Theories, headcanons, predictions – whatever you want to call them, fans always have them. Whenever we’re presented with a fandom we like to make guesses (sometimes wild ones) about what really happened or what’s going to happen next. When the truth is revealed to us we tend to do one of 3 things:

Celebrate about how close our predictions were (if we were correct) Live in complete denial and insist that our theory was better than the reality Cut our loses if we were wrong and just pretend like we didn’t make those ridiculously far off guesses

I find the last tactic the most amusing since we can be so certain of our theories and then disregard them completely when we’re proven terribly, horribly wrong to avoid embarrassment. But the internet lives forever, my friends, and you can’t always escape the past. Marvel fan theories are some of my favourites because they can become so intricate and widely accepted. With Age of Ultron coming out I thought I’d dig around and look back at some formerly popular fan theories to remember just how wrong we were.

Coulson is the Vision

After Coulson died in The Avengers, people starting predicting that he was actually the Vision (or… would become the Vision?). It was a pretty common theory when it came to the #CoulsonLives movement. I’ll admit I got the whole robotic thing and thought he was at least a Life Model Decoy, but apart from the shape of his head I saw no resemblance or reason for this Vision connection. Now that Paul Bettany is playing this very character in Age of Ultron, the theory is finally falling out of favour but wow, people were really standing by this one a few years ago.

Jane Foster dies in Thor 2

But she didn’t. Instead, Frigga had to die to “further the story” or some such nonsense. Because Thor and Loki couldn’t work together unless they bonded over something so let’s kill off the Queen of Asgard just as she’s getting her moment to shine.

…I’m just really mad about Frigga dying okay?

Robert Downey Jr will be replaced after Iron Man 3

Nope, and he’s not going anywhere. Not if us Marvel fans can help it. We’d probably just start another huge social media movement to get him back – in which case I vote we call it #IAmIronMan (hey, no harm in being prepared). It worked for #CoulsonLives, and now that fans know they have some sway if they band together, there’s no stopping us. Marvel has given us too much power.

Ant-Man and Wasp will appear in The Avengers

But they never did. Or perhaps they were there, just too tiny for us to see! …And not contributing to the final battle at all…

Alright fine, they weren’t there.

Adam Warlock and/or Carol Danvers will appear in Guardians of the Galaxy

Yeah this didn’t happen either. Although Captain Marvel is getting her own film in 2018 and perhaps Adam Warlock will appear in Guardians of the Galaxy 2.

Surtur, Enchantress or Executioner will be main villains in Thor 2

I would’ve liked to see any of these characters as the main antagonist in Thor 2 (particularly Enchantress or Surtur). Sadly, we saw none of them. I did get to watch Heimdall destroy an invisible ship though so that was cool.

Agent May is Skye’s mother

In Season 1 of Agents of SHIELD, when there was still mystery surrounding who Skye’s real parents were, a popular theory was that Melinda May would turn out to be her mother while Agent Coulson was possibly her father. While it produced many heartfelt fanfictions, her parents’ identities were eventually revealed and fans were willing to accept that Coulson and May are only her SHIELD parents, not her biological ones. Technically I think they can still ground her though, I’m not sure how these things work.

The plot for Avengers 2 will be Thanos-centric

We’ll see this storyline soon but not before Ultron almost destroys the world. Marvel has to do it in order – Loki almost destroys New York, Ultron almost destroys the world, THEN Thanos almost destroys the universe.

What were your Marvel theories? Did they ever come true or were you proven wrong?