Since the 2008 movie Iron Man, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become one of the biggest franchises in Hollywood, under the leadership of Kevin Feige. Known for having an authoritative role in every MCU, he has recently been in conversation for the creative overhaul of Daredevil: Born Again. The president of the Marvel Studios reportedly took the decision after reviewing the footage of the show.
However, this is not the first time, he has made such a decision. As per the book, MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, Feige scrapped Joss Whedon’s plans for the antagonist of the 2012 film The Avengers.
Kevin Feige Discarded Joss Whedon’s Original Villain Plan For The Avengers
The 2012 MCU film The Avengers marked the first union of the Marvel superheroes in the MCU, as they came along to defeat Loki and his Chitauri army. While Tom Hiddleston’s Loki was always considered to be the main villain in the film, some other suggestions were made as well.
One of them included Ezekiel Stane. According to the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, director Joss Whedon suggested that Loki alone might not be enough for the Earth’s mightiest heroes and wanted to give him an accomplice.
He started working on it and wrote a huge draft involving the Marvel supervillain. However, The Studio head Kevin Feige refused to follow up with the idea. “Yeah, no,” he said, denying the idea of involving Ezekiel Stane in The Avengers.
Producer Louis D’Esposito, however, had a different vision. Although he agreed with Kevin Feige, he still considered it, claiming, “This is really good wrong.” Ezekiel Stane, son of the Iron Man villain Obadiah Stane, did not appear in the 2012 movie and is yet to make his MCU debut.
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The Wasp Almost Joined The Avengers Cast
In the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, Joss Whedon has also shared that the 2012 film The Avengers went through several changes. One of which was related to the Ant-Man character, The Wasp. While the movie features Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Hawkeye, Thor, and Black Widow, one of the drafts for the movie replaced Black Widow with The Wasp.
“I wrote entire drafts that had no bearing on what I would eventually film,” he explained before adding, “There was a moment where we thought we weren’t gonna have Scarlett [Johansson].” He shared that he wrote a whole draft, including the character of The Wasp, but it all turned out to be useless. The Wasp would make her MCU debut in the 2018 film Ant-Man and the Wasp, portrayed by Evangeline Lilly.
The Avengers is available on Disney+.
