31

After the events of Avengers: Infinity War (and then once more after Avengers: Endgame), a lot of people became very interested in Thanos, and very quickly. Even as far back as Spider-Man: Far From Home, there were references to those battles in airplane movie catalogs or books.

However, these glimpses at what the general public of the MCU knows are vague and fleeting. Is it public knowledge within the MCU that the Avengers went back in time? Or do only the parties involved know exactly what happened?

3 Answers 3

23

Unknown but probably not

The only real indication of what the public knows is from Spider-Man: Far from Home from the school video

Over five years ago, half of all life in the universe, including our own Midtown High...was wiped from existence.

Then eight months ago, a band of brave heroes brought us back.

So clearly the Avengers seem to have revealed some of what happened, and people seem to know the name Thanos, and it's extremely unlikely that time travelling would not have been mentioned in this video if this were also public knowledge.

Also, given the history of the Avengers taking unilateral action (Sokovia Accords remember), such a drastic act as time travelling is probably not something they would wish to advertise.

12
  • 8
    You have an odd double negative - "it's extremely unlikely that time traveling would not have been mentioned". This suggests that it was mentioned, but the rest of this answer indicates otherwise. Commented Jan 4, 2022 at 16:39
  • 1
    Since the end of Hawkeye makes it know that there are secrets around black widows death, I would say the other details are not know to the public.
    – Styxsksu
    Commented Jan 4, 2022 at 17:19
  • 1
    Of course, at that point, the double negative phrasing feels more awkward (it was better in the passive voice, it seems to me? but then we had confusion on who would be doing the mentioning), so “it’s extremely likely that the video would mention time traveling if this was public knowledge” would be clearer still. If the negative is desired, “fail to mention” feels better than “not mention” to me, there. (Anyway, in case it was unclear, +1 either way, I just initially shared Nuclear Hoagie’s confusion and was thinking about how it could be avoided.)
    – KRyan
    Commented Jan 4, 2022 at 17:24
  • 1
    In their timeline they were dead for 5 years and the Avengers brought them back. They just didn't age in the interim. They were never prevented from being snapped, that's the whole point of Endgame.
    – Paulie_D
    Commented Jan 4, 2022 at 21:27
  • 1
    I don't think that "dead" is quite the right term. For five years, they simply didn't exist. Commented Jan 4, 2022 at 22:32
2

No.

The public was not aware of the Avengers’ time travel until Scott Lang revealed it in his book, Look Out For The Little Guy! where he recounts his experience of being part of the time heist and fighting Thanos and his army in Endgame.

He mentions in the book's introduction that Bruce Banner (the Hulk) and Clint Barton (Hawkeye) encouraged him to share his story with the world because they felt that people deserved to know the full story behind Thanos and the Blip. In the book, Scott says:

One day, Bruce “the Hulk” Banner and Clint “Hawkeye” Barton took me out for lunch. They said they were concerned that the world didn’t really know what had happened with Thanos and the Blip and our long struggle to finally put things right again.

At first, as I usually do when confronted with heavy topics, I made a joke: “I’m pretty sure at least half the world knows what happened.”

Bruce responded that yes, of course, billions had experienced these jarring and mind-bending events, but they didn’t know the full story behind them. And ultimately, that’s what people need the most to get through and get past traumatic events: a narrative that helps it all make sense.

“Okay,” I agreed. “Solid plan. So who are you going to get to tell that story?”

Clint answered, “You, Scott. You’re the guy who got scooped up in all this pretty recently. You’ve still got one foot in their world. And you’re a guy everyone likes…and trusts.”

And Bruce sealed the deal: “It’s tough stuff, and no one knows how to keep it light like you.”

They’d supply me all the archival footage and documentation, take me anywhere I needed to go, and let me ask as many questions as I needed.

0

I would imagine that the close friends/family of the Avengers are familiar with what actually took place however, the public only knows that some blip occurred which restored 5 years.

Having said that - I would imagine they'd think that the Avengers went back in time because how else from a regular standpoint would you reason a 'blip' bringing people back who were gone. Its either through some crazy spell-casting or time-travel.

Most of the movies mention casual references of the blip along with the latest Spiderman setting the precedent for time-travel.

So I am leaning towards a yes.

1
  • 3
    Remember that the time-travelling was to obtain the Infinity Gems, not to 'bring people back' (at least not directly). Once the Gems were collected, it was the use of the glove (effectively 'crazy spell casting') that 'undid' the 'snap' and ended the 'blip'. Commented Jan 12, 2022 at 10:56

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .