Marvel fans baffled as new Avengers tease quietly replaces Thor

We all remember that iconic shot of The Avengers coming together during the battle for New York in the first Avengers film.

The camera spins around them as they each brace for the fight to come, and from that moment on, the MCU was born.

Thunderbolts* will feature Bucky Barnes and a full team of heroes and villains take on the world next year.

The scene has been recreated for the upcoming game, Marvel Rivals, in which we see the heroes standing together bracing themselves or brandishing weapons.

That is except for Thor who has been sidelined.

Poor old Thor has been replaced in this line-up by Bucky Barnes and there are baffled and confused reactions on social media from fans.

One user gets right to the point and makes a lot of sense, saying, “Narrative reasons. These guys are all from the same timeline, Thor/Loki/Hela are from another timeline.”

However, as others are pointing out, it’s also likely due to Bucky appearing in the upcoming films, Thunderbolts*.

The initial tweet says, “Why’d they replace Thor with Bucky? Thor’s literally in the game,” and kickstarts the confusion.

“Was wondering the same thing,” said one fan.

“I knew someone was missing but didn't bother looking it up for some reason, but yeah, that's weird,” said another.

The story of Marvel Rivals does put Thor in a completely different place in the timeline, namely back on Asgard.

Perhaps we’ll see more of this as the game nears its release date of 6 December.

The baffling feeling continued with other fans on Twitter with one saying, “Even if Thor isn’t an Avenger in the lore of the game… should have given it to us for this one time.”

I’m sure the timeline and story of the game will be as complex as the comics, given time, and we’ll see a great deal of changes, too.

I’m excited to see how it all plays out, and it seems that most on social media are eager to play and enjoy the bonkers story.