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15 MCU Characters Marvel Introduced... Then Completely Forgot About

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Ignacio Weil

Galleries - September 6th 2026, 13:00 GMT+2

Skaar She Hulk Attorney at Law — 1. Skaar — She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022)

Bruce Banner disappearing into space during *She-Hulk* seemed like setup for something substantial. Instead, he returned during the finale’s backyard barbecue, casually introduced Skaar as his son, and apparently expected everyone to continue eating potato salad. The cameo raised every obvious question—who Skaar’s mother is, how quickly he grew, what happened on Sakaar—and answered none of them. A Hulk family expansion looked imminent, but Marvel has treated Skaar less like a new hero than an unusually expensive punchline. | © Marvel Studios

Sharon Carter Power Broker The Falcon and the Winter Soldier — 2. Sharon Carter / Power Broker — The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021)

After helping Steve Rogers in *Civil War*, Sharon Carter spent years branded as a fugitive while the Avengers responsible received heroic funerals and museum exhibits. *The Falcon and the Winter Soldier* finally brought her back, revealed her as Madripoor’s Power Broker, granted her a government pardon, and ended with her plotting to exploit classified weapons access. It was a surprisingly sinister reinvention for a legacy MCU character—and then Marvel simply walked away from the phone call that was supposed to change everything. | © Marvel Studios

Baron Mordo Doctor Strange — 3. Baron Mordo — Doctor Strange (2016)

The first *Doctor Strange* closed with Mordo attacking Jonathan Pangborn, stealing his magic and declaring that the world had “too many sorcerers.” That was not a subtle tease; Marvel might as well have placed a glowing sign above him reading “next movie’s villain.” A Mordo appeared in *Multiverse of Madness*, but he belonged to Earth-838 and did nothing to resolve the original character’s crusade. Somewhere in the main MCU timeline, Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Mordo is presumably still conducting his magical population-control campaign alone. | © Marvel Studios

Jake Lockley Moon Knight — 4. Jake Lockley — Moon Knight (2022)

Marc Spector and Steven Grant finished *Moon Knight* believing they had escaped Khonshu, only for the credits scene to reveal another personality still working for him. Jake Lockley collected Arthur Harrow from a psychiatric hospital, pushed him into a limousine and shot him while speaking Spanish—a wonderfully nasty entrance with enormous consequences for Marc’s supposedly liberated life. Marvel introduced its darkest version of Moon Knight after the story had already ended, then left Jake sitting behind the wheel with nowhere else to drive. | © Marvel Studios

Hercules Thor Love and Thunder 1 — 5. Hercules — Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

Brett Goldstein appeared for roughly enough time to make *Ted Lasso* fans point at the screen, yet Hercules was introduced with a serious assignment. Furious over his humiliation in Omnipotence City, Zeus ordered his son to restore respect for the gods by bringing down Thor. That promised a mythological grudge match and perhaps the arrival of one of Marvel Comics’ longest-serving Avengers. Instead, Hercules has remained frozen in that throne room, still waiting for somebody to tell him where Thor actually went. | © Marvel Studios

Clea Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — 6. Clea — Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Casting Charlize Theron as Clea should have been much more than a celebrity cameo. She appeared in the credits, informed Doctor Strange that he had caused an incursion, cut open a portal to the Dark Dimension and invited him to repair the damage. The scene effectively began another adventure while audiences were still leaving the previous one. Clea is a central figure in Strange’s comic mythology, but her MCU incarnation currently amounts to one purple costume, several seconds of exposition and a portal leading directly into development limbo. | © Marvel Studios

Dane Whitman Black Knight Eternals 2021 — 7. Dane Whitman / Black Knight — Eternals (2021)

Dane Whitman spent most of *Eternals* as Sersi’s charmingly underqualified human boyfriend, but the final scene revealed why Marvel hired Kit Harington. Dane opened a case containing the cursed Ebony Blade and prepared to embrace his family legacy before Blade’s unseen voice asked whether he was ready. Apparently, the answer was no. The promised transformation into Black Knight never happened, leaving Harington as the rare MCU actor introduced to become a superhero who never made it past cautiously reaching toward his own weapon. | © Marvel Studios

Eros Starfox Eternals 1 — 8. Eros / Starfox — Eternals (2021)

Harry Styles arrived aboard the Domo as Eros, the royal prince of Titan, brother of Thanos and owner of more introductory titles than actual dialogue. Accompanied by Pip the Troll, he offered to help Thena, Makkari and Druig locate the Eternals abducted by Arishem. It felt engineered to produce headlines while establishing a major cosmic player for an inevitable continuation. That continuation never materialized, so Thanos apparently had a charismatic superhero brother wandering around the universe whom nobody thought worth mentioning during the entire Infinity Saga. | © Marvel Studios

Xu Xialing Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings — 9. Xu Xialing — Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

Xialing told Shang-Chi that she intended to dismantle their father’s criminal empire. Her credits scene promptly exposed that as a lie: she had taken control of the Ten Rings, redesigned its compound and begun training women alongside men. The movie even finished with the declaration that the Ten Rings would return, making her new organization feel like a concrete promise rather than loose speculation. Marvel created a fresh power broker with an ancient army at her command, then kept both her agenda and the organization’s new direction secret. | © Marvel Studios

Giah Secret Invasion — 10. G’iah — Secret Invasion (2023)

*Secret Invasion* accidentally created one of the MCU’s most powerful beings and then behaved as though this presented no logistical problems whatsoever. Using the Harvest, G’iah gained abilities derived from numerous Avengers, Guardians and villains before defeating Gravik in their Super-Skrull showdown. Sonya Falsworth subsequently recruited her for an uneasy partnership protecting both humans and Skrulls. Emilia Clarke was effectively handed an entire superhero team’s worth of powers and a new espionage storyline, only for G’iah to disappear as quickly as the show left the cultural conversation. | © Marvel Studios

Layla El Faouly Scarlet Scarab Moon Knight — 11. Layla El-Faouly / Scarlet Scarab — Moon Knight (2022)

Layla’s transformation into Scarlet Scarab was not buried inside a cryptic credits sequence. She accepted Taweret’s offer, unfolded a magnificent pair of golden wings and became the MCU’s first Egyptian superhero in the middle of the finale. A young girl even asked whether she was an Egyptian hero, giving the moment an emotional weight larger than another costume reveal. The series appeared to launch Layla as a hero independent of Marc Spector, but her brief flight over Cairo remains both the beginning and apparent end of her superhero career. | © Marvel Studios

Kid Loki Loki — 12. Kid Loki — Loki (2021)

Among the Loki variants trapped in the Void, Kid Loki had the most alarming résumé: the TVA pruned him after he somehow killed Thor. He commanded the other variants, carried the flaming sword Laevateinn and survived the encounter with Alioth, giving Marvel an easy route toward his comic-book role with the Young Avengers. Yet when *Loki* returned, the self-proclaimed king of the Void was nowhere to be found. Alligator Loki received more lasting cultural mileage, which must be particularly humiliating for a character who successfully murdered the God of Thunder. | © Marvel Studios

Eitri Avengers Infinity War — 13. Eitri — Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Peter Dinklage’s enormous dwarf king gave *Infinity War* one of its strangest visual surprises and forged the weapon that nearly ended Thanos. Eitri had watched the Mad Titan slaughter Nidavellir’s other dwarves before encasing his hands in metal, but he still helped Thor restart the forge and create Stormbreaker. Thor then left with his shiny new axe and has apparently never considered checking on the traumatized craftsman stranded beside a dead star. Eitri changed the course of the Infinity Saga, received no rescue and was never mentioned again. | © Marvel Studios

Eli Bradley The Falcon and the Winter Soldier — 14. Eli Bradley — The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021)

A quiet visit to Isaiah Bradley’s home also introduced his grandson Eli, better known to comic readers as Patriot. As a founding Young Avenger with complicated ties to the Super-Soldier legacy, Eli appeared positioned to inherit the story that Isaiah had been cruelly denied. Marvel continued introducing teenage heroes across subsequent projects, but Patriot never joined the assembly line. *Captain America: Brave New World* brought Isaiah back into Sam Wilson’s orbit while leaving Eli behind, making his original appearance feel increasingly like an Easter egg that accidentally hired an actor. | © Marvel Studios

Phyla Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 — 15. Phyla — Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

Phyla began as one of the children rescued from the High Evolutionary, but the credits scene promoted her into Rocket’s new Guardians of the Galaxy. Standing beside Groot, Adam Warlock, Cosmo and Kraglin, she displayed glowing energy powers and helped defend an alien settlement from attacking creatures. It was a remarkably casual introduction for a name carrying considerable cosmic history in Marvel Comics. The film deliberately assembled a replacement Guardians team, yet Phyla and her companions have remained suspended inside what now resembles a team photograph for a project nobody ordered. | © Marvel Studios

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The MCU once treated every cameo as a promise. Lately, it has become just as good at unveiling characters with dramatic post-credit scenes and abandoning them before they accomplish anything. Skaar arrived as Hulk’s surprise son, Dane Whitman reached for the Ebony Blade, and several supposed future players simply vanished into Marvel’s overcrowded continuity. Unless Kevin Feige has a very dusty folder marked “later,” these 15 MCU characters may never receive the payoff their debuts advertised.

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The MCU once treated every cameo as a promise. Lately, it has become just as good at unveiling characters with dramatic post-credit scenes and abandoning them before they accomplish anything. Skaar arrived as Hulk’s surprise son, Dane Whitman reached for the Ebony Blade, and several supposed future players simply vanished into Marvel’s overcrowded continuity. Unless Kevin Feige has a very dusty folder marked “later,” these 15 MCU characters may never receive the payoff their debuts advertised.