The Marvel Cinematic Universe really shouldn’t work. It’s too big and too complicated with too many different moving parts that need to be kept in the air at all times. In order to make it work you need a cinematic juggler as good as Kevin Feige to keep all the pieces where they need to be — and you need very important scenes that, especially in the MCU’s beginning, helped to ground the reality of this heightened world.
In our latest Marvel video, we take a look at one of those scenes — maybe the single most important scene in the 15+ history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It comes from 2012’s The Avengers, and it was the moment that brought everything that the MCU could be together for the very first time. See the scene, and learn why it was so vitally important to everything Marvel has done ever since, below:
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If you liked that breakdown of the one scene that made the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe work, check out more of our videos below, including one on all of Marvel’s teases of their upcoming TV slate from New York Comic-Con, one on the MCU characters that might get erased or reset during Avengers: Secret Wars, and one on the untold story of Doctor Doom and Kang. Plus, there’s tons more videos over at ScreenCrush’s YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe to catch all our future episodes. The next big Marvel multiverse movie, Avengers: Doomsday , is scheduled to open in theaters on December 18, 2026.
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Gallery Credit: Erica Russell