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Perhaps this is the Countdown to Doomsday article you’ve been waiting for. Our series returns as we analyze each era of Marvel cinema on the road to Avengers: Doomsday, examining the tapestry of Marvel movie history and theorizing on how each movie may feature in the ultimate multiverse mashup.
Previously, Marvel entered a downturn. Despite their films still making money, there were arguably seven critical duds in a row, and many questioned if Marvel could sustain multiple successful franchises. Outside of major characters like Spider-Man and the X-Men, none of their movies were considered universally great.
Yet, despite these tumultuous times, Marvel Studios was laying the groundwork for something new and different: a creative company that self-financed and produced their own works, instead of relying on a traditional movie studio to license their IP. It was a big gamble, and failure meant losing even more character rights.
If they succeeded in making great movies, and maybe ones more faithful to the comics, the sky would be the only limit. Kevin Feige hoped success would mean something more than just several successful, yet separate, films. He wanted to redefine serial storytelling at the cinema.
Luckily for comics fans, Marvel Studios pulled off the implausible, and the greatest cinematic universe in history was born.
Era Four: The Marvel Cinematic Universe Arrives – or, Some Assembly Required
The fourth era of Marvel cinema is where film history forever changed. From 2008 to 2012, Marvel Studios released six films that would later become known as Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). While Marvel focused on quality individual releases, the first teases of a larger interconnected narrative started showing up and immediately sent shockwaves through audiences.
There were certainly growing pains, with Feige falling back on what he learned working with Fox and Avi Arad. Resultingly, many of the Phase One films sometimes feel like rote origin stories, even if produced at a competent level and connecting audiences to lesser-known characters like Thor or Iron Man. But the box office talked, and by 2010, Feige and company were fully committed to seeing if a shared universe could work.
The year 2012 was the final test, and the release of The Avengers was not only a passing grade, but a smash hit. With money raining in and critics abuzz, this movie was proof positive that a shared universe was something workable and that audiences wanted. Many were also pleased at the greater move towards comic fidelity, with origin stories and costumes more directly drawn from the comics’ pages than in Fox or Sony‘s output.
This was because fans like Feige led at the executive level. Certainly, they drew heavily from the Ultimate Marvel universe in lieu of the main 616 (that is, Prime Universe) continuity, but this felt better for fans jaded by Galactus space clouds and the X-Men’s plain black leather costumes.
Marvel’s semi-independent status wouldn’t last long, though, as the Walt Disney Company acquired the entirety of Marvel in 2009 and took over Marvel Studios. Luckily, Disney gave plenty of slack to Feige and Marvel executives to continue running their show, but navigating the new relationship between Disney executives and Marvel ones would be a challenge in the years ahead.
While most of this era was about the birth and success of the MCU, Sony and Fox did have a few spare releases throughout this period. These were mostly embarrassments, stark contrasts between the generally high quality of Marvel’s self-produced works and the remnants of the early 2000s deals.
The Avengers‘ release, in combination with the terrible quality of most non-MCU films, had fans clamoring for all rights to return to Marvel. This would allow the MCU to flourish with its entire roster and truly replicate the comics’ shared universe on screen. The MCU’s success, though, further emboldened other studios to make money with the rights they had, setting up a soft war throughout the 2010s between the MCU and the other superhero entities on the block. Additionally, this era also featured a looming shadow from a non-Marvel character that redefined the superhero genre in its own right.
Just as Blade was an unlikely candidate to launch Marvel’s success at the box office, Iron Man probably wasn’t anyone’s first choice to kickstart a cinematic universe. Strange to think now that this character is a major part of pop culture, but before ’08, most people who weren’t dedicated comics fans didn’t know who he was.
Iron Man sold enough issues to maintain his own series throughout most of the 20th century, but he was never a big hit and lacked much of the spicy personality he would have after 2008. Indeed, during film development, Marvel conducted focus groups wherein they learned most thought Iron Man was a robot.
Not that his minor status prevented attempts to make a movie adaptation. Like most characters, there were many false starts. Iron Man’s rights flipped between multiple studios throughout the 90’s with a variety of scripts written and potential leading men sought after, including Nic Cage and Tom Cruise. Fox approached Quentin Tarantino to write and direct, but they eventually sold the rights to New Line due to having too many other superhero films in development.
New Line got the closest to actually making a movie before Marvel Studios. They commissioned their own script (which even featured a Nick Fury cameo to set up a solo film) and sought Joss Whedon to direct. Then New Line conceived a unique idea of gathering many writers in a room and filming them talking for hours to develop script ideas.
One of these writers, David Hayter, compiled these ideas with elements from prior scripts written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, removed Pepper Potts and the villain Mandarin from the latter. Production seemed imminent, and New Line hired Nick Cassavetes of all people to direct. Yet, this iteration eventually fell apart, and in 2005 Iron Man’s rights reverted to Marvel.
As alluded to in prior articles, Marvel Studios announced in late 2005 that Iron Man would be its first feature, alongside a lineup of six other heroes including Ant-Man and Nick Fury. Marvel felt Iron Man was their best headliner character and started development from scratch. But most screenwriters did not agree, with apparently around 30 passing on the project due to Iron Man’s obscurity and the fact that Marvel was self-producing. Many Hollywood creatives did not believe in working outside the traditional studio system and felt this was a doomed effort.
Kevin Feige was conscious from the start that Iron Man‘s success was monumental to their nascent efforts. To that end, Marvel took the results of the aforementioned focus groups and created animated shorts to raise public awareness of Iron Man. As development continued, Feige tried to kindle the cinematic universe idea and forge a connection with Spider-Man 2, whose original script directly referenced Tony Stark as the creator of Doc Ock’s robotic arms, though this was cut.
Despite cutting the direct reference, Marvel Studios was cautious in its early days and did look to the development of prior Marvel movies. They hired Jon Favreau to direct, who was ironically eager to work with Avi Arad again after Daredevil despite that film’s troubled production. This was also ironic because Arad left Marvel in 2006.
By this point, Marvel had hired two different teams to write scripts, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, and Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. Because they refused to do many rewrites due to reluctance to work with Marvel, Favreau finished the writing process, combining scripts and frequently calling comic creatives like Mark Millar, Brian Michael Bendis, and Axel Alonso for advice.
Next came casting and what became one of the most monumental casting choices of all-time. Funnily, Favreau originally wanted an unknown actor as he felt Tony Stark was the star, not the actor, and comic-book films were successful without being star-driven. Thus, Favreau initially looked at smaller performers like Jim Caviezel, Timothy Olyphant, and Sam Rockwell for Stark (Rockwell would eventually join the MCU as a different character).
Marvel Studios was taken with Clive Owen and actually offered him the part, though he declined. By this time, Favreau met with Robert Downey Jr. and decided he was perfect. Marvel strongly opposed casting Downey because of his very public history of substance abuse, including multiple stints in prison and rehab. While Downey was regaining some of his reputation throughout the mid-00s with several acclaimed performances, most studios were still afraid to cast him and Marvel didn’t want to gamble its already risky venture on a star that might dramatically blow up.
But Favreau was insistent, seeing the actor’s talent and feeling that Downey’s past made him even better for playing Tony Stark. He fought hard and worked with Downey to create an audition tape for Marvel executives showcasing how perfect Downey was. While Feige was on board, the tape wasn’t enough for the rest of the Marvel brass.
As a last resort, Favreau leaked Downey’s consideration for the part to the press. The overwhelming public acclaim at the possibility finally moved the needle. In September 2006, Marvel officially cast Downey. This wouldn’t be the last time a creative used press leaks to convince executives on Marvel projects.
The rest of the cast soon followed with Terrence Howard, another supporter of Downey, getting the role of James Rhodes over Don Cheadle, though Cheadle would be another that would join for the sequel. Gwyneth Paltrow won the role of Pepper Potts after Rachel McAdams turned it down, and Jeff Bridges won the part of Obadiah Stane.
Funnily, Stane was not the film’s original villain; at first he was a supporting character who might later become a villain. Instead, Iron Man’s archnemesis, the Mandarin, was to be the main villain. But given the desire for realism, Favreau felt Mandarin simply didn’t work yet, and instead decided to build up to the Mandarin with references, rewriting Stane into the main villain role. Bridges suddenly found himself the movie’s co-star.
Speaking of realism, the effects and production teams put extensive work into making the Iron Man armor feel tactile. Favreau dedicated lots of screentime to showcasing different stages of the armor and depicting Tony’s incremental improvements on the technology. With Howard Hughes as a direct inspiration for Stark’s character, there was no place better to film than Hughes’s former soundstages, and Favreau explicitly set the narrative in the West Coast to differentiate it from other superhero films. Favreau also threaded in references to Whiplash and even placed a Captain America shield in the background of a shot, though this was more a tease than any planned cinematic universe reference. Such was the nature of the early MCU.
A more concrete cinematic universe plan came when the crew conceived of a post-credits scene featuring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Fury’s “Ultimate Universe” iteration had used Jackson’s likeness years earlier in the comics, making him a natural casting choice. Funnily, despite all that has arisen since and Feige’s constant prior attempts to make a connected universe, the original intent with this scene wasn’t anything specific but just to see if fans would respond. Jackson hadn’t signed on to appear in any other films at this point. They even filmed an alternate version where Fury explicitly discussed mutants and radioactive bug bites, though this version was not ultimately used due to the rights issues.
In what would become a standard for the early MCU, Marvel leaned on San Diego Comic-Con appearances as further marketing as a lead-up to the May 2008 release date. Marvel Studios felt positive buzz but awaited the results with bated breath. Would their big gamble pay off?
It did!
Iron Man exploded to a $98.6 million opening weekend, one of the highest of all-time, kicking off the 2008 summer box-office season with a bang. By June, it passed the $300 million mark and wound up finishing with $585.8 million. Perhaps just as importantly, the critical response was stellar. While some derided the third act, Downey turned eyes with what was universally considered one of the best comic-book performances to date. Many praised the film’s deft balance of comedy, character development, and effects splendor. Roger Ebert gave it a perfect 4/4 and felt it breathed new life into the superhero genre. It was notable for being the first movie to use the Marvel Studios title card.
Marvel Studios was ready to capitalize on this success. After Iron Man‘s debut, Marvel extended David Maisel‘s contract through 2010 and named Feige president of Marvel Studios. With the Nick Fury movie sidelined, and difficulties on Ant-Man, Marvel finally committed to trying for a connected film narrative and rearranged its lineup. Marvel announced a revised slate of films including The Avengers and ceded greater creative control to the people ready to take Marvel Studios into the future.
Speaking of, fans were abuzz about the tease of the post-credits scene. While there had been a sprinkling of such scenes in prior Marvel films, none had paid off or pointed to any specific future story beat. With this one, many wondered: would there really be an Avengers film? Marvel Studios hinted at it in their first ever San Diego Comic Con panel in 2006, but this was more concrete. Could such a thing work? After the official announcement of The Avengers, that was the big question looming over the newly-born MCU.
Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High
With Robert Downey Jr. playing Doctor Doom, speculation is abound as to what the in-universe explanation will be, but most think it will link back to Tony Stark in some manner. Which makes it likely we’ll get an alternate version of the events of this film as part of that backstory. Whether that will mean the return of Jeff Bridges or Terrence Howard is a lot more nebulous, but we fully expect Iron Man to receive direct references.
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Perhaps the first answer to that question was The Incredible Hulk. As discussed in a prior article, Marvel initially planned to make a direct sequel to Ang Lee‘s Hulk and Marvel Studios prepared to help fund it with part of its 2006 loan. But Universal drug its feet and ended up selling its rights back to Marvel. Feige was happier with this outcome, ready to properly start Marvel Studio’s Hulk franchise.
They began by filling the director’s chair with Louis Leterrier, after passing on him to direct Iron Man. Leterrier was initially reluctant until he learned Marvel was not making a direct sequel and did not want to replicate Lee’s style. But Leterrier still wanted to pull deeply from the comics and replicate comic panels with his film shots. Zak Penn returned to pen the screenplay, including two scenes cut from his 90s Hulk script that finally made it into this work (Bruce falling from a helicopter and turning into the Hulk, and Bruce unable to have sex because he might “Hulk out.”)
One of the looming situations throughout production was whether the film would be a sequel. Marvel gave no consistent answers during production, or even after the movie’s release. Certainly, Leterrier and Penn included thematic continuations from Lee’s Hulk and because of the desire to redo Hulk’s origin, The Incredible Hulk‘s opening credits refer to Hulk in a certain sense. But Feige was adamant that this film was a reboot and later highlighted that the opening credits contradict Hulk.
One person clear on the idea that they were ignoring Hulk was the star: Edward Norton. Norton was also the source of most of the production drama on this film. A talented and revered actor by early 2006, Marvel was initially eager for him to star, especially having previously considered Norton for Marvel films. They managed to lure him in with a deal that allowed Norton to serve as a cowriter. But this deal wound up being a headache.
With his more artistic notions, Norton rewrote Penn’s screenplay prior to shooting. Then, he kept revising even after filming started. Norton wasn’t interested in Marvel’s burgeoning cinematic universe or in referring to Lee’s film. Thus, Norton made extensive changes include entirely removing Hulk-sidekick Rick Jones, toning down S.H.I.E.L.D. references (an organization introduced in Iron Man), and leaning into the Ultimate Universe’s take on Hulk’s origin, which is that the gamma experiments were an attempt to replicate a super-soldier serum. This later addition did end up gelling quite well with the direction Marvel was headed.
Ironically, Penn received sole writing credit as he argued Norton’s changes were superficial. He apparently took issue with Norton stating at ComicCon that Norton wrote the script. Apparently, Norton’s constant changes were just an hallucination.
This hallucination extended throughout the editing process as Norton allegedly fought Leterrier and Marvel over runtime and other aspects. Apparently poor test screenings played a role too, resulting in the origin material being confined to the opening credits as well as removal of an alternate introduction sequence where Hulk attempted suicide in the Artic (which also showcased a frozen Captain America). Rumors arose that Norton refused to do publicity unless he liked the final cut, though Norton publicly dismissed this as bad journalism. History speaks for itself on that front, with Norton in Africa during the film’s release, though he attended the premiere and Leterrier praised some of Norton’s script additions.
There were cameos aplenty in this one though, especially crucial in the wake of Iron Man‘s success a month earlier. Lou Ferrigno and Stan Lee cameoed as they did in Hulk, with Ferrigno again voicing Hulk. Michael K. Williams, meanwhile, was present as a bystander solely because Norton was a fan of The Wire. Martin Starr also makes his debut appearance as a character that would later appear in the MCU’s Spider-Man trilogy.
But most important to the shared universe was Robert Downey Jr. The Incredible Hulk is one of the few MCU films not to feature a post-credits scene, but the ending scene more or less functioned as one. Because there were no definite story plans for the MCU at this point, aside from vague notions of building to an Avengers film, Bruce Banner’s ending was intentionally left ambiguous.
Thus, Downey reprised his role as Stark for the first time solely as a favor to help promote this movie and with only vague dialogue. Still, the scene does suggest a reappearance of the film’s villain, Emil Blonsky, played by Tim Roth, who had signed on for three more films. Of course, this would not happen for a long time.
The odd caveat of the rights situation was that Universal distributed this film despite Marvel’s deal with Paramount, making it unique in the MCU canon. This situation may be part of why the movie never received a direct sequel. That, and the fact that when The Incredible Hulk debuted in June 2008 it barely surpassed Hulk‘s box office, finishing with a mere $264.8 million. By 2008 this simply wasn’t enough for a big-budget blockbuster.
Reviews improved on the 2003 work though, and apparently Marvel and Universal already had lower box-office expectations. Plus, Marvel Studios was now less concerned about an individual film’s box-office success and more with how well it laid the groundwork for their biggest gamble, The Avengers.
Regardless, this is the only Phase One (as the MCU’s debut era came to be known) film without a direct follow-up. Universal was initially onboard for a sequel, as were the cast members, but as Feige started shaping more of a defined narrative for the MCU it was put on the backburner. A TV show was announced in 2010, but this too fell through. Instead, the Hulk’s next appearance came in 2012, when everything changed all the more.
Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium-Low
Throughout the years, rumors of a Hulk sequel murmured, but most interviews circle around to the fact that Universal’s distribution rights prevented it from happening. Those rights finally reverted to Marvel in 2023, so something could happen. However, since Bruce Banner was recast, items from this particular film are a bit iffy for reappearance in Doomsday.
Certain characters did finally reappear in Captain America: Brave New World, including Tim Blake Nelson and Liv Tyler specifically setting up Doomsday. But we doubt either will get screentime. William Hurt‘s General Ross had several reappearances in earlier MCU movies, though after Hurt’s passing, Harrison Ford took over the role. With Mark Ruffalo now the MCU’s primary Hulk, we doubt Norton will return, though there is a chance because of the multiverse. That said, given the way Norton’s relationship with Marvel ended, this still seems unlikely. Roth’s Abomination has had several small reappearances, so perhaps he’ll make it.
Punisher: War Zone (2008)
As July 2008 approached, Marvel’s first two self-produced films were a success. While The Incredible Hulk had its flaws, both made money and seemed to redeem the Marvel brand after a rough few years. With two stinger scenes at the end of these movies, hype was building that this interconnected movie universe could work. Throughout the rest of 2008, Marvel Studios secured further distribution deals and filming locations for the next four films on its slate, as well as expanding its office space. It seemed Marvel’s gamble was paying off and they were becoming king of the culture hill.
Then, The Dark Knight released.
Christopher Nolan‘s highly-anticipated sequel to Batman Begins debuted after an impressive marketing campaign and as an emergent counterbalance to Marvel’s lighter tone. While the ’00s had been somewhat of a downturn for DC movies, The Dark Knight laughed at the notion of Marvel superiority by finishing its original run with a monstrous $1.003 billion gross.
Just as importantly, critics absolutely raved, with initial reactions deeming it the best superhero film ever made, and maybe even an all-time action picture. While this article series follows Marvel’s history, The Dark Knight is now regarded as forever changing the expectations for superhero movies, and it remains a contender for the best film of the genre. All that, with much less supposedly-important comic-book authenticity. The Dark Knight‘s success would eventually set the box office stage for a more direct Marvel vs. DC conversation as DC launched its own cinematic universe with Nolan’s aesthetic as a guidepost.
Needless to say, Marvel knew it had to step its game up. Its creatives had their work cut out for them, but luckily, they had their own gritty superhero crime drama “sequel” coming in December 2008. Perhaps it could be the return punch?
As we discussed in our coverage on The Punisher, Lions Gate was initially interested in proceeding with a sequel, and by late November 2004 they had gathered funding. They formally announced the project in March 2005 with Thomas Jane and director Jonathan Hensleigh attached. The initial plan was to start filming in late 2006, and the script was revised throughout 2005.
Yet as 2006 arrived, matters complicated. The script faced continual rewrites, and then Hurricane Harvey delayed plans to film in New Orleans. Hensleigh eventually quit due to frustration over the rewrites, as he had with Hulk. By December, Stuart Beattie started a complete rewrite along with The Shield writer Kurt Sutter. Eventually, in May 2007, Jane had enough of rewrites and dropped out. Even Sutter dropped his name from involvement as rewrites continued into 2008.
With all the main creatives gone, Marvel was forced to rehire new people. The shoddy script kept many away, but eventually Lexi Alexander signed on to direct after Lions Gate assured her that she could make story changes and cast the new Punisher. She went after Ray Stevenson, who had been in talks to play Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk. Her aggressive pitch that they would pay homage to ’80s action movies must have won him over. Stevenson poured himself into the role, reading tons of comics and training himself in martial arts and weapons.
In a strange bit of further serendipity with The Incredible Hulk, the movie was retooled into a semi-sequel/semi-reboot as the final product eschews any direct references to the first film while still sort of acting like a sequel. It was titled Punisher: War Zone to distinguish it.
The main villain, Jigsaw, remained the lead antagonist through all of the rewrites. Alexander was impressed by Freddie Prinze Jr.’s audition, but Lions Gate adamantly refused to cast him. Paddy Considine was also considered, but ultimately Dominic West won the part.
With Lions Gate keeping a tight leash on the budget, they shifted filming from New Orleans to the cheaper Canada. To replicate the comics, Alexander used highly-saturated colored set lightning and intensively color-graded during post. Shots were framed to emulate comic panels as well.
Despite studio promises, Alexander reportedly clashed with Lions Gate throughout filming and speculation was abound that she had been fired after not appearing at San Diego ComicCon to promote the film. As she would state in a series of interviews in following years, she was never fired and felt the final product had enough of her vision. But despite Marvel Studios being supportive, Alexander claimed Marvel would let Lions Gate be the tiebreaker in every creative conflict. She expressed regret over this, feeling that Marvel itself provided better notes than other studios and wishing she could have worked with Marvel without Lions Gate.
The final product was indicative of these creative battles. It bombed upon its December 2008 release, making a mere $10.2 million against its $35 million budget. This was lower-grossing than even prior major failures like Howard the Duck and Elektra. Critics were highly negative as well, giving it a 28% on Rotten Tomatoes. Our users don’t care for it either, as it currently has a mere 62 Flickscore. That said, the performance for Punisher was singled out for praise again, with many feeling Stevenson did a strong job. Ebert was semi-positive with his 2/4.
This film has the distinction of being the first of only two movies to use a “Marvel Knights” banner. Based on the comics imprint of the same name, Marvel developed this label as a means to market more mature, adult-focused films. Because of the failure of this movie and the later one to use the banner, it was quickly retired.
“Marvel Knights” was certainly not Marvel’s desired answer to The Dark Knight. As 2008 closed, audiences anticipated where Marvel Studios was heading, mostly fueled by Iron Man. With an exciting slate ahead, maybe fans could finally get movies that accurately reflected the shared continuity of the comics. But the roadkill that was Punisher: War Zone and the game-changing The Dark Knight meant that Marvel could no longer pansy around. They needed to take things to the next level.
Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Low
We mostly discussed this when analyzing The Punisher. After Marvel got the rights back, they eventually proceeded with their own MCU version of Punisher. Given the total failure here, we think it fairly unlikely anything from this movie will return. While Feige might have been interested in bringing back prior versions of the Punisher for Doomsday, Stevenson’s sad passing in 2023 means this version will not return.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
As 2009 began, Marvel Studios went into overdrive. Between the competition of The Dark Knight and their own success, they were ready to take everything up a notch. Producer Stephen Broussard started a writing program for the studio to start developing scripts for lesser-known characters and explore creative possibilities. Many of these scripts eventually became future films, but that is a story for future articles.
Marvel was slowly but surely consolidating all of its rights back home, but two major players remained: Fox and Sony. With Raimi gone, Sony focused on retooling its approach to Spider-Man, its last major property. In early 2009, Sony reworked its film rights by returning animated TV rights to Marvel.
Then there was Fox. Despite X-Men: The Last Stand‘s lukewarm response, they were in no hurry to get out of the superhero business. Indeed, many films were on the burners even while the main trilogy was being produced.
The prospect of a Wolverine origin film was first explored in 2004 by none other than Game of Thrones co-creator David Benioff. At this point, he was a relative unknown nepo-baby who started drafting screenplays in the early ’00s. Fox was interested in his Wolverine take, as was Hugh Jackman, who started collaborating with Benioff to finish the script. Writer-director David Ayer also made writing contributions.
We won’t belabor this point, as Deadpool eventually had his own film, but the simultaneous development of a Deadpool solo effort in the early ’00s was important to this movie’s story. Ryan Reynolds was pursuing this with David S. Goyer before it fell apart, leading Benioff to write Deadpool into this film. Benioff also included Gambit, who had similar problems of false starts and failed solo projects, and quickly marked this Wolverine origin movie as a bin for Fox’s misfit toys.
Benioff finished his script in October 2006. As usual in the pre-Dark Knight days, Fox shied away from anything too dark and gritty and hired Skip Woods to tone the script down to a PG-13 rating. The Last Stand had released, causing Fox to reconsider its approach to future X-Men movies. A prequel movie focused on the most popular character would be the perfect palate cleanser, and Fox announced it as their next release.
While Fox initially considered Brett Ratner to direct, perhaps they weren’t happy with The Last Stand and thus sought someone else. They again pursued Zack Snyder, who again turned them down, this time to direct Watchmen.
They eventually hired Gavin Hood, who had built a reputation in the early ’00s as a talented action director. Hood soon suggested making the blood relation of Wolverine and Sabretooth into a major part of the film and worked with Jackman to develop mature themes for the movie to explore.
Speaking of Sabretooth, despite Tyler Mane playing the role in the original X-Men, Liev Schreiber was slotted into the part, perhaps due to his friendship with Jackman. Funnily, Schreiber was originally under consideration to play William Stryker after another original actor, Brian Cox, was also shoved aside. In one of the funnier instances of terrible executive interference, David Harbour was rejected as being too overweight to play The Blob, a character known for being inhumanly fat. Finally, Taylor Kitsch was cast as Gambit despite Channing Tatum‘s prior attempts to play the character. Unfortunately for Tatum, he was never seriously in the running for the role this time, with the studio initially casting Josh Holloway and then considering Chris Hemsworth as well.
Filming began in 2007, continuing into 2008. In a story quickly becoming all too familiar, Fox rushed production and creative conflicts erupted. For one, Hood claimed the screenplay was still incomplete as shooting started, with pages being delivered throughout the shoot, sometimes just the night before the scene was to be shot. For another, Hood wanted to depict Wolverine as suffering from PTSD due to his years of being a soldier, which Fox executives refused to do, feeling that audiences wouldn’t want such weighty matters to be explored in a comic-book film.
Further, Reynolds was upset about the direction of Deadpool. While Deadpool was originally more of a cameo, after Reynolds joined the character expanded into a central antagonist. But this version was vastly altered from the comics, much to Reynolds’ dismay.
Compounding all of this were Jackman and Reynolds’s busy shooting schedules. Both were due on other productions, causing Fox to further rush things along. Yet the shoot was inevitably broken up, dragging into early 2009 and delaying the release further. This was also the first Marvel film in a while not to feature a Stan Lee cameo, since the shooting occurred in Australia.
As shooting and editing finally wrapped, Fox prepared X-Men Origins: Wolverine for release. They hoped to remind which studio started this whole superhero craze and stand alongside Marvel and DC. In an unfortunate occurrence, a full-length quality workprint leaked to the internet in March 2009. Fox and the creative team were upset for obvious reasons, including the fact that the workprint had unfinished effects, and alternate sound effects and titles. As the internet was taking off, the danger of online leaks continued to grow for superhero franchises that were often dependent on keeping characters and plot points secret. Fox estimated there were roughly 4.5 million downloads of the film before release.
This became a convenient scapegoat for a somewhat underperforming box office. Upon the May 2009 official release, Origins pulled a decent $158.1 million opening weekend. This was nothing to shrug at, but it was less impressive than The Last Stand and X2, and Fox blamed the leaks. That said, Origins went on to finish with worldwide grosses of $373 million, which Fox couldn’t be entirely displeased with and was enough to spur them to continue making more films.
Critical reception was a different matter. Most critics were highly negative, with many giving it around 2/4 stars, including Ebert. The Flickscore is only 64. The consensus was that though Jackman and some other performances were good, the flawed production was apparent. Common criticisms included rushed storytelling, poor special effects, a lack of real stakes, and inconsistencies with prior entries despite allegedly being a prequel.
The most angering point for many fans was the butchering of Deadpool. Marvel Studios had shown in 2008 that greater comic book authenticity was possible, and this likely compounded the feeling that Fox didn’t respect the property and treated it like a money-milking operation rather than an artistic endeavor. Jackman would later admit he was unhappy with the final result, and Reynolds remained desperate to do a proper take on the Deadpool character.
While Marvel likely would have preferred their rights back regardless of this film’s quality, the failure certainly increased chants for everything to go back to Marvel Studios. The X-Men deserved better. This didn’t happen though, and the stage was set for the 2010s to see the ultimate superhero film war as different studios tried to craft comparable movies.
Despite a decent box office, the critical response was enough for Fox to retool their plans for the franchise. While they initially planned to make a series of Origins films, with the next focused on Magneto, this script was retooled and combined with others. Fox took inspiration from what other studios were doing and looked to do a soft reboot of the franchise. Fox had to rethink how they did things or be left in the dust.
Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium-Low
We’ve previously commented that we feel highly confident Jackman’s Wolverine will reappear in Doomsday, as well as Reynolds as Deadpool, though not in Origins‘s particular iteration. But as for anything else, we think it pretty unlikely. Mane took back the role of Sabretooth in Deadpool & Wolverine but won’t make the cut for Doomsday. Any other character in this is simply too unimportant to get a cameo. The Deadpool movies all openly mocked this film, including specifically the Deadpool appearance.
Despite Marvel’s only 2009 release being a blemish, marking two duds in a row, excitement still existed for the burgeoning Marvel Cinematic Universe, a term Feige first used in 2010 after initially calling it the Marvel Cinema Universe the prior year. But the major shakeup for Marvel came at the end of 2009, when the Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment outright for a whopping $4 billion. How far things had come since the bankruptcy days just a decade earlier.
Disney announced it would take over all distribution moving forward once present deals expired. Now that Mickey Mouse money backed Marvel, the MCU was no longer a fledgling indie project with hopes of obtaining further financing. That said, Marvel would now have to answer to Disney executives.
But at least for 2010, despite Maisel stepping down while his vision from years earlier was coming true, Disney seemed willing to give Marvel’s creative team free reign. Marvel capitalized by creating a TV division in June 2010 to start actively developing live-action shows as well as control over their animated works.
But before that came Iron Man II. Development on the sequel started immediately after the first film’s release. While initial pre-production conceived of it as a traditional sequel, Marvel’s box office success caused it to be treated as a piece of a larger cinematic narrative. As Marvel shifted release dates around, this was when Feige coined the informal term “Phase One” as a descriptive term to delineate parts of the narrative that weren’t limited to the particular sub-franchises.
With success came demands, and an intense negotiating process with Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. For a moment, despite Favreau having aspirations of a trilogy, it seemed Favreau wouldn’t return. But finally they struck a deal and soon signed none other than actor and sometimes-screenwriter Justin Theroux to pen the script, an unorthodox choice to say the least. Downey had recommended him because Theroux wrote Tropic Thunder.
Another sticky negotiation was with Samuel L. Jackson. Difficulty likely centered on needing Nick Fury in smaller roles in many films, while Jackson wanted pay that matched his prestige as an actor. Finally, Marvel and Jackson agreed to a nine-film deal, locking Jackson into the MCU’s future.
Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell signed on to play the film’s villains after Rockwell missed out on playing Iron Man in the first film. Emily Blunt was initially going to play Black Widow but couldn’t work out her scheduling problems, and the part instead went to Scarlet Johannsson, who signed a multi-film deal as well. Initial online response to this wasn’t favorable, surprisingly. And of course, Clark Gregg returned as early MCU glue character, Agent Phil Coulson.
Not every negotiation worked out. In the MCU’s first major recasting, Don Cheadle took over the part of James Rhodes from Terrence Howard, after Marvel’s earlier consideration of Cheadle in the first film. While financial reasons were part of it, Favreau also reportedly did not enjoy working with Howard. Howard commented that he felt that Downey essentially took the salary meant for him and pushed him out.
With a creative team set, now came the creating. In addition to more traditional comic-book villains, Downey and others wanted to explore what many jokingly call Stark’s true archenemy in the comics: alcoholism. One of the famous Iron Man storylines is “Demon in the Bottle,” which is all about Stark’s issues with substance abuse. This would make it into the film, but Marvel executives downplayed and changed the storyline’s nature, linking Stark’s erratic behavior to poisoning from the device keeping him alive, instead of booze. None other than future Iron Man 3 director Shane Black made story suggestions during this time, recommending they base the portrayal on J. Robert Oppenheimer’s behavior after creating the atom bomb. Talk about serendipity on multiple fronts.
Filming took place throughout the middle of 2009. Production constructed massive sets and continued to use military assets, including Edwards Air Force Base. Marvel was initially granted permission to film at the Monaco Grand Prix for the first major action sequence, though this was later retracted.
Reportedly, there was major ad-libbing during filming, especially from Downey, which caused Theroux stress that left him bedridden as he had to constantly rewrite to account for Downey’s changes. In what was quickly becoming the MCU tradition, Kenneth Branagh was enlisted to film the post-credits scene to lead into his own movie: Thor. Other scenes were replete with set-up, including Captain America’s shield, maps referencing Wakanda and New Mexico, and other references. This constant interference from Marvel to set up future movies eventually soured Favreau on returning to the director’s chair, and possibly helped inspire his next film, Chef.
The marketing campaign began, and Marvel debuted footage at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con that was well-received. Paramount continued to handle marketing despite the Disney purchase, because it remained the distributor for this movie. This led to a successful May 2010 general release, as the movie took an opening-weekend $51 million and finished its worldwide run with $623.6 million.
While the jury was still out on whether an entire MCU could work at the box office, Iron Man movies were clearly successful. That said, critical response was slightly more tepid this time. Many felt the movie had overstuffed its narrative with set-up for future films, falling into some of the same traps as prior Fox films. Plenty of optimism remained, yet warning signs glared about what could happen if the artistic integrity of each movie was lacking.
The MCU’s next big test was to come the next year. A post-credit scene teased the upcoming Thor, the most fantastical and out-of-this-world character in a comic-book film yet, and the question was whether such a story could connect to general audiences. After all, Thor spoke in the comics with ye olde English. This might be silly on the big screen.
Disney wasn’t worried though, and was happy with the fruits of its purchase. In late 2010 it jumped the gun and bought the distribution rights for The Avengers and Iron Man 3 (already in the works by now) from Paramount, while allowing Paramount’s logo to remain in those films. The House of the Mouse bet big on the success of The Avengers.
Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High
All of the same connections discussed with Iron Man are applicable here. Downey is definitely back, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Paltrow’s Pepper and Favreau’s Happy also come back. But it doesn’t seem likely that Mickey Rourke reprises the role of Whiplash or Justin Hammer returns. Maybe there’s a small chance John Slattery‘s Howard appears somehow in Doctor Doom’s backstory, as he reprised the role in Avengers: Endgame.
The Avengers succeeding likely depended on audiences being excited about all of the team’s members, with the hardest sell being Thor. Though Thor ostensibly is the character with the biggest built-in recognition, as he is based on real-life Nordic mythology, his comics exist in a storytelling archetype that is harder for people to buy in to because of his lack of relatability. He is a god, and his adventures usually occur in alternate realms to bring true stakes, which distances readers. His comics have never been the biggest sellers in Marvel’s roster.
That may explain why it took a couple of decades to get a Thor film. Sam Raimi was interested in making a Thor movie back in the ’90s after he finished Darkman. Raimi met with Stan Lee, and the pair made a pitch to Fox, but this was the early 90s where faith in Marvel properties was still quite low. Fox passed.
As with many of Marvel’s characters, interest swelled after Blade and X-Men‘s successes. Initial discussions focused on making a TV show, perhaps due to worry that Thor wasn’t a big enough box-office draw. UPN was highly interested and approached Tyler Mane to star. Marvel Studios managed to get Artisan Entertainment to co-finance, but even with comic book films picking up, studios were reluctant to do the big-time financing necessary for a Thor adaptation.
Things finally seemed to change after Spider-Man took off, with Sony ready to capitalize and develop more Marvel properties. It bought the rights and sought David S. Goyer to write and direct. Yet after the Blade: Trinity fiasco, Goyer lost interest in working on more Marvel properties.Christopher Nolan approached Gover to co-write Batman Begins, and Goyer thought it was a more worthy venture.
As Goyer’s interest died, so did Sony’s, and it sold the rights to Paramount in 2006. Though Paramount initially hired Mark Protosevich to pen a script, this was around the time it struck the distribution deal with Marvel Studios. Marvel reclaimed its rights and Thor became an MCU film. Protosevich envisioned an epic story with Thor banished to Earth in the Middle Ages and a story about “a god realizing his true potential. It’s the story of an Old Testament god who becomes a New Testament god.”
Grandiose ambitions require grandiose budgets, and Marvel had to divide its loan amongst all its prospects. Marvel hired Matthew Vaughn to direct in August 2007, after he famously left production on X-Men: The Last Stand due to his aggravation with Fox executives. Vaughn conducted a major rewrite of the script to half its needed budget. Yet once again development stagnated, and Vaughn left a comic book project for a second time.
Marvel Studios searched for a director who could bring a voice to Thor, having Protosevich rewrite the script in the meantime, and hiring comics writer J. Michael Straczynski to assist in this process. Marvel next approached Guillermo del Toro to direct, a natural fit based on his aesthetics and comic book movie experience. While Del Toro was initially interested, he eventually turned it down to direct The Hobbit, though that sadly did not work out either.
Finally, Marvel landed on Kenneth Branagh, an unconventional choice to say the least. While no stranger to franchises via his acting career, Branagh was still primarily known as a man of the stage, and most of his directing credits were Shakespeare adaptations. Yet, as it turned out, Branagh had been a fan of Thor comics since childhood, when he was drawn to its Shakespearean qualities. He immediately offered the lead role to Daniel Craig, who turned it down because he was still tied up in the Bond franchise.
Marvel looked to speed up development to capitalize on their momentum. They hired TV writers to speed up the refinement of the script and, with Craig out, launched their search for a lead actor. Marvel cast a wide net, considering actors including Alexander Skarsgard (son of eventual cast member Stellan Skarsgard), Charlie Hunnam, Josh Hartnett, Triple H, Channing Tatum, and Liam Hemsworth, the brother of the man who eventually landed the role, Chris Hemsworth. With Hemsworth’s casting, Marvel signaled a willingness to not lean on superstars for box-office draw, as Downey hadn’t been a guaranteed success when cast. No one had considered Edward Norton a Hollywood A-lister, either. Hemsworth’s casting was a narrow thing, as Marvel initially passed on him when he was reluctant to sign a six-picture deal. Chris Pratt auditioned for an unknown part, though his MCU debut was yet to come.
Still, with Thor cast, the rest of the troupe soon followed. Branagh was perhaps the most influential Marvel director yet when it came to casting, as much of the cast credited him for their decision to join the movie. Prior Branagh collaborator Tom Hiddleston was cast as Loki, after initially being considered for Thor. Branagh was also crucial in casting Natalie Portman, as he had noted her intelligence as a performer. For her part, she was drawn to Thor because Branagh was directing. Ray Stevenson returned to a Marvel movie after the disastrous Punisher: War Zone, playing Volstagg of the Warriors Three.
Branagh was also the sole reason for other cast members joining, including Anthony Hopkins as Odin (after Mel Gibson reportedly turned it down), Idris Elba as Heimdall (whose casting caused a minor stir as a black man playing a Norse deity), and Stellan Skarsgard. Colm Feore, who played central antagonist Laufey, commented that filming was aided because of the Shakespearean shorthand they all shared.
Tadanobu Asano, now known for Shogun, also played a minor role as another Warriors Three member. Maximiliano Hernandez, known for The Americans, also made his debut appearance as Jasper Sitwell, a SHIELD agent that reappeared multiple times in the early MCU.
Thor‘s release date moved up after news that Spider-Man 4 had fallen apart. The year 2010 came, and Branagh and company headed out to L.A. and New Mexico. Branagh was excited by the challenge of rendering a grounded human world as well as the fantastical Asgard, which had to be both futuristic and classical at the same time.
But Thor was not just Thor, as it also built towards The Avengers. Clark Gregg joined the cast shortly after filming began, and Marvel decided to lean into him as the link for the early MCU, in addition to Jackson’s Nick Fury. Likewise Jeremy Renner, who had been cast as Hawkeye for The Avengers, provided a cameo appearance to introduce him to audiences since he wouldn’t get a solo film. This required onset rewrites from Joss Whedon, as well as rising stars in the aforementioned Marvel writing program, Christopher Yost and Nicole Perlman. Whedon was on set to film the post-credits scene where Nick Fury talks with Stellan Skarsgard’s character, who wound up being added to The Avengers during development of that film’s story.
On the technical side, Marvel continued to work with diverse effects studios. Branagh initially cringed at this part of the process, but he sought to make his influence on the visual style, aiming for classical aesthetics. He used his frequent composer Patrick Doyle to score the film and create Thor’s theme.
As with all early MCU films, extensive marketing was a big part of the apparatus to make the films successful. The 2010 San Diego Comic Con featured a Thor panel, including clips that mostly were well-received. There were plenty of promotional opportunities, including collective Slurpee cups at 7-Eleven, a common marketing tactic for Phase One films. The post-credits scene from Iron Man 2 was its own form of commercial as well. With Thor being the biggest risk yet, Marvel needed to do all it could to make it work.
Eventually, May 2011 arrived. Marvel held its breath, hopeful. While by no means a slam dunk success, Thor debuted to an impressive weekend gross of $65.7 million and finished its worldwide run with $449.3 million. This wasn’t Iron Man money, but it was far more successful than The Incredible Hulk, perhaps the first sign that Marvel was building a brand at the box office. Critical reviews were fairly similar to The Incredible Hulk. Sitting at a 77% Rotten Tomatoes score and 78 Flickchart score, critics felt it was a decent if not great movie. Many enjoyed Hemsworth’s performance and the odes to a Shakespearean style, though they found its storytelling inconsistent. Ebert was fairly negative.
Regardless of reviews, Thor did its part. It proved the viability of the MCU brand was growing, and it was a satisfying step towards The Avengers. Plus, there was the post-credits scene featuring a fun comics reference: the Cosmic Cube, a super-powerful space weapon! This scene provided the first concrete story details for the anticipated superhero mashup, with the Cube at play and Loki as a lead villain, as he was in the first ever Avengers comic. It heightened anticipation for the summer’s upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger.
But this wasn’t the only universe-building going on. The home release of Thor debuted the Marvel One-Shot, a series of short films that appeared across several MCU home releases and filled the story gaps between movies. The one that came with Thor, The Consultant, sought to explain why Tony Stark was the one approaching Thunderbolt Ross at the end of The Incredible Hulk. It also conveniently served as a retcon of sorts about how the Avengers Initiative was being conducted, with Whedon finishing out the story details. It wasn’t anything special, but it showed the MCU’s willingness to get creative with its storytelling mediums.
Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High
Thor and Loki are already confirmed to be reappearing in Doomsday. Portman’s Jane Foster could be a possibility, though her character’s status as of Thor: Love and Thunder lowers that chance. As for the rest of the cast, their characters are all either dead or have long stopped appearing in the MCU and don’t seem likely to join.
X-Men: First Class (2011)
Before the MCU continued, Fox had its own 2011 summer superhero release. We last left Fox in shambles, with egg on its face following the X-Men franchise’s worst release yet, seemingly unprepared to compete with the newborn MCU or the prestige of The Dark Knight. General audience sentiment felt Fox should release the X-Men rights and let Marvel create comic-accurate X-Men movies.
Fox wasn’t letting go of its money-making potential, but Fox recognized it needed a different approach. In 2009, the studio was developing multiple prequel films including a Magneto film, a Charles Xavier film, and a First Class film, albeit a very different one than the final product. They also considered plans for a fourth mainline movie. Yet with Origins‘s failure, Fox shifted everything to First Class.
Original discussions of a young X-Men movie started in 2003 during production of X2. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner, intrigued at the idea, pushed preproduction forward, hiring Zak Penn to write and direct. As Penn worked on the script, Fox started developing the Magneto origin film, hiring Sheldon Turner to write.
Donner’s project eventually fell apart, and in 2007, Fox hired David S. Goyer to direct the Magneto movie. Goyer’s reputation grew via his involvement with Christopher Nolan. The Magneto film neared production, with Ian McKellan onboard to appear as the elder Magneto as a framing device. Yet the 2007-08 Writer’s Strike sidetracked this film for a time.
Meanwhile, producer Simon Kinberg, intrigued by the then-current X-Men: First Class comics, pushed for Fox to adapt it. Kinberg and Donner soon came together to revive the Young X-Men pitch, convincing Fox to green-light development. They hired Josh Schwartz to write the screenplay, with thoughts of Bryan Singer returning to direct. Singer was open to the idea, but didn’t care for Schwartz’s script and wrote his own with Jamie Moss‘s help.
Fox initially conditioned full production of First Class on the Magneto’s film success, and after the latter faltered, on Origins‘s success. By early 2009 Donner felt First Class was unlikely to happen, as it was on the far back-burner for Fox and McKellan backed out.
Ironically, despite Fox’s earlier conditions, it was Wolverine‘s failure that calcified all current productions into First Class, with Fox feeling it needed to put primary focus on one film to succeed. Elements of the Magneto movie were combined into First Class‘s script. Though Singer denied using any of Turner’s ideas, the Writer’s Guild credited him for the story and left out Moss and Schwartz. Still, Singer is credited for coming up with the Cuban Missile Crisis setting, while Donner landed on the Hellfire Club as primary villains.
In early 2010, Fox put everything on First Class and hired Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz for further rewrites. Fox considered treating First Class as a reboot of the franchise. Yet drama struck when Singer backed out of directing. Without Singer, Fox was uncertain of who they wanted to direct. They initially dismissed turning to Matthew Vaughn, assuming he wouldn’t be interested because Vaughn had left The Last Stand.
Yet after Kinberg saw Kick-Ass and was impressed, he decided it was worth gauging Vaughn’s interest, and sold Vaughn on the idea that First Class would be a ’60s-set reboot that Vaughn could put his stamp on. Vaughn initially thought it was a joke, but seeing Fox was serious, he leaped at the opportunity. He set to make the film a combination of multiple dream projects, including “an X-Men movie, and a Bond thing, and a Frankenheimer political thriller at the same time.” At long last, Vaughn would direct a Marvel film. He felt he had unfinished business after the two prior misses.
Fox gave Vaughn free rein to rewrite the script, which let him add certain characters and remove other elements he didn’t care for. Vaughn focused on centering the Magneto and Xavier friendship and making it believable, while also convincingly showing Magneto’s transition to outright villain. Nolan, meanwhile, continued to influence comics films even when he wasn’t making one, as Vaughn scrapped a dream sequence from the script after Inception‘s release and turned to Batman Begins with the prequel/soft reboot approach. Fox didn’t want to completely disregard prior canon, but continuity was not the primary concern, as the final product certainly indicated.
In that vein, Fox gave special care to casting the younger versions of Xavier and Magneto, seeking to recreate the dynamic of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan while carving a new path. This led to James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender landing the parts, neither of whom were comic readers. Vaughn told them to take inspiration from the original trilogy, but not to mirror it.
As for the rest, Vaughn cast Kevin Bacon as lead villain Sebastian Shaw after Mark Strong turned it down. Despite rumors of Alice Eve playing co-villain Emma Frost, January Jones won the part; she was looking for a drastic change from Mad Men. On the younger side, Zoe Kravitz made her first comic-book film appearance, as did rising stars Nicholas Hoult and Caleb Landry Jones. But most notable was Jennifer Lawrence, who was cast as Mystique on the strength of her Winter’s Bone performance — the The Hunger Games didn’t release until 2012. Lawrence was announced as Katniss in the middle of filming First Class.
As filming began in 2010, Vaughn leaned heavily into a period aesthetic and drew on the Connery Bond movies for tonality, including the era’s misogyny. He mirrored ’60s camera movements, transitions, and used an anamorphic format. Vaughn even paid homage to Bond with his titles sequences. Seeing the desire for more comics authenticity, the movie based its costumes on those from the original X-Men comic.
Despite trying to be a sort-of reboot, Fox and Vaughn still included some cameos and references (perhaps inspired by the MCU). William Stryker’s father is named as a character, and Rebecca Romijn gets a brief cameo as an older Mystique. Most entertainingly is Hugh Jackman’s brief appearance dropping an F-bomb to Xavier and Magneto, as well as to continuity. Sadly, Stan Lee could not make his usual cameo due to filming internationally.
Finally, June 2011 arrived. Just a month after Thor, Fox tested whether it could remain competitive in the comic-book sphere. Its opening weekend finished with $55.1 million, much lower than Wolverine‘s $85 million. Still, Fox was reportedly pleased, meeting their goal of matching the original X-Men‘s box office. First Class finished with $353 million overall.
Finishing behind Thor, formerly a C-list character, indicated a diminished power for the once-premier franchise; it even finished behind the hated Wolverine. Yet Fox felt it did well enough to keep making X-Men movies. Maybe the critical response that truly emboldened them. First Class was the most critically-lauded in the franchise since X2, with some calling it the best X-Men movie yet.
Critics found Vaughn’s stylish direction refreshing and felt the cast was overall fantastic. The movie is credited for helping launch McAvoy and Fassbender to wider mainstream success. As for Vaughn, Fox greenlit a big-budget adaptation of his own comics series, Kingsmen. Some criticism was directed at aspects of the story and cheaper-looking special effects, but much of the stink of Origins was washed away. Few considered it on the level of The Dark Knight or Spider-Man 2, yet it was a reminder that older studios could make something just as good if not better than the new MCU works.
Despite the calls for the X-Men to return home, Fox continued making X-Men movies. Competition continued in the Marvel movie sphere, and dreams of a fully-integrated MCU remained on hold. Setting the stage for what the box-office would look like for the next decade, July 2011 was to be the third month in a row to feature a comic-book movie.
Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium
While multiple original-trilogy X-Men characters are confirmed for Doomsday, no one from the prequel continuity has been discussed. It’s possible Doomsday includes none of them to avoid confusion, since adding multiple timeline versions of characters on top of multiversal variants may ask a lot from general audiences. On the other hand, these versions are well-liked, especially because McAvoy and Fassbender’s reputations have only grown in the years since. We think there is some chance those two will appear.
A different actor reprised Azazel in Deadpool & Wolverine, but we think that none of the other side characters in this movie have any chance of appearing.
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
One building block remained before The Avengers: the aptly titled Captain America: The First Avenger. Captain America was a true B-List character at this time. While never as popular as Spider-Man or the X-Men, he had slightly more fame than Iron Man or Thor. His all-American theming is a natural draw for many, and he led the Avengers in the comics when other founding members were off-roster. Indeed, he was the only other Avengers member outside of Hulk to get his own feature-film before the MCU (and was the first ever Marvel character to appear in film, in the original serials.)
That film was an outright disaster (see our first article in this series for more details). By the late ’90s, though, Marvel tried again as its film development surged. They turned to partner Artisan Entertainment to help with financing. Yet legal disputes between Marvel and Joe Simon, co-creator of the character, over rights ownership paused any further development.
Eventually, the suit was settled in 2003 as the superhero film craze heated up. Marvel initially found an easy partner in Warner Bros., but before selling the rights David Maisel made his self-financing pitch to Marvel executives. Thus, Captain America became part of the Merrill Lynch deal, and Marvel Studios was free to produce the film themselves.
Though Kevin Feige pushed an interconnected universe, Captain America was originally going to stand alone with half of it taking place during WW2 and half in the present. Avi Arad was still with Marvel at the time and reportedly had a director and star in mind by 2006. Favreau was interested in directing before the idea of directing Iron Man swayed him. But in 2007 Arad’s pick, Joe Johnston, started discussions with Marvel.
The Writer’s Strike put development on hold, perhaps for the better. After the Strike resolved in 2008, and shortly following Iron Man‘s successful debut weekend, Marvel officially announced the film with the title The First Avenger: Captain America. If anything signaled that the film was no longer stand-alone, certainly it was this title. While Louis Leterrier wanted a shot at his second MCU film and asked to direct, Marvel turned him down and finally penned a deal with Johnston after years of discussions, despite Arad having left Marvel. Feige felt Johnston’s work on The Rocketeer made him a perfect match for the period piece they were going for.
Because of the character’s overtly patriotic American theming, early press asked if such a character could work globally. Anti-American sentiment was running high in the later Bush years. Marvel executives responded optimistically but likely did have internal discussions on how best to frame the story. They intentionally de-emphasized Nazi Party elements of the WW2-set story to get towards a comic-book feel, though Feige did want to replicate the iconic comic-book cover of Cap punching Hitler.
Marvel hired screenwriting-duo Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to write the screenplay. The pair earned a decent reputation in Hollywood after penning all three Narnia movies, leading Marvel to eye them for this film. This started a fruitful partnership between Marvel Studios and Markus and McFeely, who went on to pen some of the most iconic films in the MCU. For now, their earliest decisions as writers included bringing in a young Howard Stark to build up MCU canon and making the Cosmic Cube, teased in Thor, the movie’s primary MacGuffin.
With the creative team hired, late 2009 brought pre-production and Johnston visualizing all he wanted to do. One of his earliest and more eye-raising announcements was stating that the Invaders would appear in the second half of the film. The Invaders are a WW2-era superhero team that featured Namor, a character Marvel had long attempted to put into a movie. Johnston later (and disappointingly for some) clarified that he simply meant the Howling Commandos. Namor remained off-screen for now.
As Johnston continued to hone a visual design incorporating authentic ’40s visuals and sets with futuristic technology, casting announcements started. The role of Steve Rogers was an undoubtedly important one and lists of actors were considered including notable names like Channing Tatum, Glen Powell, Jensen Ackles, Wyatt Russell, John Krasinski, and Chris Pratt. But Chris Evans landed the role, not longer after James Cameron rejected him for Avatar, as Cameron didn’t find Evans believable as a soldier. The irony is thick.
Steve Rogers was a very different role from Evans’s last comics character, the Human Torch, but the record speaks for itself on the strength of Evans’s casting. Evans turned the role down three times before signing a deal, as he was afraid his reputation would tank if the movie bombed. Once again, Marvel leaned into non A-list talent, despite a loud public rumor mill that actors such as Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Will Smith were in consideration.
Regarding the remaining cast, Marvel announced beloved genre actor Hugo Weaving as the primary antagonist, Red Skull. Sebastian Stan, another failed Captain America audition, was cast as Bucky Barnes and interestingly penned a multi-film deal. Speculation abounded about what this meant, though Feige commented in 2025 that Stan was cast precisely because Feige felt he would be excellent as Winter Soldier in future films, meaning this was always the plan. Hayley Atwell, meanwhile, beat out Emily Blunt, Keira Knightley, and Alice Eve for the role of Peggy Carter. Once again, Blunt and Eve missed on Marvel roles.
Marvel cast Tommy Lee Jones as the main military officer character, leaning into his strengths. Jeff Goldblum came up for a minor role, though Marvel went a different direction. Stan Lee cameoed again, and two Game of Thrones cast members, David Bradley and Natalie Dormer, also appeared in small roles.
As filming started in mid-2010, Joss Whedon leapt in for minor script rewrites to better gel with The Avengers. It seemed Whedon did much of the work to make Phase One a coherent narrative, though undoubtedly with Feige’s involvement. Johnston, for his part, included a nod to the original Human Torch, an android superhero from the ’40s, made all the more ironic by Evans’s prior role. Finally, as production concluded, Marvel announced a title change to Captain America: The First Avenger. A slightly better title?
After filming wrapped, post-production started. As the 2010 era of moviemaking opened, visual effects became more and more prominent. This film reportedly had close to 1600 visual effects shots, requiring thirteen different companies to pitch in. The film used plenty of practical effects too. The team built multiple prop Captain America shields in different materials depending on the needs of a scene, and notably made Red Skull’s mask from latex, giving it a more authentic look than CGI.
This movie was Marvel’s other major promo at the 2010 San Diego ComicCon, with the marketing campaign rolling throughout the end of 2010 and into 2011. Then finally, July 2011 arrived. With Thor already a success, optimism thundered that First Avenger would also knock it out of the ballpark and give Marvel the momentum it needed heading into The Avengers.
That optimism immediately paid off, as Captain America: The First Avenger made $4 million from midnight showings alone. As the opening weekend came to a close, it sat at $65.1 million, a strong number though perhaps surprisingly less than Thor. Still, it kept momentum going and finished its run with $370.6 million worldwide, fairly lower than Thor‘s run, though still plenty strong.
This was all the more surprising given it had generally better reviews than Thor. While some criticized the poor second half that didn’t integrate the sci-fi elements as well as it could have, many felt the period elements of the first half were fantastic. Critics also universally praised Evans’s casting. Ebert commented that this and Iron Man should be Marvel’s blueprint moving forward. Indeed, it sits at an 80% Rotten Tomatoes score and 84 Flickchart score.
As with Thor, the home release brought another Marvel One-Shot, this time providing a funny little interlude of what Phil Coulson was doing between leaving Iron Man 2 and arriving in Thor. It was nothing special and played only for laughs, but it was another small piece of a growing MCU picture.
Yet what surprisingly didn’t build any direct narrative blocks was The First Avenger‘s post-credits scene. Rather than a traditional narrative sting, it instead featured the first teaser trailer for The Avengers. While perhaps disappointing to some, there was little doubt that audiences left the theater hyped for next summer’s release.
After three years and five films of build-up, the MCU’s first event film was coming. It was Marvel’s biggest test yet. They had all the positive hype, vibes, and momentum they could want. People were eager to see if this cinematic universe experiment worked. If it did, it would be a fulfillment of all the creative principles Marvel stood for when it obtained its loan six years earlier. Now there was nothing left to do but wait.
Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High
Chris Evans’s Captain America is already confirmed to return for Doomsday, though with the caveat that it may be a different version than the one we know, depending on the multiversal plot turns. Sebastian Stan will also be back as Bucky, a character that has had quite a journey since this film. As for anyone else, we think it is pretty unlikely, though Hayley Atwell may get a cameo appearance given we last left Captain America with her in Endgame.
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
Well, actually, one other superhero movie came out before The Avengers. A Ghost Rider sequel! Everyone was clamoring for this, right?
Despite critical response not being great, Ghost Rider made enough money for Sony to push a sequel forward. It was also their last non-Spider-Man property and with the Marvel craze only picking up in the late 00’s, plus The Dark Knight bolstering desire for all superhero movies, Sony wanted to capitalize on what they had left.
Even with bad critical reception, Avi Arad immediately announced the sequel in February 2007 with most of the cast onboard to return, including Peter Fonda and Nic Cage. Cage discussed a desire for a darker story befitting the character. By late 2008, Columbia Pictures held story meetings planning to put Johnny Blaze in Europe to chase story elements “very much in the zeitgeist, like Da Vinci Code.”
Eventually, Columbia greenlit the film and hired David S. Goyer in late 2009 to pen the script, whose reputation was bolstered by The Dark Knight at this point. Perhaps Sony hoped to use Goyer’s prestige to create a Ghost Rider movie that might prove equally game-changing. But Sony clamped its purse, nearly halving the budget from the first film, hardly a sign of confidence.
They hired directing duo Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, known for their high-intensity Crank movies. Perhaps they could provide the needed creative spark to light the property up and set it on fire. They were known for some wild filming techniques including hopping on rollerblades and chasing after their shots.
Cage was confirmed to return, but he was the only one. It seemed with the new creative direction and planned time jump that Sony didn’t even bother asking Eva Mendes or Fonda to come back. Taking a page from other comic book soft-reboot sequels, they chucked out everything aside from the star.
Instead, demon Mephisto was reworked into Roarke and was now played by Ciaran Hinds. Child actor Fergus Riordan joined as another long-time Ghost Rider in the comics, Danny Ketch. Johnny Whitworth was ostensibly cast as Blackout, though a very modified version, continuing a trend of non-MCU films showing a disregard for comics authenticity. Idris Elba signed on to play a completely original character, marking his second comic-book film appearance in two years.
Perhaps as part of shooting the film cheaply, filming finally started over in Romania and Turkey in late 2010. As part of a post-Avatar trend at the time, it was converted in post-production to 3D, as were most of the films in this article. Sony spent the remaining budget on a small marketing campaign that made little splash, seeming to indicate they already lacked confidence.
Unsurprisingly, the February 2012 release came and went without much aplomb. Spirit of Vengeance had an opening weekend of $22.1 million, the worst Marvel debut since Punisher: War Zone. It made more money than that film, with a final box office around $132.6-$149.4 million. Not a total bomb, but still a failure that probably barely broke even. Not so ironically, this movie was the second and last to bear the Marvel Knights branding, sharing it only with War Zone. Given it was host to two bombs, Marvel Knights was quietly retired.
Critical reviews absolutely trashed Spirit of Vengeance, stating it made the first movie look good by comparison. While some did enjoy the insanity brought by Neveldine/Taylor to some of the shots or concepts, they derided Spirit of Vengeance as horribly written with terrible acting. Cage earned a Golden Raspberry nomination for an unhinged performance.
Sony got the message. Despite Cage and the directors possibly wanting to do a third film, the lack of enthusiasm and critical drubbing made it clear this franchise was over. Cage commented in 2013 that he was done with the character, and Sony let the film rights expire the same year. And with that, Marvel Studios would be left with only two major franchises and studios to compete with.
Luckily, to the MCU’s probable relief, this movie’s overall lack of presence didn’t seem to effect anyone’s predictions about The Avengers. It really could be said this film was entirely unnoticed and forgotten by May. If anything, it was a final reminder that the MCU’s approach just seemed better. The difference in joy and enthusiasm in making the movies was clear.
Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium
As we said with the first Ghost Rider, we think there is a decent chance Cage reprises his role for Doomsday. Despite both films being failures, Cage is the one big piece of early Marvel history that Feige will likely want to rope back in. Nothing else in this terrible movie will be referenced.
There could be a reference to the only other actor that played Ghost Rider since Cage though, Gabriel Luna. Marvel has yet to make a Ghost Rider movie since getting the rights back, but they did put the fourth version of the Rider, Robbie Reyes, on TV. He was even set to get his spin-off series until Marvel TV was consolidated under Marvel Studios in 2020 and all current Marvel shows were scrapped. It has yet to be seen when any version of the Rider will roll again.
The Avengers (2012)
With that bump in the road out of the way, we arrive to the end of this era. In a way, The Avengers felt like a culmination of all Marvel movie history thus far. From the rough beginnings, to the birth of the superhero blockbuster in the 00’s, it was a long and winding path.
While many individual hero films were successful by this point, no movie attempted to do an entire team of them — and certainly not as a sequel to an interconnected set of films. Certainly, the Universal Monsters, Godzilla, and James Bond films predated Marvel as cinematic narrative franchises by many decades. But their storytelling was far more simplistic and not as focused on establishing true continuity or progressing narrative.
The Avengers was the test case for the entire MCU. If it succeeded, it validated the creation of Marvel Studios. If it failed, it might mean a premature end to the MCU and Marvel sticking to individual franchises from here on.
This movie didn’t start out as the culmination of multiple other movies. The first serious plans for an Avengers film arose in 2003. That iteration went by the wayside after David Maisel’s self-financing proposal took off and Feige saw the potential of self-production to make the interconnected universe happen after his failed attempts to do it as an assistant producer on the early Fox and Sony films.
Marvel Studios officially attached Zak Penn as screenwriter to The Avengers in 2006 and tasked him with keeping an eye on all of the movies being made in order to create a universe bible. Feige later noted the risk of this production style, because it required investing in a sequel to movies that might not succeed. The ’07-08 Writer’s Strike put a serious damper on all of this because of the need to develop so many films at once, so Marvel worked out special deals with the WGA outside of the major studios.
By its crossover nature, casting for The Avengers essentially began when Iron Man started casting. Most of the major heroes from the individual franchises signed on to this film as part of signing for the other projects, though they excised Don Cheadle to avoid overstuffing the narrative. After Iron Man succeeded, Jon Favreau joined as an executive producer, though he felt no desire to direct. He did comment on the difficulty of melding a tech-based hero like Iron Man with a supernatural one like Thor on the big screen; this required a thoughtful approach to aesthetic. Feige commented in 2010 that he didn’t see the issue, because the MCU treated magic like advanced technology rather than something supernatural.
As 2009-2010 passed and the first MCU films released, Penn started work on his first script. He initially kept Thor to a small role until seeing the strength of Hemsworth’s performance. Marvel also discussed bringing back Red Skull as the main villain, though Loki was always the primary choice.
In early 2010, Marvel’s biggest remaining consideration was filling the director’s chair. Conversations eventually solidified on Joss Whedon, whom Feige worked with all the way back on X-Men. Whedon had been considered to direct several earlier Marvel movies, but as he was officially announced in July 2010 at San Diego ComicCon, his time to shine finally came. Feige described Whedon as perfect and “gung-ho” to bring the team to life.
With Whedon came Whedon’s personality. He immediately wanted to toss Penn’s script and start over. Feige agreed and gave Whedon free rein to write what he wanted, only stipulating that Loki be the main villain, the Avengers have a mid-film clash, and that there be an epic final battle. Whedon later commented he went through many “insane [script] iterations” including one where The Wasp became a primary character. The Wasp’s partner Ant-Man was the other main Avenger with substantial film development at this point, though that troubled production story is for another time. Point being: Ant-Man and the Wasp were sidelined for now.
Eventually, Whedon finalized his script, figuring out how to make the Avengers dynamic of very disparate characters uniting function by reference to The Dirty Dozen, His Girl Friday, and Dr. Strangelove. He then fought Penn to take sole credit for the script, though Penn managed to retain shared credit, noting he wished Whedon was more collaborative.
After Whedon concluded writing, he and Feige visited the films currently in production and made small changes to their scripts to line everything up for the coming event picture. They soon made other major decisions, including passing on Ed Norton whom they felt lacked the collaborative spirit needed for an ensemble film. Norton later claimed he quit.
With Norton gone, Whedon made the second major recasting and hired Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. Ruffalo was Norton’s friend and commented that he regretted how the process played out, but that he was excited. Ruffalo also became the first actor to play Hulk via motion capture. In another change, Hulk’s voice was now a combination of Ruffalo and longtime Hulk voice actor Lou Ferrigno.
Whedon also brought on longtime collaborator Alexis Denisof (Pryce on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) to play The Other, and Cobie Smulders, whom he seriously considered for his unmade Wonder Woman movie. Stan Lee, of course, provided his standard cameo (and one of his funniest), and Harry Dean Stanton got his own semi-cameo. Downey, meanwhile, pushed for the inclusion of Gwyneth Paltrow, which expanded Whedon’s mindset on bringing some other support characters from each character’s individual films.
Finally, with a script set, casting complete, and pre-production wrapping up, filming began. It was a truly national shoot, occurring throughout most of 2011 all across the country. While the famous ending scene, the Battle of New York, shot in NYC, Cleveland served as a stand-in for some scenes. This was a truly massive production with extensive sets built, and over 2200 visual effects shots provided by 14 different companies including industry titans like ILM and Weta. Whedon worked with ILM to create the best-looking Hulk yet, aiming for a desaturated naturalistic look that became a guidepost for MCU CGI characters moving forward.
Another fun production detail comes from the team who rendered NYC’s skyline. Realizing the MCU’s potential, Sony reached an agreement with Disney to include Oscorp in the New York skyline as Sony was nearing completion and release of its Spider-Man reboot. This little nod might set potential for the MCU to encompass non-Disney works. This fell through mostly because the effects team was already done by the time the deal was forged. Another example of a cinematic universe what-if.
The team labored to create iconic visuals, including the now famed circular pan team-up shot. The creatives wanted a motivating reason for each shot. There was no phoning-in The Avengers. Whedon and Feige positively described the dynamic of working together, with Feige maintaining a certain “house” style and ensuring the film felt like a comic book, but giving Whedon relative creative freedom to design action sequences how he wanted.
Impressed with his work on The First Avenger, Marvel tagged Alan Silvestri to compose the score and he created the now iconic Avengers theme. Silvestri commented on the challenge of balancing the overall score across multiple characters with subthemes. As previously described, Disney leapt into handling distribution and, by late 2011, was the studio announcing news for the film, including that The Avengers would also do post-production conversion to 3D.
Marketing was highly ambitious. In addition to five feature films of build-up, Marvel rolled out footage for the movie over multiple years of convention panels, teaser trailers, and cast announcements. With this film, Disney cemented its control over Marvel by dismissing most of Marvel’s marketing department in August 2011. Disney also planned for the future and forged deals for Iron Man 3‘s distribution during the lead-up to The Avengers. Ruthless perhaps, but when Disney saw an opportunity, it struck. Plainly, Disney believed in Marvel.
Then, at long last, May 2012 arrived. A positive world premiere in April left people buzzing, pushing anticipation to peak levels. After six years of development, it was time to see if Marvel’s big gamble paid off.
To call it successful would be an understatement. After Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man opened and blew the doors open for superhero box-office success, The Avengers brought the house down. It set the record for the highest opening weekend of all time at $207.4 million, and records kept falling from there. Audiences loved the movie, generating a sustained box office run and allowing it to cross over $1 billion in just nineteen days. The Avengers finished its run with $1.519 billion, leaving it as the highest-grossing 2012 release, highest-grossing superhero film, Disney’s highest-grossing work, and third highest-grossing movie ever made, beat only by a pair of James Cameron movies.
Just as importantly, critics raved over it as well. Many felt it was the epitome of blockbuster filmmaking, perfectly combining spectacle with an exhilarating team dynamic and finding true humanity in the strange, diverse cast of characters. Mark Ruffalo’s performance was singled out for praise in bringing Bruce Banner to life in a new way. There were a few detractors that found it formulaic in respects, and some criticized Whedon’s visual style as too-TV like for the big screen.
But deriders were few and far between. The movie was massively entertaining and connected people with superheroes in a fundamentally different way. The Avengers became a cultural force upon release and elevated all of the characters in the film to a new status of fame and recognition. Spider-Man and the X-Men were no longer the only recognizable Marvel characters. A generation of children would grow up wearing Avengers clothing, taking their lunchboxes to school, playing their video games, and having Halloween costumes and toys with their logos.
The Avengers started another MCU trend of two post-credits sequences, with one being more of a joke. Inspired by the aftermath of an exhausting day of filming for the TV show Angel, Whedon shot a scene of the Avengers team eating shawarma after the Battle of New York. It was actually shot after the film’s official premiere. Such was the power of the film that shawarma sales skyrocketed across the country afterwards.
Regardless, Feige and company breathed a sigh of relief. They put it all on red, tripled their bet, and won. One of the greatest creative gambles of all-time paid off. The Marvel Cinematic Universe worked.
There was one last Marvel One Shot in Phase One, included on the movie’s home release. Titled Item 47, it was the most in-depth One Shot yet. Featuring a couple who finds leftover alien tech from the Battle of New York to commit bank robberies, this short film further expanded on the aftermath of the film’s events and helped set up the forthcoming TV show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. More on that in the next article.
Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High
To say the Avengers are going to appear in Avengers: Doomsday feels redundant. Most of this cast seems likely to return, with the exception of a few perished characters. We even think Thanos might manage to steal a cameo appearance despite his death. Speaking of which…
To say things changed after The Avengers released feels strange to comment on fourteen years later. The MCU and superhero cinema have gone through many more changes since. But none of it would have happened without The Avengers working. Were this a hypothetical box office bomb, or critically average, it’s likely the MCU wouldn’t have moved forward in the same way.
But Feige and company planned on success. They took the time in this first era to do things right. Certainly, there were bumps in the road and creative struggles, but now Marvel Studios had shown up all of the other studios.
That is, with the exception of The Dark Knight. Though the box-office crown was decisively stolen from DC, a common critique was that The Avengers failed to match the maturity and majesty of Nolan’s masterpiece. Many would argue The Avengers is a better comic-book movie, but already there was an undercurrent of feeling that Marvel took too flippant and light a tone.
Indeed, since Whedon’s writing had paid off so well, there was arguably a change in writing approach for many MCU films moving forward, and accusations of a “sameness” became pervasive. Quippy dialogue, undercutting emotional moments with humor, and abundant pop culture references was a winning formula, but as the next era came, fighting the criticisms of that trend became a priority for Feige. A new running discussion emerged about whether the MCU could allow filmmakers to leave an individual mark, or whether the auteur for the MCU was Feige himself.
Debates over comic authenticity did seem to die down around this time. While the MCU was forging its own path, melding together 616 and Ultimate continuities, the MCU’s creatives clearly cared. This largely satisfied fans, especially when contrasted against non-MCU Marvel movies. The shadow of The Dark Knight still loomed as well when it came to tone and aesthetic.
Thus, the MCU turned to the one clear trump card it had over The Dark Knight: the interconnected narrative. With Phase One complete and the team formed, where did that leave the future? The first of The Avengers‘s two post-credit scenes answered that, kind of.
As credits concluded, the film revealed who was in charge of Loki and the Other. None other than comics titan Thanos. The purple semi space-god was the center of multiple iconic Marvel crossover storylines, most notably the Infinity Saga, which featured Thanos gathering Infinity Gems to attain ultimate power and wipe out half of all life in the universe. Was Marvel really teasing this as the endgame for the MCU?
Fans buzzed with speculation and excitement for the MCU’s future, despite Marvel not yet setting an actual path. It was Whedon who conceived including Thanos as the man behind the curtain. Feige and company had no definite idea for the future, so Whedon suggested it as a long-shot and was excited when Marvel executives agreed. But with Thanos on the board, just how would the MCU plan to use him? Would he be the main villain of the assumed Avengers sequel? Or something more?
With the MCU now the clear box-office king, anything was possible.
Ranking Era Four
The fourth era is potentially the best era yet. To be fair, the second era does have some of the best Marvel films to date. But the arrival of the MCU raised the average quality substantially, making for an overall strong era.
#10: Punisher: War Zone (Flickscore 62)
War Zone is the worst of that era though. Despite attempting something neat with the visual style, and Stevenson’s performance being admittedly decent, War Zone‘s script is an absolute mess. The story beats are all over and West is wasted on a bizarre take on Jigsaw.
Lexi Alexander also struggled to deliver a consistent tone, vacillating between extreme violence and silliness. While contrasting gore and comedy can be done successfully, Alexander was lost on how to do it. Though perhaps she shouldn’t be blamed given the studio interference. Either way, War Zone is a loser.
#9: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (Flickscore 14)
Some might say Spirit of Vengeance is a worse movie than War Zone. Indeed, the script probably is, with poor characterization, weak motives for most story beats, and mostly meandering about until it reaches a trope-laden conclusion. The attempted redemption arc for Ghost Rider is completely rushed.
Yet there are qualities that set it above War Zone in entertainment. Cage brings a performance so strange and unhinged that it’s almost worth watching for that alone. As usual, Cage is terrible and yet defies conventional ideas of what makes bad or good acting. Neveldine/Taylor fit right alongside him in that regard, letting loose with some bizarre visuals and choices, attempting to thread in Crank-style unchained action. There are flickers of something interesting here.
Plus, we think this does have the best special effects for Ghost Rider’s look in any media so far. The burnt skull and jacket match the character’s aesthetic perfectly and the skull face is animated in a cleaner manner.
#8: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Flickscore 64)
Origins: Wolverine is not without redeemable qualities. Jackman provides a solid performance, as does Liev Schreiber. Their brotherly relationship in the movie is a highlight The early team dynamics of Weapon X are also fun with Reynolds showcasing hints of the potential of the Deadpool performance.
But these qualities do not make up for everything the film does wrong. The rushed sloppy script provides an unsatisfying story. The movie never sells the romantic relationship Wolverine has as his moral center. And the second act turns into cameoing multiple mutant characters in a rush, with no respect for their source material.
Speaking of no respect for source material, Deadpool is truly as awful as reputation suggests. Sewing the mouth shut of the Merc with a Mouth feels a direct insult to the fans and is completely unsatisfying as a final battle for the movie. The multitude of cheap special effects including Wolverine’s claws looking like a cartoon, and the de-aged Patrick Stewart, are horrendous.
That opening montage of Logan and Sabretooth fighting in multiple wars still slaps though.
#7: Iron Man 2 (Flickscore 74)
Iron Man 2 shares a problem with Origins, rendering it the worst of Phase One MCU. That is, a second act that sidelines the action to set things up for other movies. Iron Man 2 is even worse in that regard. The primary villains, Whiplash and Justin Hummer, literally are confined to a room so Tony Stark can be free to talk to Nick Fury, introduce Black Widow, resolve his poisoning subplot, and help bring about Rhodey obtaining armor and becoming War Machine. Plus, they plug Agent Coulson heading to New Mexico to deal with Thor.
This bad writing really weighs an otherwise solid film down. Despite Rourke’s quirky take, Whiplash is a fairly intimidating villain in his first battle with Iron Man at Monaco. Sadly, the final act reduces him to another robot armor but there was early promise. Rockwell is massively entertaining as Hammer, and Cheadle accommodates to the role of Rhodey well (though this reviewer is in a minority of liking Howard better).
Downey is even more settled in the role, and the bones of the alcoholism subplot hint at where Downey might have taken things. It’s a shame the movie doesn’t let these stronger aspects breathe or integrate them better with the Whiplash plot or MCU set-up. Unfortunately, Iron Man 2 is the worst entry of its trilogy.
#6: The Incredible Hulk (Flickscore 71)
Missed opportunities also defines the disappointment with this movie. The Incredible Hulk is fairly entertaining in many respects. Ed Norton is really solid as Bruce Banner, and supporting cast members like Tim Blake Nelson and Roth bring a quirkiness somewhat lost as the MCU progressed. William Hurt also impresses as General Ross.
While not yet reaching the level of effects in The Avengers, this Hulk is still an improvement on the 2003 version. Letterier wisely hides him in the shadows early in the movie to build hype and unveils him like a horror monsters, which the Hulk is in a way. Liv Tyler and Norton sell their pining relationship well too.
But the story is just too bland overall. Banner mostly runs around from act to act with little aplomb or motivation. The movie builds up to a Hulk vs Abomination fight that lacks imagination and becomes two muscular CGI monsters swinging into each other in a boring manner, though we do get the thunder clap. The Incredible Hulk is hardly the worst movie, especially in view of the worst Marvel projects. It’s just bland.
#5: Thor (Flickscore 78)
Thor is a very solid movie. While Marvel somewhat struggled to figure Thor out for his first view outings, Hemsworth’s casting shined immediately, as did Hiddleston’s Loki. Branagh’s Shakespeare sensibilities honed in on highlighting the tragedy of the jealous brotherly relationship and Asgard takes on a stately nature. Especially with Anthony Hopkins’s natural grandiose nature.
While some of the fish out of water humor works with Thor on Earth, it is the Earth aspects where the story feels indeed earthbound. The arc of Thor being humbled by his morality and learning to respect human life is quite rushed, with his change of heart quite literally occurring over a single night. Portman and Skarsgard bring enough of a wry yet emotive sensibility to stand as solid supporting characters, but it doesn’t quite make up for this script deficiency.
Thor’s theme soars though and the film’s overall look works, despite Branagh’s strange obsession with Dutch angles. This feels the closest to original era Thor comics out of any MCU work, for better and worse.
#4: Captain America: The First Avenger (Flickscore 84)
The First Avenger is truly a tale of two halves. Not that the second half is entirely bad, but a clear step down from the first part. The movie’s opening half is an excellent WW2 period movie, setting up Steve Rogers as the ideal everyman, determined to make a difference despite the odds against him. Evans nails the role out of the gate, aided by well-penned scenes between he and Stanley Tucci’s Dr. Erksine.
The romantic dynamic between Steve and Atwell’s Peggy Carter is also well-written and acted, serving as a core for Captain America’s character throughout the MCU to come. The film’s final scene really sells the melancholy of Rogers’s loss too and is one of the best endings in an MCU movie. On the campier yet stills strong side, Tommy Lee Jones nails his general role as does Weaving as Red Skull. Seeing Captain America use his shield for the first time is pure Marvel magic.
All of that said, the second half struggles with scripting issues. It montages most of Captain America’s missions because the movie ran out of story. The laser weapons also don’t quite integrate with the tone set, though are crucial for bringing the more comic-book element and setting up The Avengers. The film just struggles to keep momentum and tension after Captain America’s first rescue. It feels as though Marvel intentionally left things open for a future flashback movie, though that never came.
There is enough here to clearly stand about Thor and Iron Man 2. Yet it doesn’t quite match the best Phase One films. Though the Captain America theme is another highlight, one of the best themes in the MCU outside The Avengers‘s theme.
#3: X-Men: First Class (Flickscore 85)
While this era is mostly defined by the successful Phase One films, Vaughn managed to bring one of the best X-Men movies. His 60’s aesthetic is quite a blast and there is a spritely snarky energy throughout the entire film. It feels like an X-Men work with a real voice again, after the franchise fell into a rut post-X2.
The new cast nail their roles, especially McAvoy and Fassbender, who arguably improve the Xavier/Magneto dynamic beyond Stewart and McKellan. Bacon is appropriately hammy and Lawrence is strong here when she’s really trying as Mystique. The only dud role is Jones’s Emma, who has some flat line delivery and seems a bit lost in her character.
The movie does become overly cheesy at moments and the plot stops in the second act for a training sequence, though the training scenes themselves are sufficiently entertaining. The other minor X-Men introduced feel a tad shallow as characters, despite the strong cast. Yet even with these flaws, First Class still does so much right. It is just plain fun.
#2: Iron Man (Flickscore 91)
The MCU’s debut flick bore so much weight, and luckily, Favreau rose to the challenge. Iron Man holds up nearly twenty years later and remains one of the best MCU and superhero movies overall. Downey’s magnetism as Tony Stark pops from his first scene, paired with a pitch perfect AC/DC soundtrack.
The story really sells Tony’s change from selfish playboy to someone realizing he has greater responsibilities and care for the world. While none of the supporting characters are ground-breaking, Paltrow, Favreau, Howard, and Bridges are more than up to the task. Bridges seems to have plenty of fun chewing scenery.
Above all, Iron Man sells the tactile nature of its world. Watching Tony develop his armor and use it for the first time is fascinating, and the effects team makes it feel realistic. This movie still bears the best-looking version of the Iron Man suit. While the third act is a bit weak, descending into a bland hero mirror fight (if trying to be clever with the icing issue), Iron Man does so well beforehand that it is easy to forgive.
#1: The Avengers (Flickscore 93)
The Avengers remains a blast to watch. A movie like this had so many different ways it could have wrong, but Whedon’s strong script and deft direction keep matters in hand and deliver top-tier entertainment. For a film having to balance six main characters, it keeps a surprisingly even allocation of time even if the powers and performances of Stark and Rogers steal the show more often than not. Ruffalo effortlessly transitions into the role of Bruce Banner, providing his best performance in the MCU to date here.
There may be a slightly cheap look to some of it as Whedon’s TV origins seem to get in the way in certain set design and framing choices. Yet the movie is so replete with cinematic moments that it is easy to ignore. Rogers and Stark trading barbs, “I’m always angry,” Mjolnir slamming Cap’s shield, Hulk sucker-punching Thor, “Puny god,” “We have a Hulk,” and the list goes on and on. While the criticism that the MCU aped this formula a bit too much at times moving forward is probably fair, Whedon’s MCU debut remains the best instance of this style and showed how well Whedon understood adapting comics.
Above all, the movie communicates the idea of heroic sacrifice and the arc of the team learning to set aside their differences to save a city. And Hiddleston’s Loki rises to the occasion of being the main villain for an event movie, bringing a nuance that naturally developed fans. Of course, Whedon’s eye for visuals helped create the now-iconic team-up shot that has been referenced many times since.
It may not be a perfect movie in every respect but it was perfect for what Marvel and superhero cinema needed at that time. It was the anthesis of The Dark Knight, and the example of what excellence on the flip side of the superhero coin should be.
Marvel Chart
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
The Avengers (2012)
Iron Man (2008)
X2: X-Men United (2003)
X-Men: First Class (2011)
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Spider-Man (2002)
X-Men (2000)
Thor (2011)
Blade (1998)
The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
X-Men: The Last Stand (2007)
The Punisher (2004)
Hulk (2003)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Blade II (2002)
Daredevil (2003)
Blade: Trinity (2004)
Fantastic Four (1994)
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
Fantastic Four (2005)
The Punisher (1989)
Ghost Rider (2007)
Howard the Duck (1986)
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
Punisher: War Zone (2008)
Captain America (1990)
Elektra (2005)
