Five years since Thanos snapped away half the universe in Avengers: Infinity War, Marvel Studios needs to decide what to do with the MCU’s Blip.
Marvel Studios needs to decide what stories to tell about the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s five-year Blip. Avengers: Infinity War saw the Mad Titan, Thanos, complete his mission of collecting all six Infinity Stones, decimating half the population of the universe, and leaving the future of some of the MCU’s most iconic heroes unclear. Avengers: Endgame picked up five years later, and showed some of the effects of Thanos’ snap in its opening scenes, leading the remaining Avengers on their Time Heist mission to bring back their lost loved ones. Dubbed the Blip in Spider-Man: Far From Home, Marvel Studios has curiously avoided directly exploring the five-year gap in the timeline.
The MCU’s Phase 4 dealt with a lot of the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame and the end of the Infinity Saga. This included showing small glimpses of the effects of the MCU’s Blip, like seeing Monica Rambeau return to a chaotic hospital in WandaVision, the implementation of the GRC in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Yelena Belova returning in Hawkeye, and Scott Lang questioning his lost time with Cassie in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. However, the wider effects of the five-year Blip, and a lot of the events that occurred during the Blip, have been all but ignored in the MCU, which poses a problem for Marvel Studios.
The MCU Needs To Either Embrace Or Move On From The Blip
Half the population of the universe disappearing for five years would have a monumental effect on society, which would last for decades after the catastrophe, but the world MCU has practically gone back to normal very quickly following Avengers: Endgame. A few scenes in the MCU’s Phase 4 have touched on the Blip, but the fact that the Blip hasn’t been investigated fully is only made weirder by these small moments. Marvel Studios should either dive deeper into the Blip and fully embrace it as a key moment in the MCU timeline, or move on completely and allow audiences’ imaginations to fill in the gaps.
How The MCU Can Finally Do The Blip Justice
Since the introduction of long-form TV series into the MCU on Disney+, rumors have been circulating about a possible series set during the five-year Blip. While this speculation hasn’t been substantiated by Marvel Studios, a Disney+ series set during the Blip would be the perfect way to show the magnitude of the event, and deal with the direct consequences of Thanos’ actions on society, the non-superhero world, and the inner world of the MCU’s heroes. There are five years missing from the MCU’s current timeline, as only the end of the Blip was explored during Avengers: Endgame, so Marvel Studios has a wealth of opportunities when developing a Blip-focused series.
Black Widow proved that retrospective adventures for the MCU’s established superheroes don’t exactly go to plan, but a Disney+ series set during the Blip could work to introduce new heroes who would perhaps be more relevant to the present-day society of the MCU. This sort of series could also fit well within the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Multiverse Saga, as it’s assumed that the battle against Kang the Conqueror will feature some time travel escapades, which could see the Avengers landing during the Blip. Either way, Marvel Studios needs to stop skirting round the Blip, and instead put the tragic period in Earth’s history directly in the spotlight.
