The MCU’s latest big-screen entry, Black Widow, has finally reached audiences more than a year later than intended. Natasha Romanoff’s long-overdue solo movie will fill in what the scissor-kicking spy got up to between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Kevin Feige has suggested that more MCU flashback movies could be on the way: “The notion of exploring the past, present, and future of the MCU is certainly in the cards for all of our characters.”
Before flashbacks got their own movies in the MCU, the characters’ history was filled in with little teasers and cutaways that hinted at their past. These are the franchise’s most memorable flashback sequences.
Bucky Takes Steve To His Mom’s Funeral (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
While Steve’s cohorts can’t understand why he keeps sticking his neck out for an assassin that’s trying to kill them in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a flashback to Steve’s mom’s funeral details what a great friend Bucky was when Steve was a struggling kid.
Bucky takes Steve home after the funeral and offers to give him a place to stay, but Steve says, “Thank you, Buck, but I can get by on my own.” Bucky warmly replies, “The thing is, you don’t have to. I’m with you to the end of the line, pal.”
Tony Stark Celebrates New Year’s Eve 1999 (Iron Man 3)
Before Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 disappointed fans with the Mandarin reveal, it got off to an interesting start with a flashback set at a New Year’s Eve party in 1999. With Tony skipping his meeting with Aldrich Killian, this scene set up yet another Iron Man villain as a wannabe Stark with a professional vendetta.
But it also has Happy Hogan looking like Vincent Vega and a heartbreaking but hilarious moment in which Tony snubs Yinsen, the engineer who would eventually give his life so he could escape from his terrorist kidnappers.
Killmonger’s Identity Is Revealed (Black Panther)
Throughout the first act of Black Panther, Erik Killmonger is introduced as a hardened killer determined to take over Wakanda, but the “why” isn’t explained until a crucial flashback fills in the details of the mysterious opening prologue.
When T’Chaka arrested N’Jobu in Oakland, he ended up having to kill him to save Zuri. Zuri explains that N’Jobu had a young American son who was left behind after his father’s murder. That kid grew up to become Killmonger.
The Original Ant-Man And The Wasp In Action (Ant-Man)
During Scott Lang’s training in the first Ant-Man movie, Hank Pym warns him about the dangers of getting trapped in the Quantum Realm like his wife Janet did years ago (explaining Hope’s resentment toward her father).
A flashback shows the original Ant-Man and the Wasp in action during the Cold War, struggling to disable a Soviet nuclear missile. Janet went missing after shrinking between the atoms to get into the missile.
Bucky Kills Tony’s Parents (Captain America: Civil War)
The opening scene of Captain America: Civil War sees Bucky being sent out by Hydra in the ‘90s to run a car off the side of the road and kill the people inside. In the third act, when Tony has finally made peace with Bucky and Steve, Zemo plays a video clip showing that the car Bucky intercepted that night belonged to Tony’s parents.
A flashback to the night in question shows just how brutally Bucky – under the influence of his Winter Soldier brainwashing – killed Tony’s parents. He beat his dad to death outside the car, then strangled his mom in the passenger seat. No wonder Tony instantly becomes hellbent on killing Bucky.
Young Wanda Watches The Dick Van Dyke Show (WandaVision)
When Agatha finally revealed herself to be the villain of WandaVision, she took Wanda on a trip down memory lane in the aptly titled episode “Previously On.” A flashback shows that back in war-torn Sokovia, Wanda and Pietro watched classic sitcoms to learn English and escape from the horrors outside their front door.
Specifically, the family watches The Dick Van Dyke Show episode “It May Look Like a Walnut.” Exploring the importance of sitcoms in Wanda’s childhood went a long way toward explaining the curious style of the series.
The Red Room (Avengers: Age Of Ultron)
Throughout Avengers: Age of Ultron, Scarlet Witch uses the Mind Stone to force Earth’s mightiest heroes to confront their darkest thoughts. For Natasha Romanoff, that meant reliving her early training in the Red Room program, where she was taught to kill in cold blood.
Before she was finally given her own movie, this was the closest thing we had to an origin story for Black Widow. It hinted at a decidedly darker, more tragic backstory than the origins seen in Phase One’s movies.
The Valkyries Take On Hela (Thor: Ragnarok)
When Thor realizes that the scrapper who brought him to the Grandmaster is a surviving Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok, a flashback explains why Valkyrie is desperate to outrun her Asgardian heritage and constantly numbs herself with alcohol. Years earlier, the entire Valkyrie army took on Hela in the hopes of escaping her banishment. There was only one survivor: the Valkyrie we know.
The majority of Taika Waititi’s Thor threequel is a zany, goofy, colorful space adventure taking influence from Flash Gordon and Big Trouble in Little China. But this haunting, cinematic flashback sequence plays like a series of brutal oil paintings.
Quill’s Mother Dies (Guardians Of The Galaxy)
Fans remember the opening scene of Guardians of the Galaxy as adult Quill dances through the temple housing the Orb to the sounds of Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love,” but there’s a flashback before that explaining why he grew up to be so immature.
Quill sits in a hospital in the ‘80s while his mother is on her deathbed. He refuses to take her hand because he doesn’t want to let her go. He runs outside the hospital, where he’s abducted by aliens – and frozen in a state of arrested development.
Gamora Meets Thanos (Avengers: Infinity War)
Gamora’s strained father-daughter relationship with Thanos was crucial to Avengers: Infinity War. When Gamora was introduced in the first Guardians movie, she’d already turned against the Mad Titan and no longer thought of him as a loving caregiver. Infinity War flashed back to the duo’s first meeting to show why Gamora ever cared about Thanos in the first place.
He arrived on Gamora’s planet and decimated her people, but decided to keep her alive so he could raise her. He gives her his double-bladed switchblade to demonstrate the ideal state of the universe: “Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.”