Avengers: Endgame Created Massive Plot Hole for the MCU

The latest entry in the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe brought a lot of fan favorite characters together, answering a lot of questions and working as bridge to the future. The big three of Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor all faced their own journeys and found some closure at the end. But given the epic scope of the film, there are some major plot holes that need to be acknowledged.

After the events of Avengers: Infinity War wiped out half of the population across the entire universe, fans wondered just how Marvel Studios would be able to bounce back from this. All it took was a little ingenuity, the Quantum Realm, and the wherewithal to traverse the space-time continuum. And after all of this, it might have broken the MCU with some major plot holes.

Warning: Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame below.

After five years, the heroes of the MCU unite in a last ditch effort to restore what was lost from the galaxy when Thanos snapped his fingers. The heroes have to go back in time and assemble a new Infinity Gauntlet from the stones, which brings forth a ton of complications on its own. But it’s that new Gauntlet that might cause more than a few wrinkles in the timeline of the franchise.

The biggest problem, of course, is the fact that half of the galaxy’s population was brought back five years after the snap. This means that the events of Thanos’ snap are not undone, and the world is forced to deal with these people’s return more than five years after they first disappeared.

In the movie, it’s an epic climax. After the Hulk manages to harness the power of the stones and bring back the dead, all of the heroes are assembled by Doctor Strange and brought to an epic confrontation with Thanos at the end of the film. But there are even more questions to be had.

Directors Joe and Anthony Russo were adamant in saying that the film would not be undone, promising that the stakes of Avengers: Infinity War would continue to have an impact on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They weren’t lying!

The final scenes of Avengers: Endgame attempt to paint a picture for the broader world, but that will likely be fleshed out in future films. After all, Spider-Man: Far From Home is set to come out in just a couple months.

But that’s a film that might reveal the biggest problem. Five years later, Spider-Man is revived and manages to help defeat Thanos. But with half of the population being wiped out, Peter Parker is not the only person who disappeared for five years.

The end of the film shows Peter meeting with his best friend Ned in the hallway of their high school, heavily implying that Ned was missing for that period of time as well. But Ned cannot be the only one, as the trailers for Spider-Man: Far From Home have shown the kids on vacation with many of their classmates.

This excuse does allow for new blood to be injected into the cast, but it is kind of suspect that Michelle (MJ), Betty, Flash, and all of the major players from the first film managed to survive the snap and are STILL just spending their time in high school.

And the fact that the kids are welcomed back with open arms is another question worth asking — not just for Spider-Man, but for the world! What happens to the people who didn’t pay their mortgage? What happens to the families who moved on, the husbands and wives who thought they were alone and finally found new partners, only for their loved ones to return?

Does the insurance plan cover everything that happened in the intervening years? Will Marvel Studios even attempt to explain such discrepancies?

Marvel might have opened up a can of worms that they don’t even want to look at in the next decade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Avengers: Endgame is now playing in theaters everywhere.

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