5 Major Questions That Were Left Unanswered By Avengers: Endgame
Avengers: Endgame did extremely well to conclude the Infinity Saga but it also left us with a good bunch of questions which if left unanswered could become major plot holes in the MCU. Time Travel shenanigans were supposed to mess up the MCU timeline, but things have been handled very differently in the MCU, as compared to any other Time Travel movie.
Spoilers Follow ahead. You shouldn’t have clicked upon this article anyway if you’ve not seen the movie.
According to Avengers: Endgame, if a person goes back to his past, it now becomes his future. So, whatever has happened previously in his past will remain unchanged in his timeline and whatever changes that person makes in his past through time travel will not affect his future. It will rather create a new branch in the time line. So a bunch of Time Travel that took place in the film has resulted in plenty of questions. Here are all those:
5 years and Peter’s Still in School?
Spider-Man Homecoming had shown us Peter Parker’s school life. He was roughly 15 years only, and students usually graduate high school by 17 or 18 years of age. So, by the time Peter Parker reached Avengers: Infinity War, he must have been 17, and that made us think that Peter would probably be in his final year of school by the time he reaches Spider-Man: Far From Home.
But as Avengers: Endgame showed us, there was a 5 year time jump. Homecoming had already messed up MCU’s timeline previously and now Spider-Man: Far From Home confuses us with its math as well. Endgame confirmed that it ends in the year 2023. At the end we see Peter Parker rejoining his school and reuniting with Ned.
Now Ned also hasn’t grown as much as he was supposed to grow in about 7 years. So perhaps he was also a snap victim. This could make us think that Peter and Ned’s school allowed them to rejoin right when they left it 5 years ago as this is the only logical explanation. But here’s where it becomes tricky. As seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home trailer, all of Peter’s friends are with him and they haven’t aged 7 years since Homecoming either.
So, are we supposed to believe that all of them were snapped? Apparently, the random snap conveniently took the students of an entire classroom away at the very same time. This is just wrong and it should not be the answer. Spider-Man: Far From Home should have a proper explanation for why Peter and his friends are still in school.
Where is Loki?
Okay this is another one of the set ups created by Avengers: Endgame. As Tony Stark botched the Tesseract heist back in 2012 during the first Avengers as a courtesy of the Hulk, we saw Loki get his hands upon it and sneak out with it. So, even if the Loki from the present timeline was killed off by Thanos, this Loki who has ran away with the Tesseract will clearly form a new branch in the timeline.
Now, this new branch could easily be seen as a build up towards the upcoming Loki TV series upon Disney+. It is being assumed that the TV show involving Tom Hiddleston will show us different events upon Earth caused by Loki. Well, with the Tesseract, he can do that and so much more. But the most important question that still needs to be answered is, where the hell is Loki?
Cap’s New Timeline?
5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and poof… Nothing! Cap didn’t return back to the place he was supposed to. Then we see Bucky point out towards Cap who is seen sitting nearby on a Bench. Sam Wilson goes and has a one on one with him. He finds out that after returning Mjolnir and the Infinity Stones to erase branches of the MCU timeline that the Avengers created, he took Tony’s advice and went back to live the life he never got to live, i.e. post World War 2 with Peggy Carter. So Cap is old now.
First of all, he could only get that old if he also went back in time and not take the Super Soldier Serum in the first place. Secondly, we see that Cap did not do such thing because he was still tall during his dance with Peggy Carter. Thirdly, we are led to believe that Cap has lived his life with Peggy Carter and grown old. But doing that, he must have created a different branch in the timeline which should not be connected with the current timeline according to the rules of Time Travel established in the film.
So, unless an old Steve Rogers came out of the time machine/Quantum Tunnel (which he didn’t), his presence in MCU’s current timeline is not possible because here, Time isn’t in a loop. So is it a plot hole? Cap did set up the Falcon & Winter Soldier TV show, but there are so many questions related to him that need to be answered. For that, Chris Evans might have to return even past his contract. So much to give him a happy ending!
How were the Stones returned?
Cap went back to the past in order to put the Infinity Stones back from where they were taken in the first place so alternate branches in the timeline could be prevented. Well, before creating his own major branch mentioned above, he apparently returned all the Infinity Stones back to where they came from. But how?
Are we supposed to believe that he had enough Pym Particles to put everything in the way it was? Moreover, the most important question that stands is that how exactly did he return the Soul Stone? Didn’t he encounter Red Skull and get infuriated with his presence? Okay, even if the curse off of Red Skull gets lifted once Hawkeye got the stone, the question that still stands is that how was the Soul Stone returned? Did Steve just throw it off that Lord of the Rings cliff?
A whole movie could be made upon everything Steve has done traveling through time. Perhaps that is the plan? Captain America and his adventures through the Quantum Realm? Joe & Anthony Russo did say that Chris Evans might not be done post Avengers: Endgame. So could we see him return? Well, why not!
Why is Gamora?
Endgame: I’ll do you one better, What is Gamora….’s current location? After the massive battle at the end concluded, we saw everyone united at Tony’s funeral including the Guardians of the Galaxy. Only Gamora (2014) wasn’t present in this squad so she is clearly awall. We saw that Quill was setting course to find her and bring her back as Thor arrived. So Asgardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 could very well be about bringing Gamora back.
Why she must have ran away after the battle is rather understandable by where is she currently is the question we need answered. Perhaps Thor will help the team locate her in Vol. 3. Let’s see how things are handled by James Gunn.
Bonus – Is there a future of Tony Stark?
This may be a stupid question considering the fact that Tony quite literally died right in front of us. Robert Downey Jr.’s contract with the MCU has expired and his character could not have got a more perfect ending than this. But is this the end of Marvel’s greatest poster boy of all time?
In the comics, Tony Stark made an AI with his voice that supported Riri Williams aka Iron Heart. An Iron Heart movie was being rumored for the future until the last year, so if it does get green lit, will we get to hear Robert Downey Jr.’s voice as Williams’ AI just like in the comics? Well, just because Robert Downey Jr. already has a packed 3-4 years in Hollywood doesn’t mean that he couldn’t return with a renegotiated contract. But even his limited voiceovers may cost Marvel like $5 Million per appearance. So, perhaps Tony Stark would never return in any way, shape or form.