Avengers: Infinity War - 9 Reasons It's The Most Important Marvel Movie Yet

5. It Marks The Beginning Of The End For The MCU As We Know It

Avengers Infinity War Wakanda
Marvel Studios

While we now know that Infinity War didn't come to symbolise a passing of the torch as some had suspected, with the responsibility now falling to the still untitled Avengers 4, it has set those events in motion in a considered and thoughtful way.

Anthony and Joe Russo's film represents the closing of one chapter and the opening of another. Old staples depart, narratives are resolved, and there's a genuine sense of finality to most characters' respective journeys. Important to note, however, is that when the 'snap' did come, it wasn't the universe's older heroes who gave way, but rather their younger proteges instead.

Spider-Man, Black Panther, Falcon and Bucky - the characters often considered to represent the future of this franchise - all pass away in the snap in heartbreaking fashion, and with Strange having likely ceded the time stone to Thanos in order to realise the one potential future where they could beat him, it gears the Marvel old-guard up for one last desperate rescue - one that'll likely see Captain America, Iron Man and more all absent the spotlight for one last time, leaving behind a legacy that'll inspire a whole new generation of heroes in phases four, five, and perhaps even beyond.

It's a long and painful goodbye, but Infinity War has set in motion the biggest change this universe has ever seen. That in itself is uniquely devastating, but it also intimates the film's role in smashing the status-quo and in laying the foundations for the next stage of the MCU.

Advertisement
Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.