• If you still haven't figured out what to get the hardcore Marvel fan, you'll love these 28 great ideas. 
• From a Disney+ gift subscription they can download and stream immediately to a practical keychain with a sweet message from "Avengers: Infinity War" on Amazon Prime, many of these gifts should get delivered before Christmas, but we wouldn't suggest waiting until the very last minute.
• Looking for more gift ideas? Check out all of our holiday gift guides. 

It's been a big year for Marvel.

2019 marks the 80th anniversary of Marvel, the highly-anticipated release of "Avengers: Endgame," and the launch of Disney+, a new streaming subscription that will house all the Marvel movies plus a ton of new shows. 

But avid Marvel fans know that their love runs deeper than these events combined. They could tell you that the very first comic book was released in October 1939 and featured superheroes like the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner off the top of their heads. They'd be able to predict that characters like Iron Man, Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America, and more would become household names.

But most importantly, they could tell you that they'd enjoy every single one of the gifts here in this shopping guide, from a Disney+ subscription gift they'll stream daily to their very own Power Gauntlet they'd use, well, also daily. Most of these gifts should arrive in time for Christmas, especially the Disney+ subscription since it can be used immediately, but delivery delays aren't unheard so, so we definitely suggest checking out soon. 

The top 5 Marvel gifts:

1. A Disney+ subscription gift
2. A Quinjet LEGO set
3. A realistic Power Gauntlet with sound effects and lights
4. A practical keychain with a sweet message 
5. An adorable Iron Man lip balm they'll never lose

Here are 29 super-cool gifts any Marvel fan would love:

A Disney+ subscription gift

Gifts a Disney+ subscription for $69.99/year, available at Disney+

Disney+ is the gift that keeps on giving. For $69.99 a year, they can access all the Marvel movies, as well as new shows exclusive to the streaming platform. Here are all the Marvel titles available to stream, and read everything there is to know about Disney+ over here.

A Quinjet LEGO set

LEGO Marvel Avengers Ultimate Quinjet, $79.99, available at Target

After they finish building this 840-piece Quinjet, they can reenact scenes with the moveable cockpit, wings, spinning rotors, and various mini figurines including Black Widow, Hawkeye, Rocket, and Thor.

A realistic Power Gauntlet with sound effects and lights

Marvel's Avengers: Endgame Power Gauntlet - Legends Series, $99.95, available at shopDisney

They'll love being the bad guy with this interactive Power Gauntlet. It'll fit over many hands with room to spare and it makes sound effects too. The five Infinity stones even glow for a realistic effect.

A practical keychain with a sweet message

I Love You 3000 Keychain, $6.99, available at Amazon

If they're more of a low-key Marvel fan, they'll appreciate the sweet gesture of this keychain. 

An adorable Iron Man lip balm they'll never lose

Lip Smacker Marvel Super Hero Lip Balm, $4.99, available at Target

This adorable lip balm would be a great stocking stuffer, and one they won't lose at the bottom of their bags.

An electric tricycle

Spider-Man Electric Ride-On Trike, $99.95, available at shopDisney

If they're obsessed with Spider-Man, they will definitely love this electric tricycle. It should only be used by kids older than 18 months and it only goes at 1.5 miles per hour, so they'll be safe riding down the driveway.

A collection of their favorite heroes and heroines

Marvel's Avengers Deluxe Figure Play Set, $22, available at shopDisney

They'll spend hours coming up with scenes and storylines with these figurines. This set includes nine heroes and heroines, but there's also a bigger set with 20 figurines that costs $44— it even includes Nick Fury and his beloved Goose.

A pair of Black Panther's gloves

Black Panther Glove Set, $24.95, available at shopDisney

These gloves look just like the real thing and even have motion-activated sound effects. The stretch fabric will fit over kids' hands pretty easily/

A Groot of their own

Cable Guys Groot Device Holder, $24.95, available at Urban Outfitters

This helpful Groot can hold up their video game controller, phone, and more. 

A hat celebrating 80 years of Marvel

Marvel 80th Anniversary Baseball Cap, $27.99, available at shopDisney

A subtle nod to Marvel's 80th anniversary that only true Marvel fans will know. Don't be surprised when people give you a quick nod when they see the hat. 

A 3D laser cut model kit to make your own Mjolnir

Marvel Avengers Thor's Mjolnir 3D Laser Cut Model Kit, $12.99, available at Kohl's

This comes as a flat metal sheet, but can actually be folded and pieced together to create their own Mjolnir. It's a fun and interactive gift, and one they'll keep on their desk or nightstand. 

A superhero way to make a cup of coffee

Captain America 1-Cup Coffee Maker With Mug, $18.76, available at Amazon

Captain America makes a good cup of coffee. This personal coffee maker also comes with a matching cup that has the Cap's shield on the sides so you don't have to scramble looking for the perfect mug.

Their own Sanctum Sanctorum

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes Avengers: Infinity War Sanctum Sanctorum, $80, available at Target

Build your own Sanctum Sanctorum with this 1,000+ piece LEGO set. It's not just the building you'll get but figures of Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Iron Spider-Man, Cull Obsidian, and Ebony Maw are included too.

A sturdy suitcase to bring superheroes on your trip

Heys America Marvel Comics Print Spinner Luggage, $120, available at Bed Bath & Beyond

Don't hit the road alone, bring along a few of your mighty friends. This lightweight spinner suitcase is covered in black-and-white comic strip images of Marvel favorites like Iron Man, The Hulk, and Captain America. 

A smartwatch that'll make them feel like Captain Marvel

Garmin Captain Marvel Smartwatch, $350, available at Garmin

Garmin has released special edition smartwatches inspired by Captain America and Captain Marvel. Not only does it offer many smart features, it also has character-inspired app experiences too. The smartwatch has fitness and wellness tracking tools, notifications, music, and Garmin Pay. The superhero interface includes badges you can earn by completing various fitness activities. 

A cute place for your pens, pencils, and plants

Baby Groot Pencil Holder, $11, available at Amazon

One of the cutest creatures in the Marvel universe has to be Baby Groot. This adorable guy can live on your desk and keep watch over your pens, pencils, and even plants.

A way to honor Stan Lee

Stan Lee Funko Pop!, $8.87, available at Amazon

Stan Lee, who has become synonymous with Marvel, is honored with this stylish Funko Pop! figure. The patina of this figure really gives it a regal appeal. 

A pair of kicks for the youngest of superheroes

Marvel Captain Marvel RapidaRun Shoes, $65, available at Adidas

Adidas has a variety of superhero-inspired sneakers perfect for little ones who can't sit still for more than five minutes. We love this pair that pays tribute to Captain Marvel with the blue, red, and gold detailing. 

A Marvel Universe guidebook

Marvel Encyclopedia, New Edition, $21.99, available at Amazon

Do a deep dive into the Marvel Universe with this comprehensive encyclopedia that includes all sorts of facts, stats, and images featuring 1,200 classic and new Marvel characters.

A biography of Stan Lee

The Stan Lee Story, $148.60, available at Amazon

Marvel's Stan Lee may be gone, but he'll never be forgotten. This large-format bio (it's 20 inches by 13 inches by 3 inches) includes a large assortment of stunning images and a huge amount of information they'll want to dive into right after unwrapping the gift.

Captain America's favorite toast

Captain America 2-Slice Toaster, $24.34, available at Amazon

This two-slice toaster will mark every piece of bread you put in with an image of Captain America's shield. 

A pair of Spidey socks

Spider-Man socks by Stance, $20.95, available at shopDisney

This pair of Stance socks has retro Spider-Man comic book graphics, perfect for a fan of the OG comics.

A pair of gleaming gold cufflinks à la Thanos

Thanos Infinity Gauntlet Cufflinks, $65, available at Cuff Links

Show off your love for "Avengers: Infinity War" with this pair of Infinity Gauntlet cufflinks. The gold-tone set even includes faux jewels that represent the five Infinity Stones: Space, Power, Reality, Time, Mind, and Soul. 

A timepiece worthy of an Avenger

Marvel's Avengers Eco-Drive Watch by Citizen, $350, available at shopDisney

This Avengers watch has its own superpower: The Citizen Eco-Drive technology converts light sources into energy, so there's no need for batteries ever. Plus, the Avengers logo and gold detailing aren't obtrusive for daily wear.

A set of Black Panther Kimoyo Beads

Black Panther Kimoyo Bead Glass Bracelet by RockLove, $29.95, available at shopDisney

You don't need to go to Wakanda to get a set of kimoyo beads. Sadly, no special powers come with them, but they do look really cool.

A bag made from Groot

Groot 100% Recycled Tote Bag, $19.95, available at shopDisney

Take Groot wherever you go with this 100% recycled tote bag. 

A way to mix it up with the superheroes

Marvel Spider-Man Silicone Spatulas, $32.95, available at Williams-Sonoma 

Bring superhero strength to your cooking with this set of heat-resistant silicone spatulas. Each of the three mixing tools is decorated with a different Spider-Man moment. 

A way to get in early on the Avengers Campus frenzy

Avengers Campus Shirt, $24.99, available at shopDisney

Be an early recruit at Avengers Campus by picking up one of these T-shirts. The new Marvel-themed land — which will include a Spider-Man attraction and an Ant-Man themed eatery — may not be opening until 2020 in Disney California Adventure, but it's not too early to get in on the action.

Looking for more gift ideas? We've got you covered.

• Our master list of every gift guide you'll ever need
• 50 creative gift ideas under $25
• 50 thoughtful gift ideas under $50
• 76 clever gift ideas under $100
• 44 cool stocking stuffers on Amazon
• 26 affordable tech gifts under $25
• 51 thoughtful gifts for her, all under $50
• 65 cool gifts for him on Amazon
• 30 fun Disney gifts that grown-up fans will love

• The US Department of Agriculture included Wakanda, the fictional home of the Marvel superhero Black Panther, alongside Panama and Peru in a list of official free-trade partners.
• The agency removed the high-tech African nation after a researcher spotted the gaffe while using the USDA's Tariff Tracker and tweeted screenshots of the listing and Wakanda's supposed exports.
• "The Foreign Agricultural Service staff who maintain the Tariff Tracker have been using test files to ensure that the system is running properly," the USDA told NBC in a statement. "The Wakanda information should have been removed after testing and has now been taken down."
• View Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump may be preparing to slap tariffs on Wakanda, the fictional homeland of the Marvel superhero Black Panther.

That's one explanation for the US Department of Agriculture's removal of the high-tech African nation from a list of free-trade partners that includes Panama and Peru in addition to other actual countries. In reality, officials uploaded Wakanda and its supposed exports to test a tariff-tracking tool and neglected to remove it.

"Wakanda is listed as a US free trade partner on the USDA website??"tweeted Francis Tseng, a fellow at the Jain Family Institute, after he spotted the gaffe while using the agency's Tariff Tracker tool.

Tseng tweeted a screenshot of the list and another detailing Wakandan exports such as horses, goats, and sheep. The "Heart-Shaped Herb" that gives Black Panther his superhuman strength and agility didn't make the cut.

"I definitely did a double take," Tseng told NBC News. "I Googled Wakanda to make sure it was actually fiction, and I wasn't misremembering. I mean, I couldn't believe it."

Wakanda was added to the USDA Tariff Tracker after June 10, NBC reported, and removed Wednesday.

"Over the past few weeks, the Foreign Agricultural Service staff who maintain the Tariff Tracker have been using test files to ensure that the system is running properly," the USDA said in a statement to NBC. "The Wakanda information should have been removed after testing and has now been taken down."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A big-money investor in juggernauts like Facebook and Netflix breaks down the '3rd wave' firms that are leading the next round of tech disruption

• Even with all the CGI out there, practical effects and stunts still existed in movies in 2019.
• Disney brought their animated classics to live-action life with "Dumbo,""Aladdin," and "The Lion King."
• The biggest visual effects trend was de-aging, seen in everything from "Captain Marvel" to "The Irishman."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Join the conversation about this story »

• The 2010s was the decade of the superhero movie.
• The Marvel Cinematic Universe took over multiplexes and the "Avengers" movies wrapped up in the most satisfying way imaginable with "Endgame."
• The DC Extended Universe stumbled with "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" but found its footing when they introduced Wonder Woman and then gave her a standalone movie.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Narrator: The 2010s was the decade of the superhero movie. We saw the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe along with a bunch of onscreen appearances of heroes from DC, the X-Men, and even Pixar. Here are the top moments and scenes from superhero movies in the last decade.

- Just leave her alone and everything will be fine.

- The anti superhero film "Kick-Ass" helped usher in the decade of the superhero. The movie is probably remembered for this scene where the 11 year old Hit Girl takes out an entire room of henchmen.

- Meenie, miney, mo.

- The R rated superhero flick didn't start and stop there.

- Oh, oh hello.

- 2016's "Deadpool" was an envelope pushing smash.

- Did I leave the stove on?

- The movie's opening car chase truly exemplifies the spirit of the film where you have Deadpool just breaking the fourth wall to talk to the audience while taking out the bad guys.

- Rich Corinthian leather.

- Ugh.

- We'll say Ryan Reynold's third attempt at being in a superhero movie went a lot better.

- Stop or we will shoot.

- Freeze him Charles.

- I can't.

- [Cop] Hands up!

- The X-Men prequels started off really strong early in the decade and then ended on a disastrous note. Let's just cherish this shoot in Quicksilver time, which is one of the coolest slow motion shots since "The Matrix's" bullet time. The super fun sequel rightly teamed up Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne. The movie's most memorable scene comes when The Wasp has to fend for herself in the kitchen. Meat tenderizers are flying at her, she has to shrink and grow and deal with all these other related kitchen objects. And it's really a chance for Evangeline Lilly to shine. Marvel waited way too long to make it's first female superhero movie. 11 years into the MCU the studio delivered Captain Marvel and gave us this scene showing everybody why Carol Danvers is the most powerful hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Carol is being held by the Supreme Intelligence, rips out her power dampener and delivers this line.

- I've been fighting with one arm tied behind my back, but what happens when, I'm finally set free.

- Then she fully powers up into her binary form and we see just how powerful Captain Marvel really is. For Guardians we could've gone with Groot dancing or even Quill dancing, but sometimes a memorable moment, it's not even about the characters. Take this scene where the Guardians fly into the lawless Nowhere and David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream" is blasting on the soundtrack. ♪ Freak out in a moonage daydream oh yeah ♪ Not only is it full of awesome establishing shots further building out Marvel's galactic onscreen presence, but unknown to us at the time, it also sets up the location of a pivotal scene from "Infinity War". Freak out, far out, indeed.

- [Mera] Welcome home.

- Speaking of sweeping landscapes, how about the first glimpse of Atlantis in "Aquaman." Who could've thought the Atlantis of the comics could be brought to life so vividly. Just watch the giant tortoises and whales flying over your head and let your imagination run wild. Bonus points to this movie for including a few things constantly mocked about Aquaman and making them kind of awesome.

- Okay now I can turn invisible. Selecting a bagel. Act super normal.

- Spider-Man?

- You know that's funny, I get that a lot.

- Spider-Man had a very weird decade. He was portrayed by multiple actors and was the subject of a massive fight between two rival studios. This was one of the high points of Spider-Man on the big screen. In fact "Into the Spider-Verse" even picked up the Oscar for best animated film. Wanna know why this movie got that Oscar? Just take a look at this stunning scene where Peter B. Parker and Miles Morales are swinging through the woods. Miles is finally starting to get the hang of the web slinging.

- Okay, thwip and release. Thwip and release. Thwip

- And release.

- You're a natural. Thwip

- Release!

- It's one of the many moments where this movie feels like a comic book come to life. And speaking of animated superheros Fans waited 14 years between "The Incredibles" and "The Incredibles 2". That first movie ended with a tease of baby Jack Jack's powers, emphasis on powers, plural. In the sequel, Jack Jack's powers went berserk when he went head to head with a raccoon. He was zapping it, smacking it, even tried to set it on fire. Really makes me wish Pixar would get into the superhero business full time. Marvel's on screen battles have just gotten better and better as time has gone on. This battle for Asgard on the Rainbow Bridge is set to Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" making it the perfect combination of song and fight scene. And when the song gets to "Valhalla, I am coming"♪ Valhalla, I am coming ♪ Valkyrie, long associated with Valhalla in Norse mythology, is swaggering across the bridge to enter the fight. And Thor's other allies, Loki, Hulk, Korg, Heimdall, and the rest of Asgard are all doing their part to take Hela and her forces down. With a brand new director, "Thor Ragnarok" was a breakthrough moment for the character on the big screen giving him much more humor than he had before.

- You're late.

- You're missing an eye.

- At the end of this movie, Cap wakes up in what he thinks is the 1940's only to discover that he's been frozen for 70 years. He's eventually met by Nick Fury. The twist was executed well and the movie also ended with one of the most heartbreaking lines in any superhero movie.

- Yeah, I just, I had a date.

- Steve Rodgers would finally get that date with Peggy in Endgame. And speaking of twists

- Don't hurt the face. I'm an actor.

- In "Iron Man 3", The Mandarin, who we're led to believe is the main villain, is nothing more than an actor.

- Just a role, The Mandarin, see it's not real.

- It's a clever twist, but also one of the MCU's most divisive moments. This never actually happened in the comics and if you we're a fan of them, you we're kind of deprived of the chance to see Iron Man face off against one of his oldest foes. Me, I feel like Marvel didn't have a whole lot of options. It was the studios fix for a character who was developed around a whole lot of racist tropes and stereotypes.

- At least you talk. Who are you?

- It doesn't matter who we are.

- "The Dark Night Rises" was gonna have a tough time topping 2008's "The Dark Night", but it came pretty close in this thrilling opening scene, which introduced us to Tom Hardy's Bane. It's an unforgettable opening, not just because they filmed it in real planes and also not because all of your friends had terrible Bane impressions after this movie came out.

- No one cared who I was til I put on the mask.

- The script says do a Bane voice but mines really bad. I was born in the dark. I can't do one. Wonder Woman makes her grand entrance, a bright spot in an other wise awful movie and a sign, not fully realized at the time, that there was a brighter future ahead for the DC Extended Universe. Just try to get that theme music out of your head. We're gonna come back to Wonder Woman in a little bit.

- Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?

- Now, this is among the absolute best fight scenes in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe and it's not on a giant battlefield. It's just Captain America, a bunch of Hydra soldiers, and a very cramped elevator. This scene was so memorable, that it showed up again in "Endgame". This was by far the best of the solo Wolverine movies. It was the dark and emotional portrayal that the character always deserved. I could choose any action sequence from this movie that gave it it's R-rating, but Logan's death, really felt like everything was coming full circle, and it was truly the end of an era.

- Don't be what they made you.

- Logan's entire life has been a battle and he can finally be at peace. Now give us an X-23 movie already.

- Where is this one from?

- The Bobo Ashanti tribe from present-day Ghana, 19th century.

- "Black Panther" was a groundbreaking moment in pop culture. It's Best Picture nomination can attest to that, but it's not the movies hero I want to talk about. It's the villain, Killmonger, and his intro.

- How do you think your ancestors got these? You think they paid a fare price? Or did they take it like they took everything else?

- Perhaps you're already thinking "Hey is it even fair to call this guy the villain?"

- But I see through you.

- "Doctor Strange" expanded the MCU far beyond normal fighting. Nowhere is that more apparent than when Doctor Strange first meets The Ancient One and she takes him on quite the trip.

- [The Ancient One] What mysteries lie beyond the reach of your senses.

- The visuals feel like a callback to the original Steve Ditko creations from the '60s and it set up a lot of what was to come with reality bending and time travel later on in the MCU.

- Mysterio takes Spider-Man through a mind bending trip through a whole bunch of projections. It's mesmerizing and terrifying. Just look at zombie Tony Stark. This already feels like a sequence fans will be talking about for a very long time and other Spider-Man movies, both animated and live action, are gonna have a hard time topping it. The third Captain America movie isn't just about Cap. During a pivotal battle at an airport in Berlin, the Avengers found themselves divided. On one side, we had Iron Man joined by Spider-Man, Black Panther, and War Machine. And on the other, we had Captain America, with Falcon, Winter Soldier, and Giant Man. Scarlet Witch made cars fly through the air, Ant Man grew to the size of a skyscraper, and Spider-Man made "Star Wars" jokes.

- Hey guys! You ever see that really old movie, "Empire Strikes Back"?

- Jesus, Tony. How old is this guy?

- I don't know, I didn't carbon-date him.

- This made watching the team fall apart completely worth it. DC got ahead of the MCU with this female led superhero film. Set during the first World War, includes this thrilling scene set in No Man's Land where Diana marches across the battlefield drawing all the enemy fire so the soldiers can advance. If this sequence doesn't make you a Wonder Woman fan, nothing could. So, we've hit the top 3 and, yes, it's just going to be the Avengers movies here on out. When you think of superhero films from the last decade or so, this is probably the first image that comes to mind. At that point, we'd been waiting four years since the first Iron Man movie to see the core Avengers all together in one shot, suited up and ready for action. And this image is just straight up iconic. It's rare to see a superhero movie end on such a downer, but the snap in "Infinity War" proved to be the "Empire Strikes Back" of Avengers movies. And we we're left to wonder for an entire year how those heroes would come back. Because the movies make way too much money to not bring them back. This was the hardest movie to pick a scene from, so we're gonna cheat and say the entire third act because technically it's the ending to 21 other movies and it delivered. You have Thor, Cap, and Iron Man coming together for one last stand. A throwback to the first Avengers movie when they first came together and fought over Loki. And if you saw this in theaters, you really thought one of them was gonna die here. But no, the Russo's decided to instead deliver on more than a decade of teases and build ups. Cap shows he's worthy by wielding Mjolnir and summoning the lightning. He straps on his shield for what he thinks will be the last time and Sam gives us a callback to Winter Soldier to let Cap know the cavalry has arrived.

- [Sam] On your left.

- Don't say it, don't you say it.

- On your left.

- Come on!

- It looks like all of Wakanda is there. All the wizards are there. Valkyrie has shown up on her Pegasus. Even Pepper Potts is there in the Rescue Suit. And Captain America delivers the iconic battle cry that fans have been waiting years to hear.

- Avengers! Assemble.

- They could have just left it at that. But nope the battle still gave us some great moments. Tony and Pepper fight back to back. Tony finally hugs Peter. There's the gauntlet relay. All the female Avengers come together. If you saw this in theaters, especially opening weekend, then you know how much the audience cheered for each and every one of those moments. And how dusty the theater got for Tony's funeral. That ending is why I paid to see this movie in theaters three times.

[Producer]: You saw it three times in theaters?

- You didn't? Did we miss any of your favorites? Let us know in the comments.

 [Captain America]: That is America's ass.

Join the conversation about this story »

• Tom Holland is known for his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• He's played the webslinger in five total movies and has another "Spider-Man" movie set to hit theaters on July 16, 2021.
• Holland also voices a character in the new animated movie "Spies in Disguise" with Will Smith. 
• There are some things fans might not know about him though. 
• For example, the actor had his first kiss backstage at "Billy Elliot: The Musical" and the worst job he ever had was being "a pot washer in a pub."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tom Holland gained global fame when he made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in 2016's "Captain America: Civil War," and he's come a long way since then.

The 23-year-old British actor has starred in five total MCU films and a third "Spider-Man" movie is set to hit theaters on July 16, 2021. In 2019, he appeared in two of the year's films that hit $1 billion at the box office, "Avengers: Endgame" and "Spider-Man: Far From Home."

Holland also teamed up with Will Smith to voice a new animated movie called "Spies in Disguise," in theaters on Wednesday. In the film, Holland plays a scientist named Walter Beckett who accidentally turns a world-famous spy, Lance Sterling (Will Smith), into a pigeon. 

Here are 10 things you probably didn't know about Holland.

As a child, Holland says he got bullied for learning ballet.

In multiple interviews, Holland has talked about how "obsessed" he was with a Janet Jackson song as a baby, which led his mom to enroll him in dance classes at a UK-based company Nifty Feet.

While at a show, he got discovered by a scout, but they told Holland he was too small to play Billy Elliott in a theater production of "Billy Elliot: The Musical." So, he trained hard for two years, grew a bit, and got the part. As part of his training, Holland learned ballet. 

"I went to an all-boys school, where I played rugby, so ballet wasn't the coolest thing to do," he told "Spider-Man" costar Zendaya during a discussion for Interview magazine.

"I would do it in the school gym at lunchtimes by myself, in tights, with a teacher," Holland told GQ Style. "So you have kids looking through the windows. To a bunch of 10-year-olds who all play rugby, Tom Holland doing ballet in the gym isn't that cool." 

Regardless, Holland told Zendaya that the mean comments "toughened me up."

"I'm very happy I had that training," he told her. "It's been so valuable to my career, and I've used it on almost everything I've done since."

Holland had his first kiss backstage at "Billy Elliot: The Musical."

In September 2008 at 12 years old, the actor made his debut as the titular character at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London's West End.

During a 2017 interview with "Spider-Man: Homecoming" costar Jacob Batalon for Moviefone, Holland revealed that his first kiss happened with one of the girls who played Debbie in the play.

"I was dared to make out with her," Holland recalled. "Dared by a friend because I was falling madly in love with her, but she had no interest in kissing me. She was dared to and I made out with her for all of three seconds and it was magical."

His favorite MCU films are "Iron Man,""Thor: Ragnarok," and "Avengers: Endgame."

Holland revealed his top picks during a 2019 interview with Comicstorian.

"Iron Man," which starred Robert Downey Jr., was released in 2008 and kickstarted the MCU.

Holland previously told IMDb that he thinks the film is "one of the greatest superhero movies" and said that "no one ever in the history of movies should ever try and play Tony Stark ever again" after seeing the way Downey Jr. nailed the role. 

2017's "Thor: Ragnarok," directed by Taika Waititi, saw the return of Chris Hemsworth's titular character, plus a new haircut for the God of Thunder. The film was praised for reinvigorating the franchise with plenty of humor, colorful imagery, and bold music choices.

"Avengers: Endgame," which came out in 2019, marked the culmination of years worth of Marvel movies and went on to reach $1 billion at the box office. 

Years ago when his acting career was at a standstill, his mom sent him to carpentry school as a backup plan.

Holland previously told GQ Style that he got cocky and "hit a bit of a rut" after starring in the 2015 film "In the Heart of the Sea."

"I was like, I've just done a Ron Howard film. I don't need to audition for stuff anymore," he said. "And it was quite the contrary. And I basically got into this rut where I wasn't, like, taking auditions seriously, and I just thought, 'I'll get this job, I'll get this job.' And I didn't. It was a bit of a punch in the teeth."

"I went through a phase in my career where I was too old to play a child, but too young to play a teenager," Holland added during an appearance on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in December 2019.

"My mom decided to send me to carpentry school, so she packed my bags up and shipped me up to Cardiff in Wales, and I rented a room off this lady and shared a room with her son for like eight weeks," he continued. 

Holland didn't actually finish the course because he got called back to continue auditioning for his Marvel role, but he said that he's "pretty capable" of crafting things. 

"My mom's side of the family are all carpenters, so my granddad taught me when I was young, so I built my mom's kitchen table," he told Kimmel. "I built a little cabinet in her kitchen. I fixed a friend's door once."

The worst job he ever had was being "a pot washer in a pub."

"It wasn't terrible," the actor told Yahoo Movies in 2017. "I was so used to being on film sets that all of a sudden I was like, 'Ugh, this sucks.'"

He has a crush on Marvel costar Elizabeth Olsen.

Holland revealed his crush during an interview with British GQ in 2017, in which he was asked: "If you could pick any love interest from the Marvel universe for Spider-Man, who would it be?"

In response, the actor said, "I think Scarlet Witch is pretty hot, you know. I think Elizabeth Olsen is super hot and really nice as well. She was really nice to me at the premiere." 

He got a tattoo of the Spider-Man symbol on the bottom of his foot.

In a 2017 interview with BackToTheMovies, Holland said that getting the ink at Bang Bang Tattoo in New York (a popular place that plenty of celebrities go to when they get tattooed) "hurt so much," but was still "an amazing experience."

"I always wanted to get that Spider-Man symbol on the bottom my foot, but I just never thought would ever get it done, and the opportunity came about," Holland said, adding that he had to get inked three times because it faded away due to the location of the symbol. 

Holland said that the worst piece of advice he ever received was from Mark Wahlberg, who told him to "go out and have some fun."

"Basically, he told me to go crazy," Holland told Jess Cagle for People Entertainment Network in 2017.

The actor was referring to the time he was on "The Graham Norton Show" with Wahlberg that year, and recommended that Holland and his siblings — he has three — move to LA.

"Get a jacuzzi," Wahlberg said. "I just met all your brothers. Bring the boys to Cali, get a medical marijuana license so that if you use, you have an excuse, and have some fun, dude. Have some fun for me."

"Go have some fun," he added. "You're a young, good looking guy." 

His all-time favorite movie is "Primal Fear," which was released in 1996.

Holland revealed the fun fact during an interview with Yahoo Movies.

The thriller movie, based on a book from William Diehl, starred Richard Gere as a defense lawyer and Edward Norton as a teenager charged with the murder of an archbishop. 

Norton won a Golden Globe for best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a motion picture and got an Oscar nomination. 

In a 2018 interview with BuzzFeed, Holland listed "My Cousin Vinny" (which starred Joe Pesci and his "Spider-Man" costar Marisa Tomei) as another favorite film, in addition to "Primal Fear."

Holland stole a blue screen from the set of "Spider-Man: Far From Home" and turned it into a cover for his poker table.

In his fall/winter 2019 cover story for GQ Style, writer and interviewer Zach Baron mention that he saw the poker table while at the actor's house. 

During a previous interview with Collider, Holland said that his younger brother, Paddy Holland, was personally given a much cooler prop, straight from  Robert Downey Jr. — the original Iron Man mask from the first film.  

• As we all remember, Martin Scorsese sparked backlash during an interview with Empire magazine when he made comments about Marvel movies not being real "cinema."
• Scorsese's daughter, actress Francesca Scorsese had what could be the best response to her father's opinion about Marvel Studios films.
• She took to her Instagram stories and posted a photo of Christmas presents adorned in Marvel-themed wrapping with the caption, "Look at what I am wrapping my Dad's X-mas gifts in."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

As we all remember, Martin Scorsese sparked backlash during an interview with Empire magazine when he made comments about Marvel movies not being real "cinema." From James Gunn to Robert Downey Jr. to Bob Iger to Francis Ford Coppola to John Woo, everyone seemed to have chimed in about the ordeal. Things have since simmered down, but Scorsese's daughter, actress Francesca Scorsese had what could be the best response to her father's opinion about Marvel Studios films.

She took to her Instagram stories and posted a photo of Christmas presents adorned in Marvel-themed wrapping with the caption, "Look at what I am wrapping my Dad's X-mas gifts in." This was obviously a trolling, playful jab at her dad which could very well be the best way to end this debate and close this chapter of cinematic divisiveness.

During his interview with Empire in October, Martin Scorsese said in regards to Marvel movies: "I don't see them. I tried, you know? But that's not cinema." He continued: "Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn't the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being."

In a New York Times op-ed, Scorsese unpacked his thoughts about comic book movies. "Many films today are perfect products manufactured for immediate consumption," he wrote. "Many of them are well made by teams of talented individuals. All the same, they lack something essential to cinema: the unifying vision of an individual artist." He added that the way these films and franchises dominate "is brutal and inhospitable to art."

Earlier this month, Disney boss Bob Iger was planning on meeting with "The Irishman" director to hash things out.

Check out Francesca Scorsese's Instagram story post below.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 9 items to avoid buying at Costco

• An actress who appeared in "Captain America: The First Avenger" was arrested and charged with second-degree murder this week.
• Mollie Fitzgerald is accused of killing her 68-year-old mother, Patricia Fitzgerald, in her home in Olathe, Kansas, on December 20.
• The police charged and jailed Fitzgerald on a $500,000 bond on Tuesday.
• The 38-year-old actress had a minor role as Stark Girl in the 2011 Marvel film. She was also an assistant to the director, Joe Johnston, on set.
• The police have not released information about a motive as the investigation continues.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Mollie Fitzgerald, who appeared in 2011's "Captain America: The First Avenger," was charged with second-degree murder in the death of her mother on December 20.

The 38-year-old actress and movie director was arrested on Tuesday after the police found her mother, Patricia Fitzgerald, dead inside her home in Olathe, Kansas. The 68-year-old had suffered from a stab wound.

Fitzgerald had a minor role as Stark Girl in the Captain America origin story and worked as an assistant to the director, Joe Johnston, on set.

The actress, who has worked mostly on low-budget movies, including 2014's "The Lawful Truth" and 2017's "The Creeps," was charged and jailed on a $500,000 bond on Tuesday. It's unclear whether she had an attorney, CBS News reported. The police have not released information about a motive as the investigation continues.

Patricia Fitzgerald's brother Gary Hunziker told The Kansas City Star on Tuesday that the family knew few details about the circumstances surrounding his sister's death.

"We were shocked," he said, adding that "it doesn't matter the circumstances — the loss of a sister is what it's all about."

• Read more: 
• Chris Evans accidentally spoiled Captain America's most poignant scene in 'Avengers: Endgame' for Anthony Mackie
• The Marvel movies pay incredible attention to the physics of Captain America's shield
• Disney is selling a $300 Captain America figure that captures one of the best moments from 'Avengers: Endgame' — and it's already going for hundreds more on eBay

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's how to escape a flooding vehicle

• Disney Plus, Disney's $7 a month streaming service, launched in November with promises of old and new content.
• Fans are already noticing that some films, including "Home Alone" and "The Sandlot," have disappeared from the streaming service.
• Unlike competitors HBO and Netflix, Disney Plus does not release monthly updates with information about what content will be leaving the service.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Disney Plus is a Disney fan's dream streaming service, as long as they weren't planning to watch "Home Alone" or its sequel, or any of the other movies that have quietly been removed in the last few weeks.

Subscribers on Reddit noticed that certain films had been removed, with no official statement from Disney, including "Home Alone,""The Sandlot," and "Pirate of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," making 12 films total that fans noticed were removed. 

Disney Plus doesn't release monthly lists of content leaving the service the way that competing Netflix and HBO do, Polygon reported. Disney never promised that all content would permanently stay on the service, but in a November statement, a spokesperson clarified that animated classics like "Snow White" will remain available.

Movies may have been removed for other, preexisting streaming and licensing deals. Six Marvel movies are missing from the service for a variety of reasons. "Black Panther" and "Infinity War" are both on Netflix, with plans to come to Disney Plus in the near future, although "Black Panther is already set to return to Netflix in 2026.

Hope isn't lost for films that have disappeared from the platform, or that were never there in the first place. Disney was able to strike a deal with Turner, the company that owns "Star Wars" broadcast rights, to make all but two of the films available for subscribers. In the meantime, fans can request shows and movies be added.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch Google reveal the new Nest Mini, which is an updated Home Mini

• Comic book movies have dominated movie theaters for the last 10 years, grossing billions at the box office.
• Marvel Studios and DC, with the help of Iron Man, the Avengers, and Batman, are largely responsible for all that.
• To wrap up the decade, we're ranking its 10 most influential comic book movies — from "The Avengers" to "Deadpool."
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Numerous comic book films have made waves at the box office and among audiences this past decade, including films like "The Avengers" and "X-Men: First Class." 

Big name heroes like Batman and the Hulk were a hit, as were more obscure heroes like Deadpool. 

Keep reading to find out the most influential comic book movies from the 2010s. 

11. "X-Men: First Class" (2011) rebooted the entire franchise.

AKA "X-Men: The College Years,""First Class" had the then-unenviable task of rebooting and reinvigorating the X-Men movie franchise, after 2006's "X3" proved to be a box office hit but critical and audience disappointment. 

"First Class" exceeded expectations, playing like a James Bond movie from the '60s (especially Magneto's first act Nazi hunt) that would recharge the mutants for the better part of another decade before "X-Men: Apocalypse" and "Dark Phoenix" would crater the series once again. Oh, and it pushed a coin through Kevin Bacon's head in one of the best scenes the genre has ever done. 

10. "Justice League" (2017) features several well-known superheroes.

Warner Bros. and DC's long-awaited team-up of heroes should have been their "Avengers"-sized hit, but it grossed throughout its entire theatrical run what "Avengers" made in about a week. 

The making-of and behind-the-scenes struggles — Zach Snyder notably left the project, and Joss Whedon stepped in — are the film's legacy in an increasingly IP-driven Hollywood. While it was a disappointment, "Justice League" significantly altered DC and WB's cart-before-the-horse franchise planning for their comic book heroes. But in general, "Justice League" all but sent WB back to the drawing board on the future of its comic book heroes and villains.

9. Joaquin Phoenix starred in "Joker" (2019).

Who knew the director who gave us "The Hangover" trilogy would deliver one of the most polarizing and groundbreaking comic book movies ever?

Like the fellow R-rated comic book movie "Logan" before it, "Joker" further proves that audiences are willing to pay record-breaking box office dollars for the genre to color outside the lines, even with brushstrokes as violent and nihilistic as Joaquin Phoenix's gritty Joker. The movie appealed to more than the Comic-Con set, with word-of-mouth propelling it to be the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever. Thanks to that, expect more big swings like this within the comic book genre.

8. "Thor: Ragnarok" (2017) featured an unconventional director.

The third chapter in the creatively disappointing "Thor" franchise (the dimmest jewel in Marvel's crown) gave the series a much-needed shot in the arm, delivering one of the funniest movies of the decade — regardless of genre.

The inspired choice to bring director Taika Waititi onboard to help carve a new, irreverent path for Chris Hemsworth's Avenger — and showcase the actor's scary-good comedic chops — reinvigorated both the genre and Marvel's stranglehold on it. The Marvel mold is as close to being broken with this film, as "Thor: Ragnarok" turns the comedy and action of "Guardians of the Galaxy" into the blockbuster equivalent of an airbrushed van mural or '80s rock album cover.

7. "Logan" (2017) paved the way for "Joker."

There wouldn't be a "Joker" without "Logan"— a then-risky gamble (turning a PG-13 character into an R-rated anti-hero on a big-ish blockbuster budget) that paid off with great box office and an Oscar nom. 

James Mangold's swan song to Hugh Jackman's Wolverine is an R-rated Western hiding out within some of the most successful IP ever. Tapping into the X-Men movies' well-tread themes of identity and finding purpose from a life spent defending a world that fears and hates you, "Logan" succeeds at finding a corner of the franchise never before explored and investing it with legit drama and big emotional stakes. The end result is a moving, tragic adventure that subverts genre expectations in ways that movie fans should and will be examining for years.

6. "Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014) catapulted C-list Marvel characters into the spotlight.

Credit must always be given to a movie that turned a talking tree and sentient, gun-toting raccoon into household names.

The Guardians of the Galaxy were, at best, C-List level Marvel characters who became comic book movie all-stars and royalty overnight in August 2014, when writer-director James Gunn offered his instantly iconic vision for the team of misfits forced to team up and do the saving-the-galaxy thing. In doing so, "I am Groot!" became a permanent part of the lexicon, and Marvel proved that the genre had room for a comedy disguised as a four-quadrant action movie, setting the stage for 2017's "Thor: Ragnarok." The movie also inspired rivals to find their version of "Guardians"— the success of which no one has been able to replicate since.

5. "Deadpool" (2016) stars Ryan Reynolds.

Deadpool was the part Ryan Reynolds was born to play. After years of development hell and false starts, Reynolds — along with director Tim Miller — deliver a movie that came at the perfect time to go outside the box Marvel Studios was conditioning audiences to get way too comfortable with. 

Reynolds' full-tilt, fourth-wall-breaking performance is as refreshing as the movie's R-rated, fearless interpretation of the material. The beauty of the first "Deadpool" was how effortless it felt, how natural. You knew as you watched that it was a labor of love from a team that had an intense love for the character and an intimate understanding of why fans loved him, too. 

4. "Wonder Woman" (2017) was the first comic book movie with a female lead.

"Wonder Woman" beat Marvel to the punch (literally) with the first comic book movie featuring a female lead. 

Director Patty Jenkins created a heartfelt and action-packed blockbuster, one that takes the Amazonian princess seriously but not too serious — resulting in a movie that's "All Quiet on the Western Front," starring a hero who wields a truth lasso and sword. Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman seems to collect one iconic moment after another — especially that WWI trench scene. The timing of its release with #MeToo deservedly on the rise, coupled with audience demand reaching a fever pitch, helped make "Wonder Woman" a movie we needed and deserved. It's just too bad we had to wait so long for it.

3. "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" (2018) is an animated take on a comic book classic.

One of the most GIF-able and meme-friendly movies ever made, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" defied expectations with its mashup of comic book styles and animation tropes that pushed the boundaries of both genres to the tune of a best animated feature Oscar win. 

Poking fun at and doubling-down on both the genre and Spider-Man movie tropes with meta references proved to be a crossover hit that resonated with non-comic book movie crowds. The film turned Miles Morales' Spidey into a household name, with his "anyone can wear the mask" credo serving as inspiration for any person in the theater struggling with the same issues of self and identity. This, in concert with the soundtrack's perfect needle drops and effortless balance of varying tones and animation styles, stick with you long after the end credits roll. 

2. "The Avengers" (2012) was a major blockbuster hit.

To quote a rival DC film, "The Avengers" changed things forever. Writer-director Joss Whedon's monster hit was the first team-up movie between our favorite Marvel heroes — one comic book fans have dreamed about for decades. The wait was worth it, as this blockbuster did not disappoint. While not a perfect film, it has plenty of perfect and great moments in it. And it sparked Hollywood's arms race to raid their IP for similar team-ups, especially for DC Comics and WB.

If it wasn't for "The Avengers," we never would've gotten "Batman vs. Superman" or "Justice League" or Universal's killed-in-the-womb Monsterverse that died with 2017's "The Mummy." All of those movies wanted Marvel's success without doing the necessary legwork to earn it. And none of them came close to being as good as "Avengers" is in its worst scene.

1. "Black Panther" (2018) broke barriers in more ways than one.

The first comic book movie to be nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards, "Black Panther is a movie experience unlike any other. Director and co-writer Ryan Coogler ("Creed") and his production team (some of which would win deserved Oscars) achieve a level of dense but inviting world-building not seen since "Avatar," but much more welcoming and successful than that James Cameron blockbuster.

Kevin Feige's Marvel assembly line approach wisely, seemingly, stepped back and let Coogler and company do its thing, turning "Black Panther" into a pop-culture event that challenged Hollywood's narrow belief that movies led by mostly African-American casts don't travel internationally with great success at the box office. It opened the door for future, similar projects to get the greenlight and challenged what the genre can do. 

• During Tony Stark's final moments in "Avengers" Endgame," fans see the character with a half-charred face.
• Insider spoke with five members of the movie's visual effects team — Matt Aitken, Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Swen Gillberg, and Jen Underdahl — during a press day on the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California, to learn more about how they landed on that specific look for Tony.
• It was one of many designs the VFX team came up with when figuring out how to make Tony's death look believable, but not too scary.
• One of the most grisly looks showed Stark with an eye popped out, something that never would have made it to the screen.
• There was even a "Two-Face" design, named after the infamous Batman villain, where "you saw the sinews and you saw them in the teeth."

If you were taken aback by Tony Stark's face during his final moments in "Avengers: Endgame," it could have looked a lot more grisly. 

"We gave the filmmakers a full range [of looks] to choose from and one of those was where the energy from the stones had acted right up into his face and popped one of his eyeballs out and it was hanging out on his cheek," Weta digital VFX supervisor Matt Aitken told Insider of one of the most gruesome designs they did for Iron Man's death.

"They didn't go for that one," Aitken chuckled. 

The "Endgame" visual effects team, consisting of Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), Marvel, and Weta Digital, put together a full range of looks for Marvel Studios and directors Anthony and Joe Russo to look over.

The team needed to strike the perfect balance between a look that was believable enough that Tony could die, but that wasn't too scary for kids and families to watch together. 

"With any development item, you want to be able to give the filmmakers a full gamut, from sort of a light touch all the way to horror, and this will never be in it," said Marvel VFX producer Jen Underdahl. "But by doing that exercise and by letting them see sort of every stage, they can kind of pinpoint and circle the drain on where they think the look is going to settle." 

"We did go several rounds on that guy from grisly to not so grisly to more light of a touch, back to OK this is the spot where we think the audience is not going to get too freaked out, but also really understand that Tony has reached the point of no return," Underdahl added. 

The film helped lay out viewer's expectations for Tony's impending death by physically showing the damage the stones did to two other larger, powerful characters. The idea was that, hopefully, by the time Tony snapped and used the gauntlet viewers would be able to see the consequences of him wielding the stones. 

"We had seeded in the film this notion of Thanos having damage. There are consequences to him snapping and pursuing this ideology. You see the damage in his face and what that did to him, and he's built for this," said Underdahl. "Then [you] see the consequences to Smart Hulk, who was made of gamma radiation and the damage that it did there."

"You knew somewhere in the math that Tony himself, even though he's got this suit and it's going to fight for him, ultimately what's going to result would be something he couldn't recover from," she added. 

Atkins, Underdahl, and Marvel visual effects supervisor Swen Gillberg said they pushed the design past where they wanted to go so that they ultimately fell somewhere right in the middle of two extremes.

Another one of those extreme looks involved a nod to one of Batman's most famous villains.

"We did do a Two-Face version where you got inside and you saw the sinews and you saw them in the teeth and that," said Underdahl of another one of the more grisly Tony Stark designs. 

In "The Dark Knight," the Batman villain, Harvey Dent, is severely burned after half of his face is lit on fire. 

"It takes you away from this really powerful moment," said Underdahl of why that wouldn't have been the right move for that moment. "You don't want to be focusing on that or grossed out." 

"When he's collapsing against the tree stump, you've got to know that he's in a really bad predicament, that he has made this terrible sacrifice," Atkins added. "But then you also didn't want it to distract from his performance. And it's a really subtle performance that he has in those intimate moments with Spidey and then with Pepper. So yeah we definitely worked quite hard on achieving that one, but we got there."

"Avengers: Endgame" is one of 10 films on the shortlist for the visual effects category at the 92nd Academy Awards. The five final Oscar nominees will be announced Monday morning.

• Read more:
• 37 things we just learned about the making of 'Avengers: Endgame' that answer some pivotal questions about the movie
• The emotional 'I Love You, 3,000' line in 'Avengers: Endgame' was inspired by Robert Downey Jr.'s kids
• 65 details you may have missed in 'Avengers: Endgame'
• The 23 most heart-wrenching moments in 'Avengers: Endgame,' from tear-worthy to full on sob fest

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Behind the scenes with Shepard Smith — the Fox News star who just announced his resignation from the network

• So many big moments occur during the battle sequence of "Avengers: Endgame" that you probably never stopped to think about the size of the crater they're fighting in.
• According to Weta Digital VFX supervisor Matt Aitken, the crater on the battlefield was so small that the Avengers wind up crossing it four times.
• You probably can't tell though because the visual effects team manipulated the battle so it always looked like the heroes were near the crater's center.
• "We had to do this sort of sleight of hand where we would have the Gauntlet throw its path for a beat, and then we would back the action up and redress the crater a little bit," Aitken told Insider. 

Eagle-eyed Marvel fans quickly found Howard the Duck joining the massive fight sequence during the third act of "Avengers: Endgame," but there's something many viewers may have overlooked when it comes to the size and scope of the battlefield. 

"People have found all the Easter eggs that are there, I think," Weta Digital VFX supervisor Matt Aitken told Insider during a press day for the visual effects of the film, adding that "there are other things in terms of how we put the battle sequence together that I'm kind of hoping people didn't notice."

Did you ever think about how large that crater is that our heroes are running across with the gauntlet?

Though it may seem very large and wide on screen, according to Aitken, it's not that large at all. 

"A key thing is how we stage the journey that the gauntlet takes from when Hawkeye comes running out of the tunnels with it. It has to get all the way across the bombed-out Avengers compound, which has sort of now formed a crater. He has to get across to the crater to the other side where the van is sitting with the quantum tunnel in the back. There's all these beats that we worked on and ILM (Industrial Light & Magic)."

The visual effects team had to manipulate the crater in order for it to seem larger than it really is. In reality, Aitken estimated the Avengers are running the length of the actual crater about three-to-four times throughout the battle sequence. 

"There's this Hawkeye [beat] and there's the Black Panther beat and then Spidey goes flying on the pegasus at one point. There's the whole women of Marvel scene," said Aitken. "What we found was that during each one of these sequences, the staging crossed the whole crater floor. So we had to do the sort of sleight of hand where we would have the Gauntlet throw its path for a beat, and then we would back the action up and redress the crater a little bit and make it look like they were still out in the middle of the crater."

"Then the next beat would play and then we'd back it up again," he continued. "And so they kind of crossed the crater four times, really. But I'm hoping that nobody was too aware of that."

The size-changing crater reminds us of the almost never-ending runway in "The Fast and the Furious 6" where the plane seems to travel along the ground for miles on end.

If you didn't notice the shifting crater during your first or second watch of "Endgame," you shouldn't feel too bad. 

It's easy to get caught up in the elation of your favorite characters like Spider-Man and Black Panther returning after being snapped. Maybe you were too busy cheering when Captain America grabbed a hold of Thor's hammer or you were getting misty-eyed seeing the women of Marvel team up together. 

You get the point.

The battle sequence was filled with so many big, emotional moments that the size of the crater was the last thing on a viewer's mind. 

"Avengers: Endgame" is one of 10 films on the Oscars shortlist for visual effects. Nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards will be announced Monday morning.

• Read more:
• Tony Stark's death in 'Avengers: Endgame' could have looked a lot more grisly, including one design that looked like a Batman villain
• The emotional 'I Love You, 3,000' line in 'Avengers: Endgame' was inspired by Robert Downey Jr.'s kids
• 65 details you may have missed in 'Avengers: Endgame'
• The 23 most heart-wrenching moments in 'Avengers: Endgame,' from tear-worthy to full on sob fest

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 9 items to avoid buying at Costco

• Marvel fan-favorite character Howard the Duck appears in the big "Avengers: Endgame" battle for less than a second to the right of the Wasp.
• Marvel VFX producer Jen Underdahl and Weta Digital VFX supervisor Matt Aitken told Insider how his appearance came together in the final few weeks of production.
• Though "Endgame" codirector Joe Russo threw the idea out there, Underdahl says he and his codirector-slash-brother Anthony Russo didn't know Howard would actually be added into the film.
• Howard is only in the movie for 17 or 18 frames. The VFX team didn't expect people to notice his appearance until the movie's home release.
• His appearance is a pretty natural fit. Howard was in an early version of "Infinity War" where Peter Quill would have stolen his ship, leaving him stranded on the planet Contraxia. That's the portal we see him come through in "Endgame."

Howard the Duck shows up for a few fleeting moments in "Avengers: Endgame" during the film's climactic battle.

The visual effects team didn't expect viewers to find the character — who was first introduced at the end of "Guardians of the Galaxy"— in the movie right away. But on opening weekend, excited fans not only found him, but started posting picture of Howard in the final battle online.

"I can't remember exactly who it was, it was either [codirector] Joe Russo or [Marvel Studios' president] Kevin Feige and we were talking about the different characters that were going to come through the different environments at each of the portals that had opened up," Marvel visual effects producer Jen Underdahl told Insider of the idea coming up three weeks before visual effects needed to be completed on the film.

"So you had Wakanda in one and you had Contraxia in another and we just got to talking in the screening room about who would be coming through Contraxia," Underdahl added.

Introduced in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," Contraxia is the planet where the Ravagers like Yondu (Michael Rooker), Kraglin (Sean Gunn), and Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stallone) were seen. The team also believed it was the last location where Howard the Duck was seen. More on that in a bit. 

How Howard wound up in 'Endgame' with three weeks to go before the VFX team was done with the film

"Somebody threw out Howard the Duck and all of a sudden the room sort of laughed and was like, 'Huh, wouldn't that be a great idea?'" said Underdahl. "So that afternoon we gave Weta a call and said, 'Hey, if we were able to get you an old model of Howard the Duck, do you think you guys could get him into some frames of that shot?' They didn't even blink. They said yes."

Russo told Comicbook.com in May he was the one to bring up the idea. But, at the time, he didn't know it was something that could actually wind up in the film. 

"We just thought it was such a cool idea and something for the fans, something for the people who really scrutinize the movie frame by frame, although it didn't take long for them to find him," said Weta Digital VFX supervisor Matt Aitken who thought viewers may not find the character until they could pause the film upon its home release months later. 

Aitken was mostly impressed people were able to spot him in theaters because Howard is on screen for less than a second. 

"It was tight. We had to rig and create a feather groom for Howard and get him into our pipeline and animation," said Aitken of the amount of work that went into getting the small duck into the film late in the game. "He actually shows up in about 17 or 18 frames in the movie. So it's definitely a fleeting glimpse we get of him, way less than a second of screen time."

"I think if you looked at the complexity of getting him ready for the shot, and the amount of time that he's in the movie, I think it's probably one of the most skewed characters I've ever built for a movie, in that respect," he added. "But it was so much fun. We really enjoyed it."

The best part was that while all of this was happening, the directors didn't even know Howard was really being inserted into the film. Underdahl says they didn't even notice the character in the scene the first few times they watched it, which made the moment even sweeter.

"They didn't even know," said Underdahl. "The filmmakers had no idea we were going to try and get this in, so that when the shot came through, [and] we're sitting in dailies, we let it play a few times. Then I think it might have been Joe [Russo] who was like, 'Oh my God, there's Howard the Duck!'"

"The whole room kind of erupted like, 'That's amazing!'" said Underdahl of everyone seeing Howard the Duck during the battle scene. "Mind you, we're in the very end of the cycle. We have had this long three-year push, we're right up against it. So to have something like that show up was our true gift to the room and it was appreciated across the board."

Why it made sense for Howard the Duck to be there: He was in a version of 'Avengers: Infinity War'

"There was a version of 'Infinity War' when we were going to spend some time with Howard the Duck and Peter Quill on Contraxia," said Underdahl of why the idea even came up. 

Underdahl said the scene would have involved Peter stealing Howard the Duck's ship, stranding him on the planet. But it became too much of a side story.

"They've got to service all these different MCU characters and groups of heroes," said Underdahl of why Howard didn't make it into "Infinity War.""So things like that, that kind of departure into Contraxia, it ultimately would've taken too much weight of the film. We had to kind of stay on target with the storytelling."

"So when you're watching the portals open in Contraxia in the background, we're talking about, OK what are the things that we can see back there that are going to let us know kind of in a few frames where we're coming from?" Underdahl continued. "We just started talking again about who would be there, flashing back to the story point for 'Infinity War.'" 

It was a nice way to bring in an idea that was discarded in "Infinity War" back into the fold in "Endgame." And, hey, maybe we'll see Howard confront Quill in James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."

• Read more:
• Tony Stark's death in 'Avengers: Endgame' could have looked a lot more grisly, including one design that looked like a Batman villain
• The battlefield at the end of 'Avengers: Endgame' was actually too small. Here's how the VFX team made it work so viewers didn't notice.
• The emotional 'I Love You, 3,000' line in 'Avengers: Endgame' was inspired by Robert Downey Jr.'s kids
• 65 details you may have missed in 'Avengers: Endgame'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Taylor Swift is the world's highest-paid celebrity. Here's how she makes and spends her $360 million.

• In 2019, Disney made up almost 40% of the US box office, with "Avengers: Endgame" becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time, according to the Associated Press.
• Some channels on YouTube have uploaded hundreds of videos since the last Marvel Cinematic Universe movie was released, theorizing about what comes next.
• The channels make up the "Marvel Theory-Industrial Complex," an ecosystem of video content creators fueled by second-hand information and Easter Eggs.
• The videos create hype and anticipation, and turn the films into full-blown events. 
• Read more stories like this on Insider.

It's hard to pinpoint the moment the algorithm picked you. Maybe it was after a casual viewing of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," when you decided to search how many post-credit scenes you had to sit through. A YouTube video says there are five. 

Who is Howard the Duck? You don't know, but he makes a cameo, so you watch another video explaining his significance. This will be the last Marvel movie for two months, but each video helps extend the dopamine rush that comes with watching Iron Man and the guy from Parks and Rec work out their issues through CGI explosions. Instead of mukbangs and ASMR, you start getting videos titled "The Ending Of Spider-Man: Homecoming Explained" and "BLACK WIDOW Trailer Breakdown" in your recommended section.

After only a few videos, YouTube's algorithm has siphoned you into the Marvel Theory-Industrial Complex, an ecosystem of video content creators, fueled mostly by "details you might have missed" and second-hand information surrounding the Marvel Cinematic Universe. An MCU movie's release is only part of the spectacle, with speculation coming before and explanation after. Everything from the set, cast, and plot is up for deliberation. Trailers are dissected. Actors get interviewed. Leaked scripts are faked. 

In July, Marvel Studios announced their "Phase Four"timeline for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, laying out ten different movies and shows from now until 2021. The details in the timeline are limited, giving only titles, release dates, and logos for each film. The Phase Four timeline, like the three before it, lays the groundwork for all of the predictions in the Marvel Theory-Industrial Complex: what characters will appear, which comic book will be used as inspiration, and the overarching plot of the phase itself. Any theory video has to work with this timeline.

To make it into a video, a theory doesn't have to be right, it just has to make enough sense to be plausible. One video, covering Avengers: Endgame just two months before release, listed 20 different predictions. The description says that Screen Rant "gathered together some of the top Avengers: Endgame theories and check this out: a majority of them could be true!" Only 6 turned out to be correct.

Easter egg videos give viewers the payoff without the work

In 2019, Disney made up almost 40% of the US box office, with Avengers: Endgame becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time. The theory videos within the Marvel Theory-Industrial Complex are essentially free advertising for Disney, as channels often upload multiple videos a day with view counts in the hundreds of thousands or more. 

New Rockstars, a single channel with over 2 million subscribers, has published almost 100 videos about the MCU since the last movie was released. Some of them are as short as five minutes, like one discussing deleted scenes from "Spider-Man: Far From Home."Others cover a range of topics and can be almost an hour-long, about half the time of a Marvel movie itself. 

The second cycle of a comic book movie, explanation, begins after the movie hits theaters. Channels will rush to get their video out as soon as possible, while simultaneously attempting to catch every detail. Marvel purposefully adds "Easter Eggs" for fans to discover upon subsequent rewatches. Kevin Feige, the President of Marvel Studios, said that some Easter Eggs "tie back to ten movies ago," and can only be noticed "if you've been tracking them very closely." 

Watching an Easter Egg explanation video acts as a shortcut to that process, making the movie feel rewarding without having to find all the hidden moments by yourself. A video from ScreenCrush with almost 12 million views, released the same day as Avengers: Endgame, showcased 209 individual Easter Eggs.

The Marvel Theory-Industrial Complex will frequently overcompensate during this process, "finding" Easter Eggs in places where there are none. For years, there have been rumors surrounding Nova, a fan favorite from the comics who has yet to appear on screen. The rumors consistently say that he will make his appearance in the next movie, from "Guardians of the Galaxy," to "Captain Marvel," to "Endgame," yet he never does. After "Endgame's" release, the directors joked that you could see Nova if you looked closely at the background of the final battle scene. Hundreds of videos were made about his secret cameo, with many claiming to find him. When the directors later clarified that no such cameo existed, more videos were made to explain why.

YouTube videos hyping and dissecting Marvel movies turn them into events

The constant obsession over the minutiae of the franchise echoes recent criticisms from Martin Scorsese, who called Marvel movies "worldwide audiovisual entertainment" to be seen as events, rather than cinema. In addition to the regular prediction and explanation videos about the MCU, channels started posting videos explaining Scorsese's criticism itself. Most of them, for obvious reasons, thought he was wrong. 

But within the Marvel Theory-Industrial Complex, viewing a movie as an event is a plus. The wait time until the next movie is usually the first thing a video will discuss, counting down the days until everyone finally gets to know what happens. If a Marvel movie is a ride at a theme park, as Scorsese has compared them, the theory videos are chatter from other people standing in line. You talk about what you have heard, get excited for how great the ride will be, and all finally get on together. The difference is, the Marvel line takes months to get through, and once you reach the end, you start standing in a new one.

That feeling is part of the reason critics thought that "superhero-movie fatigue" was on the horizon for years, but the pendulum has failed to swing in the opposite direction. Instead, the videos keep fans invested even when there is nothing to discuss, and some fans are prepared to wait in lines for the rest of their lives.

A video titled "Every Marvel Studios MCU Film in Development From 2020 to 2028" shows the host sitting in a gaming chair, with the screens for both his PC and PlayStation glowing behind him. The channel has almost half a million subscribers and talks exclusively about comic book movies. "Let's go over everything we know is coming, what I think is going to happen, and how much bigger the MCU is going to get in the next decade." 

This is the logical endpoint of the Marvel theory phenomenon, stretching the prediction timeline so far into the future, the year itself seems like science fiction. To put these predictions into perspective, a baby born tomorrow would be in the 2nd grade in 2028, just in time to see the Silver Surfer reboot the video envisions. After two more presidential terms, fans expect to see the Marvel machine still running as it always has.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Are you superstitious on days like Friday the 13th? These are the origins of 7 common superstitions, like why we knock on wood.

• "Parasite" director Bong Joon-ho said he'd turn down an offer to direct a Marvel movie if ever given the opportunity.
• The South Korean told The Times of London that he didn't think superheroes were complex enough characters.
• "I don't like superheroes at all. I think they're a little stupid. I like characters who have to complete missions beyond their own capabilities," he said.
• "Parasite" has already received a Palme d'Or at Cannes and won Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

The South Korean director of global phenomenon "Parasite" said he'd never direct a Marvel movie because he doesn't like superheroes.

Bong Joon-ho told The Times of London that he didn't think the characters in superhero movies had enough depth.

"I don't like superheroes at all," he said.

"I think they're a little stupid. I like characters who have to complete missions beyond their own capabilities."

He added that the characters in "Parasite" are more relatable as each person has both strengths and flaws.

"This film doesn't have any villains or heroes. Every character is nice to some degree and cowardly to some degree," he said.

"Weak and worldly, to a certain extent. And that's realistic. That's how we all are. That's how people around us are every day."

"Parasite" has garnered not only critical success — the movie scored a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and also a Palme d'Or at Cannes— but has also been well-received commercially.

It cost just $11 million to make and has banked $129 million at the global box office, The Times reported.

Telsa CEO Elon Musk also called the South Korean his favorite of 2019.

Read more:

'Parasite' won the Best Foreign Language film at the Golden Globes. We break down the intense ending of the film.

'Parasite' is a phenomenal thriller movie best seen with absolutely zero context

Elon Musk revealed his favorite film of 2019 was 'Parasite'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 9 items to avoid buying at Costco

• He's no longer the Joker! Oscar winner Jared Leto is playing a vampire in Sony's upcoming summer movie, "Morbius."
• Who's Morbius? If you're unfamiliar with the Marvel character, first introduced in the "Spider-Man" comics, Michael Morbius is a doctor with a rare blood disorder. 
• When he tries to cure himself, he winds up turning himself into a vampire. 
• Matt Smith, Jared Harris, and Tyrese Gibson also star in the movie. The biggest surprise is that Michael Keaton's Vulture from "Spider-Man: Far From Home" is making an appearance.
• "Morbius" will be in theaters July 30, 2020. You can watch the full trailer below.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Behind the scenes with Shepard Smith — the Fox News star who just announced his resignation from the network

• Marvel Studios debuted a new special look at its "Black Widow" movie starring Scarlett Johansson on Monday night during the College Football Playoff National Championship.
• The 90-second teaser, which plays like another full trailer, shows more of Black Widow's days on the run after "Captain America: Civil War" with her former colleagues Yelena (Florence Pugh), the Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Melina (Rachel Weisz).
• It also shows more of Taskmaster, the mysterious villain they'll face off against.
• "Black Widow" is scheduled to arrive in theaters on Friday, May 1, kicking off the fourth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You can watch the special look below.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Most maps of Louisiana aren't entirely right. Here's what the state really looks like.

• Michael B. Jordan plays American lawyer Bryan Stevenson in "Just Mercy," which also stars Jamie Foxx as wrongly-condemned death row prisoner Walter McMillan.
• Insider attended a Q&A in London hosted by BBC Radio 1 Extra on Monday with Stevenson, Jordan, and Foxx.
• Stevenson was discussing Jordan's dedication to authenticity but said he wouldn't have minded Jordan keeping his "Black Panther" body when playing him.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

In a Q&A hosted by BBC Radio 1 Extra, lawyer Bryan Stevenson discussed Michael B. Jordan's commitment to accuracy when the actor portrayed him in "Just Mercy."

"He was very committed to being authentic, to being true. We used some of the actual transcripts in the script for the film," said Stevenson.

However, Stevenson stated that he didn't mind so much about remaining as true-to-life as possible in one particular aspect of Jordan's portrayal. 

"I said to him: 'The one area where we don't have to be authentic is that you don't have to lose that 'Black Panther,' 'Creed'body when you play me. You can keep that. I don't have a problem with that," joked Stevenson.

As Erik Killmonger in "Black Panther,"Jordan added 15 pounds of muscle via a gruelling training regime with celebrity trainer Corey Calliet, who also helped Jordan get in shape for "Creed" and "Creed II."

During pre-production for "Black Panther," the two worked out six days a week and Jordan ate six meals a day to secure the incredible physique he displays in Marvel's billion-dollar hit.

Stevenson also said that while people don't truly appreciate how talented Jordan is, he was most struck by how nice he was.

"The thing that blew me away wasn't how skilled of an actor he was, it was how genuinely nice he is," said Stevenson.

"He is a good human being. This is a really solid human being. And he doesn't have the pretence and the ego that I expected. It's been a real honour."

Read more:

Ellen DeGeneres awkwardly got Michael B. Jordan to admit that his high school prom date was his friend with benefits

Angela Bassett says she's already close to 'fighting weight' for a Black Panther sequel

Bob Iger says of all the Disney movies released in his time as CEO he's most proud of 'Black Panther'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A 45-year-long study discovered trends in successful hyper-intelligent children

• As they've grown in popularity, superhero movies and films based on comic-book characters have been showing up more and more in award nominations.
• This year, "Joker" and "Avengers: Endgame" are both nominated for Academy Awards, with "Joker" racking up 11 nominations.
• Over the years, more than 25 superhero movies have been nominated for Oscars in categories including best visual effects, best animated feature, and best picture.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

"Joker"earned 11 Oscar nominations for 2020, making the supervillain origin story the most-nominated film of the year — but it's far from the first of its kind to be nominated for major awards.

In recent years, high-flying films about superheroes and villains have been nominated for Academy Awards rather frequently  — especially in the best visual effects category — and some have even won major titles like best animated feature or best supporting actor. 

Here are all of the Oscar-nominated superhero (and supervillain) movies ranked from best to worst, based on critic scores on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Editor's Note: We recognize that "superhero movies" encompass a wide range of films, and although this list is quite comprehensive, it may be missing a few projects that fall under that umbrella. In addition, critic scores were up to date as of publication but are subject to change. 

"Suicide Squad" (2016) won the Oscar for best makeup and hairstyling in 2017.

Critic Score: 27%

This attempt to flesh out some of DC's most iconic villains ended up winning an Oscar. Starring Jared Leto as the Joker and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, this story follows the Suicide Squad as they break out of prison and are tasked with saving the world.

"Batman Forever" (1995) was nominated for best cinematography in 1996.

Critic Score:39%

The first post-Tim Burton Batman, "Batman Forever," starred Val Kilmer as the caped crusader. The movie took Batman back to the world of camp, as Batman and Robin face off against Two-Face and The Riddler.  

It was nominated for best cinematography at the 1996 Oscars along with best sound and best effects. 

"Joker" (2019) was nominated for 11 Oscars this year, including best picture.

Critic Score:69% 

This gritty take on Batman's arch-nemesis stars Joaquin Phoenix in his best leading actor-nominated role as Arthur Fleck.

The origin story is the most-nominated superhero movie in Oscar's history. 

"Batman" (1989) won the Oscar for best art direction in 1990.

Critic Score:72%

The first serious, live-action Batman movie featured Jack Nicholson as the Joker and Michael Keaton as Batman.

Nicholson was praised for his performance, but the unique art deco take on Gotham City is what won the movie the Oscar for best art direction.

"Iron Man 2" (2010) was nominated for best visual effects in 2011.

Critic Score: 73%

The sequel to the movie that kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, craze was a visual spectacle nominated for a visual effects Oscar.

Robert Downey Jr. returned as Tony Stark in the critically well-received sequel that was much maligned by fans. 

"Iron Man 2" included some major MCU introductions by debuting Don Cheadle as War Machine and Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow.

"Superman Returns" (2006) was nominated for best visual effects in 2007.

Critic Score: 75%

"Superman Returns" was the epic, big-screen revival of the world's most iconic hero.

With Brandon Routh as Superman and Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, this movie told a Superman story rooted in heartbreak and overcoming defeat against all odds.

Although it was fairly well-reviewed, it failed to launch a new Superman franchise and never got a sequel.

"Iron Man 3" (2013) received a best visual effects nod in 2014.

Critic Score:79% 

The third and final installment in the "Iron Man" trilogy was directed by Shane Black and brought in Guy Pearce as the villain. This entry dug into the post-traumatic stress of Tony Stark in the aftermath of "The Avengers." 

Many fans considered it an improvement over the second "Iron Man" film due to its deep, emotional focus on Stark — one of the MCU's most influential characters.

"Batman Returns" (1992) was nominated for best visual effects and best makeup at the 1993 Oscars.

Critic Score:79%

Tim Burton's sequel to "Batman" was met with more critical praise, especially for Michelle Pfeiffer's strange and incredible performance as Catwoman.

With Danny DeVito as the Penguin, this Batman movie features the villains and Gotham politicians more than it does Bruce Wayne. 

"Batman Begins" (2005) was nominated for best cinematography at the 2006 Oscars.

Critic Score:84%

The movie that kicked off Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy was recognized for its cinematography at the 2006 Academy Awards.

"Batman Begins" is an origin story for Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne and his dark, gritty Batman. The film starred Cillian Murphy as The Scarecrow and Liam Neeson as Batman's mentor and rival Henri Ducard — the alias of Ra's al Ghul.

"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" (2017) was recognized for its visual effects in 2018.

Critic Score:85%

Nominated for best achievement in visual effects, the sequel to the MCU breakthrough "Guardians of the Galaxy" marked the return of the charismatic cast in a much more personal journey.

Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, and the rest of the Guardians crew returned in a story that introduced Kurt Russell as Peter Quill's father — who also happened to be a god.

The movie jacked up the stakes and humor, but it was still not quite as beloved as the original.

The stunning visual effects in "Avengers: Infinity War" (2018) were nominated at the 2019 Oscars.

Critic Score:85%

Part one of the Infinity Saga's grand finale was a visually impressive action feast. The film features all of the Avengers who have been gathering since "Iron Man" in their attempt to take down Josh Brolin's Thanos.

The infamous "snap" at the end of the film is one of the most iconic and tragic moments in MCU history.

"Hellboy II: The Golden Army" (2008) received an Oscar nomination for best makeup in 2009.

Critic Score:86%

It may not be recognized as a superhero film in the same vein as "The Avengers," but Hellboy is very much a classic comic-book character.

Written and directed by Academy Award-winner Guillermo del Toro, this sequel featured Hellboy and his team fighting in a supernatural war on humanity.

The trippy visuals of "Doctor Strange" (2016) earned it a best visual effects nomination at the 2017 Oscars.

Critic Score:89%

 "Doctor Strange" introduced Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular doctor who became infused with mystical powers.

This MCU origin story was visually distinct and had a standout cast featuring Tilda Swinton, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Mads Mikkelsen.

"Big Hero 6" (2014) won the award for best animated feature film at the 2015 Oscars.

Critic Score: 89%

Based on Marvel comics, "Big Hero 6" was an emotional roller coaster of a superhero movie.

The animated film follows the coming-of-age origin story of young genius Hiro Hamada. After discovering a robot that his late brother created, Hiro gathers a team of students and their robots to save Sanfrantokyo.

Though the film is not a part of the official MCU, Stan Lee still makes his iconic cameo in animated form. 

"X-Men: Days of Future Past" (2014) was one of three superhero movies nominated for best visual effects at the 2015 Academy Awards.

Critic Score:90% 

The time-traveling epic "X-Men: Days of Future Past" was a crossover between the old "X-Men" cast and the youngsters introduced in "X-Men: First Class."

Two timelines of heroes need to band together to save both worlds from assured destruction. 

Featuring all the "X-Men" favorites including Patrick Stewart as Professor X and both Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender as Magneto, this was the ultimate "X-Men" crossover event.  

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" (2014) was another visual effects nominee in 2015.

Critic Score: 90%

The sequel to "Captain America: The First Avenger" featured the return of Chris Evans in his now-iconic role.

This "Captain America" movie had a Cold War, espionage-thriller vibe to it that makes it distinct among the MCU canon. Its action-packed, twisty plot earned it a nomination for best visual effects.

The movie also introduced the world to Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) as the Winter Soldier.

"Spider-Man" (2002) was nominated for best visual effects and best sound mixing in 2003.

Critic Score:90%

The first Sam Raimi-directed "Spider-Man" was a smash hit for the web-slinger.

Nominated for two Academy Awards, the Spidey origin story starring Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker and Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane set the stage for the trilogy of "Spider-Man" movies that defined the decade of superhero movies.

No mention of this film is complete without acknowledging Willem Dafoe's unsettling performance as Norman Osborne/Green Goblin. 

"The Avengers" (2012) was nominated for best visual effects in 2013.

Critic Score:91%

The first big collection of the MCU minds assembled to defeat Loki in 2012.

The big climax of the first phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe brought together Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye to fight the ultimate battle. 

"Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014) received nominations for best visual effects and best makeup and hairstyling at the 2015 Oscars.

Critic Score: 91%

 Introducing the world to Peter Quill, Groot, and Drax, this take on the superhero comedy skyrocketed Chris Pratt to stardom.

An otherwise basic superhero plot about saving the world from a generic villain gained a great reputation thanks to its humor and lovable, diverse cast of characters. 

The Guardians went from being an obscure group of Marvel heroes to one of the biggest movie franchises in the world thanks to this successful debut.

"Birdman" (2014) received nine nominations and won three Academy Awards in 2015 including best picture.

Critic Score:91%

Although it's debatable whether or not "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" is a superhero movie, it's certainly the closest thing to one that has won best picture so far.

Michael Keaton was nominated for his performance as a washed-up actor known for playing the superhero Birdman.

The film is known for its appearance of only being shot in one take, and in turn, won the Academy Awards for best cinematography and best director.

"Logan" (2017) was the first superhero movie to get a screenwriting nomination.

Critic Score: 93%

This dark-yet-heartfelt send-off to Hugh Jackman's Wolverine was a groundbreaking superhero movie — the first to be nominated in a screenwriting category.

The violent and gory film finds Wolverine and Professor X at the end of their lives. Their final journey is to ensure a future generation of mutants survives to carry on their legacy. 

The film may have lost to James Ivory's "Call Me By Your Name," but it still marks a milestone for movies adapted from comic books and graphic novels.

"Spider-Man 2" (2004) was nominated for best sound mixing and best sound editing, and it won the best visual effects award at the 2005 Oscars.

Critic Score:93%

Until recently, "Spider-Man 2" was the superhero movie with the most Oscar nominations, and remains the only one with a win in the best visual effects category.

The sequel to 2002's "Spider-Man" featured the return of Tobey Maguire to the titular role, but this time he was facing off against Dr. Otto Octavius, portrayed in an emotive performance by Alfred Molina.

"Spider-Man 2" remains a stand-out superhero film, digging into everything that makes Spider-Man fragile, strong, and persistent as a character.

"Incredibles 2" (2018) was nominated for best animated feature at the 2019 Oscars.

Critic Score: 94%

This long-awaited follow up to a Pixar favorite delivered.

The crime-fighting Parr family returned in the series' second film, which follows through another one of their action-packed adventures — this time with Elastigirl at the center of the plot.

The film also added Bob Odenkirk and Catherine Keener as a brother-sister villain team.

"Superman" (1978) was nominated for three Oscars including best film editing, best original score, and best sound.

Critic Score:94%

The 1978 Christopher Reeve-led "Superman" was a landmark superhero movie.

Both critically acclaimed for its performances from Reeve, Marlon Brando, and Gene Hackman and financially a hit, it was an early Oscar superhero favorite that went on to receive a Special Achievement Academy Award for visual effects. 

It's the classic story of Superman versus Lex Luthor, but it was the first time comic fans got to see that story on the big screen done with this kind of budget.

"Avengers: Endgame" (2019) picked up a nomination for best visual effects at the 2020 Oscars.

Critic Score:94%

The conclusion to the epic Infinity Saga is one of the highest-grossing films of all time.

The final fight against Thanos involved time-travel and plenty of emotional character momentsas the deaths of major characters were mourned, and torches were passed on to the next generation of Avengers.

"Iron Man" (2008) was nominated for best sound editing and best visual effects at the 2009 Academy Awards.

Critic Score:94% 

Although it was not technically the first movie in the MCU, it's safe to say Marvel movies would not be the same without 2008's "Iron Man."

Starring Robert Downey Jr., this origin story is about one of Marvel's most iconic superheroes and it helped officially kick off a new generation of superhero movies. 

"The Dark Knight" (2008) received eight Oscar nominations in 2009 and won the awards for best sound editing and best supporting actor.

Critic Score:94%

One of the few superhero movies to win multiple Oscars, "The Dark Knight" is Christopher Nolan's modern Batman classic.

This film took a more realistic approach to Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning performance as the Joker that inspired the 2019 film and was loved by critics and fans alike.

The movie, alongside "Iron Man," moved the needle for superhero movies to come.

"The Incredibles" (2004) won the Academy Awards for best animated feature and best sound editing at the 2005 Oscars.

Critic Score:97%

"The Incredibles" is one of Pixar's most critically-acclaimed movies. It also happens to be one of cinema's few original superhero stories.

In it, a family of superheroes must come together to save the world, and each other, from the supervillain Syndrome. The movie was also nominated for best sound editing and best original screenplay.

"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" (2018) won best animated feature at the 2019 Academy Awards.

Critic Score: 97%

This new look at what a Spider-Man story could be starred Shameik Moore as Miles Morales.

The beautifully animated "Spider-Verse" tells the interwoven stories of multiple Spider-people across different multi-verses.

They all must come together to save the world from destruction, but first, they must teach Miles what it means to take a leap of faith and become the Spider-Man his universe needs. 

"Black Panther" (2018) received seven nominations at the 2019 Oscars and won for best costume design, best original score, and best production design.

Critic Score:97% 

Currently, the most successful superhero movie at the Oscars is also tied for the highest-rated on Rotten Tomatoes.

The critically acclaimed "Blank Panther" is the story of T'Challa after the events of "Captain America: Civil War" and follows him in his return to Wakanda to claim his right to the throne

This tale about home, country, and rivalry featuring great performances from Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan is one of the most morally complex stories in the MCU.

Read More: 

• 10 of the most iconic villains in the DC universe
• The 11 best comic book movies of the 2010s
• 10 of the best and 10 of the worst superhero TV shows of all time
• Disney is opening an entire Marvel-themed 'Avengers Campus' park in 2020. Here's everything we know so far.

• "Avengers: Endgame" is one of five movies competing at the 2020 Oscars for best visual effects.
• The movie contains nearly 2,500 visual effects shots from VFX houses, including Framestore, Weta Digital, Industrial Light & Magic, and DNEG that were worked on for three years.
• We rounded up before-and-after images shared with Insider from Disney and from videos released by the three VFX houses and Marvel to show how much work went into creating the highest-grossing movie of all time.
• A lot of motion capture suits were worn, even in scenes that you think don't have them.
• There were also plenty of digital extras added into the climactic fight sequence.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more.

"Endgame" moved forward five years to introduce us to Smart Hulk.

When the Hulk was speaking with Ant-Man, Paul Rudd had to keep a straight face.

Mark Ruffalo wore a motion capture suit to film his scenes in the movie.

Read more: 37 things we learned about the making of 'Avengers: Endgame' that answer some pivotal questions about the movie

It's quite delightful to see scenes of Mark Ruffalo in his mo-cap suit next to the regular actors in scenes.

In this moment by visual effects house Framestore, Tony, Natasha, and Bruce are trying to figure out the most efficient times to travel back to the past to retrieve Infinity stones.

Even simple scenes where Hawkeye and the Avengers were seen wearing suits had heavy visual effects.

Jeremy Renner wasn't actually wearing that white suit to travel back in time.

Renner wasn't really wearing a suit! It's fake.

Instead, Renner wore a motion capture suit that was replaced with the suit we saw in the final film. Framestore worked on over 300 shots of VFX for the film in total.

A lot of the suits seen in the movie were added with visual effects.

When the heroes did their valiant walk together before they went back in time, some of them were actually wearing versions of their usual hero costumes. The special white Avengers costumes came later.

When Captain America was fighting his younger self, they weren't really fighting on a bridge.

Chris Evans was fighting against a stunt double.

Read more: How Howard the Duck ended up in a nearly blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in 'Avengers: Endgame'

Evans and a stunt double fought in a large room surrounded by green screens.

VFX house DNEG put together the fight sequence.

You probably think the visual effects in this scene are just limited to space and Captain Marvel's suit, but that's not the case.

Can you guess which unexpected part of the above image is a visual effect?

We weren't even looking at Captain Marvel's real hair.

Brie Larson had a cap on to tuck away her real hair.

Heroes returned through tens of portals for the big climatic battle.

The scene showed thousands of heroes and villains getting ready to do battle. 

All of the portals were created using special effects.

In addition, most of that army you're looking at is digital.

When the heroes storm towards the enemy in a powerful moment...

Anyone who's flying and many of the background people were added after the fact.

... there weren't nearly as many people running.

The VFX team told Insider there are upwards of 10,000 people and aliens on the battlefield in the scene. 

According to a video released by Marvel Entertainment in August, Marvel VFX supervisor Dan DeeLeeuw estimated the heroes were only charging about six people.

Characters like Scarlett Witch, Doctor Strange, Valkyrie, and Spider-Man were added in later.

Above is a progression image of the scene in progress.

Any time you saw Valkyrie riding on the pegasus, she really was on a contraption.

Actress Tessa Thompson had something to hold onto while flying in the skies.

It just didn't look like a flying horse.

A few extras were needed in the background to help move it around. Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlett Witch, meanwhile, needed some wires to help her fly.

When Scarlett Witch rose high up into the sky to confront Thanos...

Read more: 65 details and Marvel references you may have missed while watching "Avengers: Endgame."

... not only was she on wires, but there was someone there to make sure she was OK.

We'll see more of Scarlett Witch on the upcoming Disney Plus series "WandaVision."

Drax wasn't really stabbing an alien.

He was really lifted off the ground though.

Dave Bautista was on a giant green item propped up by a man in a green suit.

Bautista did really have a little knife, but as you can see, the pointed end was removed. 

When Captain America dove at Thanos, he wasn't really leaping at Josh Brolin.

Chris Evans was in the suit, but we're not looking at Thanos himself.

He was diving at another man in a motion-capture suit.

Read more: The battlefield at the end of 'Avengers: Endgame' was actually too small. Here's how the VFX team made it work so viewers didn't notice.

The same goes for when Brie Larson fought Thanos to get the gauntlet off of his hand.

Brie Larson was really in this shot and in her Captain Marvel suit.

A double stood in for Josh Brolin right here with a bodysuit on.

Read more: 32 times 'Avengers' stars have costarred outside of the Marvel Universe

• If you're looking for a convenient Valentine's Day gift, Disney now offers a gift subscription for one year of Disney Plus. 
• The annual subscription costs $69.99 and is sent in the form of an email voucher code. The gift can only be redeemed by new Disney Plus subscribers. 
• The popular streaming subscription features unlimited, ad-free access to thousands of movies and series (including original, exclusive programming), and the ability to stream on up to four devices simultaneously and add up to seven profiles. 
• Pair the gift subscription with a Disney, Marvel, or Star Wars gift to delight the Disney fan in your life. 

More than 10 million people signed up for Disney's new streaming service, Disney Plus, during its first day of launch in November. But if you know someone who still hasn't subscribed, you can help them tune into all the Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars content they've been craving. 

Disney now offers a gift subscription for one year of Disney Plus. It costs $69.99 and is sent as an email subscription card to your recipient. Learn more about the gift subscription below. 

Here's how to gift a Disney Plus annual subscription:

1. Visit this page to purchase the gift. 
2. You'll enter your information, your recipient's name and email, and what date you'd like the email to be delivered. 
3. The $69.99 fee will be charged to your account as soon as you make the purchase. 
4. Your recipient will visit DisneyPlus.com/redeememail, select the offer, and manually enter the code printed on the email. 
5. Once redeemed, the recipient will be credited a one year subscription to Disney Plus. 

Restrictions of the Disney Plus gift subscription:

1. The gift subscription can only be redeemed by new Disney Plus subscribers. 
2. The redemption code is one-time use only and non-transferable. 

Once they've activated the subscription, your recipient will get:

• Unlimited, ad-free access to thousands of movies and series from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, and 20th Century Fox. This includes original programming exclusive to the Disney Plus platform. 
• Unlimited downloads they can watch anywhere, anytime.
• The ability to stream on up to four devices simultaneously and add up to seven profiles.

Since the subscription offer is delivered right to their email, it makes an excellent Valentine's Day gift for anyone who loves watching Disney movies and shows. It may not be a physical gift, but it is an entertainment experience worth trying. 

SEE ALSO: If you've ordered a Christmas present that won't arrive on time, this clever hack ensures they'll still have a gift to open

Shop more Disney gifts:

1. The best holiday toys from Disney
2. Cool gifts for 'Star Wars' fans of all ages
3. Fun Disney gifts that grown-up fans will love
4. The gifts every Disney dad will love
5. Unique gifts Marvel fans will love
6. Baby Yoda gifts for 'The Mandalorian' fans

Send your recipient all the best shows and movies to watch on Disney Plus:

1. All the new movies you can watch on Disney Plus — from the live-action 'Lady and the Tramp' to holiday comedy 'Noelle'
2. All the new shows you can watch on Disney Plus — from 'The Mandalorian' to new Pixar shorts
3. All the kids' movies you can stream on Disney Plus — from 'Snow White' to 'Frozen'
4. All the new kids' shows you can watch on Disney Plus — from 'Vampirina' to the new reboot of 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars'
5. All the Marvel movies and shows you can stream on Disney Plus — from 'Iron Man' to the new 'Loki'
6. Every single Star Wars movie will be available on Disney Plus
7. All the Pixar films and shorts you can stream on Disney Plus — from 'Toy Story' to 'Inside Out'

Read everything else you should know about Disney Plus:

1. Disney Plus: Everything you need to know about Disney's new ad-free streaming service
2. How to get a free week of Disney Plus
3. Disney Plus costs $7 a month on its own, but you can bundle it with Hulu and ESPN+ for an extra $6
4. How to get the Disney Plus bundle with ESPN Plus and the ad-free version of Hulu
5. How to use the Disney Plus app to download and watch movies and shows offline