Once again, 2019 has been another huge year for the MCU. All three movies released—Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home—have taken the box office by storm, raking in over $1 billion each. While we’re sad we won’t see our favorite heroes battling against enemy forces on the big screen until the Black Widow solo outing comes out next year, we’re still coming to terms with everything that’s happened over the last few months.
So, looking back on our journey this year, we revisit all three movies and try and pinpoint the 10 biggest MCU moments of the year. We’re going chronologically on this one, so first up is Captain Marvel, the blockbuster that showed why Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers was so unnervingly powerful…
Captain Marvel Meets Nick Fury
There’s considerably more to Nick Fury than meets the eye. We learn this in Captain Marvel when he meets Carol Danvers for the first time, way before he had come across the likes of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and co. The duo first meets outside Blockbuster (those were the days) and then spends the movie working in tandem to defeat the Kree and their leader, Jude Law’s villainous Yon-Rogg.
It’s a key moment because this relationship is one that leads to her working with the Avengers further down the line. Furthermore, it shows Fury was working on recruitment long before 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, where he first approaches Tony Stark in a bar. And together, they both make a really big decision…
Siding With The Skrulls
In the comics, the Skrulls are the bad guys. They’re shape-shifters who use the ability to pose as important governmental and global figures in order to carry out a secret invasion. But, while that’s the case in the core material, the funny-looking green creatures are shown to be nice enough people during Captain Marvel. They wish only to be with their own people and, with the help of Carol Danvers and Nick Fury, they’re able to defeat the Kree and get what they want.
But this decision now means we genuinely don’t know who is who anymore. The bigwigs over at Marvel Studios have already sprung one surprise by revealing that Nick Fury and Maria Hill were not actually themselves in Far From Home but Skrulls by the names of Talos and Soren. More on that later, but the emergence of the species looks set to change the MCU as we know it…
Time Travel
When Thanos left theater-goers reeling in Avengers: Infinity War by wiping out half of the entire universe, many theories emerged speculating as to how the remaining Avengers would bring back Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man and co. And, though time travel divides opinion, Disney took the gamble of going down that route, somehow managing to make it pay off.
Thanks to Ant-man and the Quantum Realm, as well as a little bit of hope from Tony Stark, they’re able to bring everybody who died in 2018 back from the dead. Also, the fact that time travel in the MCU is now possible surely means that it will rear its head one day again. Obviously, messing with time can be tricky, but when you’ve got characters as intelligent as Marvel, we’re pretty sure they can pull it off again should the stakes be so high as to require it.
Black Widow Dying
Avengers: Endgame has such high stakes that every single one of our beloved heroes was never going to all make it out alive. And, unfortunately for Scarlet Johansson’s Black Widow, it’s her character who gets the chop, dying on the planet of Vormir after sacrificing herself for the soul stone.
It’s certainly one of the more haunting MCU images of the year, the one of her broken body lying on a rock at the bottom of a huge cliff while a devastated Clint Barton watches on. While that seems to be the end of Black Widow’s journey for now, we’re just glad we’ll get to see Johansson back as the character one more time when her solo movie releases in 2020.
Avengers Assemble
Finally, after 22 movies, 10 years of waiting, and several near-misses, we got to see Captain America cry ‘Avengers, Assemble’ during the final battle of Avengers: Endgame. And, though ideally we’d of liked to have witnessed Steve Rogers manage to get the words out of his mouth at the end of 2015’s Age of Ultron, there’s no denying it was worth the wait.
Cap looks destined to fight Thanos alone before the rest of the team, those who died in Infinity War, return through Doctor Strange’s portals to join the fight. It makes for arguably the biggest scene in MCU history with Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, the Wasp, Shuri, Spider-Man and much, much more all returning to tip the scales of power back in their direction.
Tony Stark Dying
Tony Stark has, since day one, been the face of the MCU. The ambitious cinematic project started with the release of Iron Man in 2008, and, since then, we’ve seen Robert Downey Jr reprise his role in nine further blockbusters (yes, that includes his cameo in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk). However, we will not be seeing Stark swagger his way around the big screen following the death of the character in Avengers: Endgame.
But, oh boy, it’s some way to bow out. Iron Man ends up saving the entire universe, first stealing the Infinity Stones off Thanos before snapping his fingers together and turning the Mad Titan and his bloodthirsty army to dust. It means we won’t see Stark, his famous goatee, or combative personality again but, with time travel involved, a return further down the line at some point can’t be ruled out completely.
Captain America Moving On
As if Endgame wasn’t emotional enough, what with core Avengers members Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff both dying, fans were dealt one last blow to the stomach when Captain America bowed out of Endgame. Steve Rogers, like Iron Man and Black Widow, has been a major player in the MCU since its beginning. However, unlike his two team-mates, he gets a significantly happier farewell.
Cap bows out by getting what he always wants: his dance with the love of his life, Peggy Carter. Using time travel, he goes back to return the Infinity Stones to their rightful places before choosing to hang around and stay in order to be with the girl he always dreamed. Old Rogers then meets old friends Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson after Tony’s funeral, passing his shield along to Wilson and selecting him as the next Captain America.
Mysterio’s Lies
After the sucker-punch that was Avengers: Endgame, Marvel gave us a significantly lighter Spider-Man: Far From Home in order to bring phase three of the MCU to a close. The tone is significantly lighter with Peter Parker trying to balance his life as both a school kid and superhero. But that doesn’t stop it from being any less shocking with the biggest surprise of the movie coming at the very end in the post-credits scene.
Peter defeats Mysterio, but not before Jake Gyllenhaal’s character is able to broadcast out the hero’s true identity to the entire world. It means that, going forward, everybody is going to know who the web-slinger is in a true movie first. Plus, the fact that J Jonah Jameson is back in the picture means we can expect Spidey to struggle a bit…
Nick Fury In Space
The second shocking moment from Spider-Man: Far From Home is a revelation regarding Nick Fury. Firstly, we discover that who were thought was Fury during the blockbuster was actually Talos the Skrull instead. But then we discover that Samuel L. Jackson’s character is actually in space, working alongside the Skrulls on a mission that we’re determined to know more about.
Given his surroundings, the revelation has suggested that Fury is trying to form S.W.O.R.D, the kinda’ space version of S.H.I.E.L.D. And that means we could be introduced to some ultra-powerful allies and enemies going forward. Also, we don’t know how long he’s been out in space for, meaning the character we’ve all come to love may actually just be getting started instead…
Phase 4 Is Coming
One of the biggest moments for the MCU in 2019 is certainly the revelation of what’s to come next. Disney has successfully aced the Infinity Saga, and now, via a combination of movies and TV programs for their own in-house streaming channel, they’re planning to scale even greater heights. Because, in July, the slate for phase four was revealed.
In 2020, there will be the Black Widow movie, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV show, The Eternals and Shang-Chi: And the Legend of the Ten Rings. Then, the following year, there’s the Loki TV show, WandaVision, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, What If, Thor: Love and Thunder and the Hawkeye series. They’re all confirmed, while Captain Marvel 2, Black Panther 2, Spider-Man 3 and Guardians of the Galaxy 3 are all due to come in time. And we can’t wait…
