One of the biggest surprises early on in Avengers: Endgame is a five-year time jump after the surviving heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe realize that Thanos completely atomized the Infinity Stones in his final moments to prevent his victory from being undone. As the possibility of restoring their fallen family and friends became a depressing reality, the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy endured five years of emotional fallout before formulating a daring new plan to bring back the fallen without completely compromising their own timeline.

However, by the film's end, an entirely new status quo for the MCU had been established as the resurrected heroes found themselves in a world that had progressed five full years in the time since they had been personally dusted by the Mad Titan. As the MCU moves into Phase 4 beyond the Infinity Saga, the ramifications of the time jump are sure to inform Marvel Studios' upcoming slate of films, with the immediate aftermath especially felt in Endgame's direct follow-up Spider-Man: Far From Home.

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Check out the video below for more details on why Avengers: Endgame decided to put its surviving heroes through a five-year time jump following Thanos' death.

From narrative decisions to explore the emotional weight of Thanos' victory to leading surviving MCU characters to develop vastly different status quo in the interim, the five-year time jump both subverted audience expectations and gave the characters and story room to explore in future MCU projects, both on the big screen and on Disney+. As the MCU moves into Phase 4, the wider impact of this chronological shift will be sure to play a role.

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Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Endgame stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Don Cheadle as War Machine, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Danai Gurira as Okoye and Bradley Cooper as Rocket, with Gwyneth Paltrow Pepper Potts, Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Benedict Wong as Wong, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Josh Brolin as Thanos. The film is available on Digital HD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD.

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