Warning: Major spoilers for Thor: Love and Thunder to follow.
Thor: Love and Thunder marks the first time we’ve seen Chris Hemsworth’s Asgardian in the MCU since Avengers: Endgame, and while the latest movie doesn’t have too many connections to that crossover extravaganza, some fresh elements it introduces into the mythos have got fans looking at the plot of Endgame anew. Mostly because Love and Thunder creates an enormous plot hole, whichever way you look at it.
Spoilers to follow!
Gorr (Christian Bale)’s evil scheme in the film turns out to involve traveling to the realm of Eternity, the ancient and super-powerful cosmic entity. According to legend, those who manage to reach Eternity are granted one wish. As for how someone gets there, you need access to the Bifrost, which causes Gorr to steal Stormbreaker and use it to create a bridge to Eternity. His plan ultimately works, but instead of wishing for all gods to die, as he originally planned, he wishes for his daughter to be resurrected.
That’s all well and good, but the existence of Eternity, his immense power, and the ease with which one can find him has got fans questioning literally everything about Avengers: Endgame. For starters, Thor is presented as knowing about the legends of Eternity in Love and Thunder. So he never thought of using an Eternity wish to undo Thanos’ Snap?
The idea never occurred to him in five whole years? Really?
Thor could’ve even gone straight to Eternity in Avengers: Infinity War and avoided all that drama.
You’d think so, wouldn’t you?
Natasha could’ve been saved!
But, hey, Eternity’s still out there. Maybe Thor will take the remaining Avengers to him, and they can wish Tony, Nat, and Steve back to life/youth. Could that be how Secret Wars gets started?
But even if you ignore the issue of Thor not using Eternity, the flipside is: why didn’t Thanos just go after Eternity himself instead of spending all that time collecting the Infinity Stones?
It would’ve saved the guy a lot of time and trouble.
Eternity’s a fascinating addition to the MCU, to be sure, but his introduction in Thor: Love and Thunder might’ve just rendered the entirety of the Infinity Saga totally pointless.