12 Biggest Retcons In The Marvel Cinematic Universe
8. S.H.I.E.L.D. Was A Totally Different Organisation In Iron Man
We'll see that a lot of major retcons come from problems emerging from the early days of the series, when broader concepts were yet to be defined. Biggest of these is the first, Iron Man, which presented major Marvel Universe elements in such a manner so tightly linked to Tony Stark that they didn't quite work on the larger universe scale.
Take S.H.I.E.L.D. In Iron Man, they're presented in such a way they're either a new organisation or offensively secretive; nobody seems to have heard of them and they're still going by the Strategic Homeland Intervention stuff, only realising their name (which we later learn they've had for sixty years), is a fitting acronym. Over the run of just a few movies the scope of the Division expanded massively, originating in the aftermath of World War II and taking a long-standing, major role in global politics.
The big, unexpected shift was the secrecy element; as seen in Ant-Man, they've had a massive structure in the middle of the Potomac since before the Cold War fell adorned with their massive logo - it's hardly like they're a covert operation.