Gotta love a good fan theory!
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has spawned a whole lot of them over recent years.
Part of the fun of watching these films, especially for those of you who weren’t initially Marvel
fans to begin with, is to piece together what we know and pull from the source material
to come up with a hypothesis on how these intertwining stories will connect and be resolved
in upcoming movies.
So today, rather than focusing on one specific topic in the MCU, we’re going big and counting
down our picks for the top 10 Marvel Fan Theories.
And we’re talking specifically MCU fan theories here, pals, not the comics.
Although, hey, maybe we’ll do one of those lists in the future.
Speaking of, if you’re watching this in the future and Avengers 4 has already come
out and all of the theories on this list are void, well… go watch our Top 10 Marvel Fan
Theories part 2 list.
Cause I bet your butt we’ve done another one of these in the future.
But if not, SPOILER ALERT FRIENDS!
Go catch up on those MCU movies.
So with that in mind, let’s jump in!
10 Stan Lee the Watcher Let’s start off our list with something
really fun.
Stan Lee, the genius and creator behind many of our favourite Marvel characters and storylines,
has made a cameo in almost every single Marvel cinematic and television adaptation.
It’s become a fan favourite Easter egg.
But some fans think its more than just that; instead, they think that Stan Lee is actually
a Watcher, all thanks to the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
In Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2, we see a quick gag in which Stan is chatting to Watchers;
the race of aliens whose purpose is to watch over the multiverse.
The first of those Watchers to ever appear in the comics back in Fantastic Four issue
13 from 1963 was Uatu, who is the Watcher responsible for observing the quadrant that
Earth is in.
Uatu is famous for breaking his oath an intervening in the on-goings of humanity, which is something
that Stan Lee in the MCU, although very minimally, has done periodically, often with a funny
one liner.
Now some versions of this theory suggest that Stan will actually play a minor role as Uatu
in bringing down Thanos in the upcoming Avengers 4 movie.
While I don’t think that’s overly plausible, it is nice to think that Stan has been incorporated
in such a wonderful way, and is pretty harmless as the character considering all Uatu is supposed
to do is simply watch.
9 In the Future Recently, it was announced that a new actress
would be playing Cassie Lang in the upcoming Avengers 4 film.
Why is this a big deal?
Well, in both Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp, Cassie was played by Abby Ryder Fortson,
whereas in Avengers 4 and onwards, she’ll be played by Emma Fuhrmann; an actress who
is significantly older than Fortson.
She’s a full blown young adult.
This has spawned a lot of theories that Scott, who in the post credits scene of Ant-Man and
the Wasp, was trapped in the Quantum Realm, will return years later.
The Avengers have been working away in secret to come up with a way to reverse Thanos’
snap.
It’s been years since Infinity War happened.
In addition to this, there has been speculation that Cassie Lang will suit up as well, leading
a version of the Young Avengers that will eventually be added to the MCU.
8 Pulp Fiction As many a pulp fiction fan knows, Samuel L
Jackson as Jules Winnfield says the famous “The Path of the Righteous man…” line.
It’s supposed to be a quote from Ezekiel 25:17, which, if you notice in Captain America
Winter Solider, is on Nick Fury’s tombstone.
Nice easter egg, right?
Well one user on reddit by the name of MugWump28, suggests that it’s more than that.
That quote doesn’t actually exist in the real life bible; that wording isn’t in there.
And fans of Pulp Fiction known that Jules gave up his career as a hitman at the end
of the film.
This could mean that perhaps he changed his name, and became Nick Fury, if those worlds
are one in the same.
Think about it; the glowing briefcase in Pulp Fiction is something that could easily fit
in the world of the MCU.
While this theory will likely be debunked thanks to the younger version of Fury who
will appear in the Captain Marvel movie, it’s a fun theory to humour, at least.
7 Winter Solider Killed EVERYONE’S Parents Well, maybe not everyone.
But one theory suggests that Tony Stark’s folks aren’t the only victims of the brainwashed
Bucky Barnes.
A YouTuber by the name of Direlogue posted a theory video to their channel in which they
point out an interesting detail.
In Captain America Winter Solider, one of the Winter Soldier’s activation words is
none other than Homecoming.
Why is this important?
Not only is Homecoming the title of one of Spidey’s major story arcs in the comics,
it’s also the subtitle of his solo MCU film.
We don’t know how his parents died in the MCU, nor Uncle Ben, although the latter is
implied to have died more recently to the time in which Parker began his days as a costumed
crusader.
6 Magneto is the Maximoff’s Father Despite the X-Men characters currently awaiting
their integration into the MCU, one user on reddit has suggested that perhaps the plan
at Marvel Studios has always been to connect the Maximoff twins to Magneto, who for a long
time in the comics, was their father.
The user, named TwitchyCookie, speculates that the reason why the twins surviving that
close encounter with a bomb wasn’t sheer luck.
The bomb wasn’t a dud; it was simply deactivated by their father, using his metal controlling
powers.
The theory suggests that their father died in the process, since at the time of its creation,
it was prior to Marvel Studios having the rights to the comic giants’ mutant characters.
But now that isn’t an issue, perhaps one of the ways Magneto will be integrated into
the MCU is through some sort of background with the twins, particularly with Wanda.
Another popular theory also suggests that Scarlet Witch will be the transitional piece
in introducing mutants into the world of the MCU, with rumours that the character may be
getting her own show that will debut on Disney’s upcoming streaming service.
5 Avengers vs X-Men C’mon!
You know this is gonna happen at some point.
Now that the X-Men rights will soon be in the hands of Disney and Marvel Studios, the
possibilities for cross over stories are rich.
But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves; it’ll be a while before we see the 2012 Avengers
vs X-Men event come to life on the big screen.
The X-Men will need to be established in the MCU, and plenty of them in order to really
do the story justice.
Perhaps this is something we might see on the horizon of Phase 5 or 6?
Plus, the rights won’t be officially transferred over until 2019, so development on any X-Men
solo films will legally have to begin after that.
But stay optimistic friends!
The MCU always does justice to its crossovers, so if this does end up being slotted for the
future in the movie pipeline, we’ll surely get one hell of a story.
4 Fox vs Marvel Studios This is one of my personal favorites.
This theory takes into consideration that there are two universes in which Marvel’s
properties live, just like in real life; there’s the Marvel Studios MCU one, and the Fox one.
And the reason why they’re different comes down to one major factor; Hydra.
In the Fox cinematic universe, the first X-Men film that came out in 2000 stuck with Magneto’s
origins.
He was a boy during WW2 and the holocaust, and that’s how he lost his family.
It’s an integral part to the character’s backstory that largely informs his ideologies
and the way he operates, fighting for the supremacy of mutants over humans, and mutant
liberation.
And it’s also how he discovered his powers, being experimented on by the Nazis.
But in the MCU, during WW2, Hydra conquered Germany, stopping Hitler before the Holocaust
happened, meaning that Erik was never imprisoned or experimented on, and he would have never
discovered his powers.
In the Fox Universe, Hydra never rose to power, meaning SHIELD was never created in retaliation,
which means Cap would never come to be, and Howard Stark would never have had access to
the kinds of technology that led to him creating the Ark Reactor.
Therefore, the Avengers never came to be.
But because of Magneto’s activity, mutants rose up out of the shadows and became a prominent
factor to that world.
Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?
Rumour has it was that this theory was too close to home so the studios squashed it.
But that’s just more fuel feeding the theory fire, friends.
This theory also raises a lot of questions as to how Magneto’s character will be handled
when the MCU integrate him, and if that means they’ll be toying with alternate worlds
in order to properly incorporate his backstory.
3 Where has Captain Marvel been?
FIGHTING OFF THE SKRULL THREAT!
One prominent theory that has been making the rounds in anticipation to Captain Marvel’s
release tries to answer the question of why Carol Danvers hasn’t been present in the
MCU to date.
So let’s back track for a second.
At the end of Avengers Infinity War, in the post credit scene, we see Nick Fury about
to be dusted.
He reaches for what can only be described as a fancy little space beeper, and sends
out what we can assume is a distress call.
As he’s dusted, thanks to Thanos’ snap and wiping out half of all living beings,
we cut to a shot of the beeper on the ground, and a logo appears on its screen; Captain
Marvel’s logo.
So this means that Nick Fury is fully aware of Captain Marvel’s existence; something
that was further confirmed by the Captain Marvel trailer release in which we see a young
Nick Fury with Carol Danvers after she’s come to Earth.
This could mean several things.
And this is where this theory comes into play.
Let’s get hypothetical for a sec.
Say at the end of Captain Marvel, its decided between Danvers and Fury (and potentially
SHIELD) that the best way to deal with the Skrull threat (which, based on the trailer,
we know they’re privy to), is to send Carol out across the universe to eliminate Skrull
agents.
Carol can see Skrulls in disguise; she punches a grandma in her trailer, clearly knowing
that it’s a hidden agent.
Now we know that the Quantum Realm is important to Captain Marvel’s story line thanks to
their quantum physicist consultant saying so in an interview.
So this could potentially mean that she’s using the Quantum Realm, controlling her navigation
via her powers, to travel around and wipe out Skrull agents in hiding.
The beeper is a way of communicating with her while she’s doing it.
It may be archaic, but look at the way that Hank Pym was communicating with Scott in Ant-Man
and the Wasp when he was in the Quantum Realm.
Hank used to work for SHIELD, and its likely that he’s the one who worked on that kind
of communications tech back in the day, especially since he and Janet were privy to the Quantum
Realm back when they were Ant-Man and the Wasp.
The reason why Fury hasn’t contacted Carol until now is because he knows she’s dealing
with a much larger threat to the galaxy.
And it isn’t until things so real sour with Thanos that he sends the distress call to
her, playing one of his last cards in order to ensure that the galaxy isn’t totally
f***ed.
Could be the case.
What do you guys think?
2 Secret Invasion Ever since the first Avengers film, the pieces
of the puzzle pertaining to Thanos’ introduction and conflict with the MCU have been put in
place.
Phase 1 ended with the 2012 Avengers film.
Phase 3 ends with Avengers 4.
Phase 4 will begin with the Spider-Man sequel, Far From Home.
So naturally, considering how Marvel Studios set the foundation for Infinity War years
and years in advance, it makes sense that they’d use the same successful model in
setting up the next big baddie to threaten the safety of the Marvel Universe in the future.
And many people think that antagonist will be a whole darn race; the Skrulls.
Why?
Well, for starters, the Skrulls are being integrated into the MCU in the upcoming Captain
Marvel movie, set to be released next year as the second last movie of Phase 3.
This means that going into Phase 4, the Skrulls have already been established.
Based off of our last theory, you know that the Skrulls are no walk in the park.
If they’ve been going around the universe, secretly infiltrating races, having them infiltrate
Earth on a grander scale (and perhaps some of Captain Marvel’s work in defusing the
threat that we mentioned in our last theory being reset based on the events of Avengers
4 and if Thanos’ actions are reversed) then there’s a darn good chance they might be
the next biggest threat.
This is also supported by the Secret Invasion story line; a comic book arc
1 Time Travel Theory Remember when Marvel Studios was dropping
major hints before the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp being like, YOU NEED TO WATCH
THIS MOVIE TO FULLY UNDERSTAND THE QUANTUM REALM CAUSE IT’LL BE SUPER IMPORTANT FOR
CAPTAIN MARVEL AND THE REST OF THE MCU!
Well, whether or not that pans out, or if it was a desperate attempt to make sure that
the Ant-Man sequel would actually do well box office wise, we do know that the Quantum
Realm will be super important.
So much so that fans across the globe have pieced together many a potential theory that
involves it as to how it will be used to reverse the damage Thanos has caused.
One of those theories is the time travel theory; arguably the most popular one in the past
year to hit the interwebs and plenty of other media.
Long story short, Ant-Man, who will get out of the Quantum Realm by some means, will end
up helping the remaining Avengers concoct a plan to go back in time and prevent Thanos
from getting all of the infinity stones.
This will somehow involve technology from Tony Stark, who Doctor Strange made sure to
save during the Battle on Titan, having foresight that he would need to remain alive.
Photos have leaked from the film’s set of the characters back at the Battle of New York
that occurred in the first Avengers movie, wearing special bracelets with some sort of
gadget on their hands and wrists.
Ant-Man is also there, and at the time of the first Avengers movie, he wasn’t a costumed
crusader yet, meaning there must be some sort of time travel involved in order to get him
there.
However the plan goes down, many believe that the Quantum Realm will be used to travel back,
using the knowledge that Scott Lang picked up from Hank and Janet (however briefly) in
order to help save the day.
There we have it friends!
So much speculation.
Which of these theories do you think is the most likely to come true?
And which ones do you think have no chance in hell of ever being a reality?
Give us a shout in those comments below and let us know what you think!
If you guys would like us to do fan theories pertaining specifically to the comics, also
give us a shout about that as well!
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