The MCU is one of the biggest franchises of all time, and easily the biggest franchise in modern pop culture (yes, even bigger than A vatar). With 37 films to date and two more on the way in 2026, the MCU's canon is extensive and detailed, and that's without mentioning the 26 (canon) television series, again with 3 more on the way in 2026.
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With all that content, there are bound to be storylines that Marvel would rather their fans just forget about. From continuity errors to cringe-worthy scenes to complete character resets, these are just some of the moments in the MCU's nearly-20-year history that have been glossed over, retconned, or that Kevin Feige and crew simply pretend never happened.
Thor's Character In His First Two Movies
The Lovable Oaf Was Once An Insufferable Prude
There was a 6-year gap between the release of Thor in 2011 and Thor: Ragnarok in 2017, with Thor: The Dark World sandwiched in between with a 2013 release. Those first two films present Thor as a regal, almost Shakespearean character, not unlike his brother Loki, albeit a bit more brutish. However, as evidenced by the audience reception to The Dark World and Avengers: Age of Ultron, this take on the character wasn't resonating.
Credit where it's due, Taika Waititi's Thor rebrand in Ragnarok was a stroke of genius. He turned Thor from a somewhat arrogant Asgardian into a lovable goofball whose misunderstanding of societal norms was transformed into a general misunderstanding of most things that aren't Asgard-related. It worked so well that Thor became one of the most beloved members of the original Avengers, even though he was largely overlooked for the first six years of his character arc.
Everything About Ultron
Let's Pretend Tony Didn't Almost Destroy The World
There's a lot of what happens in Avengers: Age of Ultron that Marvel wants fans to forget, but arguably the biggest detail is Ultron: specifically, that Tony Stark created Ultron, didn't put enough safeguards on his creation, and nearly destroyed the world as a result. That's a pretty big "oopsie," and yet everyone just forgets about it as soon as Ultron is dealt with.
Not only that, but as soon as Captain America: Civil War comes around, Tony is back to preaching the same ideas that caused him to fumble his way into creating Ultron in the first place. Not only does it feel like Marvel wanted fans to forget about Tony's actions in Age of Ultron, it feels like Marvel may have forgotten about them, too, because Tony is never even reprimanded for his recklessness, and instantly has the government's ear the next time he calls for it.
Ang Lee's Hulk Is Canon
There's Even A Recap To Start The Incredible Hulk
One of the weirder decisions Marvel made when the MCU was just a sparkle in Kevin Feige's eye was to make The Incredible Hulk a sequel to the 2003 film Hulk, directed by Ang Lee and starring Eric Bana. Ang Lee's Hulk is a pretty good movie, all things considered, especially since it was made in an era where superhero movies were still finding their groove, but it is pretty far from your typical MCU movie.
That's probably why it's never brought up. Most of MCU Hulk's backstory is filled in through dialogue that describes events which presumably occurred between 2003's Hulk and 2008's The Incredible Hulk. Most of the characters are carried over (although recast with their MCU counterparts), but the actual story elements (like Bruce getting his abilities at birth due to his father's experiments) were either retconned or are just never mentioned, despite technically being canon.
Tony And Pepper Broke Up
Marvel's Flagship Couple Called It Quits... Or Did They?
At the end of Captain America: Civil War, Tony candidly tells Steve Rogers that he and Pepper are "taking a break." The reasons for this are never clearly stated, but most fans assume it's because Tony continues to build and use his Iron Man suits, even though his Christmas present to Pepper at the end of Iron Man 3 was to literally destroy all of his suits (another detail that Marvel would like everyone to forget about) because she was always worried about him when he was off being Iron Man.
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The weirdest part about all of this, though, is that the next time we see Tony in Spider-Man: Homecoming, he and Pepper are back together. Not only are they back together, but they've reconciled to the point that Pepper is receptive to Tony's impromptu proposal. This is never explained further, and while enough time passed between Civil War and Homecoming that it's not an impossible occurence, it's still a weird thing to ignore completely.
Peter Declined The Iron Spider Suit
Then The Next Time We See Him, He's Wearing It
Speaking of Spider-Man: Homecoming, the whole point of that movie (and Peter's arc within it) is that Spider-Man needs to learn that being a hero means more than just wearing a suit loaded with Stark tech. One of the key lines in the film is when Tony tells Peter, "If you're nothing without the suit, then you shouldn't have it." In the end, Peter beats Vulture while wearing his raggedy homemade Spider-Man suit, proving that he's the hero, not the Stark tech. That's why, when Tony offers him the Iron Spider suit at the film's conclusion, Peter turns it down. It's the culmination of his character arc.
The next time we see Peter in Avengers: Infinity War, he's wearing the Iron Spider suit. No lead-up, no reference to Tony telling him he'll need it to go into space or something. Nothing. It's a really cool suit, sure, and Marvel probably wanted to showcase it in the trailers and on the posters, but it completely undoes Peter's character arc, to the point that he basically needs to go through the same arc over his next two solo films to become the "Friendly Neighborhood" Spider-Man that appears at the very end of No Way Home.
Tony Stark Pees In His Suit
Iron Man Went Through A Rough Patch
This might not be much of a "storyline," but it's definitely something Marvel wants people to delete from their memory. There's a lot in Iron Man 2 that is overlooked by the larger MCU canon, and it's widely considered the least consequential movie (and sometimes the worst overall) in the MCU. It's mostly just there to introduce Black Widow and reveal that the next MCU film features Thor. Beyond that, it's just meandering, but that doesn't mean it's unremarkable.
Don Cheadle Was At His Kid's Birthday Party When Marvel Forced Iron Man 2 Decision On Him
Don Cheadle was at his kid's birthday party when Marvel told him he only had two hours to accept the Iron Man 2 role as James Rhodes.
Tony Stark's downward spiral hits rock bottom in a scene where he is hosting (MCing? DJing?) A party, picks up a microphone, and answers a question that he has apparently been asked a lot: "How do you go to the bathroom in the suit?" Tony then demonstrates exactly how: he pees in his suit. It's obviously played for laughs, but it's pretty cringey, and it's one of those things that fans would probably rather forget as well.
Everything About The Inhumans
They Were Supposed To Lead Into Endgame
Back before Disney had secured the rights to the X-Men, Marvel was looking for ways to introduce "everyman" characters who didn't need to experience a life-changing event to acquire their superpowers. That's easy enough with the X-Men; they're born with abilities. Marvel's workaround for a lack of Mutants was to introduce the Inhumans instead.
These characters were initially set to premiere in a film that would bridge the gap between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. This movie was later downgraded into TV series called Inhumans, while the movie was replaced with Captain Marvel (and some story beats may have shifted over to Eternals as well). That TV show was not received well, to put it lightly. Less than a year after its season 1 premiere, the show was canceled due to poor critical and audience ratings, and these characters haven't been seen or mentioned since.
Pym Particles Drove Darren Cross Insane
That's Why Hank Pym Insisted That Scott Wear A Helmet
Arguably one of the most frustrating continuity issues in the entire MCU takes place in the first Ant-Man film. Throughout the movie, Hank Pym stresses to Scott Lang that wearing a helmet is crucial to interacting with Pym particles. It's why Darren Cross turned into a villain, because he made use of the particles without any protection. This is reiterated throughout the movie by Hank, Hope, and even Scott himself.
Yet from Ant-Man & The Wasp onward, all of these characters take their helmets off all the time, when they're tiny, when they're big, and even in the quantum realm. This is the cardinal rule of the first film, to the point that it's also the antagonist's origin story, and it's completely forgotten by the time the sequel takes place. Another slightly less frustrating gripe is that Hank Pym's reason for hiring Scott Lang is that using the Pym particles is too hard on his body. Once Ant-Man & The Wasp comes around, Hank is using the particles all the time and shrinking alongside everyone else, which begs the question: Why is Scott still there?
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