The Marvel Cinematic Universe has become so big that the word “universe” now truly applies. There are so many characters, worlds, multiverses, and magic MacGuffins to keep track of that it can be difficult for even the biggest fan to keep everything straight. In fact, the MCU has so many characters that many of them have been introduced, only to have nothing else to do since. An internet user recently pointed that out and, afterwards, fans didn't hold back their thoughts.
A tweet recently went viral for spotlighting what it called the “current MCU trend" of introducing new characters in big and important ways, only to have them disappear from the narrative. This included Harry Styles' appearance as Eros and Brett Goldstein’s debut as Hercules among others…
I love the current MCU trend of dramatically revealing new characters that we will absolutely never see again pic.twitter.com/fjthxsGBQaJanuary 13, 2025
The post clearly struck a nerve, as it has been viewed nearly six million times at time of writing. And, to be fair, it’s not wrong. Nothing has happened with these characters since their initial introductions, despite some of them appearing years ago. And they’re not the only ones, as some of the comments have added others to the list…
pic.twitter.com/jDrAjUB8alJanuary 13, 2025
It would be easy to forget that some of these characters even made appearances in the MCU. Both Hercules and Eros appeared during post-credits sequences, as did the scene that confirmed that Kit Harrington's Dane Whitman would be the Black Knight. Hulk’s son, Skaar, also made a brief appearance at the end of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law but in a blink-and-you-’ll-miss-it sort of way. One X user claimeg they didn't (and still don't) even know who these characters are:
No idea who any of these characters are, other than pay days for good actors. and harry styles.
It seems clear that the MCU may be a bit overstuffed. These characters debut, but then all the films that have been released since are about other characters, so there’s no place to continue these stories. This is too bad because at least one fans clearly want to see some of these characters again. Check out what another X user said…
To be fair, Black Knight is awesome and Kit Harington would kill the role if they had a halfway decent script.
In the case of Kit Harrington’s Black Knight, it feels like there was at least a plan to use him in the upcoming Blade movie, as we heard the voice of Mahershala Ali in the post-credits scene of Eternals. However, since Blade has seen delay after delay, nothing has ever come of it.
With the others, however, it feels like characters were quickly introduced just to have them on hand if and when they’d be needed. And some of the fans responding to the original post are just fine if we never see these characters again. Another X user said...
There’s nobody here that I actually want to see again.
Of course, it should be said that introducing characters only to not use them, or not use them for a long time, as pointed out by another fan on X. As with so many characters from The Incredible Hulk finally returning in Captain America: Brave New World, we’ve had instances of characters being dormant for extended periods since the early days of the MCU. The aforementioned fan said...
Man the first phases of the MCU would’ve been slandered to death of this is how people are acting. The amount of characters teased who didn’t show up till much later was staggering.
There are certainly a lot of open plot threads in the MCU and a lot of characters who haven’t had much to do. Perhaps some of them will appear in the next Avengers movie or in some other future project. All we can say is there are certainly still plenty of players on the board.
In the meantime, use a Disney+ subscription to stream the various Marvel movies and TV shows in which these briefly introduced characters appeared.
