There was a lot of potential for Marvel movies long before the days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with many films sadly not getting the green light despite promising intriguing concepts. Ever since Iron Man, the movies of the MCU have turned the Marvel Comics into a pop culture titan, redefining the metrics of success in modern cinema. But there have been a few interesting attempts at Marvel movie adaptations before the MCU that never quite got off the ground, despite the best efforts of their attached names.
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It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when Marvel Studios struggled to maintain relevancy, having already sold of their heaviest-hitting IPs to Sony with the Spider-Man trilogy and Fox with the Fox X-Men movies. Left with less popular characters, it was often difficult for filmmakers to secure funding, talent, or concrete ideas before the release of Iron Man. In truth, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was attempted many times before it finally saw a second of actual footage.
10 James Cameron’s Spider-Man
Almost gave Spider-Man a bombastic 90s movie
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Before Marvel sold the movie rights for Spider-Man to Sony, the comic giants made a pass at adapting the friendly neighborhood hero into live-action on their own. Thanks to the success of the Terminator series and Aliens, James Cameron must have seemed like a shoo-in for a valuable blockbuster using the comic book character. Eventually, a James Cameron-directed Spider-Man project began gestation at Marvel Studios as far back as 1990.
Writers Barry Cohen and Ten Newsom penned a script featuring a college-aged Spider-Man going up against Doc Ock before Cameron came on board, bringing with him some bizarre changes. Cameron’s vision for Spider-Man was more like a horror movie than a superhero story, with one draft allegedly including a sequence in which Peter Parker hypnotizes Mary Jane with a sort of arachnid dance. Needless to say, Cameron’s ideas proved too extreme to greenlight, and the project languished in obscurity before eventually falling to the wayside.
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9 Wolverine & The X-Men
Almost brought mutants to the big screen a decade sooner
Custom image by Debanjana Chowdhury
Between the popularity of the comics and the classic 90s cartoon, X-Men: The Animated Series, the 1990s seemed like the hottest the franchise ever was, ripe for a live-action movie. Sensing the opportunity, Marvel attempted to forge a live-action X-Men film a decade before Fox was able to get their hands on the IP, working with Stan Lee himself alongside Chris Claremont and Carolco Pictures. The film was to be titled Wolverine & The X-Men, predictably taking the same focus on the claw-wielding Canadian that the 2000s films would later manifest.
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Amazingly, Bob Hoskins was in talks to play Wolverine, while Angela Basset was tentatively signed on as Storm. Once again, James Cameron was brought into the fold as a producer, actually working on the development of the X-Men film before his involvement with Spider-Man, only for Stan Lee to get him distracted by Peter Parker. Eventually, the idea was left to languish in development hell before the movie rights to the characters were ultimately sold to Fox Studios.
8 Tom Cruise’s Iron Man
Almost began the MCU far earlier
Robert Downey Jr. wasn’t Hollywood’s first attempt at bringing Tony Stark to life, despite Iron Man’s past status as a relatively C-list hero. Among the actors to nearly play Iron Man was none other than Tom Cruise, still hot off the success of the original Top Gun, an appropriate selling point for the high-flying hero. Tom was handed a script for Iron Man written by Stan Lee himself, almost producing some fascinating results.
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In the original draft of the story in 1997 altered Tony Stark’s story by changing his kidnapping to be an assassination attempt following a hostile takeover of his company by the terrorist group A.I.M. Cruise’s Iron Man was to re-work his Stark Industries search-and-rescue suit into the first Iron Man armor in a fight against M.O.D.O.K. Introducing such a far-fetched villain early on would’ve been a fascinating departure for the MCU’s early history to take. However, Cruise ultimately dropped out of the project, not being impressed by the finished script.
7 Sam Raimi’s Thor
The short-sightedness of studio executives missed a big opportunity
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Having long been an icon in the world of horror comedy, the legendary Sam Raimi was allegedly reached out to by Stan Lee himself in the 90s after seeing his movie Darkman. Lee was eager to work with Raimi on a Thor script, with the two getting together to develop and pitch the idea to some Fox Studios executives. Hilariously, the Fox executives allegedly turned down Raimi and Lee’s pitch on the basis that superhero movies weren’t profitable, a statement that has endlessly been proven wrong in the modern age of cinema.
It would’ve been amazing to see what ideas the creative Sam Raimi had in mind for Thor, likely injecting his trademark grim sensibilities and macabre humor into the Asgardian’s story. Eventually, Sam Raimi did get the chance to direct a Marvel movie thanks to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, one of the few films of the franchise to allow its director’s signature style to truly shine through. After seeing his take on Doctor Strange, Sam Raimi’s Thor seems like a bitterly missed opportunity.
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6 Wesley Snipes’ Black Panther
Snipes was almost another classic Marvel superhero
Wesley Snipes has already earned no end of respect in the comic book movie circuit for his time as Eric Brooks in the Blade franchise, providing one of the most memorable Marvel character performances long before the MCU’s cultural dominance. However, Stan Lee also approached Snipes at one point with the idea of making a Black Panther movie long before the 2018 version was ever developed. Allegedly, Wesley Snipes was a huge fan of the character growing up, connecting with him in a way he never did with Blade.
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Sadly, the two struggled to market their idea for a Black Panther movie to studios that were still unfamiliar with comic lore. Many executives reportedly confused the hero’s name with the political movement of the same name in the 60s, and suggested plot changes that merged the two. It’s fascinating to imagine a world in which Wesley Snipes plays not just one, but two of Marvel’s most iconic Black characters in a live action movie franchise.
5 Wes Craven’s Doctor Strange
Might’ve been an interesting horror twist on the Sorcerer Supreme
While Sam Raimi may have been the horror director that managed to imprint his signature style on Doctor Strange, Wes Craven nearly beat him to the punch years earlier. Once again commissioning Stan Lee to draft a script, Marvel teamed the comic legend up with Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas scribe Alex Cox in 1990 with the aim of making Doctor Strange a supernatural horror movie. The film was very nearly made, but a petty corporate dispute with Marvel on behalf of Warner Bros. forced the project onto the backburner for two more years.
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Eventually, Wes Craven of Nightmare on Elm Street fame picked the concept back up, working with Savoy Pictures on a new idea for a horror Doctor Strange script. Considering how great Sam Raimi’s horror take on Doctor Strange was, it’s clear that the two parties had valuable potential, even if they didn’t quite realize it. Unfortunately, nothing ever came of this script either, and a spooky take on the Sorcerer Supreme wouldn’t manifest in theaters for 30 more years.
4 Quentin Tarantino’s Luke Cage
Tarantino nearly got his chance to make a dream comic book movie
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The accomplished filmography of Quentin Tarantino needs little introduction, speaking for itself on the quality of the creative visionary’s style and flair for direction. Bill’s comic book rant in Kill Bill Vol. 2 didn’t come from nowhere, with Tarantino being an avid fan of comic books for a long time. Tarantino has described his favorites as Luke Cage, a.k.a. Power Man, and later Shang-Chi, which makes sense considering his movies’ clear homage to the Blaxploitation and martial arts genres.
Tarantino very nearly got his chance to adapt Luke Cage for film long before the Netflix series as far back as 1991. His top choice to play Cage was none other than Matrix star Laurence Fishburne, who was then just coming off the success of Boyz n the Hood. Sadly, this casting decision had enough vocal detractors that the idea fell apart, and audiences were deprived of one of the most perfect director and star pairings for a comic book movie adaptation ever.
3 David S. Goyer’s Venom
Venom almost got a solo movie before Spider-Man did
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Sony’s decision to give Venom a solo movie may have initially seemed strange to those unfamiliar with the comics, seeing Venom as more of a Spider-Man villain than an interesting character in his own right. Yet ideas for a Venom solo movie have circulated for far longer than one might think, with a concept very nearly filming as far back as 1997, before even the first Spider-Man film could get off the ground. David S. Goyer’s 1997 Venom script had some interesting ideas, not the least of which being casting Dolph Lundgren as Venom himself.
The script would’ve seen the Venom symbiote crash-land on Earth from a planet of alien spiders, bonding to Eddy Brock, surreptitiously distancing himself from the comic character by spelling his first name differently. From there, the two would go on to face off against Carnage, with the stipulation that Cletus Kasady and Brock had known each other since childhood. For all its bizarre changes, the failed Venom movie sounds like essentially a 90s version of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which would’ve been a treat to see adapted earlier.
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2 The Namor Solo Movie
The Sub-Mariner was once a big enough name to get his own film
Not every canceled Marvel movie revolved around a character that eventually got their own solo project. If there’s one Marvel anti-hero that somewhat faded in relevance since the 90s, it’s Namor the Submariner. When he was more popular, Marvel attempted to sell the production rights to a Namor movie alongside Spider-Man and the X-Men when the company found themselves in dire financial straits.
Marvel blessed director Phillip Kaufman, known for the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake and The Right Stuff, with the rights to a Namor movie. However, Kaufman himself wanted Tim Burotn’s Batman writer, Sam Hamm, on board for the script. Sadly, the project never managed to get off the ground, though it would’ve been interesting to see a more comic-faithful story featuring the Atlantean character prior to both the Aquaman movies and Namor’s changed backstory in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
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1 The Indie Silver Surfer Solo Movie
A true passion project that Marvel turned down
Despite being Stan Lee’s favorite hero, the Silver Surfer isn’t an easy sell for prospective filmmakers, being an esoteric alien with strange visuals and a vague set of powers. Yet Marvel actually came fairly close to putting a dedicated Silver Surfer solo film to screen thanks to the efforts of a passionate fan. In 1989, a film student approached Marvel with the idea of making an entirely CGI Silver Surfer film, even crafting a five-minute short as a proof of concept.
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It’s painfully nostalgic to imagine a time in which Marvel was even willing to hear out a lone film student’s idea in today’s harsh demands for existing IP and proven talent. In the end, the Silver Surfer movie never happened, and the character only had one pitiful blockbuster appearance in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Who knows how different the Marvel Cinematic Universe might look today if the comic book company entered the 90s with a CGI Silver Surfer movie.
Upcoming MCU Movies
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Captain America: Brave New World
Release Date February 14, 2025
- Thunderbolts* (2025)
Release Date May 2, 2025
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
Release Date July 25, 2025
- Avengers: Doomsday (2026)
Release Date May 1, 2026
- Spider-Man Homecoming 4
Release Date July 24, 2026
- Avengers: Secret Wars
Release Date May 7, 2027
Captain America: Brave New World
Thunderbolts* (2025)
The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
Avengers: Doomsday (2026)
Spider-Man Homecoming 4
Avengers: Secret Wars