10 Ways The MCU Isn't For You Anymore
3. Plot Points Set Up Years Ago Are Forgotten By Casual Viewers
If you are deeply knowledgeable of the MCU lore, you can forget how inaccessible the series can be to newbies.
Look at it this way:
Imagine you are watching a brand-new movie franchise. Now, imagine the villain comes out of nowhere in the 19th entry and kills everyone. You are befuddled by this development since you feel like this antagonist wasn't built up enough. But your friends point out that this character appeared six years prior in a previous movie for three seconds. Not only that, this character has appeared for less than two minutes over the previous 19 movies.
If that sounds confusing, that's how it felt for casual viewers when Thanos was introduced in Avengers: Infinity War.
Average viewers probably forgot about the Mad Titan's post-credit cameo in The Avengers or his 30-second scene in Guardians of the Galaxy by the time they watched Infinity War. Casual moviegoers aren't expected to remember every plot point, especially when they don't know when they pay-off is coming. For all they know, a plot thread will be resolved in the next movie or in the next decade.
And guess what? It's happening again right now.
Since the MCU is obviously building up another Endgame-level threat - this time through multiple universes of characters - the movies are sowing the seeds for this storyline. But if you aren't picking up on every Easter egg and plot point, you're going to be left very confused.