Marvel started one of the biggest film projects in history under one goal: to bring together a shared universe of characters that would lead to an entire brand. For the most part, they have reached unprecedented success. Nowadays, they can create movies like Thor: Ragnarok that have appearances from the Hulk and Doctor Strange on top of the God of Thunder.

However, there are a few downsides to having such a connected universe. Due to creating an overarching story, there are several plot threads that have been left by the wayside in favor of bringing everyone to Earth for the conflict with Thanos. On a smaller scale, there are plot threads that the Marvel TV shows have left hanging as well.

As Marvel churns out more movies in their connected universe, there are still numerous questions that we have about certain characters and subplots. The more time passes, the less hopeful we are that we’ll ever get answers.

Again, the MCU isn’t perfect, and there are still several questions we have about it. Keep reading to see the biggest 20 unresolved plot lines that Marvel has left hanging for years. We need answers!

25 Who Is The Real Mandarin?

Many fans were disappointed with Iron Man 3. This had nothing to do with the overall quality of the film, more so the reveal of the villain. The marketing for the project had led up to the introduction of the Mandarin, one of the biggest Iron Man bad guys, to be this horribly terrifying entity that Stark would have to defeat.

However, it wasn’t long before Stark and Rhodey caught up with the Mandarin to realize that he was just an actor playing a terrorist. As it turned out, Aldrich Killian was supposedly the Mandarin. Then it was revealed in the “All Hail the King” short that the real Mandarin actually existed, though he has yet to appear in the MCU. What’s the point of establishing this other than to appease jaded fans?

24 Take Us To The Leader

When it comes to their movies, Marvel has seemingly left The Incredible Hulk by the wayside. After its fairly poor reception, they recast the character for The Avengers and are doing different things with the green giant. As such, many threads opened in The Incredible Hulk have never been answered and have, instead, disappeared into the void.

The virtual friend that Banner had during the film, Samuel Sterns, got a bit of radiation on his forehead.

The result was that his head became a bit elongated and that was the last we ever saw of him. This is a nod to the comics, as Sterns became a psychological villain known as the Leader. Perhaps that was the plan if The Incredible Hulk was successful enough to spawn other movies.

23 Red Skull Through Time

The Red Skull was the lord of HYDRA and had big plans to take over the world. Being greater than even Hitler himself, his technology and scientific knowledge shadowed everything that came before him. Then there was the introduction of Captain America, who eventually proved powerful enough to best the disfigured villain in combat.

That said, Captain America never eliminated the Red Skull.

Instead, HYDRA’s boss had the Tesseract in his hands, but it opened a space portal that the skull was sucked through. Due to what we know about the Tesseract, this is by no means confirmation that Red Skull perished in this event. For all we know, he could be alive and on another planet, biding his time.

22 What Became Of Stark Industries?

From the very start, it was clear that Tony Stark wasn’t entirely sure how to run his father’s company. This led him to give Pepper Potts the CEO spot in Iron Man 2. Since then, Stark Industries has been in a fairly weird spot. They no longer make weapons, and Tony seems much more concerned with what the Avengers are doing and how he can protect the world with his Iron Man armor.

In Spider-Man: Homecoming, we see that Tony has sold Avengers/Stark Tower and moved everything to that Avengers facility in Upstate New York. Does this mean that Stark Industries is no more and Tony has officially rebranded himself as the man behind the Avengers? Perhaps we’re looking into this far too deeply.

21 Loki Should Be Deceased

Loki was the only interesting villain to come out of Marvel’s Phase 1. Contending with his brother Thor in a plot that would eventually lead him to become the King of Asgard, he failed, as most villains do. Thor bested his brother by destroying the Rainbow Bridge, and the two of them ended up hanging on for their lives.

Odin came to their rescue, but Loki refused to be saved.

He let go of Thor and fell into the spacial void, never to be seen again. However, the end credits scene revealed that Loki was, in fact, alive and somehow had made his way to Earth and Erik Selvig. How did he survive that fall? We don’t know. How did he seemingly take control of Selvig? We’re not sure of that either.

20 Where Is Betty Ross?

Every macho superhero has to have their leading lady. For Bruce Banner, it was Betty Ross, the daughter of the military official who had a hand in his creation. Because the two men don’t get along, Bruce and Betty’s relationship is largely kept in secret. Yet, it was sweet to see the two interact and have to keep in mind the Hulk persona.

However, like most of the other characters from The Incredible Hulk, we don’t hear from Betty Ross again after the film.

When Banner later reappears in The Avengers, she isn’t even mentioned by name. We later get to see Thunderbolt Ross make a return in Captain America: Civil War, but Betty Ross still manages to fly under the radar, and Hulk is left to fall in love with Black Widow.

19 How Did Xandar Recover?

After taking the Infinity Stone for himself, Ronan the Accuser become infused with so much power that he could destroy an entire planet simply by touching it. Taking his own twisted sense of justice in his hands, he waged an all-out assault on the planet of Xandar, seeking to destroy it once and for all.

While the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Ravagers, and the Xandarians, all managed to hold him back, there were a lot of casualties along the way. Many of the city’s buildings were destroyed, as well as the large majority of the Xandarian Nova Corps. However, the Infinity Stone was kept in Xandar for safe-keeping, but how are they in the position to do this? We never get an answer as to how they managed to rebuild, either, as Xandar didn’t appear in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.

18 The Rise Of Baron Mordo

Doctor Strange was an interesting movie about how some people are willing to go against the laws they establish in order to protect those they love. When it was revealed that the Ancient One had drawn power from the Dark Dimension and Doctor Strange had snatched the Eye of Agamotto to use in the battle against Kaecilius, his colleague Mordo was disillusioned.

At the end of the film, he decided to leave the Sanctum and forge his own path.

During the second end credit scene, we see him going to a man who had magical abilities and removing them. Being tired of how people have abused magic, he is now taking it away from those who were blessed enough to use it. Clearly, he is going to cause problems in the future, but we don’t know how yet. Doctor Strange 2 hasn’t even been announced.

17 Dormammu

The magic users in the MCU can draw their power from different sources, and the Ancient One and Kaecilius chose to draw theirs from the Dark Dimension. However, there is one who rules over the Dark Dimension and has a plan to return to the world and conquer it for all time. His name is Dormammu, and he is one of Doctor Strange’s most powerful foes.

In the film, Doctor Strange bests this interdimensional titan not by beating him, but by outsmarting him. Using a timeloop, he makes it so he continuously comes back to “bargain” with Dormammu. After being defeated an innumerable amount of times, Dormammu agrees to leave just to have it end. However, we know that Dormammu must be fought at some point. Perhaps he’ll be the big bad in Phase 4?

16 Where Is Nick Fury?

To build the superhero team known as the Avengers, there had to be someone in charge of bringing them all together. That man was Nick Fury, the director of SHIELD. After having a small hand in all of the Phase 1 Marvel movies, he was a big part of The Avengers. He wanted to put together a team to fight the battles that no one else ever could.

Since then, Nick Fury has been shoved to the wayside.

He had a major role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but that’s about it. He later reappeared for a bit during Avengers: Age of Ultron, but we haven’t heard from him since. Fury hasn’t been featured in Phase 3 at all and is confirmed to not be in Infinity War. He’ll appear in Captain Marvel, but that movie takes place in the past. Where is Nick Fury then?

15 The Fate Of Asgard

In order to defeat the Goddess of Death, Thor, Loki, Valkyrie, Hulk, and Heimdall, all gave it their best shot. However, Hela proved to still be too strong and was ready to fight everyone on Asgard. To solve this problem, Thor had Loki awaken the Fire Demon known as Surtur to bring about the prophesied Ragnarok as a way of destroying Hela in the process.

The plan worked, and Hela, Surtur, and Asgard, all perished in a fiery explosion. Thor was left with the entire city of Asgard on a Sakaaran ship. Their plan is to travel to Earth and build a new life there, but we’re starting to think that they never get there if the end credits are anything to go by. Will Thanos destroy all of Asgard?

14 Is The Winter Soldier In His Right Mind?

Bucky Barnes has had a rough life. After falling a great distance in the line of duty, he was found by Arnim Zola and experimented on for years. Somehow, he managed to survive and was rebuilt into a soldier that would carry out HYDRA’s will. Dubbed the “Winter Soldier,” he became one of the greatest soldiers in history.

That said, Captain America has been there to help out his old friend.

At the end of Captain America: Civil War, he managed to save Bucky and they were granted refuge in the African nation of Wakanda. Winter Soldier was placed in some machine and kept silent. We know that he’ll play a part in Infinity War, though. Does this mean that he’ll be free of HYDRA’s programming by then?

13 The Collector’s Gallery

The Collector has a special knack for finding interesting things throughout the galaxy. Not only has he collected creatures like Cosmo the Space Dog and Howard the Duck, but he is a lover of mysterious relics and artifacts, which led him to the special orb that contained an Infinity Stone.

Unfortunately for him, one of his servants managed to grab the all-powerful object and blasted the Collector’s gallery into smithereens. At the end credits scene of Guardians of the Galaxy, we see the Collector sitting in the destruction. After that point, we’re not sure what happens to him, though. We do get to see his brother, the Grandmaster, during Thor: Ragnarok, but that’s about it.

12 Tony And Pepper

Tony Stark has had an interesting relationship with his hired servant, Pepper Potts. Being in the same house for ages, the two started to form a connection when Tony began flying around in the Iron Man suit and nearly dissolving his entire company.

It wasn’t long before the two ended up becoming romantically involved.

During the start of Captain America: Civil War, though, it’s revealed that Tony and Pepper had some sort of falling out. Yet, at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, we see that the two have been back together. What happened that ended their relationship? Will they stay together? Will there be some sort of wedding for Tony? None of us know and Marvel isn’t telling us.

11 How Did The Sovereign Find Nebula

Gamora has a deep love for her sister, as they shared the bonds of both being altered by Thanos. At the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, Gamora tried to get her sister to join them, but it didn’t work. She stole a Ravager’s ship and flew off into deep space, never to be seen again.

At the start of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, a few months later, the Sovereign have already captured Nebula and they bring her to the team. However, we’re not sure how the Sovereign found Nebula so quickly. On top of that, Nebula leaves again at the end of the film, but she’ll have to return for Infinity War, being the daughter of Thanos, so how is she going to come back? Only time will tell.

10 Matt Survived A Lot of Rubble

Matthew Murdock is a character who has always tried to do the right thing even at the expense of his own life. Unfortunately, this is what led him to fight Elektra while Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones, all got out of the ancient cave hidden deep under New York. He told Iron Fist to protect Hell’s Kitchen in his absence, knowing full well that his battle would end in his demise.

As he and Elektra battled, the cave started to collapse all around them as the bombs went off.

Eventually, they decided to embrace and share a kiss at the end of it all. That wasn’t the end of Matthew Murdock, though. The last part of The Defenders showed him being taken care of by a group of nuns. He somehow survived that explosion, but how?

9 Agent Coulson’s Survival

Agent Coulson was the glue that brought the original Avengers together, appearing in nearly every Phase 1 movie. Because of this, he ended up being the motivation that Earth’s Mightiest Heroes needed in order to work together and bring an end to Loki and his Chitauri invasion on New York.

Loki ended up eliminating the agent, which sent everyone into a sad rampage. However, Agent Coulson would later reappear in the MCU as the lead in Agents of SHIELD. It took several episodes before they explained how he managed to survive Loki’s attack, but it arguably left many of us more confused than when we went in.

8 Thunderbolt Ross As The Secretary

Thunderbolt Ross has a complicated history in the MCU. He first appeared in its second film, The Incredible Hulk as one of the people trying to contain Bruce Banner. However, he seemingly disappeared at the end of the movie after having a brief conversation with Tony Stark.

That said, it wouldn’t be the last we see of him.

He would return to the MCU in Captain America: Civil War as the Secretary of State assigned to making sure that the Avengers are made responsible for their actions. What Marvel has failed to explain is how Ross still managed to keep his credibility after the “Hulk” incident to be considered for such a prestigious government position.

7 Captain America And Sharon Carter

Steve Rogers gave up a lot in service for his country. Among them was a hot date with one his fellow military operatives, Agent Peggy Carter. Unfortunately, he was caught in a plane crash and was frozen solid for decades. By the time he came back into the world, Peggy Carter was extremely old and passed away in Captain America: Civil War.

However, that didn’t stop Rogers from forming other connections. Introduced in Winter Soldier was Agent 13, otherwise known as Sharon Carter (Peggy’s great niece). In Civil War, the two managed to share a kiss before going their separate ways. Considering that Cap had to leave the country, we’re left wondering what’s going to happen with their relationship.

6 Fighting The Dragon

Netflix’s Iron Fist is easily the most underwhelming of the Marvel Netflix shows. It stars Danny Rand, who trained in the mystical realm of Kun Lun and defeated the dragon Shao Lou in battle in order to become the Immortal Iron Fist. That was the pinnacle of his character in the comics, but the show didn’t want to show that interpretation.

Unfortunately, fans who wanted to see how Danny beat Shao Lou would have to wait a little longer. Shao Lou wasn’t featured in the Iron Fist TV show and we were never shown its battle with Danny Rand. Considering how many times Danny got beat throughout the show, it’s difficult for us to believe that he eliminated a dragon with his bare fists.