As described in the page quote.
"That was one goofy adventure, brother! We may have lost Asgard, but you and me are finally best buds, and we're finding a home for our people, and we made all kinds of wacky new friends and AW FUCK WE’RE GETTING MURDERED!"
— Thor, The Editing Room’s abridged script for Avengers: Infinity War, overriding Thor: Ragnarok's ending
When you're a superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you cannot always expect a happy ending. And even if you earn one, they tend to be fleeting.
Films
Captain America: Civil War
Captain America: Civil War might as well be called "Happy Ending Override: The Movie'':- Avengers: Age of Ultron ended with Hawkeye leaving the Avengers to spend more time with his wife and kids. Here, he comes out of retirement to help Cap, and ends up getting arrested and imprisoned. At the end of the movie, he goes on the run and becomes a wanted fugitive. Avengers: Infinity War revealed that he was recaptured and put on house arrest as a deal from the government, meaning he's unable to help his allies on their battle against Thanos.
- Likewise, Ant-Man ended with Scott Lang having his name fully cleared, regaining respect from his ex-wife and her new husband—who also becomes his Friend on the Force—and finally living up to be the hero his daughter worships him as. Here, he becomes a fugitive again and is put under house arrest as a deal from the government. His involvement with Captain America also affected Hank and Hope who are forced to flee from the government.
- At the end of Age of Ultron, Scarlet Witch lost her brother, but found a new family in the Avengers. At the beginning of Civil War she becomes hated across the globe after a mistake during a mission causes civilian casualties, and the Avengers subsequently end up splitting up.
- Iron Man 2 had Tony and Pepper becoming an Official Couple, and Iron Man 3 ended with Tony destroying his suits and promising to spend more time with her. In Civil War, the two are on a break, and it turns out that Tony's inability to stay retired after Iron Man 3 was one of the major reasons why they split up. This has been reversed as of Spider-Man: Homecoming where Tony and Pepper have reconciled and hinting that Tony will propose.
- Age of Ultron had a final battle that was dependent on trying to rescue as many civilians as they could before Ultron could cause an extinction-level event and rebuild the world in his image, which was prevented until this film not only showed that the final battle resulted in many casualties and millions in property damage anyway, but the main villain's motivation is that he lost his family in the battle of Sokovia and holds the Avengers responsible and wants to tear apart their team from the inside.
Avengers: Infinity War
Considering that this is the darkest Marvel Cinematic Universe film to date with as Thanos finally entering the main stage to assemble all the Infinity Stones, Avengers: Infinity War overrides any positive outcome that the earlier movies left off with:- Thor: Ragnarok ends with hope for the Asgardians who lost their homes and with Thor rallying them to start their civilization anew on Earth. It also sees Loki staying at his brother's side at the end, finally being redeemed and forgiven by Thor after all his misdeeds in previous films. Then, Thanos and the Black Order attack their ship just to get the Tesseract. Many Asgardians are killed, including Heimdall and Loki, which leaves Thor as one of the few survivors of his kind.
- Peter Quill and his friends saved Xandar from total destruction and retrieve the Power Stone in the first Guardians of the Galaxy. But their efforts are undone by Thanos who is able to get the Power Stone offscreen, implying that he also destroyed Xandar who tried to protect it, or at least wiped out half their population.
- Captain America: Civil War ends with a "Ray of Hope" Ending where the Avengers might be broken up and many are on the run but Steve sends a letter to Tony outlining how he hopes that they might reconcile. The movie opens with Steve and Tony still estranged and despite the Civil War's ending, Tony in particular still hasn't forgiven Steve for what happened in Siberia. They never meet up during the movie and it would take 5 more years before the team is fully back together. The writers and directors have even gone on to say that Captain America and Iron Man not working together contributes heavily to why the Avengers lose and the movie's Downer Ending.
- On a larger scale, at the end of the movie, Thanos successfully executes his fingersnap of doom and wipes out half the population of the universe. This wipes out several prominent heroes such as Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther, whose previous appearances in their own movies had at least bittersweet endings if not outright happy. Another victim is Bucky Barnes, who was last seen at the end of Black Panther and shown to be cured of his brainwashing.
- Even the very next movie, the Lighter and Softer Ant-Man and the Wasp, is not spared from this considering that this is set between Civil War and Infinity War. Sure, the film starts with an inversion - even if Scott is in house arrest due to his involvement in Civil War, his life hasn't gotten worse, as he is still respected by his daughter, his ex-wife and her boyfriend, who still is his Friend on the Force, and the only thing that has gone sour is his relationship with Hank and Hope (as Scott using Hank's tech led the authorities to go after him). And it ends in a happy note, Scott happily watching a movie with Hope and Cassie, only for the post-credit scene to undo all the happiness away as it's set during Infinity War where the Pym family become victims of Thanos' Badass Fingersnap and Scott is trapped in the Quantum Realm.
Avengers: Endgame
- Continuing from the above, after The Stinger of Ant-Man and the Wasp already made things bad enough for Scott, once he finally escapes the quantum realm, he discovers that what were a few hours for him were five years in the real world, during which Hope died and the rest of the surviving world thought Scott was a victim of Thanos as well - his now-teenaged daughter is shocked to see him still alive.
- Within the film itself, Tony has spent the five years since the snap relatively happy: he and Pepper live in a calm country home with their four-year-old daughter. When Natasha, Steve, and Scott show up with a plan to undo the snap via time travel - a very risky plan with low chance of survival, he has to decide whether it's worth it to risk giving up everything he has. He ultimately dies at the end of the film after saving the universe, leaving behind his wife and daughter.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
- While bittersweet at best, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 still ended with Peter seemingly coming to terms with Gwen's death and resuming his role as New York's defender. No Way Home catches up with the character several years later and reveals that he never actually got over losing Gwen, and that the emotional pain had caused him to lose touch with his personal life and become an embittered and more brutal vigilante.
Television
- Daredevil (2015): Season 1 ends with Matt, Karen and Foggy successfully taking down Wilson Fisk and putting him in jail for numerous crimes. However, season 2 renders their work in season 1 all for naught, as Fisk immediately begins scheming to rebuild his criminal empire within days of his arrival in jail, starting with using Frank Castle as a pawn to get rid of Dutton, the lifer in charge of the prison's underground economy. Matt realizes Fisk is regaining power when he comes by the prison trying to figure out Fisk's role in Frank's escape. And Fisk is last seen in his cell asking for his files on Matt, suggesting he's about to figure out Matt's real identity. By the start of season 3, Fisk is out of prison thanks to some long-term manipulations of Ray Nadeem, and seeking revenge on Matt, Karen and Foggy.
- Luke Cage (2016): Season 1 seems to end on a triumphant note. Mariah has been arrested for Cottonmouth's murder, Diamondback has been defeated. And then it's partially overridden as Misty learns that Shades has killed off Candace, the would-be witness to Cottonmouth's murder Misty had gotten to flip. This means that Mariah and Shades walk free and can come back for season 2.
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier does this to its title characters:
- Sam Wilson was eager to take up Captain America's mantle at the end of Avengers: Endgame, until the first episode reveals that he decided against the idea and is having trouble readjusting to civilian life since the five-year Time Skip.
- One of the credits scenes in Captain America: Civil War showed Bucky going into cryosleep to be deprogrammed from his conditioning; with subsequent appearances implying it was successful until the first episode reveals that he's been stricken with PTSD and nightmares about his past experiences. His talks with his therapist also show that just because he was successfully deprogrammed, doesn't mean the experience of what he did went away.
