Keeping on top of the Marvel Cinematic Universe wasn’t too complicated back in the day. There was a little bit of Iron Man in Hulk, a little bit of Thor in Iron Man, and so on. Each teaser arrived one at a time, but now, deep into The Multiverse Saga, the MCU has expanded so much that there are tons of unresolved plot threads that might be resolved in upcoming films and TV shows… or might not.
A lot’s happed in the MCU in the last three years since this article was originally posted. Even with Marvel Studios reining in its content and putting everything behind the moneymakers for the time being (see: the next three movies being Spider-Man, Avengers, Avengers), we still got closure, or follow-ups at least, to some of the MCU loose ends that were dangling back in 2022. And if they haven’t been addressed yet, they might be in the next couple of films. So let’s check in on The Council of Kangs, Hercules, White Vision, Blade, and other big names, while also circling back to the likes of Skaar, Xu Xialing, that Symbiote glob, and more…
Unsolved MCU Loose Ends
The Council of Kangs
Even though the Kang story (which originated in Loki Season 1) was followed up on in Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania (and on Loki Season 2), the Council of Kangs was a whole new unresolved issue. And this particular cliffhanger stands a good chance of remaining a loose end forever given actor Jonathan Majors’ exile from the MCU. They could recast Kang, since we’re just dealing with variants now, but more likely, with the full pivot to Doctor Doom and the switching Avengers titles from The Kang Dynasty to Doomsday, this will just get swept under the rug. Still, they could do something to snip and clip this thread quickly.
In Quantumania, we see Rama-Tut (the ancient Egyptian ruler), Immortus (who has cosmic power learned from the Timekeepers), and a curious take on Scarlet Centurion meet up following the death of the “Exiled One.” They mention how humans — presumably the ones in in the MCU reality — are just now starting to touch the multiverse (Loki, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, etc.) and that they might ruin everything this council has created.
What did the council create? Do they have their own multiverse? Do they know that Loki is in charge of the multiverse now? “He Who Remains” and the TVA he created basically killed the multiverse to promote and nurture just one timeline, in order to prevent cosmic mayhem. But now Loki’s acting as the Temporal Loom, so it’s all okay. Anyhow, it’s all very unclear and there’s a good chance we’ll never see this one play out.
Dane Whitman Uncovers the Ebony Blade
Following his girlfriend being kidnapped by a Prime Celestial, Dane Whitman decides he can’t just sit and do nothing and so he steps back into his family’s dark past. Opening a chest with the inscription “Death Is My Reward,” he reveals a sword wrapped in bloody bandages that appears to respond to him. Before he can touch the weapon, however, a mysterious voice from behind asks: “Sure you’re ready for that, Mr. Whitman?”
The man behind the ominous question is none other than Mahershala Ali, who is slated to star as the famed vampire hunter in an upcoming MCU Blade movie. Dane becomes the cursed Black Knight in the comics, and in addition to seeing him suit up in armor, we’re now also looking forward to him teaming up with Blade, perhaps for the MCU’s version of the Midnight Sons.
Of the various loose ends in Eternals, when the film was first released this felt like the easiest to come back to since a Blade movie starring Mahershala Ali was already scheduled. But it’s been in development hell ever since being announced in 2019. Wesley Snipes’ line in Deadpool & Wolverine about being the only actor who will ever play Blade was intended as a joke, but it’s feeling more and more like a manifestation.
The Eternals Being Kidnapped
After managing to stop the birth of a Celestial, things don’t go the Eternals’ way after Arishem the Judge appears and abducts Sersi, Kingo, and Phastos. This leaves Makkari, Druig, and Thena to search for them among the stars when none other than Thanos’s brother (in the comics at least) appears. Eros (played by Harry Styles), joined by his troll companion Pip (voiced by Patton Oswalt), declares he knows how to get the other Eternals back.
We’re still waiting on any sort of Eternals follow-up. There’s a good chance we may never see this team again, unless they also eventually get confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday.
The Venom Symbiote
Eddie Brock, Venom’s host, showed up (thanks to multiverse shenanigans) in Spider-Man: Far From Home. While this appears to have been just a fun cameo in a film full of fun cameos, Brock’s appearance actually has some pretty significant knock-on effects as a piece of the Venom symbiote remains on Earth.
As is the case with most heroes and villains, there has been a ton of different versions of Venom throughout the comics’ history. The MCU hasn’t confirmed any plans to introduce it at the moment, so whether it becomes a straight villain by bonding with Eddie Brock, blends with Spider-Man akin to the original live-action film, or does something else entirely, we just don’t know.
Spider-Man’s iconic black suit was first introduced in Secret Wars — a major event from the comics that sees some of Marvel’s most iconic characters face off — so perhaps Avengers: Secret Wars would be a sensible moment to reintroduce it and finally deliver the MCU’s version of Spider-Man’s black suit.
Sharon Carter Infiltrating the U.S. Government
After a lot of back and forth, Sharon Carter seemingly gives up her role as the Power Broker at the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as she returns to the States and takes up her old position as a secret agent. But in the ultimate double- (triple-?) cross, Carter makes a dramatic exit and informs her criminal friends back in Madripoor that they now have direct access to the U.S. government.
Originally, we predicted Carter reappearing in Captain America: Brave New World but, alas, she did not. Will we ever see her again? Unclear.
The Ten Rings’ Beacon
Wong appears to be building his own Avengers as, at the end of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, he recruits Shang-Chi and Katy. He introduces the new heroes to Captain Marvel and Bruce Banner, and the group discovers that the Ten Rings are acting as a beacon, “sending a message” to an unknown place and person.
Yup, we’re still waiting on this and, basically, all-things Shang-Chi. (But we know he’ll be back in Avengers: Doomsday at least!)
Xu Xialing Taking Over the Ten Rings Organization
With her father gone and brother back in the States, Xu Xialing takes over the Ten Rings organization at the end of Shang-Chi. With Razor Fist and Jon Jon at her side, she declares they “have a lot of work to do” before the camera moves away to reveal the modernized version of her base.
With Shang-Chi returning in Avengers: Doomsday, will we get a follow-up to any of the leftover mysteries from his movie?
Moon Knight’s Third Personality
Two’s company and three’s a crowd for Mark Spector and Steven Grant as a third split personality, Jake Lockley, appears at the end of Moon Knight, having made another deal with the Egyptian god Khonshu. Though the series ended with Spector and Grant freeing themselves of Khonshu, it looks like Lockley has brought them straight back into the chaos.
But will we ever even see Moon Knight again, let alone his Lockley persona?
Doctor Strange and Clea
A lot happens at the end of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The film closes, first of all, with Strange falling to his knees in pain before a third eye opens on his forehead. During an end-credit scene, however, it seems that Doctor Strange has come to terms with it. The true teaser comes as the mysterious Clea (Charlize Theron) appears and tells Strange that he’s caused a multiversal incursion and they need to go and fix it. Opening a portal to the Dark Dimension, both Strange and Clea step in.
In the comics, Clea is a sorceress from the Dark Dimension and the niece of Dormammu, Strange’s first major foe. The incursion is also directly linked to the aforementioned Secret Wars, meaning this interaction could be a potential tie-in later on, but regardless, will the duo be the focus of a potential third Doctor Strange film?
America Chavez Training at Kamar-Taj
Wong adds yet another superhero to his team as America Chavez decides to stay on the MCU’s prime Earth following the events of Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and begins training with the Masters of the Mystic Arts at Kamar-Taj. Chavez never finds her mothers in the film, a mission which could be pursued in the future (perhaps in the long-teased Young Avengers if it ever happens).
A sub-category of “America Chavez Training at Kamar-Taj” is Spider-Man’s Ned Leeds being able to make magic portals, insinuating he has natural magical abilities. Of course, America Chavez was originally in No Way Home and was the one making portals, so when she was taken out of the story, Ned was a last-minute replacement. So while it would be fun to see Ned also training at Kamar-Taj, he’ll probably just stick to MIT.
Hercules Versus Thor
Despite Thor piercing his chest with a thunderbolt in Thor: Love and Thunder, Zeus is still alive and kicking, or at least alive and barking orders. But he doesn’t attempt to hunt down Thor himself; instead, he sends his son Hercules (played by Ted Lasso’s Brett Goldstein) in his place, likely setting up a new antagonist for the God of Thunder.
Thor and Hercules have been long-time rivals in the comics, with their relationship ranging everywhere from mortal (or immortal maybe) enemies to teammates in the Avengers, so at this stage of the MCU when the universe appears to be expanding in infinite directions, we’ll just have to wait and see which end of the spectrum Hercules settles on.
Ms. Marvel the Mutant
Though we were first told that Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan was a djinn, and that her power came from within, it turns out she’s even more special than that as her bestie Bruno revealed she’s actually a mutant. Technically he says her genes contain something “like a mutation,” but considering the X-Men animated series theme song played over the top of the scene, it’s pretty clear this is step one on a likely long journey to the MCU fully introducing mutants.
It’s hard to say how this revelation about Kamala’s mutation will eventually lead to the introduction of iconic X-Men like Wolverine and Cyclops—especially because she was originally introduced as an Inhuman in the comics—but at least we know they’re finally on the way to the MCU proper.
Three-Hulk
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law saw the expected addition of, well, She-Hulk to the MCU, but it also threw a curveball by introducing a third Hulk at the very end. At a casual family barbecue, Bruce Banner shows up to introduce Skaar, his long-lost son from the planet Sakaar. There isn’t much to go off since the new character didn’t even have a line of dialogue, but as always there’s plenty of comic book material to speculate on.
Skaar has a particularly tragic backstory that intertwines with the Planet Hulk and eventual World War Hulk comic book arcs, in which Hulk is (sort of) banished from Earth and sent to Sakaar before returning in a rage to destroy it. The MCU has obviously gone in a different direction with Banner, but the inclusion of Skaar opens up some potential to return to these beloved comic book storylines.
The Man-Thing Cinematic Universe
Werewolf by Night is arguably the most unique Marvel Cinematic Universe entry so far, and fans could be forgiven for thinking the black and white horror-esque short wasn’t related to the flashy fighting seen in films featuring Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and so on. It therefore may come as a surprise to learn that Man-Thing, the giant, swampy, tentacle-covered, well, man-thing, has actually appeared in the MCU before, at least partly. Before Hulk took to the gladiator arena in Sakaar, Man-Thing was seemingly a Champion there, and a statue commemorating his success can be seen in Thor: Ragnarok.
As for where he or Werewolf by Night’s title character will show up next in the MCU, no one really knows! Werewolf by Night’s executive producer Brian Gay has confirmed Man-Thing will definitely make a return, but as for when or where, even he says he doesn’t know. The character hasn’t appeared in too many comic book crossovers either, but has featured in the X-Men before, meaning it just as well could be the MCU’s mutant era when we next see him.
Riri’s Deal With Mephisto
After debuting in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) returned as the star of her very own series, Ironheart. And the first season ended with Riri, in a swerve, accepting Mephisto’s deal, which then brings her BFF Natalie back to life, returned to the garage where she was killed.
Yes, years after everyone was adamant for weeks that Mephisto was controlling the events in Westview in WandaVision, Sacha Baron Cohen shows up as Mephisto (after the show teased Dormammu) during a time when… Marvels Studios is actively decreasing its peripheral content. So it’s unlikely now that we’ll get a Season 2 of Ironheart and it’s possible we’ll never watch Riri try to free herself from Mephisto’s dark magic.
However, Mephisto’s such a big Marvel character that Cohen could reprise the role in some other project. It would probably just be un-Riri-related.
Samuel Sterns’ Warning
Granted, this post-credit scene in Captain America: Brave New World felt tremendously tacked on. It’s just Sam Wilson confronting an imprisoned Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) and Sterns seeing bad things ahead, using his brain to run through the probabilities. In fact, this felt a lot like the Lex Luthor moment at the end of Batman v Superman when he predicted the coming of the evil cosmic overlords because Superman died.
“We’ll see what happens when you have to protect this place from the others”… Not the best stinger, admittedly. Haven’t our heroes already protected the Earth from “others”” The Chitauri? Ego? Thanos? The Celestials? This felt pretty flat so just take it as a blanket warning about… things.
Soon to Be Solved MCU Questions (We Think)
Where’s Namor?
One plot thread teased in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever didn’t focus directly on the Wakandans themselves but instead their underwater contemporaries. After Namor is defeated by Shuri and pledges loyalty to her rule, what appears to be a no-strings-attached allegiance quickly turns out to be another play for power. Facing complaints from Namora, Namor explains that he plans to use Wakanda’s unsavoury relationship with the rest of the world as a catalyst for Talokan’s own takeover.
Actor Tenoch Huerta is one of the many, many folks returning for Avengers: Doomsday, so stayed tuned on this one…
Bucky’s Rift With Sam Over the Avengers
Add to this the whopping 14 months in between the end of Thunderbolts and the post-credit scene that introduces the Fantastic Four’s ship.
So Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and the government have decreed that the New Avengers are the Avengers. Sam Wilson, who decided at the end of Captain America: Brave New World to reform the Avengers (which was, at first, President Ross’ idea), disagrees. So does the internet. Bucky tried to talk to Sam about it and “it went poorly.” Sam has now filed for copyright of the Avengers name. So why is Sam so adamant about keeping the name Avengers? Why can’t he just give his new team a different name? Does he even already have a new team assembled? Why is this the straw that breaks the Bucky/Sam back? Also, what adventures have the New Avengers been up to in the year-plus following Thunderbolts?
This has gotta come up in Avengers: Doomsday which, after all, is an Avengers movie.
The “Huge Space Crisis” and the Arrival of the Fantastic Four
Thunderbolts ends with the arrival of the Fantastic Four’s ship, presumably piloted by Reed and the gang (though we’re not 100% on that yet). But even before this, Yelena mentions a “giant space crisis” so something is already going on that others are dealing with, leaving the New Avengers hanging out to dry. We assume the Fantastic Four have arrived because of said crisis, with hopes of thwarting said crisis, but maybe… they’re a byproduct of this crisis?
We can guess that the crisis involves the multiverse… and then also extrapolate that it’s Doom and young Franklin Richards at the center of it, but we’ll need confirmation. How much of the Doomsday movie will be spent showing us everything leading up to this moment — with the missing 14 months on Earth and then also over in the Fantastic Four’s universe — and how much will be spent after? We’ll have to see!
The Extent of Franklin Richards’ Powers (and Doom’s Plan)
In the comics, Franklin Richards is arguably the most powerful human being in any and all universes, able to just think anything into reality. The MCU’s Franklin will likely be cut from the same cloth, which has gotta be why Robert Downey, Jr.’s Victor von Doom breaks into the Baxter Building to greet him (and steal him?). But what is Doom’s plan? What does he hope to gain and how much does he even know bout Franklin’s abilities?
Also, because it wasn’t mentioned in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, what is Doom’s relation to the Fantastic Four? Is he already an arch-villain and personal nemesis of Reed Richards, or is he just an isolationist despot who never shows up to represent Latveria in summits?
Regardless, this is probably all at the root of the “space crisis” from Thunderbolts.
How Will Deadpool Officially Join the MCU?
Deadpool & Wolverine was technically an MCU movie in so far that it acknowledged the MCU and involved the TVA. Deadpool is given an offer to join the MCU but in the end he decides to save his own reality and stay there. But Ryan Reynolds is in Doomsday, and while we don’t know how big a part he has, we assume this means Deadpool will actually interact with actual MCU folks and not the remnants of Fox superhero movies from two decades ago.
How does he get to the MCU? Is he a Nexus being, capable of hopping universes, like America Chavez? Is that why he can break the fourth wall and have meta moments? He does actually appear in the MCU in Deadpool & Wolverine because he has a job interview with Happy Hogan. How did he get there? It’s never explained and it’s just used as a way to set the scene inside Wade Wilson’s head and where he’s at emotionally with Vanessa and his overall life goals.
In the end, the “how” of it all may not matter. Everyone’s gonna wind up in the same stew so there are dozens of ways to account for Deadpool shaking things up with the Avengers and Fantastic Four and the X-Men.
Scorpion’s Revenge on Peter Parker
Here’s another thread we assumed might never return… a pre-Scorpion Mac Gargan confronting Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) in prison at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming. Especially after Toomes got sucked into Sony’s dumb Spider-villain-verse and wound up chatting with Jared Leto’s Dr. Michael Morbius (how did he have Vulture gear? Why didn’t he care about never seeing his family again?).
Anyhow, Michael Mando’s Gargan is officially in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, so the character’s coming back for more. What would make this even better? Bringing Toomes back too and completely forgetting his stint in Morbius entirely.
White Vision Taking Off
While this version of Vision was just built to basically be a government weapon, his conversation with Wanda’s magical recreation of the original Vision caused a complete reboot. White Vision gained all of the original’s memories and declared himself to be the true version before having an identity crisis and flying away to parts unknown.
Though it happened through different means, White Vision in the comics was also born after the original was pulled to bits, and Marvel’s got a whole new show called Vision Quest in the works that’s focused on the character. The series lands in late 2026 on Disney+, with Paul Bettany returning to the dead Vision body that was resurrected using Wanda’s chaos magic in WandaVision — the end result of S.W.O.R.D. Director Tyler Hayward’s Project: Cataract.
Vision Quest stars Bettany, James Spader as Ultron, Emily Hampshire as E.D.I.T.H, Orla Brady as F.R.I.D.A.Y, Todd Stashwick as Paladin, and Faran Tahir reprising his role as Raza from the first Iron Man movie (guess he wasn’t killed by Obadiah Stane after all!).
Forgetting Peter Parker
Following his multiversal adventure in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker made the world a better place for everyone but himself. The world forgot him, meaning he lost his man in the chair Ned and his girlfriend M.J. Though Parker almost goes to his best friends with the full story, he sees how happy they are and decides not to. But surely it can’t end there, right? That would be too sad.
Yeah, this will all be directly dealt with in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, releasing July 31, 2026.
Love and Thunder
As his latest adventure points out, Thor has lost a lot of people, but he seemingly gains someone as he adopts Gorr the God Butcher’s child, Love. While this probably isn’t her real name (Thor obviously isn’t called Thunder either), the pair’s adventures will seemingly shape the future of the Norse god’s MCU adventures.
As for what these will entail, nobody really knows, as Love is a completely fresh character that doesn’t exist in the comics. In the short amount of time we see the two hang out, we learn that Love has some pretty advanced super powers, and she’ll seemingly use them to join Thor in battle as they travel the universe fighting baddies. Maybe she could eventually join America Chavez on the Young Avengers.
Thor becoming an adoptive dad to Gorr’s daughter at the end of Thor: Love and Thunder was a fitting, fun ending for the God of Thunder’s MCU exploits. It doesn’t really need following up on, though Chris Hemsworth is returning for Avengers: Doomsday, so it’s possible we’ll see where Thor and “Love” are at in their adventures. Of course, we don’t even know if Hemsworth is playing the MCU’s Thor or some other multiversal Thor. Or any Thor, actually.
Note: This story was updated on Oct. 15, 2025, with the latest information about the MCU. It was originally published on July 12, 2022.
