The Marvel Cinematic Universe: A beloved movie franchise that has grown to enormous proportions since the release of Iron Man in May of 2008, as it now spans 14 years and 30 films with the recent Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. While most average enjoyers of superhero movies are younger, Cheryl Skiados, a Virginia grandmother in her 70s certainly doesn’t fit that mold. 

Skiados’ grandchildren, who make up a grand total of 13, span a large age range of 6 to 22 years old. However, all the kids have one thing in common: they absolutely love Marvel movies. Rather than just ignore this shared interest among her family members, Skiados decided to have a Marvel movie marathon. Working through a watch list of the 30 movies, which event was extended to include films scheduled to be released in 2023, the grandmother watched in release order, not chronologically. She also took notes in order to further connect with her grandchildren and talk to them about something that they are interested in. 

During this movie marathon, Skiados’ 18-year-old grandson Jackson moved in with her and she invited him to watch Spiderman: Homecoming with her, at which point Jackson recorded his grandma and her note-taking using TikTok. The video quickly went viral, as, within an hour, there were at least 3,000 people who had watched, a number which rapidly grew past 7 million views, along with hundreds of thousands of likes. After the internet sensation started, Jackson noted how much he appreciates this effort by his grandmother, stating, “I think it really shows how much she cares about her grandchildren, because she is willing to sit there for hours on end and watch superhero movies, and take notes on them, just so she can have something extra to talk to her grandkids about.”

So far, Skiados is devoted to truly engaging in discussions with her family about the movies. According to her, her favorite movie is Thor, mainly because Chris Hemsworth plays the Asgardian. Again according to Jackson, “The family loves it. We all think Gran is getting the recognition she deserves for being an amazing grandmother.” As for Cheryl Skiados herself, she just thinks that all of the attention is funny and appreciates the nice comments she has received.