The MCU TV Show That’s Long Overdue

In the MCU, The Blip refers to the moment that Thanos harnessed the full power of the Infinity Gauntlet and wiped out half of all life in the universe, including on Earth. Five years later, the Avengers were able to gather the Infinity Stones from earlier points in the timeline and undo what Thanos had done. Just like that, those who had “blipped” out of existence half a decade ago suddenly blipped back into reality.

Even thought it is such a major event in the MCU, we rarely see how the Blip affected everyday people. Certainly, the instant loss of loved ones helped create motivations for characters like Hawkeye, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier explored the logistics of what happened when countries had to suddenly accommodate twice as many people.

But all of this happens after The Blip, and what I’d love to see is a Disney+ show set during this event that explores how it affected the world and everyone just trying to make it to the next day.

Here’s an example: the MCU is a universe where people know that literal gods walk among them…after The Blip, would people have blamed Thor and the other Norse gods, possibly taking their complaints up with the residents of New Asgard? Such a story could have fleshed out more of this cinematic universe in a fun way.

Plus, we know that the Korean Church of Asgard exists in the MCU, so it would be interesting to explore how The Blip affects people’s faith in higher beings (for better or for worse) like Thor or Odin.

Another idea: while it would go against the generally feel-good tone of Disney’s MCU, a show focused on The Blip could explore how downright apocalyptic the early days after this event would have been. Regardless of someone’s religion (or lack thereof), the sudden disappearance of half the people on the planet would lead to widespread depression, student dropouts, worker absenteeism, etc.

Residents would be living in a world where half their loved ones and half their heroes had died…a show exploring just how dark these days got could be more entertaining (think Marvel’s The Last of Us) while making the climax of Endgame that much more meaningful.

If Disney wanted to tell a smaller-scale MCU story (which would be more budget-friendly, too), we could have a show about how The Blip affected different families’ views of the Avengers and other superheroes. Would any superfans lose faith because they realized their favorite hero saved the world, or would jaded people find new heroes in the bleaker, emptier world?

For that matter, how safe does anyone feel when a world that needs superpowered protection from aliens and killer robots suddenly loses half of the only people who can protect them from the next extinction-level event?

I’m a bit like MCU icon Captain America with these Blip pitches…I could go all day. Ultimately, Disney keeps throwing piles of money at “television events” featuring random heroes, and the blunt truth is that nobody asked for disappointments like Secret Invasion.

But if we could get a show focused on The Blip and this untold period of time, Disney could do something even more impressive than gathering the Infinity Stones: getting us to care about Marvel shows once again.