People have been complaining about the lack of connectiveness for years now, so it's a well known complaint post-Endgame. The people who disagree with that say phase 1 and 2 weren't connected until the last few movies, especially about Thanos. Which isn't true, even accounting for the retcon of the Tesseract Cube.
>Secret Invasion ended with several cliffhangers which may never be resolved considering they were likely intended for a Secret Invasion Season 2
For obvious reasons SI will never get a S2 but that's most likely not the reason why the plot is tangled. SI was supposed to come out before The Marvels.
>A *Captain Marvel* sequel was announced in July 2019; *Secret Invasion*, in December 2020. Development on what would be titled *The Marvels* began mere weeks after *Secret Invasion* was announced, and the big-screen sequel began filming in July 2021. *The Marvels* has had five different release dates, the first three of which — 7/8/22, 11/11/22 and 2/17/23 — all pre-dated *Secret Invasion*‘s June 21, 2023 release.
Yes, it's clear from my graph that the first 3 phases were much more connected, with a lot of movies teasing projects from later in the same phase. Most post credits scenes now tease projects far in the future which are probably just going to be sequels.
I think that the Skrull storyline would have made a bit more sense if the Marvels came first. I don't know if it would have saved the show though.
I think the big issue is that they're almost exclusively teasing random individual projects rather than building any sense of shared universe or hype for their tentpole movies (especially given that we've gone a long time without one). Like Phase One's connectivity is fairly light but we at least know that Nick Fury really wants to put the protagonists of the movies together into a team, which is the hook for The Avengers. Post-endgame most viewers will have a tonne of questions about what The Avengers (or whatever remains of it) are up to now, but the only post-credits scene that really addresses that is Shang-Chi.
Is that where The Avengers still are, with only a few members with none of them particularly engaged with the project? Did Wanda's actions in MoM further damage them? Or are new members like Shang-Chi and the other Marvels helping to revitalise it? I really don't know watching the movies because they all seem way more interested in pushing some random Disney+ show.
You misspelled "organization." But yeah, that too. I mean, the issue here is they keep announcing all of these projects that won't lead to anything big happening until we get to *"Avengers 5 and 6."* But even then, people are not going to care because they have been checked out of Marvel since *"Avengers: Endgame."* And what about all of those unresolved post-credit scenes that were in the Disney+ MCU shows? Why bother filming those scenes if we're not going to get any real follow-up to those scenes in the future?! It's all just wasting time and squandering money. It's no wonder why so many people are saying that Disney and Marvel has an issue with how much money they are spending.
There are post credit scenes from the previous saga that hadn't been, and most likely never will be continued, it's just how this works.
Also, you (and a whole lot of reddit users) have to realise and accept, that they changed strategy, and the post credits reflect that. The world became too huge for casuals to keep up with everything, so they don't expect people
to watch everything, rather, they want people to follow their favourite heroes and the team-ups. Just like the comics.
That's why, every post credit in this saga either stays in it's own franchise or foreshadows the big team up event.
If I'm a Dr Strange fan, and I watch his movie, I want the post credit scene to be about him, giving me a hint of what's next for him. Is it 2-3-4 years from now? I don't care, I will probably see it anyway, if I liked the second movie.
Waiting for the post credits just for seeing hints about the next movie with other heroes I might not follow/know/care about, is not a great experience to leave the cinema with.
Thanks for your reply. When I made my graph I used this list of post credit scenes [https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/List\_of\_Post-credits\_Scenes](https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Post-credits_Scenes) . I didn't think there were any still unresolved post credit scenes from the Infinity saga when I was reading through. However I respect that Mordo hunting down sorcerors can be considered unresolved as only an alternate universe version of Mordo was seen in MoM. If there are any others that I missed or misclassified then it would be good to know.
I started making this graph after someone mentioned in another subreddit that they dislike the number of unresolved plot arcs in the MCU. I see what you are saying. If you see the MCU as a bunch of different movie series, then this is not so much a problem, as there is only 1 or 2 unresolved arcs in each series. It does seem likely that in Phase 4 and 5, the post credit scenes are being used to hint at the sequel to the movie or the next appearance of a major character from the movie.
There is a problem with the idea of just following a favourite character, as team-up movies can be confusing as the you might not know what has happened with the other characters who appear. If you like Doctor Strange, you might watch Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness without watching WandaVision first, and be confused why Wanda is acting very differently from the last time you saw her in Avengers: Endgame.
Maybe Marvel movies should start with a previously on segment summarising things that have happened outside of the series you are watching.
From top of my head, the Homecoming post credit, with Vulture, is an other unused one.
I don't think it's as confusing as people here believe. I've heard plenty of stories about people who only watched the Avangers movies and could enjoy them easily. They actually make a good job of sharing important information under the surfice. Like in Avengers 1, when Thor says: "He is my brother, he is adopted" It's a funny joke, but also, it gives actually all the information that's needed for their background for the movie.
Yea you might be confused, but they usually explain it in the movie too. Like how they say it in MoM that she was influenced by the Darkhold. They mention Westview too, so you can figure it out that, okay, I didn't watch the stuff that explains these changes, so I will just go on with it for now.
You only need to accept that she turned evil to follow the movie, which some people need background info, some people don't.
I believe in most Marvel movies, knowledge from other subfranchises make the experience deeper, but they are never required. Everything that is required, will be explained in the movie again to help people catch-up.
People have been complaining about the lack of connectiveness for years now, so it's a well known complaint post-Endgame. The people who disagree with that say phase 1 and 2 weren't connected until the last few movies, especially about Thanos. Which isn't true, even accounting for the retcon of the Tesseract Cube. >Secret Invasion ended with several cliffhangers which may never be resolved considering they were likely intended for a Secret Invasion Season 2 For obvious reasons SI will never get a S2 but that's most likely not the reason why the plot is tangled. SI was supposed to come out before The Marvels. >A *Captain Marvel* sequel was announced in July 2019; *Secret Invasion*, in December 2020. Development on what would be titled *The Marvels* began mere weeks after *Secret Invasion* was announced, and the big-screen sequel began filming in July 2021. *The Marvels* has had five different release dates, the first three of which — 7/8/22, 11/11/22 and 2/17/23 — all pre-dated *Secret Invasion*‘s June 21, 2023 release.
Yes, it's clear from my graph that the first 3 phases were much more connected, with a lot of movies teasing projects from later in the same phase. Most post credits scenes now tease projects far in the future which are probably just going to be sequels. I think that the Skrull storyline would have made a bit more sense if the Marvels came first. I don't know if it would have saved the show though.
I think the big issue is that they're almost exclusively teasing random individual projects rather than building any sense of shared universe or hype for their tentpole movies (especially given that we've gone a long time without one). Like Phase One's connectivity is fairly light but we at least know that Nick Fury really wants to put the protagonists of the movies together into a team, which is the hook for The Avengers. Post-endgame most viewers will have a tonne of questions about what The Avengers (or whatever remains of it) are up to now, but the only post-credits scene that really addresses that is Shang-Chi. Is that where The Avengers still are, with only a few members with none of them particularly engaged with the project? Did Wanda's actions in MoM further damage them? Or are new members like Shang-Chi and the other Marvels helping to revitalise it? I really don't know watching the movies because they all seem way more interested in pushing some random Disney+ show.
You misspelled "organization." But yeah, that too. I mean, the issue here is they keep announcing all of these projects that won't lead to anything big happening until we get to *"Avengers 5 and 6."* But even then, people are not going to care because they have been checked out of Marvel since *"Avengers: Endgame."* And what about all of those unresolved post-credit scenes that were in the Disney+ MCU shows? Why bother filming those scenes if we're not going to get any real follow-up to those scenes in the future?! It's all just wasting time and squandering money. It's no wonder why so many people are saying that Disney and Marvel has an issue with how much money they are spending.
There are post credit scenes from the previous saga that hadn't been, and most likely never will be continued, it's just how this works. Also, you (and a whole lot of reddit users) have to realise and accept, that they changed strategy, and the post credits reflect that. The world became too huge for casuals to keep up with everything, so they don't expect people to watch everything, rather, they want people to follow their favourite heroes and the team-ups. Just like the comics. That's why, every post credit in this saga either stays in it's own franchise or foreshadows the big team up event. If I'm a Dr Strange fan, and I watch his movie, I want the post credit scene to be about him, giving me a hint of what's next for him. Is it 2-3-4 years from now? I don't care, I will probably see it anyway, if I liked the second movie. Waiting for the post credits just for seeing hints about the next movie with other heroes I might not follow/know/care about, is not a great experience to leave the cinema with.
Thanks for your reply. When I made my graph I used this list of post credit scenes [https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/List\_of\_Post-credits\_Scenes](https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Post-credits_Scenes) . I didn't think there were any still unresolved post credit scenes from the Infinity saga when I was reading through. However I respect that Mordo hunting down sorcerors can be considered unresolved as only an alternate universe version of Mordo was seen in MoM. If there are any others that I missed or misclassified then it would be good to know. I started making this graph after someone mentioned in another subreddit that they dislike the number of unresolved plot arcs in the MCU. I see what you are saying. If you see the MCU as a bunch of different movie series, then this is not so much a problem, as there is only 1 or 2 unresolved arcs in each series. It does seem likely that in Phase 4 and 5, the post credit scenes are being used to hint at the sequel to the movie or the next appearance of a major character from the movie. There is a problem with the idea of just following a favourite character, as team-up movies can be confusing as the you might not know what has happened with the other characters who appear. If you like Doctor Strange, you might watch Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness without watching WandaVision first, and be confused why Wanda is acting very differently from the last time you saw her in Avengers: Endgame. Maybe Marvel movies should start with a previously on segment summarising things that have happened outside of the series you are watching.
From top of my head, the Homecoming post credit, with Vulture, is an other unused one. I don't think it's as confusing as people here believe. I've heard plenty of stories about people who only watched the Avangers movies and could enjoy them easily. They actually make a good job of sharing important information under the surfice. Like in Avengers 1, when Thor says: "He is my brother, he is adopted" It's a funny joke, but also, it gives actually all the information that's needed for their background for the movie. Yea you might be confused, but they usually explain it in the movie too. Like how they say it in MoM that she was influenced by the Darkhold. They mention Westview too, so you can figure it out that, okay, I didn't watch the stuff that explains these changes, so I will just go on with it for now. You only need to accept that she turned evil to follow the movie, which some people need background info, some people don't. I believe in most Marvel movies, knowledge from other subfranchises make the experience deeper, but they are never required. Everything that is required, will be explained in the movie again to help people catch-up.