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The Marvel Cinematic Universe is constantly in a state of change. Before Endgame, it was constantly adding new roles, finding different places for new superheroes, and it was easy while the Universe was still fresh and empty. But now, the MCU has become crowded, and with age, it has to deal with the changes that reality forces on its wonderful story. Certain narratives had been restricted due to the fact that not all characters fell under Disney’s Marvel umbrella. Marvel had to dance around legal issues in a way that kept certain superheroes from existing or getting into certain situations. And, of course, some actors have passed away.
But now, the MCU is far less limited than before, and its recent ambitious expansion gives writers a number of ways to easily make changes that would otherwise be extremely difficult. If a character changes, an actor passes away, something in the past needs to be retconned, or a whole new team of superheroes needs to suddenly appear from out of nowhere, the MCU has its options.
Playing With the Multiverse
The Marvel universe is an interesting thing because, most of the time, it forces itself to acknowledge the real change in actors or legal systems. When Don Cheadle took over the role of War Machine in Iron Man 2, it was a quick change from Terrence Howard. But even while the MCU was still young, they had to explain the difference. It came in the form of a brief line that was pretty meta. Rhodes said to Tony Stark, “It’s me now,” and we all went with it. Perhaps before Marvel made a practice out of it, audiences might have been more accepting of changes like this. Now, when something like this happens, it needs to be made canon in a canonical way.
The first thing that helped the MCU accomplish this was Ant-Man’s time heist in Endgame. Once the Avengers created different timelines, we instantly had a way to explain an infinite number of characters. Loki died at the beginning of Endgame, but the universe still gets to have the character because of his time variant created at the moment when the Avengers botched their attempt to steal the tesseract. Loki ended up in the Time Variance Authority and split the timeline. Now we can have any single character, even from the original Earth-616, and rewrite their death or change at a specific moment in time using the TVA. Any superhero lost in the main storyline could be theoretically resurrected from a different timeline.
It would work roughly the same for using the multiverse. After Doctor Strange discovered America Chavez, and her ability to travel through universes, he opened up a door of infinite possibilities. But it comes with downsides in the real world, specifically that not everyone we see in the multiverse may actually continue to be seen in the MCU. For example, John Krasinski’s casting as Reed Richards was revealed to massive applause from fans. But that Reed Richards existed in an alternate universe, and no one is really certain if Krasinski will still be playing the role.
His multiverse casting demonstrates how the MCU might insert a cameo just for fan service or replace one actor with another and simply explain it as multiverse shenanigans. But it provides a canonical way to integrate new changes in the universe.
You Never Know Who’s a Skrull
In Marvel’s upcoming Secret Invasion, it will be revealed that the Earth has been invaded by a race of shapeshifting aliens called Skrulls. In the comics, the Skrulls could have been anyone. They replaced powerful government officials and secret police forces. They even replaced some of our favorite Avengers. There is a lot of talk that the upcoming Disney+ series will be used to change the MCU.
Specifically, now that Disney owns all the properties in Marvel, they have begun retconning pre-MCU Marvel movies into their own canon. When the Skrulls appear on Earth, many fans think that Don Cheadle will turn out to be one. It would allow Marvel to explain his swap with Terrence Howard all those years ago.
There are a lot of tools Marvel can use to explain real-life changes to the MCU. One of their biggest challenges will be integrating the X-Men. We already saw Patrick Stewart reprise his role as Professor X in Multiverse of Madness, but it’s unlikely we’ll see him again.
Mutants have already shown up in the MCU in more minor supporting roles, but a lot of fans think their big entrance into the universe will happen in Deadpool 3. Fans believe that the time machine Deadpool stole from Cable will allow him and Wolverine to change the MCU timeline, creating a narrative opening for the X-Men to appear.