Infinity War looms, the culmination of plots set in motion 10 years ago, across 18 movies. Of course, because these movies are all interwoven and tangled up with each other, they've left some things open that need to be addressed. From romances to missing characters, Infinity War has a lot of ground to cover from previous movies. Never mind that it also has to deal with its own plot on top of everything else. The battle lines have been drawn (maybe), the cast of characters is assembled (mostly), so what else is left to be answered?
Some of the biggest questions going into Infinity War deal with the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With Disney's recent purchase of 21st Century Fox, the fate of the X-Men and the Fantastic Four are suddenly thrown into turmoil once more. Hanging character threads from the first two Avengers films, along with Guardians of the Galaxy and Civil War, remain rather large question marks hanging over Thanos' assault on Earth. Further questions remain about what comics moments will be adapted. While it's doubtful the movie will answer EVERY question, we've rounded up some of the most pressing. We've also thrown in some of the least important so you don't have to worry as much. There are some possible SPOILERS ahead, so beware.
20 ANSWER: WHICH SIDE IS LOKI REALLY ON?
Loki has danced back and forth across the morality line constantly from his introduction in Thor. After being the main villain of Thor and the first Avengers, he would ally with Thor to stop the Dark Elves in The Dark World. He would again ally with Thor to defeat Hela and save Asgard in Ragnarok. When last we saw him, he was standing side by side with the Asgardian refugees under Thor.
But in the trailer for Infinity War, we see Loki standing among Thanos's Black Order. He offers the Tesseract to someone, likely Thanos, since he has the Space Stone in the Infinity Gauntlet when he arrives on Earth. But if there is one constant with Loki, it's betrayal. We'll see if Loki helps the Avengers, is killed by Thanos for his betrayal, or do something that furthers the goals of Loki.
19 IGNORE: THOR'S NEW HAMMER
Hela's destruction of Mjolnir was a major plot point in Thor: Ragnarok, and the subsequent power up brought Thor up to a level that might allow him to stand against Thanos. However, this one might already be a foregone conclusion, if toy spoilers are accurate. The most common speculation, based on trailers showing Thor meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy, is that Thor will construct a new hammer with the Guardians' help.
This would, unfortunately, invalidate much of Thor's journey in Ragnarok. As Odin rightfully pointed out, he's not the God of Hammers. While the hammer is very iconic to the character, it would be disappointing to see this character development walked back so quickly. With luck, Thor's new hammer will be a temporary fix to battle Thanos, rather than a permanent addition.
18 ANSWER: WHAT HAPPENS TO VISION WITHOUT THE MIND STONE?
While the first Avengers was mostly about the Tesseract -- in reality the Space Stone -- the Mind Stone also sneaked into the film in the form of Loki's scepter. It would later appear again in Age of Ultron, serving as the model for Ultron's mind. Later, Ultron would use it to create the synthezoid Vision. Fortunately for Earth, the Vision proved to be a hero, and helped face down the threat of Ultron.
Unfortunately for Vision, the Mind Stone embedded on his brow is now a primary target for Thanos. Trailers thus far seem to imply that Thanos will acquire the stone. What remains to be seen is what happens to Vision without the Mind Stone. While Ultron was able to survive and thrive separate from the stone, Vision was created with the Mind Stone inherent to his construction.
17 IGNORE: THANOS' ORIGIN
It's been 6 years and 13 movies since Thanos' introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Audiences have been hotly anticipating the battle for the Infinity Stones, seeing every Marvel movie character together on screen. However, one seemingly major plot point should be ignored: Thanos' origin. The comics have long since detailed Thanos' birth and upbringing, but it's not particularly important to the plot of Infinity War.
While trailers have confirmed that we'll be seeing glimpses of Thanos' past, in particular dealing with Gamora's childhood at his side, hopefully we don't go any farther back than that. Thanos isn't really a character that needs a deep and complex backstory. We already know his immediate goals (get the Infinity Stones) and larger goals (kill half the universe). A simple explanation for why he wants to do those things is all that's needed.
16 ANSWER: WILL ANY VILLAINS RETURN?
Obviously, Thanos is the big show. But there are plenty of MCU villains that could come back to cause trouble, particularly those directly connected to the Infinity Stones. At the moment, only Loki is confirmed to appear. But Ronan the Accuser (of Guardians of the Galaxy) is confirmed to appear in the upcoming Captain Marvel, and several other villains remain at large.
Abomination of The Incredible Hulk is still running around, although that would require the MCU actually acknowledge that movie. Also of note is the Red Skull, teleported somewhere by the Tesseract, and Ultron, created from the Mind Stone. Dormammu is also still floating around in the Dark Dimension, bitter over his defeat thanks to Dr. Strange and the Time Stone. There's also the possibility that simple Reality and Soul Stone shenanigans allow any and all past villains to return.
15 IGNORE: TONY AND PEPPER
Tony Stark and Pepper Potts have been dancing around each other since literally the inaugural MCU film. With Spider-Man Homecoming, Tony finally proposed, seemingly on impulse to cover for Spider-Man choosing to not reveal his identity. But it's time to be honest with ourselves: do we really care about their relationship?
Obviously, that's up to personal taste. But what isn't pure opinion is that the Stark-Potts romance/wedding is tertiary at best to the plot of Infinity War. No one is going to be particularly broken up if Pepper doesn't appear in the movie. The movie is already covering 40+ characters and trying to make them all work together in a two and half hour movie, no need to try inserting another unnecessary romance plot no one wants.
14 ANSWER: TONY, STEVE AND BUCKY
From the Infinity War trailers, we can make a guess that there are going to be two threads: an attack on New York, with Iron Man, the Guardians, and the other New York-based heroes and "official" Avengers, and an attack on Wakanda, with the Wakandans and Captain America's Avengers, including Bucky. It's probably safe to assume that at some point these threads will unite, along with Tony and Cap's Avengers.
The question, then, is how Tony will feel about Bucky showing up with Steve. Based on the ending of Civil War, Tony and Cap will be able to put aside their differences to stand against a larger threat. But that mutual trust doesn't necessarily extend to Bucky. While Tony will likely stand down with the threat of Thanos imminent, this will likely be a source of conflict before the final battle.
13 IGNORE: THE DEFENDERS
At this point, it's probably safe to say that the film MCU and the TV/Netflix MCU are never going to interact. While the TV series acknowledge and reference the movies, the reverse isn't true. While thus far it hasn't really been an issue, it might raise some questions with Thanos' attack on New York in Infinity War. After all, the Defenders and the Punisher are all based in the city, just like Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.
While Infinity War could throw us all for a loop and finally integrate the TV and movie universes, it seems unlikely. But let's be real, The Defenders wasn't that great, and the solo series have been pretty weak overall. While it would be interesting to see them interact with a world-ending threat, as opposed to a more localized danger, it wouldn't add much to Infinity War that Spider-Man and the other lower-power/every-man Avengers don't already add.
12 ANSWER: THE FANTASTIC FOUR
With Disney's purchase of 21st Century Fox, and the Marvel properties that come with it, the internet has been ablaze with rumors about the fate of the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. While the X-Men thus far remain on track to release their movies (New Mutants, Dark Phoenix, and Deadpool 2), there has been no word on the fate of the Four. Rumors abound that they'll appear in Infinity War or its untitled followup.
One interesting tidbit came in the recent announcement of the return of the Fantastic Four comic. Originally cancelled for the 2015 Secret Wars event, it did not return following the event. Speculation ran rampant that it was put on the back burner due to Disney not owning the movie rights to the characters. To some, the return of the comic foretells the appearance of the Four in the MCU.
11 IGNORE: STAR-LORD'S CELESTIAL HERITAGE
In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Ego the Living Planet revealed himself as Peter Quill's father. This also apparently meant Star-Lord could achieve some of the massive powers of a Celestial like Ego. While such a power up would seem like a natural fit for battling the massively powerful cosmic threat of Thanos, it's probably better to let it remain in the background.
There are enough heavy hitters present to allow Star-Lord to continue his more humorous leader role. Furthermore, his heritage shouldn't be relevant until Thanos becomes an omniversal threat that necessitates the attention of the Cosmic Abstracts, as in the original Infinity Gauntlet comic. But until then, it should be ignored in favor of the more grounded Earth heroes. While the Cosmic MCU is thus far a bit low-power, hopefully the untitled Avengers 4 will add more powerful entities for Star-Lord to interact with.
10 ANSWER: WHERE'S ADAM WARLOCK?
In the comics, Adam Warlock is a pretty integral part of the Infinity/Thanos mythos. The carrier of the Soul Gem, Warlock often crossed paths with Thanos. In fact, the Infinity Gems first appeared in an Adam Warlock story, with Thanos attempting to gather them in an attempt to destroy Earth's sun. He even, for a time, carried the Gems and the Gauntlet itself.
In one of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2's post-credits stingers, the leader of the Sovereign reveals her plan to destroy the Guardians, an artificial being named Adam. It's certainly possible that Adam Warlock makes an appearance in Infinity War. However, Guardians director James Gunn has stated before that Warlock won't show up until Guardians 3. Whether this holds true, especially when Adam is so pivotal to the Infinity Gauntlet saga, remains to be seen.
9 IGNORE: THE INHUMANS (AND S.H.I.E.L.D.)
Like the Defenders, the Inhumans are another corner of the MCU that should probably be important to an Earth-spanning alien attack. On the other hand, their TV series was by and large not well-received by the viewing audience (or, indeed, lack thereof), so it's safe to say that most folks would rather forget it happened. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has its own Inhumans plot, but like the rest of the TV universe, it's been entirely ignored by the movies.
While we would all love to see Coulson reunite with the Avengers, it would just be another extraneous plot thread. While it's not a massive undertaking to see 18 movies over 10 years, keeping up with five seasons of a series that's definitely had its ups and downs is a bit of a bigger ask.
8 ANSWER: WHERE'S HAWKEYE (AND ANT-MAN)?
With the reveal of the big Infinity War poster, one of the biggest questions on everybody's mind was: where's Hawkeye? Despite being a reasonably important member of the Avengers (moreso than Okoye and Wong, anyway), he was mysteriously absent from the poster showing all the major characters of Infinity War. Also absent, but slightly less conspicuously, was Ant-Man, with some jokes flying around that he was merely too small to see.
While directors the Russo brothers have stated that Hawkeye and Ant-Man play a larger role in the untitled Avengers 4, we're hoping we get at least a few moments with our favorite archer/shrinking man duo. Especially after their team up in Captain America: Civil War, their presence will be sorely missed in Infinity War.
7 IGNORE: CAPTAIN MARVEL
Like Adam Warlock, Captain Marvel is a pretty integral part of the Infinity/Thanos mythos. While Thanos didn't make his first appearance in the Captain Marvel comic, he did have his first full story arc within those pages. While Captain Marvel (the movie) is on the horizon, it's better for the character to remain in the background for now.
A better path would be to detail Thanos' origins in the upcoming Captain Marvel movie, as it is a flashback to the 1990s. Kree captain Mar-Vell is confirmed to appear in the movie, and pass the mantle to Carol Danvers. It's unknown as of yet how Mar-Vell comes to Earth, but a confrontation with Thanos seems likely. Also set to appear is former servant of Thanos, Ronan the Accuser, which lends further credence that Captain Marvel will act as a Thanos origin just as much as a Captain Marvel origin.
6 ANSWER: WHERE'S THE SOUL STONE?
As it is somewhat unlikely that Adam Warlock will appear in Infinity War, that leaves the very pressing question of where the sixth and final Infinity Stone is. Thanos is shown to have the Space and Power Stones, and his attack on Earth is likely to gain the Mind and Time Stones from Vision and Doctor Strange. The Reality Stone is still in the hands of the Collector, which might be dealt with in the Guardians subplot of Infinity War.
But that leaves the Soul Stone. Arguably the most powerful of all, and likely the key to Thanos' ultimate plan to kill half the universe, the Soul Stone has been conspicuously absent from the MCU thus far. Theories abound about just where it is, with the most credible being that Thanos will need to kill his daughter Gamora in order to obtain it.
5 IGNORE: ANT-MAN AND THE WASP
Like Captain Marvel, the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp is in a weird place where it releases in between Infinity War and Avengers 4. Like Captain Marvel, it's a flashback, but only to before Thanos' invasion. This is likely the reason behind Ant-Man's absence from Infinity War promotional material. While his absence will be felt, it's perhaps better this way.
While Black Panther proved that a character can debut in a team movie before going on to wild success in a solo film, the Wasp is a slightly trickier topic. She deserves her own moment in the sun separate from the cluster-expletive that Infinity War might very well turn out to be. And that's leaving aside that Ant-Man, as a movie and a character, is far more comedic than the more dire and serious tone Infinity War is aiming for.
4 ANSWER: WHO WILL DIE?
This is one of the biggest questions hanging over Infinity War. Even leaving aside the two heroes carrying Infinity Stones on their person, there's the Avengers who will try to stand between them and Thanos. Given his ultimate goal, Thanos is probably going to be pretty willing to literally crack a few skulls to get there.
It's also important to consider the out-of-universe implications of actors wanting to move on. Chris Evans has said repeatedly that he's ready to leave the role of Captain America, and Robert Downey Jr. definitely isn't getting any younger. Infinity War or its untitled sequel would be the perfect opportunity to send these characters off, and make way for a new group of Avengers (some New Avengers, if you will) to carry the universe forward.
3 IGNORE: BLACK WIDOW AND THE HULK'S RELATIONSHIP
One of the more maligned aspects of Avengers: Age of Ultron was the implied romance between Black Widow and the Hulk. While they'll probably have a reunion of some sort, it would be better to simply ignore whatever relationship they may have had. As with Tony and Pepper, a romance subplot seems pretty unnecessary. After all, there's only one romance that really matters to this movie: Thanos and Death.
At this point, there are going to be enough plots running through Infinity War that an ill-liked relationship from a less-than-loved movie can safely be ignored. After all, Hulk has seemingly grown beyond his more bestial nature during his time on Sakaar. He even seems more comfortable in his Hulk form than as Banner, which introduces an array of anatomical difficulties for any romance, implied or explicit.
2 ANSWER: THE SNAP
Perhaps the most iconic image associated with Thanos is the final, cataclysmic finger snap that sets off the events of Infinity Gauntlet. What this is question really is is: will Thanos win? Given the original title of Avengers 4 as Infinity War Part 2, and the Russo brothers' threats about the new title, it seems the ending of Infinity War might be a little dark.
There are even rumors, that as Avengers 4 will be a direct and almost immediate sequel, there will be no post-credits stingers. If Thanos ends Infinity War with the snap, a silent, uninterrupted credits sequence would be the perfect representation of the horror of what he just inflicted on the universe. Even if Thanos doesn't win by the end of Infinity War, it would seem a waste to not do it at all, especially after the Russos demonstrated their ability to effectively adapt comic panels to the screen with Civil War.
1 IGNORE: WHAT COMES NEXT
One of the main throughlines of the MCU is the post-credits stingers teasing future movies. However, Infinity War should break the mold. The next three movies following it are two flashbacks/prequels, and Avengers 4. Infinity War is one of the few movies in the MCU that can act as an absolute endpoint, rather than connective tissue.
Not only would the film be stronger, it would make whatever ending the filmmakers have come up with far more impactful. If, as rumors persist, the movie ends with Thanos' victory, it would cheapen the twist to immediately jump to teasing the next movies. Leave the future of the MCU to future movies, Infinity War should be a climax to end all climaxes. At most, we should get "The Avengers will return in [Avengers 4]."