[EDITORS NOTE: With this article please welcome writer Steve Ricketts to the #family. Steve will be stirring up MCU, movie and all sorts of other trouble for us here at That Hashtag Show.]
Pretty much since the credits rolled on opening night of Avengers: Infinity War, fans have speculated about every aspect of the next Avengers movie. Are our favorite heroes really dead? What will the next Avengers movie be called? Did everything really happen or was it all a dream that Thanos had while still on Vormir? However, as we approach the countdown from months to only weeks away from the opening of Avengers: Endgame, the analysis and theories have become almost comical. That begs the question: do we as MCU fans over-theorize and analyze to the point we suck the fun out of the movie itself?
Like all MCU fans, I too am curious how the ending of Infinity War will be resolved. The Internet is full of fan theories ranging from the very probable to the ridiculously absurd. On one end of the spectrum you have theories that could carry some weight. The Avengers will time travel in Endgame, for example. Another is that Iron Man dies in space. The most logical? Captain America will sacrifice himself.
Does Fan Theorizing Remove the Fun From the MCU?
Those MCU fan theories are all well and good. But… at the other end of that spectrum? Well, there are gems like “Goose the cat will save everyone” (unlikely). A prominent theory is that Loki isn’t dead, but is pretending to be Bruce Banner (possible, but not probable). And, of course, there’s the theory that Ant-Man will kill Thanos in Endgame by crawling up his anus. (Yes, that last one is a real theory, feel free to Google it if you dare.)
I even watched a sixteen-minute video analyzing the changes in Black Widow’s hair. In it they focused on MCU time lines that must occur based on her hair color and the length. Just this week I saw a side by side breakdown of Peter Parker’s hair in Infinity War when he turned to dust next to his Endgame poster. People are analyzing hair!
I don’t know which, or if any, of these theories or analysis will end up being correct. What I do know is that is half the fun of being an MCU fan is getting to let your imagination run wild. You get to be part of a community where everyone wants to let the movie live on months after it was released. So, to answer the question, I am sure to the casual or non-fan we spend way too much time analyzing and theorizing. On that basis we might possibly ruin the movie. However, I think this is what drew us in with comic books as kids in the first place. It certainly keeps us coming back to the movies.
So are fans sucking the fun out of the MCU? Nah.
Avengers: Endgame opens April 26, 2019.
