But with predictability comes both comfort and diminishing returns. Fans know exactly what to expect—expository scenes disguised as jokes, a training montage that lasts just long enough to suggest character growth, a climactic battle where the stakes are high but the consequences are fleeting. These movies have mastered the art of making audiences feel like something huge is happening while ensuring that nothing actually changes. Even death itself is a revolving door. The formula works, but as the MCU continues to expand, the question lingers: how long can a story stay engaging when it’s always following the same script?
14Opening with a Flashback or Prologue
FromIron Man’s Afghanistan captivity scene toGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2opening with a de-aged Kurt Russell in the ’80s, every MCU movie begins by rewinding the clock. Sometimes it’s an origin story told in miniature, likeDoctor Strange’s opening car crash, or an emotional setup that will pay off later, like theheartbreak ofCaptain America: Civil War’s Bucky reveal. Other times, it’s a history lesson, an attempt to reframe what we thought we knew (Eternals’ cosmic backstory,Black Panther’s Oakland prologue). The first few minutes of any Marvel movie rarely start in the present day, because the MCU thrives on laying track before it lets the audience get comfortable.
The Past is Prologue (and Also an Easter Egg)
This isn’t just about storytelling—it’s about world-building. The MCU’s ever-expanding narrative means that each movie isn’t just setting up its own plot; it’s retrofitting its own continuity into an already massive framework. Flashbacks give the illusion of depth, making new characters feel entrenched in a history that the franchise is constructing in real-time. It’s a strategy that works, because nothing feels more satisfying than realizing a seemingly throwaway prologue was actually setting up a major third-act twist. But it also means that the MCU is constantly writing over itself, revising its own canon as it goes. Every new movie doesn’t just add to the story—it rewrites the past.
13A Quippy Introduction to the Hero
Tony Stark is testing a missile inIron Manwhile cracking jokes with the military, just before his life falls apart. Star-Lord tries—and fails—to make his name stick inGuardians of the Galaxywhile dancing through an alien landscape. Even inThor, where you might expect an Asgardian grand entrance, the God of Thunder’s first real scene is him smirking through a brutal battle, all ego and bravado. No matter the setting, no matter the stakes, every MCU protagonistenters their own movie with a one-liner locked and loaded.
Charm First, Character Later
This isn’t just about making the hero likable—it’s about making them immediately distinct. The MCU formula hinges on every character having their own “thing”: Tony is snarky, Thor is self-important, Peter Parker is awkwardly endearing. That first scene is designed to communicate everything you need to know about them in under a minute, and humor is the quickest way to make an impression. But the downside of this approach is that it often flattens characters into easily digestible archetypes. A quippy entrance is fun, but when every hero starts the same way, it risks making them interchangeable. The formula works, but only because audiences have been conditioned to expect it.
12Exposition Dump Disguised as Banter
“Okay, so let me get this straight…” is the unofficial catchphrase of the MCU. Whether it’s Tony Stark rattling off a technobabble explanation for time travel inAvengers: Endgame,Rocket Raccoon exasperatedly breaking down the rulesof an intergalactic prison inGuardians of the Galaxy, or Doctor Strange narrating his own crash course in sorcery, Marvel movies love delivering essential plot details under the guise of rapid-fire dialogue. These scenes are usually dressed up with humor, delivered at a pace just fast enough that the audience doesn’t have time to question the logic—or realize they’re being spoon-fed everything they need to know.
Infodumps, But Make It Fun
The MCU has perfected the art of making exposition feel like entertainment. It’s a delicate balance: explaining the stakes without grinding the momentum to a halt. Instead of dramatic monologues or tedious voiceovers, Marvel movies make their characters argue, joke, or get interrupted mid-sentence. It’s a clever tactic, but it also reveals how much these films rely on efficiency over exploration. When everything is delivered in neatly packaged quips, there’s little room for ambiguity or quiet contemplation. The formula works, but it also means that the MCU’s version of complexity is more about speed than depth.
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11A Villain with a Vague Grievance
For all its strengths, the MCU has a villain problem. Some exceptions—Killmonger, Thanos, Loki—have clear, compelling motivations, but for every great antagonist, there’s at least one who feels like they were given a motivation by a committee. Think Malekith inThor: The Dark World, whose entire deal is… darkness? Or Ronan the Accuser inGuardians of the Galaxy, who’s mad about a peace treaty we never really learn about. Even the morepersonal villains, like Darren Cross inAnt-Man, often boil down to “angry former colleague with daddy issues.” MCU antagonists tend to want destruction for reasons that sound compelling in trailers but don’t hold up under scrutiny.
Sympathetic, But Not Too Complicated
The MCU knows that audiences like villains with a point, but it’s never willing to let that point overshadow the hero’s arc. That’s why so many of these antagonists have grievances that are just understandable enough to create a solid conflict, but vague enough that the audience never seriously considers rooting for them. It’s a careful dance between making villains memorable and ensuring they don’t upstage the protagonist. And while the formula can feel repetitive, it works—because a great villain isn’t necessary when the real star of the movie is the franchise itself.
10A Surprise Celebrity Cameo
Maybe it’s Matt Damon playing Fake Loki inThor: Ragnarok. Maybe it’s Harry Styles appearing out of nowhere inEternals, or Charlize Theron showing up at the end ofDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnesslike we were supposed to know who Clea was. Whether it’s anA-lister stopping by for a quick jokeor a megastar setting up the next phase of the MCU, these movies have turned cameos into an art form. The best ones work because they catch audiences off guard (Michael Keaton inMorbius—just kidding, that one didn’t work at all), offering a jolt of surprise in a franchise that otherwise follows a rigid structure.
The Thrill of the Meta-Wink
These cameos aren’t just for fun—they’re strategic. They generate instant buzz, ensuring that even casual fans who skipped the movie will hear about it on social media. They also reinforce the MCU’s interconnectivity, making every film feel like a piece of a larger puzzle. But there’s a downside: when audiences start expecting these moments, they lose their impact. When every film ends with a new celebrity walking in like they own the place, it stops being exciting and starts feeling like a contractual obligation. The formula works, but only as long as the surprises still feel surprising.
9A Sidekick Who Steals the Show
For a franchise supposedly centered on superheroes, the MCU has a tendency to make its supporting characters way more interesting than its leads. Korg inThor: Ragnarokis funnier than Thor. Wong inDoctor Strangeis cooler than Strange.Yelena inBlack Widowis effortlessly charismaticin a way that makes Natasha look like a straight man in her own film. And then there’s Luis inAnt-Man, who delivers an entire expository subplot through rapid-fire storytelling that instantly became the highlight of the movie.
The Scene-Stealer Strategy
Marvel sidekicks serve two main functions: they keep the exposition entertaining, and they make sure the protagonist doesn’t take themselves too seriously. The MCU thrives on humor, and often, the main hero has too much of a character arc to carry the comedic load alone. Side characters are free from the burden of development—they don’t have to grow, they just have to be entertaining. And because these movies are built on crowd-pleasing moments, it’s no surprise that some of the most enduring MCU characters aren’t the heroes, but the people making fun of them from the sidelines.
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8A Major City Gets Destroyed
The MCU has an unspoken rule: no metropolis is safe. Whether it’s New York getting invaded by alien hordes inThe Avengers, Washington D.C. under siege inCaptain America: The Winter Soldier, or Sokovia literally being lifted into the sky before crashing back down inAvengers: Age of Ultron, city-wide destruction is practically a contractual obligation. Even smaller-scale films, likeShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,eventually escalate to massive, CGI-heavy devastation(Shang-Chistarts as a martial arts epic and ends with an entire hidden village getting torn apart by soul-sucking dragons). Marvel movies may claim to be about superheroes saving people, but they sure do love leveling urban centers.
The Bigger the Boom, the Less It Matters
City-wide destruction is a cheap way to generate stakes without having to kill off major characters. But the MCU’s real trick is making this destruction feel thrilling rather than traumatic. UnlikeMan of Steel, which was criticized for making its massive carnage feel too real, the MCU treats its devastation as a backdrop for heroics—something for its protagonists to pose in front of rather than truly reckon with. Sure,Civil Wartries to introduce consequences by making the Sokovia disaster a plot point, but byInfinity WarandEndgame, mass destruction has been so normalized that half the universe getting wiped out barely registers as a tragedy. The formula works because audiences have learned not to ask too many questions about what happens to all those civilians after the credits roll.
7The “We’re Not So Different” Scene
At some point, the hero and the villain will have their moment of forced intimacy—the scene where theantagonist leans in and delivers the classic “you and I aren’t so different”monologue. Loki does it with Thor. Vulture does it with Peter Parker in the car scene fromSpider-Man: Homecoming. Killmonger, who actuallyhasa point, spends most ofBlack Pantherexplaining how T’Challa’s privileged position blinds him to the world’s suffering. Even Thanos gets in on it, trying to convince the Avengers that his universe-wide genocide is just a pragmatic solution to overpopulation. The hero, of course, always rejects the premise—but the conversation is inevitable.
The Illusion of Moral Complexity
This scene serves a crucial function: it gives the villain the illusion of depth. The best antagonists are reflections of the hero, and the MCU tries (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) to make its villains more than just mustache-twirling bad guys. The problem is that these moments are often the only real attempt at nuance before the third act devolves into a CGI brawl. The formula works because it tricks the audience into thinking they’re watching something morally complex, when in reality, the villain will always be cartoonishly wrong and the hero will always be righteously victorious. And because the MCU doesn’t do ambiguity, these scenes rarely linger—just long enough to suggest depth before returning to the action.
6The MacGuffin That Will Change Everything
It’s a glowing cube (The Tesseract). No, wait—it’s an all-powerful gauntlet (The Infinity Gauntlet). Or maybe it’s a super-serum (Captain America), an all-powerful book (Doctor Strange), or a vaguely defined AI (Age of Ultron). The MCU runs on MacGuffins, objects of immense power that must be protected, retrieved, or destroyed before they fall into the wrong hands. Sometimes these MacGuffins matter (Infinity Stones), and sometimes they’re just there to move the plot along (The Orb fromGuardians of the Galaxy, which is just another Infinity Stone, but in a different shape). Either way, they’re always treated asthe most important thing in the universe—until they’re not.
The Illusion of High Stakes
MacGuffins give the audience something to focus on while the characters go through the motions of the formula. They’re a narrative shortcut, allowing screenwriters to build stakes without actually having to develop them. And because the MCU is structured as an interconnected universe, these objects don’t just matter for one movie—they’re part of a larger mythology, ensuring that even themost minor trinketcouldturn out to be world-altering(looking at you, Pym Particles). The formula works because it creates the illusion of weight, even when these objects are mostly just plot devices. After all, the only thing better than a MacGuffin is the next MacGuffin waiting in the post-credits scene.
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5The Obligatory “We Need a Plan” Scene
There’s a moment in nearly every MCU film where the main characters gather in a dimly lit room, around a hologram or whiteboard, to talk strategy. Maybe Tony Stark is pacing and gesturing wildly (Avengers), maybe Star-Lord is riffing about how 12% of a plan still counts (Guardians of the Galaxy), or maybe Scott Lang is struggling to keep up while the real geniuses figure things out (Endgame). The scene usually starts with tension—someone is skeptical,someone else is cracking jokes, and no one is entirely sure the plan will work. But after a rousing speech or an emotionally charged moment of unity, the team is ready to go.
The Illusion of Chaos Before the Precision of Action
These scenes exist for two reasons: they make the heroes feel fallible, and they inject humor into the high-stakes finale. The MCU thrives on characters who seem like they’re making things up as they go, even when the plan miraculously unfolds with perfect choreography in the third act. The formula works because it creates the illusion that the outcome is uncertain—except it never really is. The good guys always figure it out, the audience never doubts them for too long, and by the time the plan is put into motion, it barely resembles the conversation that preceded it. The planning scene isn’t really about the plan—it’s about making sure the audience feels involved before the CGI takes over.
