The MCU is no stranger to teasing characters that will only appear a few years away. However, sometimes, the build-up never pays off. That’s why fans are extremely excited about a new cast rumor, which might fill a plothole left behind by 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. 5jo5d

There’s a lot going on in Avengers: Age of Ultron. In addition to telling the story of the titular villain (James Spader), the movie also introduces twins Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), reveals the truth about an Infinity Stone hiding inside Loki’s Staff, and brings the Vision (Paul Bettany) to life. You would be forgiven if you just missed a nod to a beloved superhero, especially since the character is mostly unknown outside the comic book community.

The plot thread in question refers to Dr. Helen Cho (Claudia Kim), introduced as an ally to the Avengers and a close friend to Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). She never pops up in the MCU again, but comic book fans were happy to see her in the movie, as she’s no one less than the mother of Amadeus Cho, aka the Totally Awesome Hulk. Well, it looks like the MCU is getting a bit more green. According to recent reports, Logan Kim, known for his roles in Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, is rumored to have been cast as Amadeus Cho in the MCU.

Who is Amadeus Cho, and why he coming to the MCU is a big deal? bx1v

Created by writer Greg Pak and artist Takeshi Miyazawa, Amadeus Cho first appeared in 2015’s Amazing Fantasy #15. Pak, who is of Korean descent, wanted to create a character representing Asian-American youth in comics. Still, Amadeus is way more than a glorified cameo. After being saved by the Emerald Giant, Cho uses his intellect to help the Hulk in numerous stories. That’s more important than it sounds because, despite being a kid, Amadeus is known as one of the smartest people on Earth, with his intelligence rivaling that of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner.

This dynamic evolved dramatically when Cho later became the Hulk himself in the Totally Awesome Hulk series, which began in 2015. In the series, Amadeus Cho drained Bruce’s gamma to help the scientist get rid of his monstrous persona and avoid the catastrophic release of some dangerous versions of the Hulk. However, since Amadeus believes the world always needs a Hulk, he uses the gamma on himself to take the place of the hero. Unlike Banner, Cho retained his full intelligence and personality while in Hulk form, making him an invaluable ally to the Avengers.

The latest MCU casting rumor is a big deal because that would mean the MCU is indeed preparing the battlefield for a big Hulk project. Skaar, Hulk’s son, was introduced at the end of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Meanwhile, General Ross will finally become the Red Hulk in the Captain America: Brave New World. With so many breadcrumbs being left by Marvel Studios, there’s just no way Professor Hulk remains the main alter of Bruce Banner. The Savage Hulk is due to an anger-fueled return, and the casting of Amadeus Cho speeds up the clock for this highly-anticipated moment.

Plus, since Amadeus is a teenager when he becomes the Totally Awesome Hulk, Logan Kim could appear as a reinforcement for the Young Avengers, which Kamala Kahn (Iman Vellani) is trying to put together with Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld).

Finally, that would be the second time the MCU has taken almost a decade to solve a story thread left hanging after the unexpected return of that character in Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings. Exciting green things are coming!

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become the most in-depth and successful franchise of all time during its 16-year run at the box office. While it began with Iron Man in 2008, for fans following the narrative, that’s not where the story actually begins.

There are currently 34 movies in the MCU — soon to be 35 with Captain America: Brave New World — released in five phases. Phases One through Three, known as the Infinity Saga, collectively bring viewers closer to the arrival of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and its epic follow-up, Avengers: Endgame. Meanwhile, phases Four through Six, known as the Multiverse Saga, began in 2021 and will eventually bring viewers closer to Robert Downey Jr.’s ultimate MCU comeback as Doctor Doom in 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday and its subsequent multiversal showdown in 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars. : Kang is a thing of the past.

Phase Four began in 2021 with the Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and continued into 2022 with three major franchise sequels: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Phase Five began in 2023 and also included four franchise sequels, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Marvels, and most recently Deadpool & Wolverine.

Following the success of Marvel’s Disney Plus streaming hits like WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki, we’ve received fresh entries like Hawkeye, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Secret Invasion, Loki season 2, and soon Agatha All Along. They aim to continue the budding tradition of bringing focused character studies to the small screen, but in light of criticism over reduced quality, Marvel has scaled back these productions a bit. Nevertheless, these shows tie into the larger Marvel universe, which is actually more of a multiverse now. However, those shows won’t be mentioned on this list, as this list pertains to feature films only.

There are numerous ways to enjoy Marvel films, including the order in which they were released, or drawn out of a hat at random, although that last option isn’t recommended for first-time viewers. However, in this article, we’ll be breaking down the chronological timeline of all films in the MCU so you can watch them in the correct narrative order. An at-a-glance lineup of Phases One through Three can be found below:

Below is a breakdown of every MCU film in narrative-timeline order, all of which, save Deadpool & Wolverine, are available to stream now on Disney Plus. Thanks to Marvel’s official The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline, we now have a clearer picture of not only what is and isn’t MCU canon, but also whether the nuggets of information we’ve compiled over the years do, indeed, fit into the slots we’ve given them. Spoiler alert: they do.

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Taking place first in the timeline, Captain America: The First Avenger provides the origin story for one of Marvel’s most popular heroes, Steve Rogers, played by the dynamite Chris Evans. This film mostly takes place in 1942 and showcases Rogers’ journey from a scrawny infantry soldier to full-blown Captain America who faces off against Red Skull.

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Next up is Captain Marvel, which is set in 1995, much closer to modern times. This movie is the first in the timeline to explore space travel and intergalactic threats. As we are introduced to both Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and soon-to-be S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the pair gets involved in the conflict between the Kree and the Skrulls, with surprising results.

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The third film in the timeline was the very first Marvel film to be released: Iron Man. The billionaire philanthropist-turned-superhero Tony Stark has his origin story told in this fan-favorite film. Thanks to its box office success and fans’ adoration of Robert Downey Jr.’s performance, the film ultimately kicked off the entire MCU franchise.

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Picking up shortly after the events of the first Iron Man, Iron Man 2 continues the story of the suited superhero now with his identity known to the public. Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), the son of a scientist who previously worked at Stark Industries, is back with a grudge and creates his own weaponry with the goal of taking revenge for his fallen father. The film also introduces a soon-to-be Avenger in Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson).

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While many fans may choose to forego 2008’s The Incredible Hulk in their MCU binge given that it features Ed Norton in the role instead of Mark Ruffalo (who later became the official Banner), it’s still technically a part of the MCU timeline. This movie gives fans a unique take on the Hulk’s origin story and hints at more things to come in the closing credits.

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Thor’s initial big-screen debut took place in 2011 and gave fans their first look at Asgard and other realms via the Bifrost. This one finds the titular god traveling to Earth to defend the world from Loki and a Frost Giant threat. For many moviegoers, this was their introduction to the beloved character, played by Chris Hemsworth, and for many it solidly delivered.

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The first crossover film in the timeline came with The Avengers, which was set at the conclusion of Marvel’s Phase One. The Avengers brought together Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, the Hulk, and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) to protect the Earth from Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and the Chitauri invasion. The movie also played a key role in introducing the Tesseract as the first of the Infinity Stones. These stones were ultimately the key to all future plans in the MCU.

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The second Thor film in the MCU, Thor: The Dark World, gives us a closer look at Asgard, its inner workings, and the relationship between Thor, his brother Loki, and their father, Odin. The film also gives us insight into the second Infinity Stone, the Aether, which was wielded by the movie’s antagonists, the Dark Elves. Though it’s largely considered one of the less-impressive Marvel films, it serves its purpose and thankfully paves the way for a wonderful Thor threequel.

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In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark deals with anxiety after experiencing the intergalactic invasion of the Chitauri. After diving into full damage control mode and assembling an army of suits, he’s forced to choose between being Iron Man and protecting those he loves. Meanwhile, he must also deal with the looming threat of “The Mandarin.”

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Hailed as one of the best films in the entire MCU franchise, Captain America: The Winter Soldier introduces viewers to more of Captain America’s past and throws Bucky Barnes, aka the Winter Soldier, back into the fray. The movie also reveals the hidden HYDRA threat still present among the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D that ultimately leads to its demise.

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When it was announced that Disney was going to bring the Guardians to the big screen, many were skeptical, but Guardians of the Galaxy turned out to be one of the best space films ever, let alone one in the MCU. It introduced us to Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), and Groot (Vin Diesel), an unlikely team that attempts to stop the plot of Ronan the Acc (Lee Pace) from using the Power Stone to destroy Xandar.

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Taking place shortly after the first film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 gives us a closer look at Peter Quill’s backstory and heritage while also introducing a new member to the squad in the form of Mantis (Pom Klementieff). The story also dives deeper into the sibling rivalry between Gamora and Nebula (Karen Gillan) and shines a light on their relationship with their adoptive father, Thanos, which would pay off in just a few short films.

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Crossing over once again, the cast of the original Avengers film s forces to defend the Earth from the threat of Ultron (James Spader), a supercomputer developed to be a peacekeeping program by Tony Stark, which overrides its programming and now seeks to eliminate all mankind. In the latter half of the film, the Avengers get a few new additions in the form of Vision (Paul Bettany) and the Maximoff twins, Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Pietro (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).

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Ant-Man tells the story of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), a thief who is recruited by Dr. Hank Pym to assist him with stopping the plot of his former protège, who cast him away from his own company. During the film, Lang becomes Ant-Man after being gifted a suit and trained to use Pym Particles to shrink his size, giving him superhuman strength and the ability to control ants.

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While not an Avengers film by name, Captain America: Civil War brings most of the superhero cast together for a face-off over a disagreement on the Sokovia Accords following the events of Age of Ultron. Civil War was also used to introduce a few new characters to the Avengers’ roster, including Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland).

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Finally getting her own origin film after being part of the MCU for over a decade, Natasha Romanoff heads back to her roots in Black Widow, which launched earlier this year. The film introduced us to Natasha’s sister, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), who fans got to see again in Hawkeye and who will undoubtedly be appearing again, possibly in a villainous team-up compliments of a certain character who appears in the post-credits scene.

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Despite what the movie may have led you to believe, it does not take place eight years after The Avengers. Marvel finally addressed the snafu after years of sweeping it under the rug in the official Marvel Studios: The MCU — An Official Timeline book, confirming it was indeed only four years after the Battle of New York. Taking place right after the events of Civil War, Spider-Man’s MCU debut chose not to retell the hero’s origin story, instead giving us a coming-of-age film that finds Peter Parker juggling his duties as Spider-Man with the demands of high school. There are plenty of comic book Spidey villains teased throughout the film, but his biggest threat is the Vulture, menacingly played by Michael Keaton, who is apparently bad with math.

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Instead of an origin story, when we pick up in Black Panther, T’Challa has already taken on the mantle as the titular hero after the ing of his father in Civil War. This film gives viewers their first look at the inner workings of the afrofuturistic Wakanda, as well as an epic tale of personal and ideological rivalry between T’Challa and Killmonger (Michael B Jordan).

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The first time we are treated to Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in the MCU is in his self-titled film. The story explores the origins of Stephen Strange’s character and teases the ideas of multiple dimensions, cosmic beings, and time-traveling threats. As you’d expect, the Time Stone is also a crucial element of the film and only becomes more important from here on out. Other standout characters in the film include Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams), Wong (Benedict Wong), Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), and The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton).

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Directed by Taika Waititi and taking on a different style and tone than the previous Thor films, Ragnarok has a more comical personality while maintaining high-quality action sequences. The film addresses many of the loose ends following Age of Ultron and follows Thor and Loki as they attempt to stop their half-sister, Hela (Cate Blanchett) from taking over Asgard. The ending of this film offers a jaw-dropping lead-in to what quickly becomes the beginning of the end of the Infinity Saga.

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The first part of the epic culmination of all the previous MCU films, Avengers: Infinity War finally gives us our first major introduction to Thanos (Josh Brolin), who has been working behind the scenes to gather the Infinity Stones with the goal of wiping out half of all life in the universe with a snap of his fingers. The movie takes place in 2018 and ultimately, leaves fans with a stunning cliffhanger that segues directly into Avengers: Endgame.

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The sequel to Ant-Man, this film takes place at the same time as the events of Infinity War in 2018 and does a great job of telling its own story within the Ant-Man comic book canon. This one digs deeper into the relationship between Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) and her mother (Michelle Pfeiffer), and also introduces a mysterious new villain, Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen). Just like Infinity War, the final moments of this film leave viewers breathless for answers in anticipation of the impending Endgame.

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The epic conclusion to over a decade of storytelling, Avengers: Endgame has everything fans could ever want in a Marvel film. It takes place in October 2023, five years after the events of Infinity War, and sees the remaining Avengers attempt to regain hope of defeating Thanos and restore what was lost after his infamous “Snap,” which was later renamed “The Blip.” In the closing act, Endgame boasts one of the most epic action sequences in all of cinema, blasting expectations wide open and forever changing the MCU as we know it.

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Shang-Chi is one of the latest heroes to the MCU, and in this first film exploring his character’s origin, we learn more about his role amidst the greater events playing out within the franchise. Alongside his friend Katy (Awkwafina), Shang-Chi is drawn back into the life he used to know and must face the father (Tony Chiu-Wai Leung) he thought he left behind. During the iconic bus fight scene between Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings operative Gao Lei, we’re shown the dates July 21 to 28 in a Jazz Blues Festival ment. Since Katy’s grandma also mentions the “Day of the Dead,” a festival resembling the Chinese Qingming Festival — which takes place in April — and the film itself spans two weeks, we can assume the movie takes place in April 2024. This would put it before Far From Home.

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Picking up right after Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home addresses the events that took place during the previous film while also introducing some new faces and returning characters from the past. It takes place during the summer of 2024, eight months after The Blip. This is the perfect bridging point to close out Phase Three and enter Phase Four of the MCU — after watching Shang-Chi, of course.

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With its many flashbacks telling the story not only of the Eternals themselves but also the history of the universe, it can be difficult to give this film a true place in the MCU timeline. That said, its present-day moments take place around the same time as Far From Home in 2024, likely just afterward given that the events of the film were not mentioned in the Spider-Man sequel. Fans and critics were largely split on the film (to put it mildly), except in regard to that colorful cameo by Harry Styles in the post-credits scene. Whether Styles will actually return to the MCU is another matter entirely.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Logan took place in 2029, so Deadpool & Wolverine must also take place during or after that, meaning it should be at the bottom of this list. Well, no. The Merc with the Mouth’s first foray into the MCU actually occurs in 2024. We know this because after Happy Hogan rejects Wade’s request to the Avengers (on March 14, 2018, on Earth-616) the time stamp on the screen tells us we jump six years into the future — back on Earth-1005 — which would place the film in 2024. And because we see Wade celebrating his birthday and he’s said in the comics that he’s a Scorpio (on the cusp of a Libra, thank you very much) — and because Deadpool & Wolverine showcases a decent amount of fall foliage — we can safely assume the film occurs in October 2024. As for why Earth-10005’s Wolverine is already dead at the beginning of Deadpool & Wolverine when Logan’s death shouldn’t have occurred for another five years — well, it’s likely that Wade jumped forward in time using the TVA’s TemPad. That, or we’re just going to file the mistake away with all of Marvel’s other embarrassing timeline errors.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home takes place immediately after its predecessor, Far From Home around Nov. 2024. The film brings Peter Parker on the most mind-blowing adventure of his life ⏤ which, unfortunately, no one but he will . The film saw him grapple with everything from losing his Aunt May, to facing off against villains from completely different universes. It also led to Peter finding an unexpected brotherhood with alternate versions of himself, perfectly brought to life by Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire in tear-inducing appearances that will stand the test of time.

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Benedict Cumberbatch’s return as the title character in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness picked up after the events of No Way Home. It saw Strange deal with the implications of multiversal travel while facing new friends and foes, some of whom created serious trouble for him (ahem – Wanda). Wanda’s future was thrown into flux after she was presumably killed off in the movie’s final moments, but she is rumored to return in a Disney Plus spin-off series, which may or may not happen since Marvel subtly announced that the Earth-616 version of the character is canonically dead. Strange, too, received a cliffhanger ending, something we hope will be addressed in the rumored Doctor Strange 3.

In the meantime, you can rest assured that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness takes place after Spider-Man: No Way Home, which takes place right around the events of Hawkeye, which takes place around Christmas 2024.

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Thanks to Disney Plus, we now know that — in the eyes of Marvel Studios — this film takes place after Doctor Strange 2. It also takes place after Ms. Marvel, which is believed to take place around Sept. 2025 because of the school’s homecoming dance. However, in Love and Thunder Jane Foster’s eppendorf vial’s tag includes the date April 30, suggesting it takes place in the beginning of 2025. Unfortunately, since we don’t know exactly when Thor and Jane broke up, the God of Thunder’s comments about their breakup happening 8 years 7 months and 6 days before the movie doesn’t exactly paint a clear picture either. Our best bet is to just assume Love and Thunder takes place in April 2025, especially when looking at the next MCU installments on the timeline.

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According to Black Panther Wakanda Forever producer Nate Moore, we have a place in the timeline to slot Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Moore says that this film takes place alongside the events of Thor: Love and Thunder, around the start of 2025, so for all rewatching purposes you should be able to enjoy either film first. This placement would make a lot of sense, since neither film directly affects the events of the other. Secret Invasion, on the other hand, almost had us questioning the timing of things when our favorite CIA from Wakanda Forever was revealed to be a Skrull (that was all put to rest in the season finale, though).

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For those who are sticklers for dates, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania takes place during the start of 2025, like Wakanda Forever. How do we know this? A news clip in Wakanda Forever mentions Scott Lang’s book tour, and because book tours don’t last entire years, Quantumania definitely takes place before The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which occurs later that year during Christmastime, which also means it takes place before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. However, Disney Plus messed with the timeline when it decided to place Quantumania after The Guardians Holiday Special, which it most certainly is not, resulting in MODOK-sized canon headache, if you ask us. It wouldn’t be the first time Disney Plus goofed with the MCU’s timeline, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the time Quantumania was accidentally erased from Phase Five. (Don’t worry, it’s not).

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Ms. Marvel provides us with a pretty good guestimation where The Marvels takes place on the MCU timeline. Because the Disney Plus series is believed to take place around Sept. 2025 and Kamala Khan’s body-swapping problem doesn’t go unaddressed long, The Marvels likely takes place before 2026, which means it comes before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Carol Danvers’ intergalactic team-up with Captain Rambeau and Kamala to defeat the Kree general Dar-Benn in the highly-anticipated sequel to her billion-dollar predecessor, Captain Marvel, also happens to be the shortest movie in MCU history. Should any information in the movie, which will premiere in just a few short days, contradict this entry, we will revise it ASAP.

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It’s hard to give Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 an exact place on the MCU’s timeline since it is unaffected by previous films and has little effect on the overall MCU storyline. However, it’s safe to say that this intergalactic, twisty-turny threequel takes place in 2026 since it occurs after the events of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special in Dec. 2025. As a rule of thumb, here’s every MCU movie you should watch before starting Vol. 3.

The latest entry in the saga of Loki, season 2 episode 2, made a lot of interesting connections to Iron Man, of all characters. However, there’s one moment that clearly draws a strong parallel between Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief and Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark that you may have missed. 

Though Loki seemingly expressed some regret to Owen Wilson’s Mobius for throwing Iron Man off of a roof at one point, during the events of 2012’s The Avengers, that is far and away not the worst thing the trickster god has done in that same movie. For example, he used the Scepter to brainwash the likes of Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye and Stellan Skarsgard’s Erik Selvig, among many others. Not only that, but Loki was also responsible for the deaths of dozens of innocent humans during the Battle of New York.

These events were apparently not lost on Rafael Casal’s Brad Wolfe, AKA X-05, in Loki‘s newest episode. Though the Time Variance Authority agent went rogue, prompting Loki to confront and interrogate him, Brad pointed out that he had read the adopted Asgardian’s file. Due to learning all about Loki’s past misdeeds, Brad essentially deemed it a laughable notion that the long-haired brother of Thor would try to consider himself a hero. As he tells Loki in a memorable monologue that weirdly had Taylor Swift vibes at one point:

“Oh you’ve got some nerve. ‘There are lives at stake.’ Everyone here knows what you’re doing, you know? You’re just trying to make up for all the terrible, awful shit you’ve done in your life, you pathetic little man.”

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This is actually a remarkably similar bit of dialogue to another movie that predates Loki’s first appearance in the MCU, 2010’s Iron Man 2. In that movie, Mickey Rourke’s Ivan Vanko holds a grudge against the Stark clan for not recognizing the contribution his father made to one of the inventions of Tony’s father, Howard Stark. When Tony confronts Ivan in jail after the film’s most memorable scene, in which Ivan uses electric whips to nearly demolish Tony on a racetrack, the sorely underutilized villain seems to put the billionaire playboy’s ego in check:

“You come from a family of thieves and butchers, and like all guilty men, you try to rewrite your history, to forget all the lives the Stark family has destroyed.”

The similarity between these two bits of dialogue from two very different Marvel projects highlights just how similar Loki truly is to Iron Man. You see, Loki’s current bid for redemption for his past bears a striking resemblance to Tony’s origin as a weapons manufacturer in the first-ever MCU movie, 2008’s Iron Man. Like Loki, Tony has arguably also been responsible for many lost lives through the devices of warfare he created. As a testament to this, the explosion in Afghanistan from the caravan scene in Iron Man that sees Tony held prisoner in a cave ends with him realizing one of his own missiles was being utilized by the terrorists themselves.

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Sure, we find out later in Iron Man that Tony’s business partner, Obadiah Stane, was the real culprit behind selling the weapons to the bad guys. However, as a testament to Tony trying to change his ways, he gave up the weapon manufacturing business by the end of the film. In fact, Tony trying to make up for the sins of his past is a consistent theme throughout his entire MCU arc, such as agreeing to sign the Sokovia Accords in Captain America: Civil War because he felt guilty for the innocent casualties that occurred during the Avengers’ confrontation with Ultron.

Similarly, you could contest Loki’s culpability for his actions in The Avengers because it was made canon on Marvel’s official website at one point that he, too, was being brainwashed by the Scepter to do all these bad things and didn’t realize it. However, that is a bit of a disputable point, a retcon that was retconned, due to Loki describing to Mobius how he lost control on an emotional level when he threw Iron Man off the roof rather than recognizing the Scepter made him do it.

Regardless, you could definitely argue that Loki is on a long and winding redemption arc in the MCU that strongly parallels Tony’s. Again, it is seemingly to make up for the sins of his past. Even before his solo Disney Plus spinoff, who can forget Loki’s heroic turn in Avengers: Infinity War when he tries to assassinate his former boss, Thanos, only to die at the Mad Titan’s hands?

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had its ups and downs over the years, including some truly terrible sequels. With 2023 being a year notorious for would-be blockbusters flopping hard at the box office, all eyes are on The Marvels to see whether it can pull off the hat trick of taking a somewhat lukewarm origin film in 2019’s Captain Marvel and spin straw into gold for its follow-up. Will the Brie Larson vehicle sink or swim? Only time will tell when the movie eventually comes to theaters on November 11.

For now, let’s take a look at the worst Marvel sequels of all time, and rank them from least to most awful so we can clearly convey the message to Disney about what not to do.

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If 2008’s Iron Man wasn’t a hit out the gate, we might not even have a Marvel Cinematic Universe at all. Luckily — due to Robert Downey Jr.’s considerable charisma, a Batman Begins-style origin story, and steady direction from Jon Favreau — the franchise continued to great success. However, there was a dark time in the early days of the MCU, with Iron Man 2 being a huge culprit for that.

While Tony Stark’s sophomore adventure isn’t totally devoid of entertainment value, it reeks of missed opportunities, especially when it comes to who we thought was supposed to be the main villain in the film. Based on the trailers and the poster for the movie, you would think Mickey Rourke’s Ivan Vanko would be a persistent threat in the story. However, he’s relegated to a pretty cool confrontation at the beginning of the movie on a racetrack and then shoved into a corner for the majority of the runtime until the very end.

When the final confrontation does happen, it’s a CGI-filled mess visually, surrounded by robot drones, and Ivan’s once eye-popping costume where you could see his face is buried underneath yet another pale imitation of an Iron Man suit, just like the first film’s climax. We would’ve much preferred more of Ivan in place of the silly scenes with Don Cheadle’s Rhodey, in which he has a nonsensical fight with his friend, Tony, and Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer, who seems about as threatening as a wet paper napkin.

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Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania fails in almost everything it sets out to do. Despite giving Jonathan Majors’ Kang a great setup in the first season of Loki as He Who Remains, we get a completely different version of the character in this movie. Since he was defeated by the likes of the decidedly low-power Avenger in the Quantum Realm, he hardly came across as a threat to begin with. However, whatever threat the MCU could have built upon Kang has been lost as other variants will soon replace him, making him a much less memorable antagonist overall than Thanos.

Kang’s lack of menace is only scratching the surface of the film’s problems, though. Quantumania is a visual mess with some awful CGI and looks like a bunch of actors standing in front of a giant LED screen most of the time — because it is. The humor doesn’t land, there’s a convoluted and yet uninteresting plot, and it does the horrible disservice of not featuring one of the previous two movies’ best aspects, Michael Peña’s Luis.

Worst of all, taking the characters who can grow and shrink into a fantastical world completely renders the scale meaningless as we struggle to determine if Paul Rudd’s title hero is supposed to be giant, tiny, or normal in any given scene. Gone is the previous two movie’s most unique aspect: the visual irony and fantastical quality of imagining one’s self as the size of an ant in ordinary settings, like a bathtub or a spinning record.

Dishonorable mentions 6h1k3u

Before we get to our number one pick, let’s quickly name some dishonorable mentions that didn’t quite make our list of the “worst” sequels but still disappointed nonetheless. That includes Iron Man 3 for being so close to a perfect Tony Stark adventure if it weren’t for the idiotic plot point of him giving out his address to terrorists and the pointless bait-and-switch of Ben Kingsley’s the Mandarin being an actor instead of the real villain.

Avengers: Age of Ultron‘s biggest sin may simply be that it isn’t as good as the first Avengers. However, the problem goes a bit deeper than that. An A.I. meant to protect the world, but has gone rogue, is a great premise on paper. However, in practice, there wasn’t enough of a motivator for James Spader’s Ultron to turn evil to begin with. It didn’t help that the abstract CGI scene where this happens, in his argument with Paul Bettany’s Jarvis, looked like a messy computer screensaver at best. What’s more, the quippy Joss Whedon dialogue was beginning to wear thin by this point as did the overloading of side characters, such as Vision and Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch, as much as we would grow to love both of them down the line.

Thor: Love and Thunder also deserves to get knocked down a peg for not featuring Chris Hemsworth’s titular character teaming up with the Guardians of the Galaxy as what seemed to be promised in Avengers: Endgame, with the team instead being relegated to essentially a single sequence. The film also featured way too many screaming goats, some terrible CGI, an idiotic and goofy god of thunder, and way too much telling instead of showing. With that said, Love and Thunder does have the redeeming qualities of the fine ing roles of Christian Bale’s Gorr and Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster. Speaking of Thor, it’s time for our number-one pick for the worst Marvel sequel ever.

1. Thor: The Dark World 6p6y3f

Even though Thor: The Dark World somehow has a higher Rotten Tomatoes score than both Love and Thunder and Quantumania, we easily place it as far and away the worst MCU sequel of all time. The biggest drawback to this film, compared to the others mentioned, is that it is completely unmemorable in every way. At least Quantumania had the unforgettable MODOK in Corey Stoll’s Darren Cross, even if it was cringey. When it comes to Love and Thunder, at least it had an imaginative climax in a shadow world and an excellent villain.

Who was the villain in The Dark World again? Oh, that’s right, it was, um, an abstract red cloud? Wait, that’s just the MacGuffin, isn’t it? Oh, I now it’s *checks notes* the Dark Elf Malekith, played by Christopher Eccleston. Oh, but he merges with the red cloud thingy, called the Aether, so maybe that’s also considered the villain too? It doesn’t matter. None of this matters.

The Dark World also suffers from a bland and muddy-looking aesthetic thanks to an over-use of some very ugly CGI that looks like the epitome of the worst PlayStation 3 shooters available. The “dark and gritty” tone of the movie, overall, does not improve the entertainment value of the movie, either.

The humor that just barely worked in the first movie thanks to its fish-out-of-water plot of an almost Shakespearean-type character in the modern world is also completely gone in The Dark World. Instead, most attempts at generating laughs are done through Kat Dennings’ Darcy Lewis, but they almost always fall flat, likely through no fault of the actress herself, who we adore.

When it comes to Marvel movies, the issue of production budgets has proven to be an increasingly hot-button topic. The latest example of this debate can be found in reports surfacing for the forthcoming The Marvels, whose budget was recently in dispute.

While it’s basically considered par for the course for an Avengers movie to cost north of $300 million nowadays, it’s also now a standard for those films to gain over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. As a result, no one really bats an eyelash at the hefty expense for the MCU’s flagship crossover franchise.

However, with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, for instance, people have questioned its $200 million budget since it barely managed to eke out a profit at the worldwide box office and failed to impress critics or audiences. In other cases, the scrutiny comes from asking whether a Marvel movie’s budget is too low.

The highs and lows of The Marvels‘ budget saga j203w

With The Marvels, it was apparently misreported by Vanity Fair that the film would only have a budget of $130 million, making it $45 million lower than the first film in the franchise, Captain Marvel. This led to speculation that Disney was perhaps divesting in the series for whatever reason. However, it turned out the budget for The Marvels was much higher. As Disney later clarified (as reported by Forbes), the cost of The Marvels was actually north of $270 million but ended up netting $220 million, thanks to a U.K. tax incentive.

The Marvels‘ true budget makes a lot more sense to us, considering MCU sequels generally get more money funneled to them than the first installment. Even still, the entire discussion had us curious about looking at the entire list of Marvel movie budgets and ranking them from most to least expensive — so that’s exactly what we did, thanks to information from The Numbers.

For the purposes of our list, we are excluding The Marvels and any other MCU film that has yet to be released in theaters since the final number for those budgets could change. Bear in mind, that when multiple movies are listed as having the same budgets, we’ve considered that to be a tie for that entry in the list. With that said, here’s the entire breakdown:

1. $400 million – Avengers: Endgame (2019)
2. $365 million – Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) 
3. $300 million – Avengers: Infinity War (2018) 
4. $250 million – Captain America: Civil War (2016); Thor: Love and Thunder (2022); Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022); Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) 
5. $225 million – The Avengers (2012) 
6. $200 million – Iron Man 3 (2013); Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017); Black Panther (2018); Black Widow (2021); Eternals (2021); Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021); Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022); Ant-Man and the Qasp: Quantumania (2023) 
7. $186 million – Iron Man (2008)
8. $180 million – Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
9. $175 million – Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017); Captain Marvel (2019)
10. $170 million – Iron Man 2 (2010); Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014); Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
11. $165 million – Doctor Strange (2016)
12. $160 million – Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
13. $150 million – Thor (2011); Thor: The Dark World (2013); Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
14. $140 million – Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
15. $137.5 million – The Incredible Hulk (2008)
16. $130 million – Ant-Man (2015); Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

How will forthcoming MCU movies like The Marvels and next year’s Deadpool 3 ultimately shake out on this list after they release? Only time will tell. However, we have a feeling the ongoing writers’ and actors’ strikes may have an inflating impact on some of these projects in a comparable manner to the COVID-19 pandemic. With no crystal ball in site, however, we are left to only speculate.

For now, you can check out The Marvels in theaters on November 10 to decide for yourself if it lives up to that $270 million or so production value.

Does anyone else feel they’re aging like Professor X — Charles Xavier went into the ’90s looking like James McAvoy and ended the decade as Patrick Stewart — while we wait to properly meet mutants in the MCU? Sure, we’ve already got Ms. Marvel, Namor, and a couple of others, and we’ve got some Fox cameos to come in Deadpool 3, but the existence of mutants on Earth-616 (or 99999) is still mostly a mystery. That’s why it’s so mind-blowing that Marvel has apparently been hyping them up as far back as 2015.

As one eagle-eyed Redditor discovered, what must be the very first allusion to mutant-kind existing in the MCU’s main reality came a full eight years in surely the franchise’s most obscure Easter egg — as it hails from an Avengers: Age of Ultron tie-in comic book prequel. These kinds of releases have often suffered a sketchy place in canon because they’re sometimes retconned as further screen projects come out, but in this case, the Ultron prequel comic predicted a future MCU revelation with astonishing accuracy.

The Easter egg in question sees a HYDRA scientist comment on the effectiveness of their experiments with the Mind Stone on the Maximoff twins, with the scientist excited to see what abilities the scepter will “unlock” in the siblings. This was a big deal for the time as Ultron itself merely indicated the Infinity Stone created Wanda and Pietro’s powers. In this way, the comic foreshadowed the twist in WandaVision, not released for another six years, that the twins already had powers. i.e. they were mutants.

Evidence like this is why most fans are assuming the 616 X-Men team will eventually be revealed as having existed in this universe all along, we’ve just never seen them before. While that may stretch credibility, there are clearly Easter eggs here and there that can fool us into believing Marvel always planned to fold the X-Men into their own experiments.

MCU would not stand a chance in a court of law.

The cinematic universe has committed many sins — and giving Wanda a repetitive villain’s arc is singlehandedly enough to get it incarcerated for life — but almost all get forgiven as they have been resolved in some way or other. A completely altered Mandarin in Iron Man 3? Simple, Shang-Chi fixed it. Steve and Peggy’s tragic story? BOOM! Avengers: Endgame became the first Marvel film to give romance a future.

But what to do when the said arc never materializes and heck, the teased character never gets to set foot in the MCU — how do we forgive mistakes when attempts to fix the same were not only never made, but also repeated shamelessly?

Moondragon 6i4s37

Now, the superpowerful Moondragon, daughter of Drax the Destroyer, has not been teased directly, but even though her father’s story was subtly tweaked in the MCU, her appearance has always been a possibility. Drax says she is dead, something that his comic book counterpart also believed, only to be revealed that she survived and has been honing her psychic skills.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was expected by many to finally debut the character, but it also teased Moondragon in a roundabout manner by introducing Phyla. Now, she ain’t Phyla-Vell — the daughter of the superhero Mar-Vell and more importantly, Moondragon’s love interest in the comics. But MCU’s Phyla — who is the High Evolutionary’s creation — also possesses the ability to manipulate cosmic energy like Phyla-Vell, and appears to be one of the permanent of the new Guardians of the Galaxy.

Mephisto 4pi5g

An ancient force, Marvel’s Mephisto is an extra-dimensional demon who has often been touted as the greatest, most evil manipulator. And WandaVision was flooded with hidden and obvious signs of his presence in the MCU, going as far as to hint that Wanda was being controlled by the entity. But as we know, the devil was so not in the details. 

Well, at least there is still time for Agatha: House of Harkness. no Coven of Chaos, no no, Darkhold Diaries (hopefully third time is the charm) to swiftly right this wrong.

Jericho Drumm aka Brother Voodoo 423k59

His arrival has been awaited since his brother, Daniel Drumm, Master of the Mystic Arts and Protector of the New York Sanctum, promptly appeared and got killed by Kaecillius in Doctor Strange. As in the comics, Jericho becomes Brother Voodoo by training in sorcery after his brother died, his appearance was highly anticipated in Multiverse of Madness, to the point where rumors of the studio casting an actor matching his Haitian descent flew around. 

So, along with shattering hopes of Wanda getting a sensible storyline, Marvel also drowned hopes of bringing Voodoo into the fold.

Patriot aka Eli Bradley 262o6b

Apart from cementing Wyatt Russell as the U.S. Agent in the MCU, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier debuted Isiah Bradley, confirming the presence of many other supersoldiers like Steve Rodgers. The series is where we also meet Eli Bradley, Isaiah’s grandson, who in the comics goes on to become Patriot after using the illegal Mutant Growth Hormone (MGH) pills to get superhuman abilities. 

But based on the done-and-dusted manner in which Isiah’s story is wrapped up — after being introduced to prove Sam Wilson indeed is the perfect candidate to be Captain America — expecting Eli Bradley to have any kind of future is as futile as his MCU introduction was.

Beta Ray Bill 583h6p

There are many promises Taika Waititi has brazenly broken — that Jane Foster’s return would be worth the wait, Thor’s solo return after Endgame would be even better than Ragnarok, Gorr the Butcher would prove a soul-chilling villain (and Christian Bale did, despite how poorly the character was written), etc. But what about the statue of a Korbonite, who was most probably Beta Ray Bill, seen on Sakaar as one of the former Champions before Hulk in the 2017 Thor film? 

Neither the alien race nor its most recognizable face has since been seen or even discussed in ing, not even when Thor took up Stormbreaker in the MCU, which came into existence in the comic books because of the cyborg warrior, and was wielded by him.

Jocasta 1k723o

No, we are not stuck on Jocasta and Ultron’s connection where the robotic villain was created by Age of Ultron’s big baddie in the comics. But Marvel did what it always does and teased her in the film, but with a very different form as well as creator — Tony Stark.

It was not Jocasta but J.O.C.A.S.T.A., a interface created by Tony, which was briefly seen when he was looking for a replacement for the destroyed J.A.R.V.I.S. For some, it is a neat Easter egg, but the wounded soul of the Marvel fandom would call it yet another lie unabashedly flaunted.

Chameleon 4dt2o

Now, this Spider-Man supervillain was not simply teased or just name-dropped in the MCU – he actually appeared in Spider-Man: Far From Home, and not at all as one would expect. We did not get to see him in his villainous avatar, or even sparingly embrace the comic book roots of his character, before it became the Chameleon. Nope, Dimitri Smerdyakov (his real name) instead debuted as the expressionless member of Nick Fury’s team and never appeared again since then.

Amadeus Cho 5w3h31

The future of this superhero has always hung in the balance. His arrival became a big possibility when Helen Cho, the character who is his mother in the comic books, appeared in Age of Ultron and went on to survive Ultron’s deadly attack. But the MCU maintained radio silence on that front, before 2022’s San Diego Comic-Con brought forth the announcement that the animated series, Spider-Man: Freshman Year, would see Amadeus Cho making his MCU debut at last. Hercules — with whom Cho is practically best buddies in the comics — making his MCU debut just days before in Thor: Love and Thunder made the news even more perfect.

But post that, the series has not been a part of Disney’s release slate, and no information has been made available about when it will be streaming. But despite this worrying state of affairs, the recent confirmation that not only is it still in the works, but has already been renewed for a second season, is a good sign for the hero. 

Not everyone is lucky like Man-Thing (seen in Werewolf by the Night) and Namor (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), who eventually got their moment in the sun after living in the darkest corner of the MCU where characters “never to debut but to be teased with abandon” reside. But still, the Marvel fandom is nothing if not tenacious. We might not be able to fly, or punch really hard, or turn green (though another disaster like Secret Invasion will leave us not needing the gamma radiation to accomplish it), but we keep faith in the MCU, however shaky its current footing.

The Flash made its Max debut at the tail-end of August, and unlike most superhero streaming releases, it sunk like a stone, earning practically zero new traction for what was once pegged as one of the best DC movies ever made. As the studio’s most costly flop ever and a critical punching bag, The Flash could not have been a more embarrassing first solo movie for the Scarlet Speedster. And yet, despite all that, the movie — and DC at large — still treated Barry Allen with a whole lot more respect than Marvel has its own speedsters.

Primarily, that’s because at least DC gave the Flash his own standalone vehicle in the first place, while the MCU has sidelined the many speedsters among its superhero population since the very beginning. Again and again, the franchise has totally failed to hand its super-sprinting characters the treatment they deserve. So, as we heard faster and faster towards the heart of the Multiverse Saga, it’s about time that Marvel fixed this issue before it trips them up somewhere down the line.

It all goes back to the portrayal of Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Quicksilver in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Despite being one of the most long-lasting Avengers in the comics, Pietro Maximoff was killed off after a single appearance and, unusually for the MCU, never seen or heard from again (with Taylor-Johnson even hopping over to Sony to continue his comic book career in Kraven the Hunter).

Of course, six years later, in WandaVision, we did eventually get a new Pietro, with the X-Men saga’s Evan Peters brought over as the “recast” Quicksilver, in what is still one of the most inspired, surprising castings in MCU history. But what do they do with him in the finale? Reveal he’s not the real X-Men Quicksilver at all but some guy called Ralph Bohner — killing the Multiverse Saga’s first crossover stone dead all for the sake of a lame, juvenile gag that even Deadpool wouldn’t find funny.

Meanwhile, Lauren Ridloff’s Makkari was one of the best parts of Eternals, thanks to her extremely charming performance, the character’s epic skillset, and her unexpectedly sweet romance with Barry Keoghan’s Druig. And yet, through no fault of her own, Makkari’s at serious risk of pulling a Quicksilver and being a one-and-done wonder, thanks to being trapped in a franchise that appears doomed never to return.

Sadly, Marvel’s strange vendetta against its speedsters shows no signs of slowing down, which is only doing an entire class of its costumed crusaders a massive disservice. Heck, I haven’t even mentioned the tragic fate that met the Whizzer in Jessica Jones season 2 (*Tamatoa from Moana voice* look it up). Although if both Quicksilvers and Makkari team up to run rings around Kang the Conqueror in Avengers: Secret Wars, I’ll be racing to make Kevin Feige a hasty apology.

We’re around about two and a half months from The Marvels blasting into cinemas, and thanks to its opponent running from the battlefield early, Brie Larson‘s Captain Marvel now has nothing but itself standing in its way. Meanwhile, although we were hoping for a Keanu Reeves Ghost Rider, word has it that Kevin Feige has found the one other casting decision that would get tongues wagging more. Really, though, what the Marvel prez needs to is just learn to be more frugal, as per what the people want.

Dune: Part Two delay rescues The Marvels‘ box office chances, but it can’t protect it from what comes next dn1r

We were all set for another Barbenheimer incursion event this November, but now Warner Bros. has pulled out of the race, with Dune: Part Two‘s release date delay to March meaning that The Marvels now has a clear path to dominate the box office this fall. And yet while it has won that battle, it’s unclear if it’ll win the war long-term as Marvel reclaiming IMAX cinemas now Dune 2 has disappeared means that the old “are superhero movies real cinema">turn Captain Marvel into an alcoholic suggest, what comes next in the Marvel news cycle can never be predicted, so stay tuned for its next twist and turn.

Poor ol’ Avengers: Age of Ultron is destined to be the MCU‘s also-ran team-up movie. It doesn’t have the novelty of The Avengers or the bombastic plotting and emotional resonance of Infinity War and Endgame. In fact, with writer/director Joss Whedon’s star not so much dipping over the horizon than collapsing into a black hole of bad vibes, some would rather just ignore it altogether.

But there are some jewels in the midst of the wonky plot and forehead-furrowing treatment of Black Widow. Fans over on r/MarvelStudios have identified the low-key farm scenes as a highlight of the movie, as the characters can have an actual conversation without dealing with a city-smashing menace.

We can see where this poster is coming from and it’s nice to see this cast of very talented actors getting a moment to actually do character work rather than posing in front of a blue screen. However, even these conversations are bristling with Whedonisms that just haven’t aged well.

Replies point out that the first act of Endgame also does this, and arguably better. Prior to the team planning their time heist the surviving heroes are just living life, with one poster saying “seeing the characters as actual people in the beginning was more enjoyable to me” than the apocalyptic all-star smash-up that closes out the movie.

In the not-too-distant future, even the shiniest and most expensive CGI spectacle will lose its luster, though cinema history has proven that solid dialogue and talented actors will never truly age.

It’s been a conflicting day for Avengers aficionados. On the one hand, the Marvel team-up we’ve been dreaming about for, oh, well over 20 years may just be on the cards for Avengers: Secret Wars, but the wider implications of this might not be so good. Likewise, the star of a past Avengers movie is speaking their true feelings about their role in the MCU, which probably explains why they ran in the opposite direction and never came back after a single franchise appearance. But before we get into all that…

The MC(Donald’s)U? Fresh footage of Loki season two hails from Marvel’s unlikeliest incursion 342w10

Perhaps in a canny bid to avoid the total lack of public interest in Secret Invasion, Marvel is going all out on its unlikely McDonald’s partnership to promote the incoming second season of Loki, the most-watched of all the studio’s Disney Plus shows, don’t forget. Thanks to the latest ad to come out of this peculiar incursion between the MCU and the McDU, some fresh footage from the new episodes showcases the likes of Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, and Owen Wilson in action, revealing that the Golden Arches looks to be a major location in the show’s return.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson counting Age of Ultron among the movies he’s made he didn’t like explains a lot, actually o321g

Sony’s Spider-Man universe doesn’t earn too many wins over the MCU, but poaching one-time Quicksilver to play the lead in Kraven the Hunter is one of them. That cross-universe transfer is only stinging harder now that the wild man in question, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, has itted that Avengers: Age of Ultron is one of numerous blockbusters he made about a decade ago that he “didn’t really care for,” which is why it’s taken until now to get back in the franchise game with his new Sony superhero flick. Basically, don’t expect to see him back in Avengers: Secret Wars…

Hugh Jackman heading for the Wolverine/Avengers team-up of our dreams means a nightmare situation might be true 3q4j5y

But you know who we should apparently expect to see again in Secret Wars? Deadpool 3 star Hugh Jackman, according to the latest rumors, as the Australian X-Man and Kevin Feige have supposedly met to discuss a further return in the big 2027 Avengers event. While that’s excellent news in isolation, of course, it does heavily suggest that Marvel’s going to continue mining nostalgia for Fox’s franchise for all it’s worth and hold off on actually rebooting the X-Men on Earth-616 for as long as it possibly can, which isn’t exactly what the fans really want. Or maybe we’ve been so burned by the Multiverse Saga so far, we just don’t know when to appreciate good news anymore? You decide.

Brie Larson’s stunt double not being allergic to cats ended up saving The Marvels 652a2f

Stunt performers are obviously a key part of the superhero moviemaking process the MCU couldn’t do without, but Brie Larson’s double really came in handy during production on The Marvels. The Oscar-winning actress’ allergy to cats proved a tiny bit of an enormous problem for the sequel, considering it features a whole litter of adorable yet deadly Flerkittens (Flerken kittens, keep up). Thankfully, Larson’s stunt stand-in was A-OK with the cats so she was able to perform all the scenes that required Carol Danvers to interact with the alien kitties. Captain Marvel might save the day on screen, but it’s the stunt doubles that save the day off of it.

That’s it for another trip on the Marvel news highway, but be sure to hop back on tomorrow as the MCU fast lane never slows.

Despite the fact that he’s one of the most legendary Avengers team in the comics, Quicksilver has only made a single appearance in the MCU to date. While X-Men fans fell in love with Evan Peters’ version in the Fox movies, Scarlet Witch’s brother Pietro Maximoff only appeared the once way back in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. When it came to his sitcom-like cameo in WandaVision, Peters was even brought aboard ahead of original performer Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Thanks to some illuminating comments from the Kick-Ass star on his career trajectory, however, we can maybe finally begin to understand why Pietro has been a no-show in the franchise for the past eight years. Speaking to Esquire, Taylor-Johnson revealed why Sony’s Kraven the Hunter is his first leading role in a major blockbuster for a long while: because those that he made back in the early-to-mid-2010s weren’t really his cup of tea. He explained:

“There was Kick-Ass, and then there was Godzilla and Avengers, and all those things lined up for me. But I didn’t really care for them.”

Taylor-Johnson teased that these roles were followed up by other big offers for even more money. In his words, he was up for parts “that nobody knows about—big, huge franchises that were in play.” Nevertheless, the actor walked away from these opportunities in order to spend more time with his family, wife Sam Taylor-Johnson (director of Fifty Shades of Grey) and their two daughters.

“I wanted, purely, to be with my babies, I didn’t want to be taken away from them. I battled with what that would be like. I would say I was probably not ready to be in that position anyway—it was too early. But yeah, I also slightly didn’t give a f**k.”

Although Taylor-Johnson clearly has nothing against the MCU, it’s fair to say he was probably relieved when Pietro was killed off in only his first outing and likely doesn’t envy his on-screen sister (and, um, also on-screen wife) Elizabeth Olsen her long and fruitful Marvel career. A career that, ironically, involves playing a character obsessed with getting back to her two children.

Kraven the Hunter was once set to arrive this October, but is now scheduled to stampede into cinemas on Aug. 30, 2024.