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wonder Studios original plan for its deal universe culminated with a very dissimilar version ofThe Avengers . NowAvengers : Endgamebrings the storylines of those original hoagie to meet conclusions , it ’s easy to view the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe as a masterclass in planning . What it actually is , though , is testament to how often the best stories come from freewheeling .
Indeed , while it may now feel like the MCU was always on a road that ended in Thanos , it really was n’t always the plan . The Avengers ' mid - credit teaseof the Mad Titan was a last minute decision by Joss Whedon , who had no idea where it would eventually conduct , and the firmament of the story was n’t pose down until year afterward . Eventually , a variety of random aspect - the Tesseract being the Space Stone , Loki ’s sceptre being the distinct Mind Stone , theInfinity Gauntlet Easter bollock in Odin ’s vault- had to be retconned .
Related : Marvel Had Been Teasing Thanos In The MCU Since Thor
But to even get to that point , Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige had been through various iterations of their Avengers Initiative . Make no mistake , the end game of the MCU ’s Phase 1 always wasThe Avengers- it was part of the original funding for Marvel Studios in 2005 and had a release date congeal for 2011 before being pushed back a class - but what Earth ’s Mightiest Heroes could have looked like was almost very unlike .
Iron Man & The Incredible Hulk Were Setting Up A Different Avengers
The first proper intimation of The Avengers plan in the MCU fall during the post - credits scene forIron Man . The movie itself is deceptively standalone , with only a running gag about S.H.I.E.L.D. ’s pre - acronym name ( that really is more place - up rather than Seth - up ) to hint at a wider cosmos . Then , tucked away at the final stage of the credit in a time where , decade - Men : The Last Standaside , Stinger were typically gags , Samuel L. Jackson ’s Nick Fury emerge from the shadows and offer Tony Stark a spot in his Avengers Initiative .
The tease was just that , a tease , and like Thanos four years later a rather last - minute addition without any fast plans . But any doubtfulness this was just a comic trice were tossed away a twosome of months later when , inThe Incredible Hulk ’s credits tease ( moved to the start , in all probability out of fear of it being missed ) Tony Stark border on General Ross about the squad he was putting together .
It ’s scraps , but a clear skeleton ofThe Avengerscan be seen . Tony Stark is contribute in to lead the squad , maybe to trail down the awol Hulk in a story akin toThe Avengers # 1from 1963 . In that simple chronicle , Loki attempted to run exile by manipulating the Hulk into accidentally destroying a bridge deck , but unknowingly unite Thor , Iron Man , Ant - Man , Wasp and the Green Goliath , who pursue the God of Mischief ’s defeat form a superteam .
come to : Iron Man ’s Most significant Moment Was n’t Nick Fury
Of of course , what ’s ride in these other flick is not quiteThe Avengerswe get ; Tony would be shuffle aside from the team and only brought back in at peak desperation , while the Hulk was implausibly dissimilar come 2012 . What these two 2008 movies imagine does n’t match up with what was to come , serve as unstained trial impression of how things changed .
The Originally Envisioned Avengers Cast Was Different Too
Not only is the early Avengers roadmap leading to a different account , it ’s got different multitude in the driving derriere . This is more well - known given how recasting , even when downplayed , is hard to miss . Due to pay disputes , Terrence Howard was replace as James Rhodes inIron Man 2onwards by Don Cheadle , explained away with a round-eyed " see , it ’s me , I ’m here . Deal with it . have ’s move on . " Then , inThe Avengers , Mark Ruffalo took on the use of Bruce Banner and Hulkfollowing creative differences between Marvel and Edward Norton ( as well as being part of a noticeable attempt to distance the MCU fromThe Incredible Hulkin general ) .
But the change do n’t end there . Emily Blunt was primitively fix to roleplay Black Widow- she wasIron Man 2director Jon Favreau ’s first choice - but had to maltreat down when Fox exercised a contract article fromThe Devil Wears Pradato have her star in Gulliver ’s Travels . Scarlett Johannson , who did have a screentest previously , then stepped up .
None of these situations would have had as direct an impact on the story as the writers or conductor we ’ll see ( at least not until later , when characters like Hulk and Stark were more tailored to the performance ) , but all these adjustments did have an impact in development and play a part in reshaping how the burgeoning MCU could have looked .
How Iron Man 2 Started A Pivot
It ’s atIron Man 2 in 2010 when you’re able to see a distinct change in the MCU Phase 1 program . The movie ’s wider - universe discharge changes course for Tony Stark , with Black Widow value his operation and deciding he was unfit as a squad penis . This undo both credit scenes in the previous movies , which due to thenon - linear timeline of MCU Phase 1(Iron Man 2,ThorandThe Incredible Hulkall happen around the same time , knight Fury ’s Big Week ) create something of a plot of land pickle . This was plugged byMarvel One - ShotThe Consultant , which read Stark ’s approach to Ross was in reality a gambit by S.H.I.E.L.D. to trick the General into keep back Abomination lock up ( these post - movie retcons were a thing until the early days of Phase 2 ) .
Related : Only One Of MCU Phase 1 ’s Post - Credits Scenes Make signified
By the time ofThorin May 2011 , key look ofThe Avengersare being insert that set with literal setup , although there are still several confusing aspects . That movie ’s post - credits scene features Selvig being come on by Nick Fury deep in Project Pegasus about work on theTesseract(which had already been twit via draftsmanship inIron military personnel 2 ) , only for a presumed - dead Loki to emerge in a reflection in ascendency of the physicist . This is closer toThe Avengers- Loki does idea control Selvig and the Tesseract is the core MacGuffin - but for the God to already be on Earth directly contradicts his later founding . Whatever the disarray there , whenCaptain America : The First Avengerreleased in July 2011 , everything seemed cohesive ; Asgard namedrops , Stark bear role and Tesseract razz all slot neatly in the narrative .
The abstract thought behind this rather knotty replacement - up - especially see how Tony would be called upon again inThe Avengers ' first twenty minutes - is down to the giving production picture . Zak Penn had been process on a script forThe Avengerssince 2006 and been adjusting the architectural plan constantly over the next half - decade as manager act out influence and persona began to full form . This is where the variation , especially regarding Tony Stark , appear to have make out from ; Penn ’s first draft was relegate in other 2010 , a few month beforeIron Man 2 ’s waiver and almost four years after he stated . But things essentially change shortly after once the movie found a director .
Page 2 of 3 : How Joss Whedon whole Rewrote The Original Avengers Script
Why The Original Avengers Script Changed
We do n’t know much aboutZak Penn ’s hand forThe Avengers , especially not its various iterations that reportedly included Red Skull and were open to failures of Phase 1 standalones . But we can safely say it ’s rather unlike - at least tonally - from what was released . While it ’s commonly said that Whedon " rewrote " Penn ’s original draft , that phase makes his now - ill-famed changes toJustice Leaguelook minor . By the director ’s own admission ( viaGQ ) , " There was a script . There just was n’t a script I was expire to film a Book of . " When he contract on formally in April 2010 , it was as writer - director , and he set about the former aspect of that immediately , force out Penn ’s screenplay entirely .
Per Whedon , the narrative legal brief for his script was simple : the Avengers are fighting Loki , they press amongst themselves in the middle , and there ’s a bighearted struggle against the scoundrel at the end . Presumably - and , turn over that is n’t an insufficient sum-up ofThe Avengers # 1- this will have been a similar brief to what Penn was shape on . This means that , while the narrative private road was dissimilar , the core building blocks were surely there from the beginning ( give or take a Johann Schmidt ) .
Related : Joss Whedon ’s Avengers Films Never Understood Captain America
The adult problem Whedon had with the initial book was n’t story , however , but fiber . He found Penn ’s version lacked a proper spark between the various heroes , something that the ensemble - favored author knew would be the flick ’s make - or - good luck aspect . Had an early draft been used , it ’s quite probable thatThe Avengerswould have been a more conventional affair ; the end movie was a refreshing winner because it was full of Whedon - philosophy and was polar to what blockbuster filmmaking was at the time ( it released just three month before Christopher Nolan’sThe Dark Knight Rises ) .
How Joss Whedon’s Avengers Could Have Been Different
Joss Whedon did n’t just come on and writeThe Avengersas issue , of grade . He went through unnumberable different ideas in the class between joining up and television camera ’s range , many of which he discussed openly when the film unloosen .
At one pointedness , when it looked like Scarlett Johannson may not revert due to the terms of her hastyIron adult male 2contract ( hence why casting is an of import worry ) , he wrote a fundamental part in for Wasp , a founding member in the comics . This never went further than the iterative appendage , but could have had major ramification ; it would not only have acquaint Janet van Dyne ( presumably ) three geezerhood ahead ofAnt - Manand six before her actual debut , it would have altered the story those movie - at this point the first was still get to beEdgar Wright- could secernate regarding the Hank Pym - Hope van Dyne - Scott Lang kinship .
Another muster copulate Loki with Ezekiel Stane , son ofIron Man ’s Obadiah , after Whedon worried whether Tom Hiddleston could win over as a singular primary villain . While not much more is known , a connection to Tony Stark ’s original adversary would have surely shift the scurf towards this being something of anIron Man 3 With crony . Indeed , this testify to a general uncertainty aboutThor- Penn had antecedently prove to downplay the God of Thunder - and his place in the team , somewhat ironic given his position as the most popular Avenger by the clock time of Infinity War .
Related : Joss Whedon want Captain Marvel In Avengers : Age of Ultron
One hero whose function was - subtly - correct rather belatedly in the twenty-four hour period was Captain America ’s . He ’s the undoubted leader of Earth ’s Mightiest Heroes add up the end ofThe Avengers , but several cardinal shot from the start highlighting him as a man out of clock time ( including setting for Ashley Johnson ’s waitress and aStan Lee cameo ) were trim , backloading his role . While it ’s never been directly commented on , this may be a result ofThe First Avengerbeing the second - low grossing film in the MCU both domestically and worldwide ( behindThe Incredible Hulk ) and thus representing a careful play with the character until he had the likes of Iron Man to spar with .
Sir Frederick Handley Page 3 of 3 : How The Avengers Changes Shaped The Entire MCU
How These Changes Shaped The Entire MCU
It ’s sluttish to count back on a metre when industry pro questioned whether bringing multiple persona from dissimilar franchise together could operate and feel like it ’s all the production tribulation of an geological era with no relevance to the New twenty-four hour period . But it ’s all these pick that have go to the more synergized shared universe and comical book focus that defines current movies in the first position .
Of course , different actors would have led to different stories . Terrence Howard ’s continuation would have in all likelihood push War Machine into a more focal placement move over his initialIron Mandeal had him as the star . It ’s harder to gauge with Edward Norton given how his individual deferred payment is now a black sheep , although yield his drive for creative control , it ’s unbelievable he ’d have been as unspoiled a fit in the Marvel auto as Mark Ruffalo ( and there ’s no denying that Ruffalo made Bruce Banner a straight star and gave Hulk some greater personality , opening up new story opportunities ) .
The most pervasive impact of these changes is , wry given how blatantly turbulent the story mental process was , how Whedon altered the tint . Kevin Feige ensured the Phase 1 Marvel movies had a comic Koran feel , but it was only with Whedon ’s snappy dialogue where the interactions between the grinder , and what would come to be eff as " Marvel humor " , was sincerely popularized . We cognise this from the managing director ’s ailment about the originalAvengersscript , and can see it in the movies that watch over . AfterIron Man 3had Shane Black comedy , the movie ’s hewed considerably more Whedon , with self - denigration the purchase order of the twenty-four hours ; by the time James Gunn , who perhaps well delineate the balance , deliveredGuardians of the Galaxy , the linguistic rule held .
Related : It ’s Not Enough For The Marvel Cinematic Universe To Be " Fun "
But do n’t let that distract from how Whedon distinguish a bigger seismic change . He pushed out Penn who had been with the MCU since the very rootage , and with it removed the bastillion of story body . Penn had been undertake to tie the universe together into a coherent way withThe Avengers , and while a lot was already wrong with persistence early on , it ’s potential him carry on frontward could have see Marvel put gravid caudex on the true interconnectivity : today , while motion-picture show be in the same world , the micro - persistence is full of errors .
And without Whedon coming in , there may not have been any Thanos . While Infinity Gauntlet was sure a prime story ripe for sack in a shared universe of movies based on Marvel Comics , it did n’t become the end game untilThe Avengersand the unintentional decisiveness to put the huffy Titan in the mid - credits setting . Before then , Thanos was a relative strange ( it was class later when the right pronunciation of his name was brusquely accepted ) and the subsequent retcons in theInfinity Sagamake the route to the Avengers face positively planned .
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Marvel may have come out of the gate drop withIron Manand by the time came to in reality assembleThe Avengershad built up enough hearing positivity the endeavor actually had a shot at making it put to work , but that exponential rise of Phase 1 was far from an direct masterplan or even an intended quickening . Every step along the manner was into unknown territory , and for all the formula , those distinctions are right there in the picture .
Next : The Original Marvel Studios Plan Would Have lead To A Very Different Infinity War
