MCU Head-Canon and/or fan theories

[pr0xyt0xin]

Anyone want to talk Head-Canon? Y'all can delve into other Marvel movies. But I'm gonna stick with the MCU.

If needed: Urban Dictionary definition of head-canon :P

Spoiler

Used by followers of various media of entertainment, such as television shows, movies, books, etc. to note a particular belief which has not been used in the universe of whatever program or story they follow, but seems to make sense to that particular individual, and as such is adopted as a sort of "personal canon". Headcanon may be upgraded to canon if it is incorporated into the program or story's universe.

The Incredible Hulk
The majority of the movie takes place long before Iron Man (2008), I'd say... between 2000 and 2002. Thus the disparity in Bruce's appearance in TIH (age ~35) and The Avengers (age ~45).

Iron Man 2
The kid Tony saves at the Stark Expo (2010) was Peter Parker (age 8). 7 years later he gets bitten by a Spider and meets Tony again.

Thor
Each of the 9 realms refers to a habitable planet with sentient humanoid life in 9 different galaxies. "Midgard" being synonymous with "Milky Way" as well as "Earth" for ease of reference. The bifrost is a pre-established "bridge" or teleportation device that allows for intergalactic travel. Essentially this explains why the infinity stones (6 universal singularities created at the big bang) are all centralized to the characters in these films.

Yggdrasil (the tree of life) may also have some connection to the infinity stones. Perhaps even that certain Infinity stones have the macro effect of creation and evolution of humanoid intelligent life capable of mostly the same thought and speech patterns. The Mind Stone and Soul Stone specifically could have a hand in this. Explaining why everyone from Humans, to Xandarians, to Asgardians, to people from Vanaheim all look and speak the same. As well as to a lesser extent the Kree, the Jotuns, the dark elves, and the various other alien races.

Captain America: The First Avenger
Odin chose to put the Tesseract on Earth because of all the realms he could reach it had the least intelligent/corruptible life on it in (at the time) and it was relatively safe there (at least early on). Its existence on earth spurred funding for Nazi Germany to seek it out and fund Erskine's work. This led to the foundation of SHIELD, the Stark and Pym family's successes and failures and Banner's experimentation. In other words the catalyst for the entire MCU.

The Avengers
Coulson did die on the helicarrier. Agents of SHIELD is a "Jacobs Ladder" dream-like moment (as stated "jokingly" by Whedon) leading up to his death. The majority of Coulson's dream involves his obsession with heroes/desire to put a team of heroes together, his own paranoia about Hydra having taken over SHIELD, and random memories and concepts his brain put together (i.e. Sif) eventually culminating in the paranormal (Ghost Rider) as he gets closer to death. Granted, he does have remarkable foresight for a dead guy.

Iron Man 3
Killian was naive and figured "The Mandarin" was a myth/ghost story. He piggybacked off that name. Much to the chagrin of the real Mandarin (as seen in the one-shot).

The "brain slot" he mentioned while discussing Extremis was the same that allowed Strucker to enhance the Maximoff's brains/DNA using the mind stone.

Age of Ultron
Natasha was primarily using her innate talents in her "romance" with Banner as an asset to the team's overall success (similarly to how she did in IM2 with Tony). In other words, whether she was interested in him or not, she was just being a team player and was never serious about it.

Banner says "Ultron was just a myth." But the original idea came from Hank Pym earlier on in Pym's career. That's why these two world-renowned scientists are both aware of the concept.

Ant-Man
The Avengers Initiative was thought up by Hank Pym and Jan van Dyne while coming up with solutions to potentially disastrous scenarios (just like Ultron). Basing the idea off of Captain America and the Howling Commandos (thus reinforcing the First Avenger title), an elite squad of individuals with unique talents, able to take on a force the allied militaries weren't able to on their own. While discussing the concept with his wife she suggests the name "Avengers" because it sounded cool. It's a nice nod to their founded members status in the comics. -- idea from Random490

"The Quantum Realm" is one of the infinite dimensions discussed in Doctor Strange.

Civil War
Is the final film of Phase 2. Makes a more legitimate end for the final act than Ant-Man. Phase 1 assembled the team, Phase 2 disassembled them.

During the airport battle, any scene where you don't see either Vision or Scarlet Witch, they are fighting each other.

Everett Ross is Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross' other kid. -- idea from DrCosmic

Doctor Strange
Is the first film of Phase 3.

Rhodey is the Air Force colonel mentioned by Strange's assistant. Despite confirmations by Derrickson to the contrary.

Including healing from multiple surgeries and training in the mystic arts, this film takes place over the course of 2 years, starting soon after Civil War and ending in approximately mid-2018.

Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2
26 years have passed for Quill since leaving earth. But due to relativity and time dilation, ~38 years will have passed on earth by Infinity War.

I think I have more that I can't think of right now. I'll add them as I think of them. I'd like to hear others if anyone's got em.

Head Canon timeline:

Spoiler

1940s
Captain America: The First Avenger
Agent Carter

1950s - 1970s
Winter Soldier brainwashed
original Ant-Man and the Wasp first appear

1980s
Ego impregnates Meredith Quill
Star Lord's abduction

1990s
Captain Marvel

1999
Extremis invented and AIM established

2002
birth of the hulk

2006
The Incredible Hulk

2008
Iron Man

2009
Spring - Summer
Iron Man 2 [8 year old Peter Parker seen at Stark Expo]
Fall
Thor
Stark meets with Ross

2010
Spring
The Avengers [Agents of SHIELD/Inhumans take place concurrently with Coulson's dying breath]
Winter
Iron Man 3 [Iron Man retires for the next 5 years to focus on pepper and on other projects such as MIT grants, BARF, and Insight hellicarriers]
[Cap spends the next 2 years working missions for SHIELD, catching up on the world, and making PSAs for schools]

2011
Fall
DD S1
JJ S1

2012
Summer
DDS2

2013
Spring - Summer
LCS1
Fall - Winter
IFS1
Thor: The Dark World

2014
Spring - Summer
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Fall - Winter
Punisher S1

2015
Spring - Summer
Defenders
Fall - Winter
Avengers: Age of Ultron

2016
Spring - Summer
Ant-Man
Fall - Winter
LCS2
JJS2

2017
Spring
Captain America: Civil War
Spring - Summer
Doctor Strange [Beginning - pre-accident]
Summer
Black Panther
Fall
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Winter
Guardians of the Galaxy

2018
Spring
Doctor Strange [Middle - training at kamar taj]
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Summer
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Doctor Strange [End - Battle with Dormammu]
Fall
Thor: Ragnarok
Winter

2019
Spring
Avengers: Infinity War
Avengers 4
Spider-Man: Far From Home

Flashback/Stinger/One-Shot
Netflix season
Movie

 

[KRYPTON INC.]

Natasha Romanov is the only successful Russian/Hydra super soldier produced with the variant SSS that was concocted by Howard Stark as we saw in CW, though she was unaware of the previous batch of super soldiers that turned against their creators.

Wanda's brother's body was scooped up by the government and they discovered he was in a deep healing coma. Pietro woke and now works for the government as a deep cover asset. Eventually he will come into contact with The Inhuman royal family and nature will take it's course.

Steve Rogers as any healthy American male would in life or death situations, had tons of filthy, life affirming sex during his combat tour of duty.

 

[Fincher]

Headcanon in my case largely consists of pretending other movies in a series don't exist when it would hurt my enjoyment of the movie I'm watching. For example, I disregard the Alien movies after the first two. Well, when I'm watching The First Avenger and The Winter Soldier, I pretend that The Avengers doesn't exist...so the way I resolve Nick Fury talking about "what happened in New York" is to treat it like he's talking about 9/11.

 

[Infinight888]

Now that they're both owned by Disney and Marvel does their comics, Star Wars takes place in the MCU. Nick Fury is an old Mace Windu who escaped to Earth.

 

[David H.]

Iron Man 2? What's that?

 

[Random490]

I like to think that the Avengers Initiative was thought up by Hank Pym while he was working as part of a SHIELD think tank. Coming up with solutions to potentially disastrous scenarios. Basing the idea off of Captain America and the Howling Commandos(thus reinforcing the First Avenger title), an elite squad of individuals with unique talents, able to take on a force the allied militaries weren't able to on their own. While discussing the concept with his wife she suggests the name "Avengers" because it sounded cool. It's a nice nod to their founded members status in the comics. I also like to think that the Avengers and everything that's happened all originated from a husband and wife discussing work over dinner. I'd love to have a scene like that in Ant-man and the Wasp.

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

Natasha Romanov is the only successful Russian/Hydra super soldier produced with the variant SSS that was concocted by Howard Stark as we saw in CW, though she was unaware of the previous batch of super soldiers that turned against their creators.

Wanda's brother's body was scooped up by the government and they discovered he was in a deep healing coma. Pietro woke and now works for the government as a deep cover asset. Eventually he will come into contact with The Inhuman royal family and nature will take it's course.

Steve Rogers as any healthy American male would in life or death situations, had tons of filthy, life affirming sex during his combat tour of duty.

I like to think that the Avengers Initiative was thought up by Hank Pym while he was working as part of a SHIELD think tank. Coming up with solutions to potentially disastrous scenarios. Basing the idea off of Captain America and the Howling Commandos(thus reinforcing the First Avenger title), an elite squad of individuals with unique talents, able to take on a force the allied militaries weren't able to on their own. While discussing the concept with his wife she suggests the name "Avengers" because it sounded cool. It's a nice nod to their founded members status in the comics. I also like to think that the Avengers and everything that's happened all originated from a husband and wife discussing work over dinner. I'd love to have a scene like that in Ant-man and the Wasp.

I really like all these. Unless quicksilver is resurrected later in the films. Which I see as a slight possibility.

 

[rockman1216]

My head canon:
Age of Ultron: Magneto is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Genosha, Pietro and Wanda have dormant mutant genes which is why they are the only two to survive the experiments.

Agents of SHIELD: Scorch is the first time in the MCU we saw a mutant, he gained his powers naturally through puberty, and has no recollection of experimentation.

 

[Mike Murdock]

^ Technically, Scorch apparently gained his powers through a fire at a nuclear plant, although it could have just been a coincidence.

I don't really like the idea of headcanon that contradicts the letter or spirit of what appears on screen (e.g., pretending that Agents of SHIELD is just a dream just because you don't like it). The stuff I usually try to think about are reconciling things that are unclear. The big focus for me are timeline stuff. I really want to do one to map out the Netflix shows and when they fit in, but I haven't had time yet (since I think I'll have to rewatch the shows). However, I did one for the crossovers between Agents of SHIELD and The Winter Soldier. My big takeaway there was that the best way to explain everything is that the attacks on all of SHIELD took place around the time Nick Fury was attacked, not when the Triskellion was taken over (they didn't find out due to that communications blackout) and the Triskellion was the last to fall.

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

Kilian wanted revenge on Stark because he waited on a rooftop in 1999/2000

That's a real fan theory btw, I've read it on this board numerous times and it cracks me up every time

 

[DrCosmic]

Mine:

- Howard and Tony Stark's new element was discovered during Howard's work with the Tesseract, which is why Tony's reactor was able to cause the interference that prevented the Mind Stone from taking over Tony during Avengers at Stark Tower.

- Jane in TDW is irrationally smitten by Thor, a man whom she's spent max 30 hours of her life with, and she kinda knows it, which is why their relationship is doomed and she keeps finding other things to do than spend time with him.

- AoS is simply not canon, like... it's Nextwave: Agents of HATE type continuity that Daisy Johnson is going through.

- Michael K. Williams plays Curtis "Chemistro" Carr in The Incredible Hulk, and the encounter is what spurns him on his journey to becoming a supervillain and later terrorizing Luke Cage.

- Somewhere, Betty Ross has been recast as a Black woman.

- Everett Ross is Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross' other kid.

Kilian wanted revenge on Stark because he waited on a rooftop in 1999/2000

That's a real fan theory btw, I've read it on this board numerous times and it cracks me up every time

It's not just a fan theory, it's full on discontinuous fanon. The idea that Killian personally thanked Tony and wanted to work with him - as explicitly shown in IM3 - is considered a Fan Theory. Craziness.

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

I don't really like the idea of headcanon that contradicts the letter or spirit of what appears on screen (e.g., pretending that Agents of SHIELD is just a dream just because you don't like it). The stuff I usually try to think about are reconciling things that are unclear. The big focus for me are timeline stuff. I really want to do one to map out the Netflix shows and when they fit in, but I haven't had time yet (since I think I'll have to rewatch the shows). However, I did one for the crossovers between Agents of SHIELD and The Winter Soldier. My big takeaway there was that the best way to explain everything is that the attacks on all of SHIELD took place around the time Nick Fury was attacked, not when the Triskellion was taken over (they didn't find out due to that communications blackout) and the Triskellion was the last to fall.

I'd agree that you don't want to contradict blatant or explicit canon. But if the films are the core of my MCU nothing in Agents of SHIELD would contradict canon. Similarly, if someone doesnt want to believe Iron Man 2 happened (see above ) they can pretty much do so without much effort. This would be much harder with most of the films, but not impossible for a couple of the films but not impossible for some of them (The Incredible Hulk as another example).

Kilian wanted revenge on Stark because he waited on a rooftop in 1999/2000

That's a real fan theory btw, I've read it on this board numerous times and it cracks me up every time

Not sure I understand this lol. That's what happened isn't it? I mean, clearly Killian had multiple motivations, but...

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

Mine:

- Howard and Tony Stark's new element was discovered during Howard's work with the Tesseract, which is why Tony's reactor was able to cause the interference that prevented the Mind Stone from taking over Tony during Avengers at Stark Tower.

- Jane in TDW is irrationally smitten by Thor, a man whom she's spent max 30 hours of her life with, and she kinda knows it, which is why their relationship is doomed and she keeps finding other things to do than spend time with him.

- AoS is simply not canon, like... it's Nextwave: Agents of HATE type continuity that Daisy Johnson is going through.

- Michael K. Williams plays Curtis "Chemistro" Carr in The Incredible Hulk, and the encounter is what spurns him on his journey to becoming a supervillain and later terrorizing Luke Cage.

- Somewhere, Betty Ross has been recast as a Black woman.

- Everett Ross is Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross' other kid.

I like a lot of these. Any chance at making The Incredible Hulk feel better about itself. :] (it's one of my favorites.)

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

Not sure I understand this lol. That's what happened isn't it?

no. that did not happen.
but it's kinda funny how many people think it did.

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

no. that did not happen.
but it's kinda funny how many people think it did.

I think its at least fair to say he really didn't like Tony. Idolized, overcame that idolization and then eventually felt superior than Tony... but yeah I mean, its way oversimplified to say any part of that entire scheme was for revenge.

However, even if Killian wasn't written as vengeful, the movie was absolutely setup to portray him as vengeful. All the story beats for his rivalry with Tony stemmed from that prologue where Tony "...had created demons."

 

[Mike Murdock]

I'd agree that you don't want to contradict blatant or explicit canon. But if the films are the core of my MCU nothing in Agents of SHIELD would contradict canon.

Actually, it would be impossible to ignore Agents of SHIELD without contradicting canon since AoS is part of the canon of the MCU.

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

I think its at least fair to say he really didn't like Tony. Idolized, overcame that idolization and then eventually felt superior than Tony... but yeah I mean, its way oversimplified to say any part of that entire scheme was for revenge.

However, even if Killian wasn't written as vengeful, the movie was absolutely setup to portray him as vengeful. All the story beats for his rivalry with Tony stemmed from that prologue where Tony "...had created demons."

The whole relationship between Killian and Tony is totally irrelevant to the plot and I don't think Aldrich wasted many thoughts about Stark after he got in touch with Maya and started developing Extremis.

The Extremis project as it unfolded could have been prevented by Tony, breaking up the Hansen/Killian duo before it even started. Those are the demons this line refers to.

And still, every time I see people talking about IM3 on the internet or the real life, sooner or later someone talks about the vengeance plot even though there is none.

 

[Relugus]

The whole relationship between Killian and Tony is totally irrelevant to the plot and I don't think Aldrich wasted many thoughts about Stark after he got in touch with Maya and started developing Extremis.

The Extremis project as it unfolded could have been prevented by Tony, breaking up the Hansen/Killian duo before it even started. Those are the demons this line refers to.

And still, every time I see people talking about IM3 on the internet or the real life, sooner or later someone talks about the vengeance plot even though there is none.

Perlmutter was apparently against having a female villain, which was originally going to be Maya Hansen.

Notice how she is offed so quickly in the movie after being built up as important?

 

[R_Hythlodeus]

Perlmutter was apparently against having a female villain, which was originally going to be Maya Hansen.

Notice how she is offed so quickly in the movie after being built up as important?

I know, but what does that have to do with people looking for a revenge plot?

 

[AlluAllu]

My head-canon is that Cap is a virgin. Or at least was before Sharon. I wonder if she is with him currently.

 

[rockman1216]

^ Technically, Scorch apparently gained his powers through a fire at a nuclear plant, although it could have just been a coincidence.

I don't really like the idea of headcanon that contradicts the letter or spirit of what appears on screen (e.g., pretending that Agents of SHIELD is just a dream just because you don't like it). The stuff I usually try to think about are reconciling things that are unclear. The big focus for me are timeline stuff. I really want to do one to map out the Netflix shows and when they fit in, but I haven't had time yet (since I think I'll have to rewatch the shows). However, I did one for the crossovers between Agents of SHIELD and The Winter Soldier. My big takeaway there was that the best way to explain everything is that the attacks on all of SHIELD took place around the time Nick Fury was attacked, not when the Triskellion was taken over (they didn't find out due to that communications blackout) and the Triskellion was the last to fall.

Actually Coulson said the power plant was a possibility, but no one else gained powers.

 

[MbJ]

It's not just a fan theory, it's full on discontinuous fanon. The idea that Killian personally thanked Tony and wanted to work with him - as explicitly shown in IM3 - is considered a Fan Theory. Craziness.

But then people would have to stop with the stupid jokes about how Killian is a ripoff of Syndrome from The Incredibles.

 

[pr0xyt0xin]

Actually, it would be impossible to ignore Agents of SHIELD without contradicting canon since AoS is part of the canon of the MCU.

Right. Absolutely. But I dislike AoS to such a degree, that it's worth it to me. lol

 

[Boom]

It may technically be considered canon, but I've gotten along pretty well without having seen AoS.

 

[DrCosmic]

I think its at least fair to say he really didn't like Tony. Idolized, overcame that idolization and then eventually felt superior than Tony... but yeah I mean, its way oversimplified to say any part of that entire scheme was for revenge.

However, even if Killian wasn't written as vengeful, the movie was absolutely setup to portray him as vengeful. All the story beats for his rivalry with Tony stemmed from that prologue where Tony "...had created demons."

I think that's the common way to read it because we're given that so often, but no, the demon that Tony created in the movie was basically a bad reflection of himself, created in a way very similar to himself: neglect from his idol, in Tony's case his dad. He was definitely a product of Tony, but the lack of animosity, and the dialogue really should have tipped people off to his actual motivations.

But then people would have to stop with the stupid jokes about how Killian is a ripoff of Syndrome from The Incredibles.

Never that.

It may technically be considered canon, but I've gotten along pretty well without having seen AoS.

But, you were so confused when Dr. List appeared in Age of Ultron! And you didn't know that HYDRA was working under the codename Centipede. Robbed, you have been.