It’s almost about time to gear up for Avengers 4 (we can finally stop using the colloquial title in a few weeks) with the film set to be released in early-2019. The film is sure to break all box office records in the process and that is all thanks to the precedent set by previous Marvel Cinematic Universe films.
The Avengers movies have always been the culmination of every “Phase” in the MCU and bring together the heroes we see in the individual films. Avengers 4 will be the end of the entire 22-film series that began with Iron Man in 2008. The Avengers has to be the movie that should be pointed out as the film that began the revolutionary success of the MCU. This trend continued with Avengers: Age of Ultron.
From that film onward, every Phase Three film built toward Avengers: Infinity War. All the movies’ plots had something to do with the third Avengers film and these storylines were brought together coherently thanks to the effective storytelling between the events of Age of Ultron and Infinity War.
We can’t claim a lot of the stuff that happened were things you never noticed before because these films are so huge in popularity that just about every Easter egg or interesting tidbit has become common knowledge. However, what we can do is remind you of the most significant happenings between the first and third Avengers films. This will set you up nicely while you wait for Avengers 4 to show up in cinemas.
Here are 25 things that happened between The Avengers and Infinity War.
25 Guardians 1 And 2 Already Happened
Let’s start with events you thought had taken place between the first and third Avengers film but had already played out beforehand. Both Guardians of the Galaxy and Vol. 2 happened well before Avengers: Age of Ultron.
The second Guardians film came out two years after the second Avengers, but the latter was ahead in chronology.
The team had already banded to defeat Ronan and found out about Quill’s parentage. This means the Guardians had saved the galaxy twice before the Avengers saved the Earth for the second time.
24 Doctor Strange Became Sorcerer Supreme
This is a bit of a confusing affair in that Doctor Strange underwent a long journey before he became the Master of the Mystic Arts. The beginning of his film takes place a little bit after Age of Ultron while the events of the movie seem to overlap major films like Civil War and Black Panther.
Strange’s time in training seem to have been a good couple years and by the time Thor comes calling in Ragnarok, Stephen is good to go as a supreme sorcerer.
23 Thor’s Tragedies
Thor had a torrid time between leaving Earth in Age of Ultron and then returning in full in Infinity War. Cap thought the most Thor changed was his hairdo but the God of Thunder had experienced great tragedies before that.
He lost everyone he loved.
Asgard was blown up, Odin passed away, Thor was forced to fight in a gladiatorial planet (held as a prisoner), he had to finish off his sister, and then he lost all the Asgardians as well as his brother. Shame on Steve for assuming the worst Thor endured was a hair trim.
22 The Sokovia Accords
Then again, Thor might be presumptuous himself in thinking Cap and Co. didn’t have their hands full in his time away. While Thor may think Steve grew out his beard to copy him, the poor guy had endured a lot of turmoil thanks to the Sokovia Accords.
Enacted directly as a consequence of the events in Avengers: Age of Ultron, these accords tore down the Avengers themselves and there seemed to only be Tony Stark and James Rhodes in the team by the time Infinity War started.
21 Scott Gains And Loses Ant-Man Suit
Bruce Banner was confused over the existence of an Ant-Man but little did he know that the man had seen a lot of action on his own. Scott Lang had become Ant-Man and lost that title by the time Avengers: Infinity War began.
He regained it once more during Infinity War.
The events of Ant-Man and the Wasp ran concurrently with Avengers 3 and Scott had become equipped with the suit once more within this time. A lot can happen in two years, or just a day in the case of Ant-Man and the Wasp.
20 Captain America Becomes A War Criminal
When it comes to Cap, there’s no appreciation for the guy. He saved the world from certain doom in The First Avenger only to be frozen in ice and have his sacrifice be largely forgotten. Cap then saved the world with the Avengers twice but this was also ignored by focusing on the collateral damage he and his cohorts ended up inflicting.
By Infinity War, we saw him as a war criminal. Indeed, this was highlighted in Spider-Man: Homecoming where it was common knowledge among high school students.
19 Tony Loses And Regains Pepper
It was amazing how long Pepper put with Tony’s shenanigans and dangerous lifestyle for as long as she did, and just when we thought she was never going to leave his side she ended doing just that. In Civil War, the opening revealed that Pepper had had enough of Tony’s erratic personality and backtracking on retiring from the Avengers and broke up with him.
Happily for Mr. Stark, Pepper just couldn’t stay away. By the time Spider-Man: Homecoming had begun, the couple was back together. Homecoming was set only two months after Civil War.
18 Cap And Tony Become Friends, Then Enemies
Although in-universe we were supposed to feel bad for Tony for losing Pepper, the fandom was more distraught over the end of their favorite relationship – Tony and Steve.
These two have a whole lot of “shippers.”
With the tension between the two dissipating away from The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, Tony and Steve were at bro-level when Civil War began; it’s too bad, then, that the film had them squashing their relationship thanks to the Sokovia Accords. They never even had a scene together in Infinity War.
17 Bruce Banner Gets Stuck As Hulk
Phase Three has not been kind on Bruce. He lost the love of Black Widow at the end of Age of Ultron and then had to endure two whole years in the farthest reach of space on Sakaar. Not only that, but Bruce had no control over his body at all during this time period and was stuck in Hulk-form.
Thor: Ragnarok finally gave Bruce a chance to reemerge and take his body back but after a few hours he had to relinquish the hold to the Hulk again. Infinity War began with the Hulk still in control.
16 The Statesman Travels Through Space
So what exactly was Hulk doing when in control of the body? He was on the Statesman along with Thor and the rest of the Asgardians. The ship traveled through space for many months with Earth as its intended location.
The Asgardians had lost everything by this point.
With their home destroyed thanks to Hela, the lone bright spot they had was each other’s company and a safe haven on Earth. Too bad that before the beginning of Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos had located the ship’s coordinates and was ready to do some serious (half) damage.
15 Spider-Man Rejects And Is Then Initiated Into The Avengers
Tony Stark’s flip-flopping nature also had its effects on Peter Parker, as our young Spidey was subject to Mr. Stark’s manner of mentorship. In Civil War, Spider-Man sought to impress Stark so that he could be initiated into the Avengers fully; by Spider-Man: Homecoming, he was fully intent on making this happen.
The ending of that film had Tony backtrack on his earlier rejection of Parker and offer the kid a position in the Avengers. By this point, though, Peter was content with helping out the little guys.
14 Ross Becomes Secretary
Thaddeus Ross is like the Dolores Umbridge of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – he’s not officially in the antagonists’ side but we despise him more than the main villains. It was by Ross’ doing that Bruce had to be on the run for years until The Avengers and he was again a thorn in the heroes’ side in Civil War by spearheading the Sokovia Accords process.
Somehow, this guy became the Secretary of the USA and had more power than before. His influence caused the Avengers to break apart; a fact he was still proud of by Infinity War.
13 Earth Is Destroyed And Then Averted
Not even we watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. much, but the show does have connections with the MCU. In the show’s fifth season, an entire story arc was dedicated to saving the past of the Earth as in the original timeline the Earth had been shattered apart by 2091.
Whatever we saw in Avengers: Infinity War was the new, alternate timeline.
Without Phil Coulson and his teammates, Earth’s heroes would never have been able to defend the planet (unsuccessfully) against Thanos as none of the events originally happened.
12 Wakanda Revealed
In Avengers: Age of Ultron, we got our first mention of Wakanda thanks to Bruce’s terrible pronunciation of the country (Wakinada).
Who would’ve thought by Infinity War we would not only be familiarized with Black Panther, we’d also get to see Wakanda itself?
The technologically revolutionized country was the focus of Black Panther and it wasn’t just us, the viewers, who saw the country, the MCU world was also informed of Wakanda’s true nature by the end of Black Panther. This allowed our heroes to use Wakanda as a sanctuary (unsuccessfully) against Thanos.
11 Ulysses Klau’s Exploits
The person directly responsible for making Wakanda notorious is Ulysses Klau. In Age of Ultron, the titular antagonist bought what was believed to be the last remaining vibranium from Klau; however, Black Panther revealed this to be laughably farther away from the truth.
Klau, meanwhile, used high gadgetry to gift himself a powerful prosthetic arm and continued his efforts in figuring out the entrance to Wakanda and the riches vibranium offered. When all was said and done, it was Erik Killmonger who brought an end to Klau’s life.
10 Fugitive Life For Cap And Black Widow
Not only was Cap a war criminal, but he was also on the run. Starting as a hero, he was reduced to a fugitive. Making things easier for the guy was the presence of his friend Black Widow, who also held a similar status.
It really makes you wonder why Black Widow didn’t just side with Cap in the first place.
She ended up on his team and spent two years in hiding along with Steve. By Infinity War, the world hadn’t seen these two in years and it was only a global invasion that brought them out of hiding.
9 Loki’s Redemption
The perfect arc for a villain was completed in Infinity War with Loki’s demise. You might feel sad that he’s gone but the manner with which his character developed showed perfect storytelling as Loki went from sympathetic antagonist in Thor to psycho-villain in The Avengers and anti-hero in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok.
The latter film turned him fully into a protagonist by its end as Loki realized his love for his brother and sided with him fully. There was nowhere left for him to go other than getting his neck crushed by Thanos.
8 Almost All The Infinity Stones Revealed
We had to wait a long time to gather the location of all the Infinity Stones and unfortunately in between Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers: Infinity War, we still didn’t know the location of all these stones.
Five out of six were revealed.
Between the second and third Avengers films, we found out the Time Stone’s location and capabilities – with the exception of the Soul Stone, every other one had been found before Age of Ultron. It was believed the final stone would be shown before in Thor: Ragnarok or Black Panther, but neither of them featured it.
7 Thanos Springs To Action
Oh yes, the ugly purple freak was off his rocker (literally and figuratively) by the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, but it is unclear when the “I’ll do it myself” scene takes place. From the way things unfolded, it appears Thanos actually said those words shortly before invading Xandar.
Nidavellir was broken into earlier, where the Gauntlet was then forged. So, it’s most likely the Stinger in Age of Ultron was only shortly before Avengers: Infinity War. We had a spoiler in our hands for years and didn’t even know it.
6 Adam Warlock Conceived
This isn’t so much set into stone as it is a high implication. Adam Warlock was set to debut in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but plans were changed after the firing of the film’s director. In the stinger for Vol. 2, Ayesha had already begun plans for Adam Warlock’s conception.
It’s highly unlikely Ayesha didn’t get around to birthing Adam in the three-year gap between Vol. 2 and Infinity War, which means that Warlock was most likely already a born by the time Thanos began acquiring all the Infinity Stones.
