12 Biggest Unanswered Marvel Movie Mysteries

It goes without saying at this point that the good folks at Marvel Studios weave complex, interconnecting narratives that are often seeded years before they even become relevant in a meaningful way. Early Easter Eggs will become whole plot-lines in later movies and seemingly tiny details can come back to haunt characters in a major way. In other words, no brush-stroke is unintentional and seemingly no question is left unanswered unintentionally.

So, what happens when the film-makers leave certain questions unanswered for a provocatively long time? And what happens when certain revelations don't actually make sense in the grand plan plotted out by the Lord Almighty Kevin Feige? Well, they stick out rather aggressively, that's what.

Over the course of the MCU's existence, its films have left some mysteries tantalisingly unresolved, while others are simply unanswerable through context or accidental complexity (because plans change, as surely as the tides, no matter how firm Feige's resolve). In some cases, Marvel's grand plan may well reveal answers in the coming years and Phases, but some will remain Marvel Movie Mysteries long after this extended universe ends...

Given the well publicised problems with Marvel's movie villains, you'd think they'd be exploiting every opportunity to bring the ones they know worked back - particularly when they aren't actually as dead as they might seem.

At the end of Captain America: The First Avengers, Hugo Weaving's Red Skull is randomly sucked off somewhere mysterious. Since he's never mentioned again, it's safe to assume that Marvel just want us to assume he's dead, even though Kevin Feige has gone on record to say that the manner of his death was chosen specifically "to showcase to people that he could perhaps pop up again sometime."

So where the hell is he? Is he trapped inside the Stone as the lore of the comics would suggest? Is he on the other side of the portal that the Chitauri entered from in The Avengers? Is he trapped between time and space? And most importantly will we get any of those answers in Infinity War and beyond? Just imagine the Avengers standing triumphant over Thanos and breaking the Infinity Gauntlet only to accidentally unleash Red Skull, Ronan and Ultron's robo-spirit.