13 More Major Retcons In The Marvel Cinematic Universe

By Simon Gallagher / June 4, 2019

There's a narrative that suggests that Marvel Studios, under their grand overlord Kevin Feige, had absolutely everything plotted out to the most minute details from the very first day someone suggested that they stop allowing other studios to make bad movies with their characters in. It's a nice bit of mythology that adds to how impressive the MCU has become over the past decade and a bit.

It's not true, of course, but it's still nice mythology all the same. Who ever let the truth get in the way of a good story?

The evidence that the plans weren't always set comes from how many times the studio's major movies have deviated from paths that had already been set. Entire characters have been changed completely, the motivation behind major events have shifted and things and people that were dead have miraculously become not dead. We've already looked at some of those examples, in fact.

But since the MCU has continued to trundle ever onwards, hoovering up all of the money in the world for Disney, there have been even more retcons (as well as some older ones that deserve more attention)...

13. The Actual REAL Reason For The Sokovia Accords

This one's a little complex, but clever all the same. Thanks to an Easter Egg in Cloak & Dagger, which showed Luke Cage on the front of a newspaper placed that show's second season in line with the Luke Cage season 1 finale, as well as implying that the Runaways happens at the same time, since a crossover event is coming. That means that the Runaways and Cloak and Dagger, like all of the Defenders appeared in a window between 2014 and 2015.

In-universe, that means all of these new super-powered individuals appeared in the wake of SHIELD's fall in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. And that makes sense: after all, SHIELD were established to monitor the activity of so-called metahumans and their absence meant that low-level vigilante heroes like the Runaways, Cloak & Dagger and all of the Defenders and Punisher individually (though he counts less).

Now, this is a subtle change, but the implication is that unpoliced, these vigilantes (and presumably lots more like them and lots of more nefarious types) cause the world considerable issues. That's why the Raft was built, for instance, and the Sokovia Accords became more than just making the Avengers accountable and controlled - it was about policing ALL metahumans. Which is why the Inhumans are expected to sign the Accords and how metahuman criminals can be thrown into the Raft without the usual consideration for human rights.