Released in 2015, Avengers: Age of Ultron is the second Avengers movie in the Infinity Saga. While wasn’t rated as highly as its predecessor, Age of Ultron is still a decent Marvel movie, with full of action-packed sequences for us to feast our eyes on. Besides bringing back the original lineup from the first part, the film also introduces to us a variety of new superheroes, such as the siblings Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, and Vision, who contribute greatly to the ultimate victory of the Avengers against the sentient AI Ultron.
However, according to director Joss Whedon, the initial lineup of the movie was supposed to be larger than this, with 3 fan-favorite MCU characters, both heroes and villains alike, left out of the scene in the last moment. Let’s find out who these characters are, and the real reasons behind their removal from the movie.
Loki was supposed to make a return to Age of Ultron.
Source: Marvel
The God of Trickster makes his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Thor back in 2011 and quickly becomes a fan-favorite due to his cunning yet charismatic nature, and Tom Hiddleston’s excellent performance. His character’s success continues to land him a spot in The Avengers one year later, serving as the movie’s primary protagonist.
Source: Marvel
In an interview with MTV back in 2015, Whedon revealed that Loki should have made the lineup in Avengers: Age of Ultron as well, as they even shot some scenes with Hiddleston, but there was a small problem.
According to the director, with the appearance of Maximoff’s siblings, Vision, and Ultron, the movie is already over-abundant, and adding Loki to the scene would only make matters worse. It’s a fair response from Whedon, but fans can’t help but wonder what would happen if the Jotnar joined in the action.
Captain Marvel was almost introduced in the movie’s final scene.
Source: American Failure YouTube Channel
Introduced to the MCU in the titular movie in 2018, the appearance of Captain Marvel, a.k.a Carol Danvers, was actually teased 3 years earlier in Marvel’s deleted footage. The video demonstrates Steve and Natasha along with their new Avengers recruits, consisting of Wanda Maximoff, Vision, the Falcon, War Machine, and a mysterious woman in a tight suit, who was widely believed to be the stand-in for Captain Marvel, since Brie Larson wasn’t cast yet back then.
Source: Marvel
In fact, according to Marvel’s head Kevin Feige, the superhero was initially included in Age of Ultron’s script, with one scene even having her flying straight into the Avengers Compound at the end. Unfortunately, the shots were used for Wanda Maximoff instead, and Captain Marvel was removed from the movie.
Feige also explained that he felt the time wasn’t right to include Carol Danvers, and for her to have such a small cameo at the end there would only confuse the viewers.
Peter Parker was also an option, but…
Source: Marvel
Like the first two, Spider-Man is another iconic Marvel character that Whedon wanted to include in Age of Ultron. Being one of the most popular comic superheroes, the Wall-Crawler didn’t get his debut in the MCU until Captain America: Civil War in 2016, due to the rights still being negotiated back then between Marvel and Sony. When Age of Ultron was filming, the agreements hadn’t been made yet, so Spidey missed his chance to star in the second Avengers movie in the MCU.
Which one of these MCU characters do you think would perform best in Avengers: Age of Ultron? What would happen if Marvel decided to keep all of them? Let us know in the comment below.