhalla and Hel (Asgardian afterlifes), The Ancestral Plane (Wakandan afterlife) etc.

The Asgardians are aliens that can tap into a source of dark magic called Odinforce that derives from Asgard, the Eternals are advanced cyborgs created by the Celestials that can tap into cosmic energy and the Ennead are beings from the dimension known as Overvoid or Othervoid.

All these races of beings could be considered gods, since they were worshipped as such, but they are definitely below the Celestials and the Cosmic Beings in terms of potency.

In the Multiversal hierarchy, He Who Remains/Kang controls the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse, despite he himself being a normal human from Earth. He doesn't have god-like powers, but he has the Multiversal being Alioth as well as the force of the TVA in his control and is able to control the flow of time accross the Multiverse.

That means he can technically make Alioth consume an entire universe, including the Celestials inside that universe.

But The One Above All, creator of the Multiverse and his right hand, The Living Tribunal, sit at the top of the hierarchy and are omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient Gods.

Finally, the Watchers are also Multiversal beings with extreme power, but they have vowed to The One Above All to not intervene in the natural order of the Multiverse.

Statues of Uatu the Watcher and the Living Tribunal are also occupying the chamber at Eternity's temple that was seen in Thor: Love and Thunder*.

4. What is the jurisdiction of all the super-hero-related agencies in Phase 4?

SWORD

In the comics, SWORD stands for "Sentient World Observation and Response Department" and it was an off-shoot of SHIELD which had a space station and specifically dealt with alien threats.

In the MCU, the initials of SWORD stands for "Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division" and as Director Hayward said, they focus on AI, robotics and nanotech. However, he also said that they, and I quote:

"Shifted away from manned missions and refocused on robotics, nanotech, A.I. Sentient Weapons, like it says on the door."

Hayward uses the excuse that "most of their astronauts were blipped" to justify the shift of their agency.

That means they their agency, just like the comics was at some point, focused on space observation!

And even when Monica notes:

"It also says 'Observation and Response' on that door, not 'Creation.'"

Hayward answers:

"World's not the same as you left it. Space is now full of unexpected threats."

That means that even though they focus on robotics and sentient weapons now, their mission is still to be able to response to unexpected threats from space.

A common question is why did Jimmy Woo call them for help if their jurisdiction was not overlapping with his operation.

Jimmy specifcially requested a high-tech drone that was in their possession, so that he could do recon before entering Westview. At that point, Westview seemed absolutely normal to them from the outside, they didn't know about the hex or Wanda. It was as simple as an organization lending tech to another organization.

Afterwards though, back-up was called in and SWORD assumed control of the situation because Monica, one of their own agents, was sucked in the hex.

Also, as director Matt Shakman said:

"We imagined that S.W.O.R.D. is exactly the right agency when you have a radioactive anomaly; that they're used to going into foreign planets, very difficult terrain."

And even when Monica was thrown out by Wanda, the hex was still under SWORD's jurisdiction, because, according to Hayward's fabricated story, Wanda had stolen Vision's body, which was under SWORD's supervision since they had shifted to AI.

DODC

The DODC (Department of Damage Control) was a new US Department that was created in 2012 by the US Government with the help and funding of Tony Stark with its goal being to clean up and store all the alien/super-hero tech, a job that used to be done by SHIELD and was still done by SHIELD in the rest of the world between 2012 and 2014 until SHIELD fell.

After SHIELD's fall, there was no official authority responsible for responding to super-hero threats and detaining dangerous, enhanced individuals.

The ATCU was formed for that reason and a year after that, the Sokovia Accords were put into place, making (some) of the Avengers an official, UN-sanctioned authority.

After the blip and the later split of the Avengers post-blip (present day), as well as the influx of enhanced inividuals in the world, DODC assumed full jurisdiction and authority in stopping and detaining super-powered threats.