How Thor: Ragnarok Fixed A Multiple Movie Plothole

The Marvel Cinematic Universe started as a pipe dream and grew into a resounding smash hit in only a few brief years, surpassing just about everyone's expectations. Thanks to the success of 2008's Iron Man, 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger, among other early Marvel projects, the budding franchise became more and more developed as time went on. This allowed for storylines and characters to make it to the big screen that most previously considered risky, resulting in the quintessential viewing experience for comic book devotees.

However, for as massively successful as the now 23-film series is, that doesn't mean that it's completely flawless. In fact, the larger the MCU has grown, it has become increasingly convoluted and, at times, downright messy — especially for those just now dipping their toes in the super-powered pool. While sometimes Marvel Studios' president Kevin Feige and his colleagues attempt some kind of damage control, their efforts to contain the innumerable plot holes are a mixed bag at best — even worsening the confusion in the process.

Still, more often than not they manage to set things right and smooth out the inconsistencies of their franchise. Case in point, Taika Waititi's 2017 hit, Thor: Ragnarok went a long way toward rectifying one of the MCU's biggest continuity errors through a small-yet-ingenious scene (via Screen Rant).

Going back to the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one would note that each film felt far more self-contained than later installments. There was only a minor focus in features like the standalone movie The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2 that a wider Marvel universe existed outside those stories. That rung fairly true behind the scenes too, as no one really knew if an Avengers team-up flick was in the cards — at least, not until the films started hitting theaters and making bank at the box office.

With no major long-term plans in place, pretty much anything was fair game to include in a Marvel movie. 2011's Thor is a perfect example of this creative freedom, as it introduced an artifact that would become the cornerstone of the Infinity saga in later years: the Infinity Gauntlet. A quick scene depicted it as a part of Odin's (Sir Anthony Hopkins) treasure room, complete with fake Infinity Stones, which were unconfirmed to exist in the universe, at the time.

This was a harmless Easter egg at the moment, but, with the MCU's success exploding soon after, and Avengers: Infinity War becoming a possibility, this seemingly small detail complicated the whole situation. To make matters worse, four years later, Thanos (Josh Brolin) put on his version of the glove in the post-credits scene of Avengers: Age of Ultron, implying either that there were two gauntlets or, somehow, the Mad Titan stole it from Asgard. With no clear-cut answer, Thor: Ragnarok made the save and put this debate to bed.

Shortly after Hela's (Cate Blanchett) takeover of Asgard, she and Skurge (Karl Urban) take a walk through Odin's vault where they stumble upon the Infinity Gauntlet in all of its golden glory. Knowing better, Hela communicates her lack of impression by lackadaisically pushing it over onto the floor and revealing that it's a fake. Through this quick bit of dialogue, she single-handedly answered one of the longest-running outstanding errors in the entire franchise — letting audiences know that Thanos owned the only true Infinity Gauntlet all along.