The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been around since 2008 and has now reached 24 movies with Black Widow as well as three MCU series with WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki all having premiered so far in 2021. Perhaps it was inevitable then that as this unique series continues, its characters would be drawn into the mythology not only through their actions, but through actively reviewing what’s happened in Marvel films prior. We’ve already seen how the importance of previous MCU entries factor into the storylines Marvel is now crafting, and as the MCU continues to expand, it stands to reason this trope will continue as it provides a foundation for the storytelling Marvel seeks to accomplish.
This new trend first showed up in WandaVision where Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) and Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) talk about the events of Avengers: Endgame as if they had actually watched Endgame. This was a bit of a misstep on Marvel’s part because there was no way anyone could have known (other than an off-screen transfer of information of how the battle went down) that Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) almost tore Thanos (Josh Brolin) apart singlehandedly. Sure, it’s an important piece of information to note how powerful Wanda is, but it was a matter of characters citing a prior MCU event that they weren’t personally a part of, and yet they knew because it leads into why it’s important for MCU characters to actually view MCU movies.
Marvel course-corrected with Loki where Loki literally watched old MCU entries including ones the 2012 Variant (Tom Hiddleston) hasn’t personally experienced, such as the death of his mother Freya (Rene Russo) in Thor: The Dark World, his bonding with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) in Thor: Ragnarok, and his own death at the hands of Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. These are events that we’ve already witnessed, but now a character within the MCU has a chance to witness them as a way to convince him of his own path and what the future holds. The MCU is so important that it changes a character’s direction and convinces him that his own “glorious purpose” would lead to nothing but defeat and death.
And the latest instance comes with Black Widow villain Taskmaster. Taskmaster’s ability is that it can mimic any fighting style it sees, and wouldn’t you know it, it has watched all of the Avengers. It is basically the “I understood that reference,” of characters as it trots out moves from Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Black Panther among others. On the one hand, it’s a nice touch that Taskmaster has no identity of its own but must copy the Avengers for how to even fight, a nod to how thoroughly the true identity of the masked fighter has been subsumed. But again, to understand this villain, you have to understand the MCU.
That’s not to say that the MCU is necessarily becoming “meta.” No character is remarking on how this is a valuable series of stories that serves the corporate welfare of the The Walt Disney Corporation. Yes, the MCU has been trotting out jokes about itself for some time now, but having characters literally watch old MCU movies is a new level of self-adoration for this series. Sure, it also informs viewers about these movies, but it also provides a level of incentive to go back and watch or re-watch these efforts. Want to better understand Loki? Sorry, gotta see Thor: The Dark World. Want to know where Taskmaster got its moves? Better pop on Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Will this kind of self-referential and self-reverential trope start to grate? Possibly! But for now, it’s hard to argue that the success of the MCU hasn’t been well-earned (when you’re consistently knocking out movies that make over a billion dollars worldwide, you have to be doing something with mass appeal), and if they want to make characters watching the MCU part of their victory lap, it’s not the worst thing in the world. So far, they’ve been able to make it a sturdy part of the plot and character development, and so if that means every character in the MCU also having a Disney+ subscription, so be it.