10 Avengers Movie Theories That Aged Poorly

Not every theory about the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Avengers movies has panned out, with many of them seeming silly in retrospect. Crafting elaborate fan-theories is one of the most fun parts of being an MCU fan, with theories about Phase 5 and 6 being the latest crop to surface in the community. Looking back on past Avengers films, a lot of the elaborate hypotheticals fans pitched as possible avenues the series would end up taking didn’t always pan out.

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These theories have aged poorly for a wide variety of reasons. Obviously, all of them have been definitively proven to be conclusively false over time, though some were closer to coming true than others. Even if all of these theories were disproved by each successive Avengers movie, some had questionable evidence in the first place, making them seem especially absurd with the benefit of hindsight.

10 The Snap Victims Were Stored In The Soul Stone

Thanos’ victims didn’t really go anywhere

Compared to all the other Infinity Stones, the Soul Stone has always stuck out as an odd outlier. The only stone to not have a guaranteed location going into Avengers: Infinity War, the Soul Stone doesn’t seem especially powerful on its own, as no one ever uses it by itself for any special purpose. Instead, the sacrifice required to gather the Soul Stone makes it feel like more of a requirement to use the combined strength of all six Infinity Stones rather than a uniquely powerful artifact in its own right.

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This seeming lack of usefulness was picked up on by some fans after watching Avengers: Infinity War, who came up with their own explanation for the Soul Stone’s eventual usage. The theory posited that all of Thanos’ snap victims weren’t actually killed, but instead held captive within the mysterious realm within the stone that is seen a couple of times. Of course, later MCU media debunked this idea, showing Thanos’ snap and Hulk’s snap from the perspective of the victims as essentially one continuous experience with nothing in-between.

9 The T.H.A.N.O.S. Theory

An elaborate acronym that didn’t go anywhere

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In some cases, MCU fans are apt to see patterns where there really aren’t any. One of the most hilarious examples of this is the T.H.A.N.O.S. theory, which attempted to explain the location of each Infinity Stone by spelling out Thanos’ name. T stood for Tesseract, A stood for Aether, N stood for Necklace (The Eye of Agomotto), O stood for Orb, and S stood for Scepter. Notably, every letter describing an Infinity Stone’s location accurately spelled out Thanos’ name, with the exception of “H”.

The theory went that the Soul Stone’s location must be related to the letter “H” somehow, with some hypothesizing that Heimdall could be the key, somehow containing or guarding the famous missing stone. Unfortunately, this theory was quickly proven false, as Thanos callously murders Heimdall early on in Avengers: Infinity War without interrogating him or extracting the Soul Stone somehow. This theory ended up being little more than a curious coincidence, making it seem contrived to begin with in retrospect.

8 Avengers 4 Would Be Secret Invasion

Secret Invasion instead became a show

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Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are always on the lookout for famous Marvel comic storylines the MCU has yet to adapt, with both Civil War and The Infinity Gauntlet being huge sources of inspiration for the series’ crossover films. Looking for the next big event that could form an Avengers movie, many fans estimated that Secret Invasion was next on the MCU crossover movie chopping block, ready for adaptation. The original comic storyline centered on a global invasion of the planet led by the shapeshifting Skrull aliens, who infiltrate all levels of hero society.

Considering the Skrulls featured heavily in Captain Marvel, which was released in-between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, it’s easy to see why so many thought that Secret Invasion would be the subject of Avengers 4. Of course, with so much still left up in the air after Thanos’ victory in Avengers: Infinity War, theorists likely shouldn’t have been so quick to jump the gun. Secret Invasion was eventually adapted into a Disney+ show centered on Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, much to the disappointment of many fans.

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7 Agent Coulson Was Vision All Along

Vision’s appearance was anticipated long before Age of Ultron

Before Vision was officially introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron, many Marvel fans eagerly anticipated his appearance, accurately supposing that he would debut in the next Avengers movie. However, there were some very creative ideas as to how exactly Vision would come into being, with some postulating that Vision would be formed from the body of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson. The theory goes that Coulson would be revealed to be an android the whole time, being rebuilt and upgraded into the classic robot hero.

Evidence for Coulson being a robot was quite shaky, with some fans insisting on the fact thanks to a few scenes in which he’s somehow able to arrive on the scene faster than the other heroes. Tony Stark also remarks that his girlfriend was apparently a cellist after his death, a hobby shared by Scarlet Witch in the comics. Of course, none of this theory took into account the fact that Coulson quickly returned in his own continuity in the ABC show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

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6 Ant-Man Defeats Thanos In A Gross Way

Hank Pym’s size-changing technology has a nasty application

Less of a legitimate theory and more of a running joke in the MCU fandom, the idea for Ant-Man to be the one to deal the killing blow to Thanos was a popular one leading up to Avengers: Endgame. In particular, the theory guessed that Ant-Man could defeat Thanos by shrinking, crawling inside the Mad Titans body via his purple alien butt, and re-expanding to giant size, instantly exploding Thanos into a shower of viscera. As knowingly impossible as the theory was, some may have thought the MCU would be bold enough to implement it.

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While Ant-Man does play a weirdly large role in saving the universe thanks to his trip to the quantum realm, he never uses this gross-out execution method against Thanos, or anyone else, for that matter. The closest the MCU gets to such an idea is Hank Pym’s murder spree in What If…?, which explains how the size-changing technology could be used to terrifying effect. For what it’s worth, Paul Rudd’s Hot Ones interview called the theory a “lost opportunity” for his character.

5 The Soul Stone Was Contained Within The Vibranium Meteorite

Vibranium’s magical properties were given a legitimate source

Yet another theory to ascertain the location of the unaccounted for Soul Stone going into Avengers: Infinity War linked the artifact to Wakanda’s Vibranium supplies. In Black Panther, it’s revealed that the Vibranium mined from Wakanda’s ancient meteor impact site has all sorts of incredible properties, possibly even being responsible for the growing of the heart-shaped herb. Considering that the meteor came from out of space, it’s not out of the question to assume that the meteor contained the Soul Stone somewhere from deep within.

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The presence of the Soul Stone could also link the ancestral plane shared by Wakandan royalty to the land itself, giving a feasible explanation for the demonstrably real form of afterlife. Of course, the location of the Soul Stone was later revealed to have nothing to do with Wakanda, though the climactic final battle of Avengers: Infinity War does take place there. In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, it’s also revealed that Namor’s Talokan had their own source of Vibranium in the ocean, as well.

4 Hela Would Serve As Thanos’ Death Motivation

The Goddess of Death could’ve been Death herself

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One of the most glaring differences Thanos takes from his comic incarnation in the Infinity Saga is his motivations for erasing half of all life in the universe. In the films, Thanos claims that doing so is the only way to curb the universe’s rampant overpopulation problem, but in the comics, he has a much more emotional reason to do so: Love. Courting Lady Death, the sentient embodiment of death in the Marvel universe, Thanos hopes to impress her by killing more people in one fell swoop than had ever been done before.

Knowing this, some MCU fans attributed Thanos’ motivations to the closet female representation of death the MCU had revealed, the Goddess of Death, Hela. Sadly, the MCU shied away from this very comic book-y storyline, leaving Hela to apparently die at the hands of the fire giant Surtur at the end of Thor: Ragnarok. Of course, the recent introduction of Lady Death in Agatha All Along makes Thanos’ unrequited romance seem like a missed opportunity.

3 The Scepter Was Making Loki Evil

Anything to justify Loki as a villain

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Coming out of The Avengers, Loki was quick to become a fan-favorite character, not to mention a heartthrob in the eyes of many fans, despite his overt villainy. Desperate for an excuse to justify Loki’s abhorrent actions, many searched for a theory that would absolve Loki of wrong doing while still keeping him in the picture as a swoon-inducing misunderstood bad boy that could be kept around. The answer came in the form of The Scepter, the weapon containing the Mind Stone that Loki uses to literally capture minds in The Avengers.

The theory goes that it was the evil influence of the Mind Stone that caused Loki to act so horribly, citing a brief scene in which The Avengers’ hostility between one another is raised the moment the staff comes into their possession. Unfortunately, the presence residing within the Mind Stone is revealed to be quite benevolent when Vision is created using it in the next movie. Making Loki only commit evil acts due to some outside corruption would’ve severely diluted his personal journey and redemption arc, making this a good theory to turn out not to be true.

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2 Thanos Had Fought Wolverine Prior To Infinity War

Fans were eager for the introduction of the X-Men

After the Disney-Fox merger put the X-Men on the table for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, many fans were eager to see where and how the franchise could introduce mutants now that the legal go-ahead had been given. WandaVision and its tease of Evan Peters’ Quicksilver and multiversal shenanigans was a promising choice, but some hopeful X-Men fans had another prospect even before that. A certain detail of Thanos’ character model was alleged by some to be evidence of an X-Man interaction.

In Avengers: Infinity War, the side of Thanos’ head is detailed with a peculiar scar, bearing three evenly-spaced scratch marks. This made some fans think that Wolverine would later be revealed to have tussled with Thanos once before, somehow making his way across space and different dimensions to tangle with the Mad Titan. Of course, Wolverine didn’t enter the MCU proper until Deadpool & Wolverine, leaving Thanos’ unique facial scar just a neat detail.

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1 Bruce Banner Was Actually Loki In Disguise

The Hulk could’ve been an imposter all along

Custom image by Niall Gray

The very nature of Loki as a character means it’s never possible to rule out his presence in a given MCU scene entirely, at least early on in the franchise. As the God of Mischief and deceit, Loki is capable of disguising himself in a wide variety of roles, including Avengers, as demonstrated in Thor: The Dark World when he briefly turns into Captain America as part of a brief joke. Seeing this, some fans took it as evidence that Loki was infiltrating his former enemies.

Desperately finding a way to contrive Loki as still being alive, some fans theorized after his “death” in Avengers: Infinity War that Loki faked his death (again) and assumed the persona of Bruce Banner. This would’ve supposedly explained Banner’s erratic behavior on Earth, not to mention his inability to turn into the Hulk. Instead, this theory is indicative of inconsistent writing for The Hulk as the Avengers movies went on, if nothing else, ultimately refusing to walk back the fact that Loki did indeed die in his confrontation with Thanos.

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Upcoming MCU Movies

• Captain America: Brave New World

  Release Date February 14, 2025

• Thunderbolts*

  Release Date May 2, 2025

• The Fantastic Four: First Steps

  Release Date July 25, 2025

• Avengers: Doomsday (2026)

  Release Date

• Spider-Man Homecoming 4

  Release Date July 24, 2026

• Avengers: Secret Wars

  Release Date May 7, 2027