Kevin Feige has described Avengers: Endgame as “a definitive ending” to the series of movies we’ve been watching for the past 11 years with Spider-Man: Far From Home acting as its epilogue. If you stopped watching these movies after that though, there’s still a handful of unresolved plot points.
So, I’ve decided to compile some of the most prominent ones yet to see any closure in the movies. Even the newer ones which are much more likely to be followed up on far quicker than the rest.
What Happened to Samuel Sterns?
The Incredible Hulk really is the black sheep of this franchise, isn’t it? The fact that Edward Norton was quickly replaced with Mark Ruffalo, the less humorous writing, and finally, a massive tease of The Leader amounting (thus far) to nothing. When Blonsky begins transforming into The Abomination, he knocks Samuel Sterns into equipment; cutting his head open. As Abomination begins his rampage, a leaking vial of Bruce Banner’s blood begins dripping directly onto his open wound. His head begins to pulse and a smile growing on his face.
Since then, we haven’t seen or heard a single thing about the character for 11 years.
Where is he now? Is he a prisoner of the military? Did HYDRA get to him? Is he in hiding? Who knows! The closest thing we have to a resolution to this plot point is a non-canonical tie-in comic called Fury’s Big Week in which he was captured and studied by SHIELD.
Kevin Feige was actually asked about the character two years ago and whether or not they would return.
“It is an embarrassment of riches of places we could go or characters we could reprise or bring back now that we’re… I think Ragnarok is our seventeenth MCU film. And you would be surprised how many… it’s come up. It’s come up. Just finding the right place. And as I said, if you can’t do it right, don’t do it or do it later, and the notion of ‘Hey, I’m here too! Next!’ is not interesting to us. Abomination is in a prison somewhere too.”
So, it isn’t like they’ve forgotten about him. Just that they haven’t found a time or place to properly reintroduce him. Who knows – maybe he’ll come back in a Thunderbolts movie down the road.
Where Is The Real Mandarin?
We all initially thought that this plot point was resolved with the reveal of The Mandarin being a fake in Iron Man 3. But, fans were…unhappy to find that Ben Kingsley was not actually playing Iron Man’s arch-enemy from the comics, but a washed up English actor named Trevor Slattery.
In response, Marvel Studios released the One Shot All Hail the King with the DVD release of Thor: The Dark World, which revealed that there is indeed a real Mandarin. The last we hear of him is one of his followers kidnapping him in order to meet the man himself. Otherwise, we haven’t heard a peep from the character or organization. Except for a subtle appearance as one of Darren Cross’ potential buyers in Ant-Man.
However, in an AMA on Reddit, Kevin Feige has implied that Marvel Studios plans on reintroducing The Mandarin in a future movie. The most likely case being in Shang-Chi as the evil father of the titular character.
What Will Mitchell Carson Do with Stolen Pym Particles?
Speaking of which, at the end of Ant-Man, Mitchell Carson seems to just disappear with a vial of Pym Particles. In fact, in the original ending, Carson was meant to be caught by Scott, but they left it out to deliberately leave it open.
“At the end of the movie he gets away and has these Cross particles, and there was a sequence where Ant-Man has an encounter with him. But then for a couple reasons, it felt like maybe we should leave those particles out there. In that original thing, he took Martin Donovan out and got the particles.”
It was stated in the movie that Carson was working for HYDRA. So does that mean HYDRA had Pym Particles this whole time and never use them? Maybe Carson keep them for himself and left HYDRA shortly after?
We’ve seen in Avengers: Endgame that it is possible to duplicate the formula once you have a sample of it. So, maybe whoever he works for now has mass produced it and have been trying to recreate the suit this whole time? We could potentially then see Eric O’Grady in the future wearing his own shrinking suit supplied to him by Carson and whatever organization he’s working for now.
What is Mordo’s Plan?
In the second end-credits scene of Doctor Strange, we see Mordo pay a visit to Jonathan Pangborn. After he takes away Pangborn’s magic that allowed him to walk, Mordo explains to him his revelation about the world – “too many sorcerers”. Obviously, he plans on either removing the magic from as many sorcerers as possible or maybe even killing them.
However, as we saw at the end of Avengers: Endgame, he has either been doing a pretty piss poor job culling these sorcerers or he was turned to dust for the past five years. Another possibility is that he’s biding his time. Maybe he couldn’t accomplish this task by himself and would need the aid of another. Possibly a much more powerful being like Nightmare, who is rumored to be the villain in the sequel to Doctor Strange.
Who Bought Avengers Tower?
One of the biggest surprises in Spider-Man: Homecoming was that Tony Stark sold Avengers Tower. While it likely written into the story to explain why Peter couldn’t just swing to The Avengers for help, it seems like they’re building to something more. Marvel Studios is obviously intending to make the identity of the buyer a big reveal in a future movie. Since we even get a quick glimpse of some of the renovation done to the building in the ending to Spider-Man: Far From Home, but we still don’t know who bought it. Fans quickly narrowed down the buyer down to two possibilities: The Fantastic Four or Norman Osborn.
The primary reasons being that they both operate in New York and have yet to be introduced in the MCU. While, it’d be a cool way to introduce The Fantastic Four, Marvel Studios only just got them back. It’s more likely that it will be revealed that Norman Osborn is the one that bought it, considering this plot point was introduced in a Spider-Man movie and he is a Spider-Man character.
Who Were Sonny Burch’s Buyers?
Throughout Ant-Man and the Wasp, a criminal named Sonny Burch and his goons are attempting to steal Hank Pym’s lab for prospective buyers. These buyers are characterized as obscenely wealthy and people who don’t take no for an answer. They wouldn’t be noteworthy, except that, like in Ant-Man, there were also multiple buyers for the Pym Particles created by Cross. Not to mention whoever bought Avengers Tower from Tony Stark.
Are these the same buyers? Sonny actually rules out HYDRA as a potential buyer, claiming that they no longer exist. Which leaves the fate and whereabouts of Mitchell Carson even further up in the air.
So, who is buying up (or attempting to buy up) all this technology? Is it perhaps the same organization that has bought Avengers Tower? What do they plan on doing with all this Quantum Technology? Could this be the rumored “Benefactor” character working behind the scenes? Honestly, the dangling plot points in the these two Ant-Man movies have the most potential for something bigger on the horizon.
When Does Ronan Pursue Carol?
Probably the oddest one on this list is Ronan (and the movie) blatantly alluding to him pursuing Carol Danvers at the end of Captain Marvel. What’s odd about it is that Ronan in the present timeline…is very dead having been blown up by the Guardians of the Galaxy. This lends more credence to her sequel being another prequel set in the past. Potentially with Ronan being a more prominent character and antagonist.
This sequel would likely be about Carol Danvers taking down the Supreme Intelligence and freeing the Kree from its control. Which would also explain its lack of mention in Guardians of the Galaxy whenever the peace treaties were brought up. This movie could even show how exactly Ronan ended up parting ways from the Kree Empire.
Where is Time Displaced Gamora?
What will likely be one of the major plot points in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is their search for the now time displaced Gamora. While it was left ambiguous at the end of Avengers: Endgame whether or not she was turned to dust like Thanos and his army, I think we all know she wasn’t. She’s still very much alive somewhere in the universe and the Guardians are going to look for her.
Now, this is a Gamora who has never met the Guardians or been in a relationship with Peter Quill. In her first meeting with Quill, she expressed disbelief in ever falling in love with him. Which could mean that this version of Gamora won’t fall in love with Quill. That might be a sad prospect, but it would give more meaning to Peter’s relationship with the original.
What Will Peter Parker Do Now?
In Spider-Man: Far From Home, in the most shocking end-credit scene in the entire franchise, Mysterio reveals to the world that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. This is huge for a variety of reasons, but the biggest is that Peter and everyone he loves is now in grave danger.
At the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Mac Gargan even confronts Toomes to ask if he knew Spider-Man’s true identity so that he and his “friends” could kill him. So, what will happen now that everyone knows his biggest secret? Will he have to prove to the world that Mysterio is a liar and fake? Somehow prove to the world that Peter Parker isn’t Spider-Man? Or will it be resolved within the very first ten minutes of the movie?
After all, the ending to Spider-Man: Homecoming was quite similar, down to Aunt May dropping an F-bomb. This could very well be resolved completely off screen, which would be quite a disappointment, but Jon Watts would like to have Kraven as the villain for the sequel above anyone else. Which indicates that the reveal of Peter’s identity will be a major plot point in the sequel. I’ll actually be discussing this in greater detail later this week in another feature about Peter’s identity crisis.
What plot points do you wish were followed up on? Do you think they ever will be? Tell us in the comments below!
