10 Most Exciting Unproduced Marvel Movies

Summary

Some intriguing Marvel movies almost happened but never came to fruition due to poor timing and disagreements about casting.
The MCU’s success has come at the expense of some potentially unique and original Marvel films that were never made.
From Quentin Tarantino’s Luke Cage to James Cameron’s Spider-Man, many visionary directors had ambitious Marvel projects that never saw the light of day.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine.

Marvel films have become an essential part of the superhero movie landscape, although many exciting projects never made their way to or through production. Marvel has been involved with major films since 1986, when Howard the Duck was released to disappointing results. Following this, the publisher attempted to work with several studios to make feature films based on its properties. Some, like Blade and X-Men, worked out wonderfully, while other Marvel movies failed to connect, like 1990’s Captain America and Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Following this, many Marvel movies that should have been made did not come together.

While the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s movies have effectively adapted many of the publisher’s properties, some of this has been at the expense of originality. Though the studio’s projects diverge in tone and style, they generally only do so to a certain extent, leading to some complaints about the MCU timeline as a whole, with the franchise making efforts to create a broader assortment of upcoming Marvel releases. Looking back at some of the superhero films that nearly came together over the years, it does seem clear that a lot of untapped movie potential never came to light.

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10 Kathryn Bigelow’s Wolverine and the X-Men

Starring Bob Hoskins As The Titular Mutant

In 1990, Kathryn Bigelow, the award-winning director of The Hurt Locker and Point Break, nearly made the first major X-Men film. A treatment was brought to producer James Cameron, the director of The Terminator. Cameron liked it enough to want to get it made, and his then-wife Kathryn Bigelow seemed a good fit for the project. The two would later collaborate on Strange Days.

Following the success of Batman, studios were hungry for superhero content, which resulted in a lot of projects that never came together. Rumors say that Bigelow wanted Bob Hoskins to play Wolverine, and Black Panther‘s Angela Bassett to play Storm. Unfortunately, due to poor timing, the involved parties were never quite able to make the film come together.

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9 Sinister Six

Drew Goddard Was Slated To Direct The Film

The Amazing Spider-Man and its sequels were criticized for trying too hard to build a cinematic universe. These plans were originally set to build to a Sinister Six movie, with The Cabin in the Woods director Drew Goddard attached to write and direct. The film would have seen a team of villains coming together after the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and would have led to another Andrew Garfield sequel. Harry Osborn’s Green Goblin, Paul Giamatti’s Rhino, and a new Doctor Octopus would likely have appeared in the film.

Everything known about the new teased Sinister Six movie suggests that the studio still wants a version of this story to happen in another form. Sony has worked hard to build a universe of their own with Venom, Morbius, and the upcoming Kraven the Hunter. A villain teamup film could wind up being successful for the studio one day. Unfortunately, this iteration, set in TheAmazing Spider-Man’s universe, did not come together.

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8 Quentin Tarantino’s Luke Cage

The Filmmaker Nearly Made A Marvel Film Instead Of Pulp Fiction

Quentin Tarantino has a very specific style, and the thought of him adapting a major property is thus somewhat jarring. However, Tarantino actually developed two unmade Marvel films, with Luke Cage being an especially exciting proposition. The filmmaker was a big fan of the character’s comic books growing up, and was hungry to adapt a comic-book take on the blaxploitation genre.

Unfortunately, Tarantino reportedly butted heads with some disagreements about casting. He wished to cast Laurence Fishburne as the titular hero, while others pushed for Wesley Snipes. In the end, the film never made it past meetings with producer Ed Pressman. The project fell apart, and a Luke Cage movie was never made, with a Netflix series eventually introducing the character to the modern on-screen Marvel world and integrating him into The Defenders team.

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7 The Hands of Shang-Chi

The Director Of Blade Signed On To Helm Shang-Chi Long Before The MCU

In 2001, the popularity of martial arts films was enormous, and Blade director Stephen Norrington wished to capitalize on that. The filmmaker wanted to make a genuine martial arts movie while adapting another Marvel property. Other familiar names came on board, with Avi Arad producing and Stan Lee executive-producing. The film went through slow development for several years before eventually being forgotten.

Marvel did make a Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings movie in the MCU, and that adaptation changed a great deal about how the comics presented the character. The comic book character’s controversial past of using Asian stereotypes was changed to instead look more at embracing genuine parts of the culture it represented. It is unclear whether Norrington’s version would have done the same, but it would have certainly been curious to see.

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6 Guillermo Del Toro’s Doctor Strange

The Film Would Be Written By Novelist Neil Gaiman

In 2007, The Shape of Water director Guillermo Del Toro signed on to direct a Doctor Strange movie. Coming off of Pan’s Labyrinth, interest in the director’s future was high, and for the most part, it seemed he could have made whatever film he wished for. The filmmaker, however, became attached to many projects, and Doctor Strange wound up falling by the wayside.

With his creepy, cinematic style, Del Toro would have likely made a darker version than the Doctor Strange in the MCU. American Gods writer Neil Gaiman was attached to write the screenplay, which would have been the first live-action film for the hero. While the MCU’s iteration is a satisfying version of the character, this situation raises many questions about how a Del Toro adaptation would have changed his story.

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5 X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Deadpool, And Daredevil: Civil War

A Fox Crossover Event Film Nearly Happened

In 2010, The Bourne Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass was approached to make a crossover film using Fox’s Marvel properties. Written by Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller, the film was intended to explore a superhero registration act like in Civil War that would have seen various heroes on either side of the debate. Following great faith in the upcoming X-Men: First Class, the studio was eager to expand their universe. Unfortunately, the film never got made.

The MCU has delivered where Fox’s crossover failed to come together, and much of the movie’s intentions have been explored since. However, it would have been compelling to see all of these heroes coming together. It is unclear if the film would have featured the existing iteration of the Fantastic Four including Chris Evans and Ben Affleck’s Daredevil, or if the characters would have been newly cast. Either way, it would have made for an incredible and exciting event movie.

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4 Gambit

Channing Tatum Was Set To Play The New Orleans Mutant

In 2014, Fox announced that a Gambit movie would be made and that Channing Tatum would star. The character is a beloved part of the X-Men comic books and animated series, and is perhaps the most notably left out character from the films, only appearing in X-Men Origins: Wolverine played by Taylor Kitsch. Rupert Wyatt, Doug Liman, and Gore Verbinski all rotated through as director, and the project ultimately was never made. With Tatum’s passion for the character, this was a significant disappointment for the actor.

The failed X-Men movie got justice with the release of Deadpool & Wolverine, where the actor is finally featured in the role. However, Tatum’s film never got made, and at this point, it likely never will. The character of Gambit is now likely to be a part of the MCU’s inevitable X-Men reboot, but will surely receive a newly cast actor. Some have speculated Austin Butler would be ideal for the role.

3 Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4

Tobey Maguire Nearly Starred In Another Spider-Man Film

Sony has made some controversial decisions with Spider-Man properties throughout the years. That said, they are aware of how important the Spider-Man brand is and have seemingly done everything they can to continue making Spider-Man movies. Following the tepid critical reception but incredible box-office success of Spider-Man 3, the studio immediately got to work on another Sam Raimi-directed sequel. The film was set for 2011 and would have featured John Malkovich as the Vulture and Anne Hathaway as his daughter, the Black Cat.

Unfortunately, Raimi was reportedly not impressed with the movie’s script, and had a poor taste in his mouth from making Spider-Man 3, where the studio forced him to include the character Venom. Following some back-and-forth and the studio’s unwillingness to be flexible on the release date, Raimi departed the project. Sony then decided to cancel the film and reboot the property with The Amazing Spider-Man.

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2 Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man

Wright Left The Project Due To Creative Differences And Peyton Reed Took Over

Several years ago, the idea of an Ant-Man movie seemed like a joke. This remained the case until Edgar Wright, the celebrated writer/director of Shaun of the Dead and Baby Driver, put together an incredible piece of test footage showing how the hero could operate in a live-action film. Fighting while rapidly changing sizes, the visual made a compelling case and convinced Marvel to move forward with an Ant-Man film in their universe.

Unfortunately, things did not come together, and the director left the project shortly before it was set to begin filming. With such a specific style, Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man exit has been presented as coming from disagreements about interconnectivity. The film had been a passion project for the filmmaker since before the MCU existed, and all of the concessions that Wright would have to make to locate in the universe did not allow him to proceed with his vision. He left the project, and only some spare elements of what he wanted to make remained in the final film.

1 James Cameron’s Spider-Man

The Aliens Director Nearly Made The First Spider-Man Film

For years in the 1990s, James Cameron – perhaps the most successful filmmaker of all time – worked hard to get a Spider-Man movie off the ground. The director of Avatar and Titanic wrote a script, and many features of that script made it into the eventual Sam Raimi film, including the character’s web-shooters being natural. However, Cameron’s script would seemingly have focused much more on the body horror aspects of being Spider-Man, and leaned into the discovery of Peter’s powers as a metaphor for puberty.

Full details of the film appear to be contested. However, Cameron wanted either Leonardo DiCaprio or Terminator 2: Judgement Day‘s Edward Furlong to play the lead role. The film was likely to feature multiple villains, reportedly including Arnold Schwarzenegger as Doctor Octopus, and would have ended with an enormous bridge fight, just like the Raimi film. Thinking about how such an innovative, celebrated, and creative filmmaker might have executed his own Spider-Man leaves this as perhaps the most disappointing of all the Marvel projects that were never produced.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a multimedia superhero franchise that began in 2008 with Paramount’s Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. The franchise quickly grew in popularity, with Disney eventually buying out Marvel Entertainment in 2009. The MCU consists of dozens of movies and TV shows, most notably Avengers: Endgame, WandaVision, and Loki.

Created by Kevin Feige First Film Iron Man

Upcoming Marvel Movies	Release Date
Captain America: Brave New World	February 14, 2025
Thunderbolts*	May 2, 2025
The Fantastic Four: First Steps	July 25, 2025
Blade	November 7, 2025
Avengers: Doomsday	May 1, 2026
Avengers: Secret Wars	May 7, 2027