After 17 years, the MCU looks so different now that many of the most consequential upcoming storylines would have baffled early MCU fans in MCU Phase 1. With Iron Man leading the charge towards the groundbreaking The Avengers, it isn’t as if Marvel Studios hadn’t set a precedent from the jump that established a thrilling new direction for superhero cinema. Just the first four solo MCU movies alone showed that the franchise was poised to capably blend science and space magic to bring about an entire universe of possibilities.

Nevertheless, that universe has become a multiverse, and to its continued credit, Marvel Studios continues to inspire shock and awe with its new developments. This has unsurprisingly stoked an unquellable firestorm of speculation as the multiverse can deliver on just about any eventuality for future MCU installments. Fans needn’t look to the wildest MCU theories, however, to recognize how some of what’s confirmed to be the case in future storylines would have seemed too far-fetched back in 2008.

8

RDJ’s Doctor Doom Being An Avengers Movie Villain

RDJ Went From Protagonist To Arch-Villain

Robert Downey Jr. didn’t just launch the MCU with Iron Man in 2008, but swiftly became synonymous with the entire franchise. Absent Marvel’s most popular character, Spider-Man, in its roster, RDJ’s natural charisma and perfect casting ensured that the once-lesser-known hero was the face of the franchise. Since then, RDJ starred in two solo sequels, supported the solo movies of two superhero colleagues, and became the de facto protagonist of all Avengers movies until his heroic self-sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame.

In 2019, Tony Stark’s heroic legacy was unᴀssailable. Which is why it is still so difficult to comprehend that RDJ will now flip the script entirely by embodying the Multiverse Saga’s arch-villain, Doctor Doom. Short of further Avengers: Doomsday story details, it is currently impossible to confirm whether Doom will be the MCU’s most sympathetic villain yet, or even whether he will be related to Tony Stark in any way, just as it is impossible to ignore the collective astonishment among franchise fans who could never have seen this coming in 2008.

7

The Fox X-Men Starring In An MCU Avengers Movie

Fox’s X-Men Actors Were Always Separate From The MCU

Fox’s X-Men deserve plenty of credit for the inordinate success of the superhero genre, with 2000’s X-Men paving the way for the genre when it landed to much acclaim. By the time Iron Man launched the MCU in 2008, Fox’s X-Men franchise was in a slump, with the failures of 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand being compounded by 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine before 2011 breathed new life into the franchise with X-Men: First Class​​​​​. All the while, fans had come to accept that studio rights ownership precluded the X-Men from the MCU.

By the time Fox’s X-Men franchise was experiencing its second wind, the MCU was opening up to brand-new characters, including two that were traditionally mutants in Marvel Comics, namely Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. These Mind Stone-empowered iterations made it painfully clear in Avengers: Age of Ultron that mutants could never be a part of the MCU. Now, after Disney acquired Fox and the rights to the mutants in the process, not only have mutants been appearing throughout the MCU, but Fox’s legendary cast are due to return in Avengers: Doomsday.

6

The Fantastic Four Being The Key Players In A Saga

The Fantastic Four Have Jumped Straight Into A Starring Role

Part of the reason Kevin Feige envisaged the MCU was because he recognized that the Avengers were (mostly) still under Marvel’s ownership. Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four (among others like Blade and Daredevil) were all owned by other studios, meaning some of the most iconic Marvel characters were to be excluded from the MCU when it was first conceived. The Fantastic Four were, of course, among these – a fact made more tragic to Fantastic Four fans by their underwhelming cinematic track record.

Thankfully, the Fantastic Four were among many characters that Marvel Studios reacquired when Disney bought Fox. Now, with their MCU debut just around the corner in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Marvel’s First Family are not only about to be a part of the franchise, but become key players. The pivot from Kang to Doctor Doom always meant that Reed Richards, Doom’s traditional arch-nemesis, would take center stage in the Multiverse Saga’s climax – not only contradicting all expectations in MCU Phase 1, but supplanting the superhero that kicked off the franchise in the first place.

5

An Avengers Movie Potentially Featuring Too Many Characters

Avengers: Secret Wars Risks Being Overstuffed

2012’s The Avengers was a groundbreaking idea. Kevin Feige’s vision was rooted in the fact that all Avengers (apart from the Hulk) were still under Marvel’s purview, facilitating the concept of a shared cinematic universe. Thankfully, despite ensemble movies often proving to be risky, The Avengers stuck the landing, grossing the MCU its first $1 billion and setting a new bar for superhero movies in general. This was largely thanks to the combined star power of characters that were established in five preceding solo movies – namely, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, and Thor.

The sheer spectacle of seeing so many well-known characters both working together and coming to blows was mind-boggling at the time, with Marvel proving it had the talent to pull it off. At the time, throwing more characters into the mix became the standard formula for each subsequent Avengers movie. Now, however, there is an air of trepidation surrounding Avengers: Secret Wars as the sheer number of MCU characters has threatened the reliability of this formula, with the possibility looming that perhaps there is such a thing as too many superheroes.

4

Merging Magic With Stark Tech

Riri Williams Is Breaking New Ground

Part of what made Iron Man so successful was how it toed the line between grounded and fantastical. The arc reactor MacGuffin may be impossible to replicate in the real world, but Tony Stark’s greatest feats in Iron Man were rooted in real-world science, with much of his tech actually being worked on or outright invented today. Stark’s “superpowers,” his genius, helped to make him an accessible character, with his otherwise unfathomable wealth simply being a means to this end. Magic, meanwhile, was swiftly established as the purview of Asgardians, witches, and sorcerers.

Now, it looks like the MCU’s twin worlds of science and magic are due to merge in Ironheart. As she builds Stark-inspired suits, Riri Williams looks poised to carve out her own idenтιтy in the world of superhero science, with Ironheart trailer footage showing that Riri is treading where Tony Stark dared not by using magic to augment the powers of her armor. This also shows how far the MCU has come when bridging science and magic in the MCU, proving its willingness to lean into the more outlandish side of Marvel Comics.

3

The Destruction Of Universes Featuring Fan-Favorite Characters

Incursions Threaten The Existence Of Everyone

The MCU debuted at a time when superheroes were already a well-established part of cinema, with characters like Wolverine already being firm fan-favorites among casual cinemagoers and comic book fans alike. Nevertheless, the birth of the MCU still felt like a new frontier, with nothing but even more superheroes and sympathetic villains on the horizon to populate the tops of fan-favorite lists. Avengers: Infinity War then shook this new world to its core when it flew in the face of convention and showed that superheroes can not only lose, but be written out of existence entirely.

The Multiverse Saga, it seems, is doubling down. With Fox’s X-Men being established as part of another universe, and incursions being threatened as the true big bad of the saga as early as Loki season 1, it seems as if the writing is on the wall. Even if Fox’s X-Men survive the events of Avengers: Doomsday, the Multiverse Saga appears poised to destroy several (if not all) universes housing fan-favorite characters, only this time with no do-overs, save for a rumored soft reboot of the MCU heralding a wave of recasts.

2

An MCU-Exclusive Spider-Man Dealing With Everyone Forgetting About Him

Spider-Man Could Never Be A Part Of The MCU In 2008

Spider-Man’s arrival in the MCU in Captain America: Civil War is largely to thank for that movie banking $1.1 billion globally. That is because, with Sony owning the rights to the character, Spider-Man wasn’t supposed to be in the MCU. The historic deal struck by Sony and Marvel broke stunning new ground, with Peter Parker now heading up one of the MCU’s most bankable franchises and heading towards his first-ever fourth solo movie.

It is wild, therefore, to think that Spider-Man: Brand New Day will deal with the fallout of everyone within the MCU forgetting about him. Even in the earliest days of the MCU, Spider-Man’s involvement felt like an impossible dream, and the scene in which he first appears with Captain America’s shield in hand was indeed unforgettable. Nevertheless, Spider-Man is now such a core part of the MCU that his solo movie total not only exceeds the number of Iron Man himself, but the time feels right to deal with one of his most controversial storylines in Marvel Comics.

1

Loki’s Position As The Multiverse’s Caretaker

Loki Went From Underdog To Capital-G “God”

Loki became an unexpected fan-favorite when he debuted in 2011’s Thor as the villain, helping to establish Marvel Studios’ proficiency with Stan Lee’s golden rule. Part of what made him so compelling was how physically weak he was compared to his protagonist brother, Thor, forcing him to wield his cunning and illusions to gain the upper hand. Even with his significant power boost in The Avengers, Loki still embodied the lovable role of the underdog, with his actions being puppeteered and empowered by Thanos.

Loki then embarked on one of the most compelling and redemptive MCU arcs, culminating in the critically acclaimed ostensible swansong that was Loki seasons 1 and 2. Loki ended in the unthinkable, with the тιтular fan-favorite now holding the multiverse itself together with his bare hands, breathing life into entire timelines with his magic. With Tom Hiddleston confirmed to appear in Avengers: Doomsday, it now seems that Loki has further still to go – a state of affairs that seemed incomprehensible after his MCU debut as a supporting character/villain.

Sources: The Numbers & Rotten Tomatoes