With the Infinity Saga officially wrapped up, the Iron Man. But, it hasn't been without some mistakes, which include several films having contradictory details resulting in a string of plot holes. Some of these mistakes, however, have already been addressed thanks to some creative explanations.
There are several obvious issues with MCU's continuity, including the confusion regarding the overall film timeline. While Marvel Studios was able to give a good sense as to when each film takes place without explicitly dating them, diving into specifics regarding this matter exposes just how convoluted and confusing it is. There have been repeated attempts to streamline the universe's timetable, but with 23 films in the Infinity Saga all connected to one another, there's no simple way to fix it. It's safe to say that it will be much trickier to repair the MCU's broken timeline once Phase 4 kicks off, which includes both movies and TV shows, of course.
While Marvel Studios has their work cut out in of straightening out their confusing timeline, there are other plot holes that they've been able to fix in the last few years. The list includes retroactively revealing information in the past that were previously unknown or straight-up addressing the issue in one of their films. Regardless of the manner, the important thing is that they're able to resolve these issues.
Nick Fury Telling Iron Man He's Not The Only Hero
Iron Man's stinger introduced Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), the then-director of S.H.I.E.L.D., confronting Tony Stark (Downey) after coming clean about his superhero persona. In his introductory speech, Fury told Stark that he was not the only superhero in the world, adding that by confirming that he's Iron Man, he'd become a part of a bigger universe, he just didn't know it yet. For comic book readers, this was a clear set-up for the introduction of the Avengers, but it created a problem because Tony Stark actually was the only known superhero at that point.
Eventually, Marvel Studios rectified this with the introduction of Captain Marvel in which Fury encountered the super-powered Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) who was the inspiration behind the Avengers Initiative.
The Second Infinity Gauntlet In Thor
The success of Iron Man gave Marvel Studios the go-ahead to build toward the Infinity Saga's overall story, however, they got ahead of themselves in Phase One with Avengers: Age of Ultron post-credits scene revealed Thanos (Josh Brolin) putting the metal glove on despite not having any access to the Allfather's trove.
Marvel Studios used Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok to provide an explanation designed to fix the Gauntlet issue. During her trip down Odin's vault, Hela (Cate Blanchett) spotted the same Infinity Gauntlet shown in Thor and The Goddess of Death casually tipped over the glove, declaring it as fake. This clarified that Thanos had the real Infinity Gauntlet all along having forced Eitri to make it.
The Fixed Bifröst Bridge
At the end of Thor, the Bifröst was destroyed by the God of Thunder himself. The rainbow bridge connected Asgard to the other Nine Realms, and in an effort to stop Loki (Tom Hiddleston) from totally destroying Jotunheim, he cut off his brother's means of transportation to the Frost Giant's home planet. Marvel Studios worked around the non-existence of this pathway in Thor: The Dark World, it was revealed that the Bifröst was once again working without giving any explanation as to how it was fixed.
Thor: The Dark World Prelude. Written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, it chronicles the God of Thunder's adventures during The Avengers and explained how the Bifröst was fixed in time for The Dark World. As it turns out, after he and Loki returned to Asgard and with the help of Heimdall (Idris Elba), Thor used the Tesseract to "let the fires of Bifröst burn once more".
Red Skull's Disappearance At The End Of The First Avenger
Introduced in Captain America: The First Avenger as the film's main antagonist, Johann Schmidt was a former head of HYDRA and was Steve Rogers' first antagonist in the MCU. He transformed into the Red Skull after taking an imperfect version of the Super Soldier Serum that warped him. Wanting to harness the power of the Tesseract, also known simply as the Cosmic Cube at that point, he mysteriously disappeared after touching the Space Stone with his bare hands.
For years, Red Skulls' whereabouts had been a major mystery in the MCU and one that fans didn't expect to see resolved in the secret location of the Soul Stone, where he had become its forced gatekeeper for decades.
How The Scepter/Mind Stone Ended Up With HYDRA
At the end of The Avengers, the heroes successfully retrieved the Tesseract and Loki's scepter, so, there was confusion when Avengers: Age of Ultron opened with another mission where they needed to retrieve the Mind Stone. In the aftermath of the Battle Of New York, it had somehow fallen into the hands of some HYDRA agents led by Wolfgang von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann) who were experimenting on it with the intention of creating super-powered humans that would serve their organization. The film didn't have time to explain how Strucker got a hold of the Mind Stone and left open the nagging question in the MCU for years.
It was only in Avengers: Endgame that Marvel Studios provided the full answer. The central time heist revealed the immediate events after Loki was defeated, HYDRA came in to retrieve the scepter through their SHIELD double agents. Trusting that the agents were their allies, the Avengers unknowingly handed them the Infinity Stone. It wasn't until Captain America: The Winter Soldier that it was revealed that SHIELD was infiltrated by HYDRA, motivating the heroes to go after Strucker in Age of Ultron.
Why Thanos Gave Loki the Mind Stone
Loki's attempt to take over in The Avengers was only made possible by the help of Thanos. who at that time still wasn't properly introduced in the MCU. Aside from loaning the God of Mischief his Chituari Army, the Mad Titan also provided Loki with the Mind Stone. What's interesting here is the question of why Thanos would risk giving away one Infinity Stone if his quest was to collect them all? It was surely counter-productive. Marvel Studios didn't provide an explicit explanation about this question, and with both Loki and Thanos dead in the primary MCU timeline, it's tricky to address this issue on the big screen moving forward. That's why they opted to simply rectify this plot hole through stealthily updating Loki's official MCU profile.
On Marvel's website, it's revealed that Loki was "gifted with a Scepter that acted as a mind control device" in The Avengers. What he didn't know was that "the Scepter was also influencing him, fueling his hatred over his brother Thor and the inhabitants of Earth." This also explains why the God of Mischief was more ruthless in The Avengers, especially at the beginning of the film where he was more than happy to kill someone with his bare hands. Aside from explaining this lingering plot hole, it also effectively provided an excuse for how different his behavior was during the Battle of New York, since he was mostly operating under Thanos' control, making it easier to accept his redemption later on in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
