15 Times Marvel Drastically Pivots The Course Of The MCU

Margot Nolan
May 17, 2022
May 17, 2022

It’s no secret: Marvel likes to change their MCU world-building. Like, a lot.
Because it takes time to meticulously architect their cinematic universe, years could go by before a Marvel project makes it on screen. In fact, many of Marvel's projects are likely still on the drawing board. Or worse, stuck in development hell.
Avid Marvel fans can attest to this: A lot of times, the comic juggernaut has altered the course of the MCU, by changing crucial details in movies and projects.
Sometimes it was due to their inner-machine clashing - the creation and scrapping of the Inhuman franchise was a blatant example. Other times, it was purely circumstantial, like actors and directors leaving the project. The pandemic also pushed back a lot of projects.
This leads to many Marvel projects ending up on the screen very different from their conception. How? Here are 15 times Marvel drastically pivots the course of the MCU.

#1 Iron Man

Source: Walt Disney Co. / Â©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection

Universal bought the film rights to Iron Man in 1990 for a low-budget picture movie, with director Stuart Gordon and writer Ed Neumeier. The plot was about an elderly Tony Stark as he came out of retirement. However, the failure of other Marvel films around the same time derailed the project.

Source: Paramount / Â©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

In 1996, Universal acquired the picture rights to Fox, who had Stan Lee and Jeff Vintar write a story featuring MODAK, but the project failed to come through again. Then, in 2000, Fox acquired the picture rights to New Line Cinema, who rewrote the script many times. The right expired before a movie could be made.
The film rights were returned to Marvel Studios, who released Iron Man in 2008 with Paramount Pictures.

#2 Spider-Man: No Way Home

Source: Matt Kennedy / © Sony Pictures Releasing / © Marvel Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection

Originally scheduled to follow Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, screenwriters Erik Sommers and Chris McKenna intended for Doctor Strange to already be aware of the dangers of meddling with the multiverse before his intervention in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Source: Matt Kennedy / © Sony Pictures Releasing / © Marvel Entertainment / Courtesy Everett Collection

However, since the pandemic delayed the filming of the Multiverse of Madness, the Spider-Man screenwriters makes adjustments so Doctor Strange was clueless about the multiverse.

#3 Moon Knight

Source: Marvel Studios / Disney+ / Via youtube.com

At the 2006 Comic-Con, the plan to introduce Moon Knight into Marvel’s Blade: The Series was teased to fans. The show even referred to Moon Knight’s real identity, Marc Spector in the pilot, but the series was canceled after one season.

Source: Marvel Studios / Disney+

However, Marvel Studios and No Equal Entertainment revealed plans for a Moon Knight television series. But again, plans change: and No Equal Entertainment was no longer involved with the project. In 2022, Moon Knight debuts on Disney+.

#4 Doctor Strange

Source: Jay Maidment / © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection

Marvel and Full Moon Entertainment struck a deal to make a Doctor Strange film in the early 1990s. However, the project advanced slowly, and Full Moon Entertainment lost its film rights.

Source: Walt Disney Co. / Â©Walt Disney Co./courtesy Everett / Everett Collection

Rather than abandoning the project entirely, they chose to modify the screenplay just enough to avoid copyright infringement, resulting in Doctor Mordrid in 1992. The similarities are there: Doctor Mordrid is a sorcerer tasked with defending the earth from the Dark Dimension from a Dormammu-esque adversary named Kabal. Huh.

#5 Black Widow

Source: Merrick Morton/©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

In 2004, Lionsgate and Marvel Studios collaborated to produce a Black Widow film, written and directed by X-Men co-writer David Hayter. According to Hayter, Black Widow is a freelance mercenary who's been summoned back to her birthplace to confront her history. So, essentially what we got with the Black Widow movie.

Source: Merrick Morton/©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collectio

However, several other films about female vigilantes were released as he was working on the final screenplay. After Aeon Flux's disastrous release, the project was canned. Natasha Romanoff made her MCU debut in the 2010's Iron Man 2, and she starred in her own Black Widow film in 2021.

#6 She-Hulk

Source: Disney Xd / Disney XD via Getty Images

Filmmakers intended for She-Hulk to make her live-action debut in The Death of the Incredible Hulk in 1990, but she never appeared in the film. Then in the early ‘90s, there were plans for a live-adaption of a She-Hulk movie starring Brigitte Nielsen by director Larry Cohen.

Source: Tommaso Boddi / WireImage / Via Getty

Unfortunately, for unknown reasons, these plans fell through. But a She-Hulk series starring Tatiana Maslany is planned to air shortly on Disney+.

#7 Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Source: Jasin Boland /© Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / © Marvel Studios / Courtesy Everett Collection

Dreamworks first acquired the rights to create The Hands of Shang-Chi in 2001 and hired director Stephen Norrington. After those plans fell through, the film rights were returned to Marvel, who announced plans for their own Shang-Chi feature in 2005.

Source: Jasin Boland /© Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / © Marvel Studios / Courtesy Everett Collection

Originally planned for Phase 1 of the MCU, Marvel planned for Shang-Chi to appear in Avenger’s post-credit scene, so the movie would gain traction in China. The project was quiet for a long time, until the first Shang-Chi film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, was released in 2021.

#8 The Avengers

Source: Merrick Morton/©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

During filming, Joss Whedon, the screenwriter, and director of The Avengers, wasn't sure if Scarlett Johansson would return for future films, so he prepared a backup plan to replace her.

Source: Walt Disney Co. / Â©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection

Joss actually composed many pages featuring The Wasp. Which was not needed in the end, as Scarlet Johanson returns to the franchise, and plays Black Widow for four phases of the MCU.

#9 Iron Man 3

Source: Null / Â©Walt Disney Co./courtesy Everett / Everett Collection

Originally, Maya Hansen was the villain of Iron Man 3. However, Marvel corporate intervened, and the screenwriters has to rework the script. Apparently, after conferring, Marvel concluded the toys will not sell as well if it's a female.

Source: Zade Rosenthal/©Walt Disney Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection

As a result, the screenwriters altered the screenplay to make Aldrich Killian the major antagonist rather than Maya. They also reduced her roles significantly.

#10 Thor: The Dark World

Source: Walt Disney Co. / Â©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection

Alan Taylor's vision for Thor: The Dark World was supposed to lean toward a more mystical aspect, with strange things occurring back on Earth due to the convergence that allowed for some of these magical realism elements in the movie.

Source: Walt Disney Co. / Â©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection

However, fundamental plot inconsistencies cause the movie to be edited, and this footage ends up in the cutting room, resulting in a film that was very different from what he had imagined.

#11 Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Source: Zade Rosenthal/©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection

Christopher Markus, co-writer of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, tried in vain to get MODOK as the film's principal antagonist. He also wanted Peter Dinklage to play the part.

No one else at Marvel agreed, however. Alexander Pierce was eventually chosen as the film's villain. MODOK has yet to make an appearance in the MCU.

#12 Black Panther

In the early 1990s, Marvel collaborated with actor Wesley Snipes to bring Black Panther to the big screen. However, the technology to adequately depict Wakanda onscreen did not yet exist.

Instead, Snipes starred in Blade, another popular Marvel character, and Chadwick Boseman starred in Black Panther in 2018.

#13 Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok was supposed to be the darkest Marvel film ever. During the film's development, however, Marvel Studios split from the larger Marvel Entertainment, giving Kevin Feige and the filmmakers far greater creative flexibility.

With increased creativity, director Taika Waititi was able to inject more humor throughout the film, uplifting it.

#14 Eternals

The original director’s cut of the Eternals ended with everyone back on the spacecraft, brains wiped and just heading on to another planet, like The Twilight Zone.

That bleak ending, however, did not go down well with test audiences, so it was changed into something that gets people more excited about the next movie.

#15 Jessica Jones

Set to air on ABC in 2011, Jessica Jones was supposed to have a Carol Danvers as a character. The character was not a Captain Marvel at the time. However, before Netflix picked it up, Carol became Captain Marvel in the comics and is given her own film, forcing showrunner Melissa Rosenberg to ditch the character entirely.

So Rosenberg replaced her with Trish Walker, and Carol Danvers made her Marvel Cinematic Universe premiere in Captain Marvel in 2019.

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