In a boring world, one would consume a story, enjoy it, and put it down never to think about what they read. Thankfully, we don’t live in that world and instead live in one where hardcore fans gobble up stories and immediately start theorizing about what they read. This is especially true with comes to nerd cultures like comic books and since Marvel has a stranglehold on the entertainment consciousness at the moment, I’m going to be delving into some of the fan theories surrounding Marvel. I’m not limiting myself to one medium either, as I’m going to get into the movies and the comics.
The majority of these entries come from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the reason should be obvious. Few other film franchises have ever inspired such passionate and speculative fans. Since the films draw on the comics, many fans have crafted theories using info from the books whereas other theories have been made just within the confines of the MCU. The X-Men film franchise is another gold mine for fan theories as there are so many timelines, plot holes, and tiny details waiting to be explored by fans all too eager to do FOX’s homework for them.
One final note about this list is that these theories are not all necessarily “confirmed.” While most of them are, some are just so compelling and make too much sense so I consider them as true. Now without any further ado, let’s get into the 20 Marvel Fan Theories We Can’t Believe Are True.
20 Stan Lee: More Than Meets The Eye
Stan Lee cameos may not be the main feature that people tune into Marvel films for, but it’s like a security blanket. You don’t necessarily need it, but you damn sure want it all the time. There was always a thought though that there was more to Stan Lee cameos than Marvel was letting on.
In Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2, those thoughts were confirmed. While Rocket, Groot, and Yondu are traveling through space, we see Stan The Man speaking with a group of Watchers. For those who don’t know, the Watchers are a group of cosmic beings who observe the events of the Universe but vow to never interfere. Even in the MCU, Stan is a storyteller above all else.
19 Amazing Spider-Kid
While Marvel is able to plan stuff far in advance, sometimes interesting tidbits sort of just spring into their laps without trying. That’s exactly what happened when Marvel struck a deal with Sony that allowed them to share custody of the Spider-Man license.
Fans do Marvel’s work for them here.
As soon as this news broke, fans began to speculate if Peter Parker was in the Marvel Cinematic Universe under our collective noses the entire time. The main suspect? The young child under an Iron Man mask in the climactic battle of Iron Man 2. Sure enough, Tom Holland and Kevin Feige confirmed this theory in the media frenzy for Spider-Man: Homecoming.
18 Misty Knight’s New Arm
Some characters are nearly unrecognizable without a notable visual signal. Before Misty Knight was introduced to the wider public courtesy of the Netflix show Luke Cage, people knew next to nothing about it except for the fact that she has a bionic arm made of vibranium. So when she showed up in the show with two flesh and blood arms, we knew it was a matter of time before she lost one.
The arm in the comics is made of vibranium. Doubtful that the MCU will follow suit.
Sure enough, in Defenders, Knight loses his arm to the sword of the villain Bakuto. In the hospital, Colleen Wing implies that Iron Fist can replace her arm because of his vast wealth and in some promotional shots for Luke Cage season 2, we see that’s exactly what happened.
17 Not Quite Kilgrave
Killmonger may have been great due to the strong justification for his villainy and Loki may be a fan favorite, but no other villain has affected the hero they battled more than Kilgrave from Jessica Jones. David Tennant as the mind-controlling monster was so effective of a villain that fans were convinced that he was going to make an appearance in the second season despite meeting his end already. They were right.
You feel wrong for wanting to see more of this villain.
In the episode “AKA Three Lives And Counting,” Jones starts to hallucinate that Kilgrave is alive and is taunting her for actions in season 2. He may not be alive, but this villain was just as effective even if he is just in Jones’ mind.
16 The OG Guardians Of The Galaxy
One of the most bizarre casting choices in MCU history (at least when it was announced) was Sylvester Stallone in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2. What in the world was this old action star going to do in a sci-fi action comedy? Astute fans had a feeling though he was going to be the link to the “original” Guardians group from Marvel Comics.
If you don’t think Marvel can make these characters cash cows, you’re not paying attention.
In one of the film’s many post-credits scenes, we see Stallone’s character Stakar Ogord reuniting his old team in the wake of Yondu’s passing. These Guardians include his wife Aleta, Krugarr (the red dude), Martinex (the crystal dude) and Mainframe who is a robot head.
15 Wolverine’s Heart In His Hands
The X-Men film franchise’s timeline has been mocked and joked about so much and rightfully so. The amount of questions, direction changes and reboots FOX has been through has been ridiculous but thankfully, there was a fan theory that connected the holes where FOX couldn’t.
At the end of Logan, Wolverine is put onto a tree by his evil clone X-24. Losing his life slowly, Laura is with him for his final moments. This is exactly how his demise was going to go down all alone though as the character Yukio tells him that when it’s his time to go, it will be bloody and his heart will be in his hands. Fans caught on that Laura was the metaphorical heart and director James Mangold confirmed that’s what he was aiming for.
14 Nice Guy Captain America
So Avengers: Age of Ultron is considered to be one of the weaker movies in the MCU catalog but that party at Stark Tower is still one of the most fun scenes to watch back. The best part being when all the Avengers fail at lifting Thor’s hammer. Even Captain America failed… or did he?
This theory hasn’t been confirmed, but I find it super compelling and likely.
Out of all the Avengers, Cap is easily the moral backbone of the group. He’s always put other lives before his own and by all measures should be worthy of lifting Mjolnir. The theory states that Cap COULD lift it, but doesn’t want to as to not embarrass Thor or bear the responsibility of ruling Asgard. It’s totally in Cap’s character, so it works for me.
13 A Storm Brewing
With Thor: Ragnarok showcasing the destruction of Thor’s iconic weapon Mjolnir and his subsequent journey to realize that he doesn’t need the hammer to command the lightning, you might think that Thor would never need another weapon again. However, fans suspected that new weapon would be forged to fight Thanos in Infinity War.
If new merchandise can be made, it’s a good bet new items will be introduced.
When the second trailer for the movie dropped, the fan theory was confirmed and we saw the first appearance of Stormbreaker. Although originally a weapon of Beta Ray Bill in the comics, it instead goes to Thor in the MCU. And if it wasn’t for Thor’s mistake, this weapon would have ended Thanos.
12 Scarlet Is A Weird Colour
While the origins of Scarlet Witch’s powers in the original comics are pretty cut and dry, the MCU version of her is not. We could thank the fact that FOX owns the license to the X-Men and “mutants” for that one. All we’ve been told for sure is that HYDRA experimented on her and boom, she got powers. But what if her powers were tied into the MCU’s most important items; the Infinity Stones?
Witch’s powers seem like they could descend from the Reality stone. Not only are her powers similar in nature to what the stone can do (she can control the reality around her with her psionics) but the colors match as well. Officially her powers come from the mind stone, but I like this explanation better.
11 The Blue Blur, Quicksilver?
Oh, Quicksilver, we hardly knew ye. For the hot minute that Quicksilver was around, he was one of the most powerful Avengers thanks to super speed which was somehow granted because of the Mind stone? That doesn’t make much sense to many people, so a fan theory was made!
Instead of Quicksilver’s powers coming from the Mind Stone’s power directly, they came from the Space Stone. This is possible because the Mind Stone also acts like a network between the other Infinity Stones so when HYDRA was experimenting with it, they unknowingly tapped into a tiny bit of the Space Stone’s power for Pietro. Not enough for him to dodge gunfire, though.
10 A Call To Marvel At
Avengers: Infinity War was one of the most anticipated films in history and thus speculation was wild prior to its release. While there was a ton of uncertainty, most fans felt comfortable in assuming that the upcoming Captain Marvel was going to get some sort of shout out. Sure enough, they were correct.
With this scene and the scene in Captain America 2, Nick Fury should stay away from cars.
In the only post-credits scene of the movie, we see Maria Hill and Nick Fury in a car just as the effects of Thanos’ snap are being felt. Sensing something big is going to happen, Fury quickly sends an SOS to Captain Marvel before he loses his life.
9 Hulk In Hulkbuster
As fans saw in Thor: Ragnarok, the relationship between the Hulk and Bruce Banner is not a good one. Both hate the other for different reasons but usually when it comes down to it, Hulk will jump in and fight when he has to. Except in Infinity War where Hulk refuses to come out and Banner is forced to use Iron Man’s Hulkbuster armor instead. Of course, we didn’t know that from the trailers, but fans guessed it correct anyway.
All fans needed was one picture to come up with this theory.
As we see in the battle of Wakanda, Banner fights off Thanos’ army using the Hulkbuster. How did fans reach this theory? Because Banner stood next to a Hulkbuster arm for two seconds of a trailer.
8 Vision And The Mind Stone
Ever since his first scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Vision has worked his way into fans’ hearts to become one of the more beloved characters in the franchise. Unfortunately, though, he lived because of the Mind Stone. Which had some fans thinking that he wasn’t going to survive when Thanos came a knocking.
This was more shocking for the how rather than the why.
While most fans had a feeling this was going to happen in some fashion, the trailers for the film played us. In the shot above, we see one of Thanos’ “children” about to rip the stone from his head. But in the film, we know that Thanos just plucks out of his skull. A brutal end to our beloved android.
7 The Real Hobgoblin
While he may be a bit forgotten about by newer Spider-Man fans, longtime followers of the web-slinger know about the Hobgoblin. A villain from the 1980s whose identity was shrouded in mystery for years, fans debated for years just who the real Hobgoblin with some saying that it had to be fashion mogul Roderick Kingsley.
J. Jonah Jameson was a potential name thrown around for the Hobgoblin. Seriously.
Even after it was shown that Hobgoblin was longtime supporting cast member Ned Leeds, fans weren’t convinced. It wouldn’t be until years later in 1996 when we fans were finally vindicated and it was revealed once and for all that the Hobgoblin was Roderick Kingsley. Persistent, aren’t they, Marvel fans?
6 Franklin Richards’ Timeline
When people think of powerful Marvel characters, some will throw around Doctor Doom, Mephisto and Galactus a name that doesn’t get brought up as often is Franklin Richards. The son of Sue Storm and Reed Richards, Franklin has the ability to warp reality on a universal scale. This has caused fans to craft a theory that is irresistible to believe.
This theory is out there, but not beyond potential considering Richards’ power.
With such a vast amount of power, some fans think that this boy is the reason why none of the characters in Marvel age too much. As a child, he wants everything to stay the way it is so he unconsciously slows down or even stops the aging of characters like Spider-Man.
5 Red Skull Didn’t Perish
Unlike their comic book counterparts, most villains in superhero movies don’t alive for long. Most of the time they meet their demise at their own hands or the heroes end them. Red Skull seemed to fall into the latter category by way of the Tesseract at the end of Captain America: The First Avenger. But fans were convinced that this wasn’t the end for Cap’s eternal nemesis.
Hopefully, this isn’t the last time we see Voldemort’s red cousin here.
In Avengers: Infinity War, their suspicions were confirmed. When Thanos and Gamora travel to the planet holding the Soul Stone, they’re greeted by Red Skull who has been cursed to keep watch over the stone after being teleported to the planet because of the Space Stone.
4 Wolverines Don’t Fly
Wolverine is one of the most durable characters in all of comics. With his near unbreakable adamantium-coated skeleton and healing factor, there should be very little that Logan fears. That makes it surprising that in The Wolverine, Logan hints that he has a fear of flying. Why is that? Well, we have to look back at X-2 for that answer according to this compelling fan theory.
Even unbreakable dogs of war feel pain.
In X-2, the woman Logan loves Jean Grey sacrifices her life to save her friends from an erupting water dam. So in this way, Logan is afraid of flying because of the heights; it just reminds him of the woman he lost.
3 Fantastic Fourever Gone?
The Fantastic Four is a team whose legacy is so underrated by most casual comic book fans. Being the first blockbuster creation of Stan Lee, this foursome should be Marvel royalty, but in 2016 Marvel announced that there would be no more Fantastic Four books. Fans quickly theorized why.
With Disney buying FOX, this should never be a problem again.
With the absolute failure of Fox’s Fant4stic ruining the reputation of the group even worse than the previous series did and since Disney didn’t own the film rights at that point, fans saw Marvel’s move at being a power play to diminish Fox’s films rights. This was confirmed by former Marvel writer Jonathan Hickman and nobody was shocked.
2 The Mutants Were Never Meant To Live
The whole plot of X-Men: Days of Future Past revolves around the heroes’ efforts to stop the Sentinels from being created and eventually bringing about the end of mutantkind. While it seems that their mission was a success, it was ultimately for not as we can in Logan that mutants were wiped out anyway albeit by different means. How did this happen?
According to some fans, the answer lies with Dr. Henry McCoy, a.k.a Beast. In Days of Future Past, McCoy speaks of a quantum physics theory which states even if you try to “fix” something in time, it will always “correct” itself in some fashion. This explains why even when the X-Men won, they lost. You can’t stop the future.
1 Spider-Man’s Baby
One of the most uncomfortable moments in Marvel Comics history came in Amazing Spider-Man 418 when Mary Jane gives birth to her and Peter Parker’s child only for it to appear that the child did not make it. This isn’t the case, however, as an evil nurse working for Norman Osborn takes the baby away and gives it to the Green Goblin. However, we never find out what he did with the child.
Green Goblin does have a history of using children against Spidey.
Osborn claims that the child perished, but why should anyone believe him? The theory goes that the daughter did indeed survive and that Osborn is keeping her a prisoner to one day use against Spider-Man. Given who he is, I find this scenario very likely.
