10 Forgotten MCU Plot Threads That Disney Should Revisit Immediately
The MCU isn’t just the world’s highest-grossing franchise; it is also one of the longest stories ever created, spanning over 150 hours of live-action content as of today. With multiple solo franchises like The Defenders and the X-Men being introduced, it is anything short of a miracle that the MCU doesn’t have glaring plot holes.
Despite its ballooning size, the MCU has remained fairly intact as far as the flow of its interconnected stories is concerned. However, as the franchise has evolved over the years, some characters and storylines fell down the pecking order, with some getting forgotten altogether before reaching their full conclusion. From post-credit scenes that didn’t have a future to cryptic predictions that haven’t led to anything, the MCU has accumulated its fair share of orphaned storylines over the years. While there is always the possibility of going back to a storyline, these 10 seem to have hit a dead end unless they get a resolution soon.
1. The Young Avengers?
The MCU started toying with the idea of the Young Avengers in Phase 4 and 5, with younger superheroes like Billy Maximoff (Wiccan), America Chavez, Ironheart, and Kid Loki being slowly introduced. The project peaked in The Marvels (2023) when Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) recruits Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) into the team in the post-credit scene. Unfortunately, there has been no follow-up to the scene, so it is unclear whether Ms. Marvel’s team got any more recruits.
Rumors of a Young Avengers film being in development swelled, but that is as far as the story went. In his recent interview about the future of the team, Marvel President Kevin Feige said the Young Avengers could show up in the future alongside “other characters.” But then they wouldn’t be the Young Avengers anymore because while the characters are superheroes, the actors are humans, and one can only be young for so long.
2. Nova Corps
When Guardians of the Galaxy introduced the Nova and the Kree empires in 2014, it also introduced the Nova Corps as both the protectors of Xander and keepers of interstellar peace. Nova Corps and Xander as a whole remained an important part of the MCU, with the group heroically defending Xander in the final battle in Guardians of the Galaxy. Unfortunately, the intergalactic police weren’t mentioned again in the MCU until Avengers: Infinity War, when Gamora confirmed that Xander had been decimated by Thanos the week before.
A whole planet with an estimated population of 12 billion was therefore wiped out off-screen with no explanation of what happened to its heroic defenders, who were last seen as strong allies of the Guardians of the Galaxy. With the Nova Corp gone, it also means that no one is guarding the galaxy, opening it up to threats with unknown consequences. Fortunately, the group will likely be revisited in the MCU’s upcoming Nova TV series, although its release date is still unknown.
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3. The revenge of Hercules
After Zeus’ (Russell Crowe) embarrassing defeat at the hands of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) in the Omnipotence City, Zeus is seen to have survived in the mid-credits scene of Thor: Love and Thunder (2022). In the scene, Zeus also summons his son, Hercules (Brett Goldstein), to effect his revenge on the Asgardian. While Goldstein’s Hercules appears comical in comparison to Thor, the scene still sets up an important plot thread that the MCU hasn’t explored so far.
Thor 5 is reportedly in the works, but there is little mention of Goldstein’s character ever returning to the MCU, making this another unresolved MCU plot thread. With Chris Hemsworth’s character set to play a leading role in Avengers: Doomsday, the MCU has the opportunity to address this forgotten scene, even if it is a single swing of Thor’s hammer.
4. What did Hydra do with the Pym Tech?
Pym Tech is one of the most advanced and dangerous pieces of technology in the MCU. Besides allowing molecular compression and expansion, it also played a major role in time travel in Avengers: Endgame. In the wrong hands, the technology could cause immense devastation. In Ant-Man, while Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) fights Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), Mitchell Carson (Martin Donovan), a Hydra agent, takes advantage of the chaos to steal a vial of the Cross particles.
The cameras linger on him long enough to show him escape with the Pym Tech, which means the MCU was probably planning to use the scene in a future storyline. However, Martin Donovan’s character hasn’t been seen in the MCU again. While Hydra is no longer a major threat in the Sacred Universe, the technology in the wrong hands is still a significant MCU plot hole that needs to be fixed quickly.
5. Arishem’s judgment of Earth and the fate of the Eternals
Eternals is another bungled project that the MCU has been shy of revisiting since 2021, despite gaping plot holes. At the end of the movie, the titular group was summoned by Arishem (a celestial) after they stopped the rising of Tiamut. Arishem was supposed to evaluate whether humans were worth saving, a plot thread that hasn’t been revisited since the end of the film.
While Captain America: Brave New World put Tiamut’s frozen statue in the Indian Ocean to good use, the fate of the movie’s superheroes remains in limbo. There is clearly no plan at Marvel to revisit Eternals, especially after their decision to reduce the frequency of MCU projects. There still needs to be some explanation as to whether the powerful being judged humans as worth saving, and what happened to the film’s heroes after they subverted his will, since their story is now part of the MCU.
6. Mordo vs. “too many sorcerers”
After introducing Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to Kamar-Taj, Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) plays a major role in all the battles against Kaecilius in Doctor Strange. However, at the end of the film, he becomes disillusioned with the Ancient One’s use of black magic and the willingness of everyone else to “break the rules.” The film’s post-credit scene shows the shocking twist when Mordo attacks Jonathan Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt), saying he now understands that “the problem is that there are too many sorcerers.”
The scene clearly sets up Mordo to become Stephen Strange’s archnemesis, as is the case in the comics. However, in the next film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Mordo’s mission is only mentioned in passing by Doctor Strange, which is less than satisfactory. There were plans to have Mordo killed by Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), but the scene got deleted, leaving Mordo as one of the biggest unresolved storylines in the MCU.
7. Sonny Burch’s employer
Burch (Walton Goggins) may not have been the greatest of threats in the MCU, but he revealed that he was working for a powerful “benefactor.” From Burch’s description, his employer had to be someone with enough money and influence to manipulate and use Pym Tech. However, the mysterious employer wasn’t revealed in Quantumania, and now remains a mystery nearly a decade later.
Fortunately, this is one of the easiest forgotten MCU plots to resolve, as Marvel could link Burch to any of the many villains that can weaponize Pym Tech, including Hydra, Power Broker, or even Doctor Doom. Otherwise, such a powerful villain being left as a dangling mystery makes the whole story of Ant-Man feel incomplete.
8. The mystery of the Ten Rings
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings eventually brought one of the MCU’s most mysterious storylines to life. However, the Ten Rings prove even more mysterious at the end of the film when Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) discover that the rings are sending a beacon to an unknown location in the multiverse. The film also revealed that Shang Chi’s sister, Xialing, took over the leadership of the Ten Rings organization, setting her up as another deadly villain whose real threat hasn’t been revisited in the MCU since.
Although a sequel is rumored to be in development, no concrete details have been revealed yet. However, with Wong, Bruce Banner, and Carol Danvers now connected to the storyline, it begs to be resolved with urgency, especially since the MCU is now set to reset after Avengers: Secret Wars.
9. What happened to Scorpion?
The post-credits scene of Spider-Man: Homecoming teased the creation of the Sinister Six when Mac Gargan (Michael Mando), having a scorpion tattoo, approached Adrien Toomes (Michael Keaton) in prison seeking an alliance. In the scene, Gargan says he has “friends” on the outside who would love to know the identity of Spider-Man, a request that Toomes dismisses. However, the scene clearly sets up a huge storyline of a future Spider-Man threat.
Unfortunately, the scene is skipped in both Spider-Man: Far from Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home and has since joined the long list of forgotten MCU plot threads. After Peter Parker’s identity as Spider-Man was erased from living memory at the end of No Way Home, this storyline now feels obsolete, unless the MCU can come up with a solid resolution in the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
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10. Who is Sharon Carter working with?
After her pardon in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) is revealed to be the Power Broker, one of the most important black market players in the Marvel comics. In the post-credits scene, Carter makes a phone call to a mysterious person, telling them to find buyers for government secrets and weapons that she is about to have access to after being reinstated as Agent 13.
The call suggests that Carter is ready to use her newfound position to exploit Captain America and the Avengers, setting her up as one of the MCU’s greatest non-superhero threats. However, the scene wasn’t revisited in Captain America: Brave New World. Time is now running out for the MCU to finally explore the threat of the Power Broker before Secret Wars.
