Avengers: Endgame was a massive event for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The movie brought together over a decade of storytelling and teamed up an insane number of characters to take on a larger-than-life threat. But there was something else about its story that changed the entire MCU landscape and would have a domino effect on everything that came after: The Blip.
For five years, half of all living organisms vanished. Then, suddenly, they were back—complete and utter chaos. A perfect example of how crazy the situation got can be seen in WandaVision as Monica Rambeau ends up reappearing in the hospital she was at the moment Thanos snapped his fingers.
Other recent projects, such as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, referenced the traumatic experience in meaningful ways. However, now many projects seem to be ignoring the event—or are at least putting little to no focus on it.
This trend has continued with the most recent Disney+ series She-Hulk. But why has Marvel decided to go that route with it?
So Why Ignore the Blip?
During an interview with Lifehacker, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law head writer and executive producer Jessica Gao commented on why the series doesn't address the Blip all too much.
Her reasoning was simple: "It's been talked about a lot... and people have already moved on:"
"So many shows and movies in the MCU have already kind of covered that and, you know, it's been talked about a lot that it just felt like, ok so many people have already covered that territory that we've accepted it. We live in a world where that's already happened and people have already moved on."
In a separate interview with Entertainment Weekly, She-Hulk director Kat Coiro revealed that "there was always a constant dialogue" with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige about The Blip, with Bruce Banner's arm being a key point of discussion:
“There were definitely conversations about [Bruce Banner's] arm and how that fits into what happened during the Blip, and there was always a constant dialogue with Kevin [Feige] who holds the whole MCU in his brain,” says director Kat Coiro. “But the cool thing is it never got to a place where we were shut down. It was an ongoing conversation every week about what direction is this going and how do we execute this, and how do we not just create a show in a vacuum, but create a show that connects to the entire cinematic universe.”
Can The World Really Move on From Thanos?
While it makes sense that writers over at Marvel Studios wouldn't want to risk being repetitive when it comes to referencing The Blip all the time, it is a significant event. Not even our own reality has anything that comes close to the trauma it would have caused—both when it happened and when everyone returned.
With that said, it's hard to believe the world would ever truly be over The Blip. It's simply not something people casually move past. People's lives were destroyed or completely flipped upside down multiple times; the topic would come up quite often.
As of now, the lack of attention to it hasn't been all too much of an issue. It's just important that the MCU doesn't let itself completely forget about the impact The Blip had on not only the world, but the entire universe.
In theory, She-Hulk would be a perfect place to explore The Blip. The number of legal cases that would come out of it would be overwhelming, the storytelling potential limitless. It's almost a shame to think about how the event won't be utilized—at least according to the creative team, for the moment.
New episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law drop on Disney+ every Thursday.
