The MCU Can’t Move On From the Infinity Stones (And It Shows)
Ever since Endgame, Marvel’s been in this weird spot where it keeps trying to tell new stories… but the Infinity Stones keep lurking in the background like an ex you can’t stop talking about. And honestly? It kind of makes sense. The Stones weren’t just a bunch of shiny rocks, they were the backbone of the MCU for over a decade. And now that they’re gone, the whole franchise feels a little lost without them.
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1. The Stones Set the Ceiling Too High
The Infinity Saga worked because the Stones were perfect stakes. Six simple objects, each tied to a fundamental part of existence (time, space, reality, etc.). Easy for casual fans to understand, but also flexible enough for writers to spin stories around.
The problem? Once you’ve done that, you’ve basically shown the ultimate level of danger. Half the universe blinked out of existence. Heroes died. Every character had skin in the game. Now when Marvel says, “Oh no, Kang/Doom is coming!” or “The Multiverse is collapsing!” a lot of fans just shrug and go, “Yeah, but is it worse than Thanos with the Gauntlet?”
And usually the answer is no. Maybe with Dr. Doom they can but again, with RDJ coming back they tie it to tje events of Endgame.
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2. Characters Are Still Shackled to Them
A ton of heroes’ identities were tied directly to the Stones:
Vision was the Mind Stone. Even if they say he wasn't.
Strange became who he is because of the Time Stone.
Wanda unlocked her powers through the Mind Stone.
Captain Marvel and the Space Stone.
Guardians came together because of the Power Stone.
Gamora and Nebula’s entire arcs only exist because of Thanos chasing the Stones.
Almost every single movie had something to do with them exept for Iron man 1 & 2, Hulk movie, Ant Man, The Winter Soldier and Spiderman. (Oh yeah, black widow had her own movie)
And the three biggest emotional beats in Endgame (Natasha, Tony, Steve) only happened because of them.
Take those anchors away, and you can feel Marvel scrambling. Strange is kind of adrift without the Time Stone, Guardians 3 still had to clean up the Gamora fallout, and Vision is literally MIA because his identity revolved around the Stone in his forehead.
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3. They Keep Sneaking Back Anyway
Even when Marvel tries to branch out, they circle back to the Stones like clockwork:
Loki turns them into a joke at the TVA but in doing so, reminds us they existed.
What If…? uses Ultron collecting the Stones as its big endgame threat (again). Infinity Killmonger, Capatin Carter, etc.
Marvel Zombies teased Zombie Thanos with the gauntlet because they know that imagery is burned into our brains. And again in the show, infinity hulk, wanda seeking it. It all comes back again.
They can’t resist. The Stones are narrative comfort food: instantly recognizable, instantly high stakes, instantly nostalgic.
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4. The Infinity Stones Are Basically Zombies
And that’s the irony. The Infinity Stones were destroyed in the main timeline, but narratively, they’re undead. The MCU keeps resurrecting them, sometimes as jokes, sometimes as actual stakes, sometimes just as imagery, because they don’t have a better replacement.
The Multiverse Saga? Feels like a remix of the same structure. Kang? Interesting, but doesn’t hit the same cultural weight. The Infinity Saga was lightning in a bottle, and now the franchise is stuck chasing its own ghost.
And now with Dr. Doom they will probably do it again cuz of RDJ.
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TL;DR
The Infinity Stones weren’t just plot devices they were the MCU’s foundation. By making them the centerpiece for a decade, Marvel accidentally boxed itself in. Now every new story either directly drags them back out (What If…?, Marvel Zombies, Loki) or feels weaker because fans can’t help but compare it to the peak.
This is also why F4 was amazing. No call-back to the Infinity-saga.
The Infinity Saga didn’t just end, it turned into a creative prison. And the MCU still hasn’t found the key to get it back.
---
1. The Stones Set the Ceiling Too High
The Infinity Saga worked because the Stones were perfect stakes. Six simple objects, each tied to a fundamental part of existence (time, space, reality, etc.). Easy for casual fans to understand, but also flexible enough for writers to spin stories around.
The problem? Once you’ve done that, you’ve basically shown the ultimate level of danger. Half the universe blinked out of existence. Heroes died. Every character had skin in the game. Now when Marvel says, “Oh no, Kang/Doom is coming!” or “The Multiverse is collapsing!” a lot of fans just shrug and go, “Yeah, but is it worse than Thanos with the Gauntlet?”
And usually the answer is no. Maybe with Dr. Doom they can but again, with RDJ coming back they tie it to tje events of Endgame.
---
2. Characters Are Still Shackled to Them
A ton of heroes’ identities were tied directly to the Stones:
Vision was the Mind Stone. Even if they say he wasn't.
Strange became who he is because of the Time Stone.
Wanda unlocked her powers through the Mind Stone.
Captain Marvel and the Space Stone.
Guardians came together because of the Power Stone.
Gamora and Nebula’s entire arcs only exist because of Thanos chasing the Stones.
Almost every single movie had something to do with them exept for Iron man 1 & 2, Hulk movie, Ant Man, The Winter Soldier and Spiderman. (Oh yeah, black widow had her own movie)
And the three biggest emotional beats in Endgame (Natasha, Tony, Steve) only happened because of them.
Take those anchors away, and you can feel Marvel scrambling. Strange is kind of adrift without the Time Stone, Guardians 3 still had to clean up the Gamora fallout, and Vision is literally MIA because his identity revolved around the Stone in his forehead.
---
3. They Keep Sneaking Back Anyway
Even when Marvel tries to branch out, they circle back to the Stones like clockwork:
Loki turns them into a joke at the TVA but in doing so, reminds us they existed.
What If…? uses Ultron collecting the Stones as its big endgame threat (again). Infinity Killmonger, Capatin Carter, etc.
Marvel Zombies teased Zombie Thanos with the gauntlet because they know that imagery is burned into our brains. And again in the show, infinity hulk, wanda seeking it. It all comes back again.
They can’t resist. The Stones are narrative comfort food: instantly recognizable, instantly high stakes, instantly nostalgic.
---
4. The Infinity Stones Are Basically Zombies
And that’s the irony. The Infinity Stones were destroyed in the main timeline, but narratively, they’re undead. The MCU keeps resurrecting them, sometimes as jokes, sometimes as actual stakes, sometimes just as imagery, because they don’t have a better replacement.
The Multiverse Saga? Feels like a remix of the same structure. Kang? Interesting, but doesn’t hit the same cultural weight. The Infinity Saga was lightning in a bottle, and now the franchise is stuck chasing its own ghost.
And now with Dr. Doom they will probably do it again cuz of RDJ.
---
TL;DR
The Infinity Stones weren’t just plot devices they were the MCU’s foundation. By making them the centerpiece for a decade, Marvel accidentally boxed itself in. Now every new story either directly drags them back out (What If…?, Marvel Zombies, Loki) or feels weaker because fans can’t help but compare it to the peak.
This is also why F4 was amazing. No call-back to the Infinity-saga.
The Infinity Saga didn’t just end, it turned into a creative prison. And the MCU still hasn’t found the key to get it back.
Commentaires
And honestly, Kang wasn’t set up to be the next big bad. He was set up to be the next Loki. He was defeated in his first two appearances. If Kang were to be a recurring character, we would need someone more powerful to overshadow him. Being defeated by a swarm of ants just doesn’t make him seem like a credible threat.
But, really, a reset that takes the MCU away from the cosmic and back to the Earth bound, street level, occasionally international scale threats would probably be the best thing they could do right now.
But the quest for reality-bending jewels was something special that had enough suspense built up to a great payoff. They need to try to slow things down and let things cook and come together nicely.
Rather than drive into the slurry operation that was the Disney+ content, **they should have put the MCU on hiatus for two years**. No pre-productions. No pitches. Nothing. Let Sony make Spider-man villain stuff. Do *X-Men ‘97*. But the next Avengers would not even be discussed until 2021.
We didn’t know this at the time, but this would have put the re-boot square in the middle of the pandemic and the market pull-back from China. But I still think Disney could have been convinced to take this risk. Chapek had to make the Disney+ investment worthwhile, which is why they made each of their studios produce slop. Star Wars and Pixar also got worse, but the MCU had a good excuse to pause.
I know, I know, this would never have worked. Fans would have balked, and not everything on Disney+ was a flop. At first it kind of seemed like it might work. But it only takes one *Secret Invasion* to bring down a franchise.
He wasn't. The Mind Stone granted him intelligence. He was not the avatar of the Mind Stone.
>Strange became who he is because of the Time Stone.
No, he became who he is through mastering magic. He was the guardian of the Time Stone, but the Time Stone is not what "made" him who he is. He was using magic just fine without it.
>Wanda unlocked her powers through the Mind Stone.
The Mind Stone reignited her latent magical powers. Her magic did not come *from* the Mind Stone.
>Guardians came together because of the Power Stone.
They came together to stop Ronan. He was already trying to destroy Xandar before he got the stone.
>Gamora and Nebula’s entire arcs only exist because of Thanos chasing the Stones.
Their arcs exist because he kept making child soldiers from some of the worlds he was killing. The destruction of Gamora's world had nothing to do with the stones, and Thanos was doing just fine killing half the population of planets without the stones.
>Almost every single movie had something to do with them except for Iron man 1 & 2, Hulk movie, Ant Man, The Winter Soldier and Spiderman. (Oh yeah, black widow had her own movie)
Because phases two and three were building up to them
>And the three biggest emotional beats in Endgame (Natasha, Tony, Steve) only happened because of them.
You mean the movie about the stones had emotional scenes related to the stones that the movie is about? *gasp*