Those cliffhangers, characters, and plot points that the MCU has snapped away over the years.
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00:00The Marvel Cinematic Universe gets more and more complex with each passing year. Introducing so
00:05many new characters and storylines, it is inevitable certain narrative threads will
00:09fall by the wayside. I'm Emile from WhatCulture and these are 10 MCU Loose Ends That Drive Fans
00:15Crazy. Number 10. What happened to the stolen Pym Particles? One of the MCU's most notorious
00:22loose ends revolves around a seemingly major plot development in the first Ant-Man movie
00:26that was strangely ignored. Towards the end of that 2015 MCU entry, HYDRA agent Mitch Carson
00:32runs off with a vial of precious Pym Particles, implying that he and the rest of his shady
00:37organization will go on to use that technology for untold nefarious deeds. Almost seven years later,
00:42those deeds have yet to materialize and Carson himself has been completely M.I.A. Interestingly,
00:48a deleted scene from Ant-Man would have seen Paul Rudd's titular hero confronting Carson and
00:53swiping back the stolen goods, but this was removed with the sole intent of leaving the
00:57particles out there. Will Ant-Man 3 provide some answers? We sure hope so. Number 9. Where did
01:03Valkyrie get her Pegasus from? The final battle in Avengers Endgame contains a couple of small
01:07mistakes that are difficult to unsee once you spot them. And while this isn't a mistake per se,
01:12it is a detail many fans nonetheless question. When the Asgardians emerged from one of Doctor
01:17Strange's portals at the start of the battle, we're shown that Valkyrie is riding a majestic
01:21Pegasus, which she then uses for the duration of the sequence. It was insanely cool to see,
01:26mind you, but it did leave many fans wondering, where did she get it from? She didn't have it
01:31during Thor Ragnarok, and considering that Asgard was destroyed at the end of that movie, along with
01:35a good chunk of the population, she can't just stop by the Pegasus shop and pick up a new one.
01:39Perhaps she acquired it during Endgame's five-year time jump, but when we first visit New Asgard
01:44after this time jump, there are no Pegasuses. Wait, what is that, Pegasi? There's none.
01:49One possible explanation is that the remaining Asgardians knew how to breed these creatures,
01:54but considering that a firm explanation was never provided on screen, all fans can do is speculate.
02:01Number 8. Did Matt Gargan ever try and find Spider-Man? One of the sub-villains in Spider-Man
02:06Homecoming was Matt Gargan, who in the comics is known by his supervillain alter ego, the Scorpion.
02:11This Scorpion factor led many fans to believe Homecoming was setting Gargan up as the main
02:15villain in a future Spidey movie, an idea that was backed up by the mid-credits scene, which
02:20showed he's hell-bent on making the web-slinger pay. But not only have neither of these story
02:24paths been utilised in Far From Home or Norway Home, Gargan himself has been completely abandoned,
02:29with that prison-set mid-credits scene remaining his last appearance in the MCU.
02:33So what did Gargan get up to next? Did he break out of prison to find Spidey himself, or did he
02:37use his boys on the outside to do the dirty work for him? Is he still languishing behind bars,
02:42or maybe he escaped in the aftermath of the snap? That mid-credits scene made it seem like
02:47the filmmakers had a plan for Gargan, but it's been almost five years since Homecoming released,
02:51and the villain is yet to make a move. Frankly, that's a waste of a perfectly good Michael Mando.
02:59Despite its standing out as one of the MCU's formative stories, The Incredible Hulk is a
03:03movie a lot of people overlook when discussing the franchise. Though its reputation as a black
03:07sheep has improved in recent years thanks to characters like Thaddeus Ross and Abomination
03:11being brought back into the fold, the movie has never fully shaken that reputation. The recasting
03:16of Edward Norton, the redesign of Hulk, and the fact a different studio owns the distribution
03:20rights certainly haven't done it any favours. Aside from those aforementioned characters being
03:24reintroduced, it's also true The Incredible Hulk is largely irrelevant in terms of the ongoing MCU
03:29narrative. Nothing about it has ever been followed upon, including this whopper of a loose end.
03:35It's been 14 real-world years since a cut on Dr. Samuel Stern's forehead was infected with
03:40Bruce Banner's blood, causing his head to bubble and mutate, and we're still no closer to finding
03:44out what happens next. Stern's has featured in some MCU comics since then, but as far as
03:49on-screen resolutions go, we haven't got one. And if the upcoming She-Hulk doesn't deliver,
03:54we probably never will. Sorry Samuel, it's back into MCU daycare.
04:01Xandar was introduced in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie as the capital of the Nova Empire,
04:06which is basically the Space Police. Xandar ended that flick in a bit of a sorry state after
04:11serving as a battleground for Ronan and his forces, but the planet did survive, and the end
04:16of the movie shows us that things have more or less returned to normal for the Xandarians.
04:20Flash forward to Avengers Infinity War however, and poor old Xandar has received yet another
04:25battering, this time at the hands of Thanos. The movie mentions the not-so-jolly purple giant
04:30decimated Xandar and took the Power Stone, and this is the last we heard of the Nova Empire,
04:34the Xandarians, or anything to do with Xandar itself. The annoying thing here, and why many
04:39fans consider this a loose end, is that decimated is a fairly loose term. Does it mean the Nova
04:45Empire is completely gone? Is the planet a wasteland? And are the Xandarians extinct?
04:50Or did Thanos just kill half the population as his signature move? It's highly likely the Nova
04:55Corps has survived in some capacity, and perhaps with the announcement of Nova being in the works,
05:00we will finally get the answer.
05:07Marvel Studios trolled everyone with its Avengers Infinity War marketing,
05:10leading people to believe that Hulk would be unleashed during the final battle in Wakanda.
05:14In reality, Bruce Banner and his angry green friend had relationship issues for the entire
05:19movie, forcing Banner to don the Hulkbuster armor in order to stand a fighting chance.
05:23Let's not talk about that CGI now. But the very next time we see Banner in Endgame,
05:27he and the Hulk have somehow fixed their problems, merged personalities,
05:31and become the Smart Hulk. The movie never properly explains how this came to be,
05:36with that explanation actually being cut from Avengers Infinity War.
05:39The Banner-Hulk reconciliation again went unexplained in Shang-Chi, where Banner was
05:43back to his regular human self. Then in She-Hulk footage, we saw a few months ago that he was back
05:49to Smart Hulk. So what's going on? It is possible She-Hulk will provide more of an insight into
05:53Banner and Hulk's newfound ability to merge and demerge at will. The character works without us
05:58knowing, sure, but such a pivotal moment in Banner's development does deserve some level
06:02of exploration. 4. What happened to Ghost?
06:06Ant-Man and the Wasp's main villain Ava Starr, aka Ghost, is suffering from a condition that
06:11the movie describes as molecular disequilibrium. The cells in her body are torn apart and stitched
06:16back together on a consistent basis, and though this does grant her some pretty nifty powers,
06:20it's also a living nightmare, and Starr is desperate to permanently fix her condition.
06:24Fortunately then, the end of the movie gives her a glimmer of hope, with Janet Van Dyne stabilising
06:29her using some quantum energy. However, this is only a temporary measure, and the mid-credits
06:33scene shows Scott Lang entering the Quantum Realm to retrieve more healing particles to presumably
06:37help out Ava in the long term. Sounds like a solid plan, but it doesn't pan out when Thanos' snap
06:42leaves Scott stranded in the Quantum Realm, kicking off the events of Endgame. Ava isn't
06:46mentioned in that movie, and Scott never delivers the particles, understandable since, you know,
06:50he did have more pressing issues to deal with. This means that if she survived the snap,
06:54Ava goes several years without any new particles, and even if she was snapped,
06:58she's had to wait a fair old while for additional help. So, shouldn't her condition have killed her
07:03by now? If not, how did she survive? As is the case with other entries on the list,
07:08an upcoming project, in this case Ant-Man 3, might very well address this loose end,
07:13but for now, ghost fate is unclear.
07:19This Steve-Sharon romance always came off as a little bit odd, primarily because Steve had
07:24been in love with her Aunt Peggy since World War II. Even when Peggy died, Steve never stopped
07:28loving her, as evidenced by his decision to leave behind his Avengers pals and go and live with her
07:33in the past. That decision only hammered home how weird it was that Steve had snogged Sharon
07:38in Captain America Civil War. A moment that does raise a further funny question,
07:42did Steve ever tell Peggy that he played tonsil tennis with her niece? And how did Steve react
07:46when he met a much younger Sharon in the past? It's unlikely this will ever be addressed,
07:49because it's not really that important in the grand scheme of things, but it is quite amusing
07:53to think about. A loose end that's quite likely to be addressed is the whereabouts of the Ravager
08:00Guardians, last seen in one of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2's many tags. This intergalactic
08:06team of misfits sled by Sylvester Stallone's stake at a gourd felt like they were planted here
08:10because writer-director James Gunn had big plans for them further down the line, and it wouldn't
08:14make sense to hire a legend like Stallone if you're not going to utilise him. Of course,
08:18Gunn's firing in 2018 pushed back plans for the Guardians franchise, and if that hadn't happened,
08:23Guardians 3 would have hit cinemas already and the Ravager Guardians might have made a comeback.
08:27On the plus side, Gunn's rehiring in 2019 put this back on track for 2023. Reportedly, this movie
08:34will be the end for the current team of Guardians, which might just mean the Ravager Guardians are
08:38about to take centre stage. 1. How exactly does Cap put the
08:43Infinity Stones back? There are tons of huge MCU moments that happened off-screen, but this one is
08:48arguably the most intriguing of the lot. When Cap is sent back in time to return the Infinity Stones
08:53to their correct places of history, his entire adventure takes place off-screen. While we know
08:57the outcome of this adventure, he was obviously successful. Many fans consider this a loose end
09:02because it just isn't as straightforward as the movie seems to think it is. It took a full team
09:06of Avengers to retrieve the stones, so how is Cap supposed to put them back all by himself?
09:12Some may be easier than others, but doesn't the reality stone need to be put back inside Jane
09:17Foster? And how exactly do you put the soul stone back? It's not like putting that fifth packet of
09:22crisps that you definitely don't need back on the shelf in the shop you just picked it up from,
09:26right? And that is not to mention the potential drama that unfolded when Cap came face to face
09:30with his old nemesis Red Skull on Vormir. Like, how did that play out? Again, we know the ultimate
09:35outcome here, but there are so many smaller situations that the movie leaves open to
09:39interpretation. Cap's Infinity Stones Odyssey would make a cool live action or even animated
09:44series one day, but for now, all fans can do is wonder how exactly it went down. All things
09:50considered, Kevin Feige does never like to say never, so maybe keep an eye out for some of them
09:55getting resolved in the near future.