The crown jewel of commercial filmmaking today is the so-called “cinematic universe.” An interconnected web of movies that can result in any number of sequels, spinoffs, and crossovers to keep audiences hooked across decades of content. Every major studio in Hollywood has tried their hand at creating such a franchise. But none have been as successful as the OG cinematic universe, the MCU.
Today fans know the MCU for its deep and complicated lore that connects dozens of superhero movies and shows across three separate decades. But the Marvel Cinematic Universe is not the elegantly planned-out saga that some people think of it as. The franchise’s creators were pretty much making up the whole thing as they went along, resulting in a number of retroactive changes to the MCU continuity over time. Let us take a look at the biggest MCU retcons so far.
10 Peter Parker in Iron Man 2
The MCU is a live-action adaptation of Marvel Comics, yet ironically when they were starting out Marvel studios did not have the rights to use the most popular Marvel superhero, Pater Parker aka Spider-Man. In fact, for many years, it did not seem likely that the MCU would ever include Spider-Man. But then some backstage dealings happened, and the MCU was suddenly allowed to bring Spidey into the mix.
Thus, the webbed wall-crawler made his triumphant MCU debut in Captain America: Civil War before going on to headline a solo MCU trilogy of films. Since this version of Spider-Man had close ties to Iron Man, the filmmakers did a bit of retconning to reveal that Peter Parker had always been in the MCU, and in fact, he was the kid in the Iron Man mask that Tony Stark saved in Iron Man 2.
9 The Identity of the Mandarin
Marvel Comics have always very much been a product of their times. This unfortunately also extends to racist stereotypes of the times that the comics frequently indulged in. Like Iron Man’s arch-enemy the Mandarin, a callback to deeply offensive stereotypes of Asian people. In Iron Man 3, the studio tried to deal with the issue by claiming that the Mandarin is nothing but an act put on by a man called Trevor Slattery to rile up the Western world.
But that explanation did not satisfy comic fans. And so in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the identity of another Mandarin was revealed, who no longer goes by that name, and is instead shown to be a modern villain with no racist overtones that could be deemed offensive. This new version of the Mandarin even addresses the Iron Man 3 controversy by capturing Trevor Slattery and showing him to be nothing more than a comical imitation of the real deal.
8 The Reason Nick Fury Lost an Eye
Despite not having any sort of superpowers, Nick Fury is one of the most impressive characters in the MCU. It’s hard not being impressive when you sport a badass eye patch at all times. Fury is a seasoned soldier who has taken part in covert operations all over the world. It had been hinted in the past that it was during one such mission that Fury was betrayed by someone close to him, resulting in the loss of his eye.
But then in Captain Marvel, it was revealed that Fury had actually lost the eye after accidentally having his face scratched by a cat. For a lot of fans, this reveal felt pretty anti-climactic. It also does not line up timeline-wise. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we see a brief shot of a photo of Fury as a chief deputy of SHIELD. That photo was taken a few years after the events of Captain Marvel, and Fury has both of his eyes in the photo. Since Winter Soldier came out first, Captain Marvel presumably retconned the events of the photo to give Fury a different reason for losing his eye.
7 Odin’s Infinity Gauntlet Was a Fake
The first phase of the MCU was when the franchise was still feeling things out and trying to get its bearings. Back then the focus was on creating successful solo movies for their heroes like Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor. To that end, a number of eater eggs were placed in their movies to appeal to comic fans. One of the biggest Easter egg shows up in the first Thor movie, which reveals the Infinity Gauntlet in possession of Thor’s father Odin.
Later the gauntlet would take on a greater meaning after the franchise creators decided that the gauntlet would belong to the Big Bad of the franchise Thanos. So how did Thanos come to possess the gauntlet instead of Odin? In Thor: Ragnarok, it is simply revealed that the gauntlet in Odin’s trophy room had been a fake all along, leaving Thanos free to use the real one to wipe out half of all life in Avengers: Infinity War.
6 Loki Was Under the Control of the Mind Stone
Disney
Few other MCU characters have had as much character development as Loki. The guy started out as a villain who hated his brother Thor. Then he invaded Earth with an alien army in The Avengers with the express intention of laying waste to the planet in service of Thanos. After that, Loki unexpectedly got a redemption arc in Thor: Ragnarok, and by the time of the events of his own Disney+ series, Lok is now firmly one of the good guys.
So how can fans reconcile the fact that we are supposed to be rooting for a guy who literally planned on being a genocidal dictator? Well, the MCU has retconned Loki’s behavior in The Avengers as him being brainwashed. According to the official explanation, the infinity stone within Loki’s scepter was messing with his mind, and augmenting his darker impulses to turn him into a monster.
5 Two Steve Rogers
Steve Rogers aka Captain America is one of the most important characters in the MCU, so much so that there have apparently been two versions of the guy running around the MCU this whole time. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve finds out that his ex-girlfriend Peggy Carter has been married to an unknown guy who passed away some time ago.
Then in Avengers: Endgame, it is revealed that it was Steve himself who went back in time to marry Peggy and spend the rest of his life with her. The fact that Steve was Peggy’s secret husband all along definitely feels like a retcon, because Steve kissed Peggy’s niece Sharon in Captain America: Civil War and she was clearly being set up as a potential romantic interest at the time. But that relationship feels all kinds of wrong now that we know Sharon is Steve’s niece as well post-Endgame, even though she never seemed to recognize Steve as her uncle.
4 Agent Coulson Comes Back From the Dead
The biggest challenge for the MCU isn’t the threat from supervillains, but the idea of permanently killing off popular characters. At first, it was Loki who kept getting killed off but coming back from the dead. But this makes some sense since Loki is the God of Deception and he can use magic and trickery to fake his death. What was more baffling was the return of Agent Coulson. Phil Coulson had quickly established himself as a fan-favorite character when he was offed in The Avengers.
Coulson’s death was hugely important for the movie, since it became the main impetus for the heroes to set aside their differences and unite to defeat Loki. But then Coulson’s death was retconned when he showed up in Agents of SHIELD after being miraculously resurrected using alien Kree corpse juice. While fans were glad to see Coulson back, this stunt added more fire to the narrative that deaths in the MCU mean nothing because characters can be brought back to life in any number of reality-bending ways.
3 The Origin of Wanda’s Powers
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Avengers: Age of Ultron introduced viewers to one of the most powerful characters in Marvel Comics, Wanda Maximoff aka the Scarlet Witch. But due to another studio owning the rights to the X-Men, Wanda’s origin as a mutant had to be changed. In the movie, she is shown to have gotten her powers due to Hydra’s experimentation with the mind stone.
A decade later, the studio behind the MCU had managed to get the rights to the X-Men, which meant that Wanda could finally embrace her comic book roots. Thus in WandaVision, it is revealed that Wanda’s powers had already existed within her, and the mind stone had merely served to unleash those powers. With this retcon, Wanda officially assumes the mantle of the Scarlet Witch from the comics.
2 The Other Korg
No other MCU series has had as wildly an uneven tone as Thor and its sequels. After the mixed reception to Thor: The Dark World, the series was given a drastic makeover at the hands of filmmaker Taika Waititi. A lot of humor was injected into Thor: Ragnarok, including the introduction of a Marvel Comics character Korg as a comedic sidekick. Despite being an alien rock monster, Korg is shown to be a sweet and sensitive guy, who rarely fights unless he has to.
But a very different version of Korg appeared in the MCU prior to Ragnarok. In Thor: The Dark World, the God of Thunder is shown fighting and destroying a towering rock monster in the middle of a battle on an alien planet. This was meant to be the MCU’s Korg. But since the character was not given a name in the movie, Waititi was free to create a new version of Korg for Ragnarok.
1 Tony Stark Never Actually Retired as Iron Man
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark aka Iron Man is often credited with being the biggest reason for the success of the MCU. It is difficult to imagine the franchise without the character. But Tony’s continued presence in the MCU was not always a sure bet. At the end of Iron Man 3, Tony is shown to have destroyed his suits, thrown his arc reactor into the ocean, and promised Pepper that he would stop putting his life in danger as a crime fighter.
At the time of the release of the movie, Downey Jr. was also heavily hinting that he might be done with the character, and intended to retire from the MCU after Iron Man 3. But it was not to be. Tony shows up again in Avengers: Age of Ultron as if the climax of Iron Man 3 had never happened, and he continued being a crucial part of the MCU for many more years until the conclusion of the Infinity Saga.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
