The MCU Almost Looked Really Different

Before Disney bought Marvel Studios and turned it into the biggest cinematic franchise ever, the comic company was a struggling brand that spent most of the '90s on the brink of, and recovering from, bankruptcy. Although comics were a steady business, they were far from mainstream; superheroes only appeared in serialized television shows and the occasional movie.

That changed in the mid ‘90s with the success of Batman and (to a lesser extent) Batman Returns. Studios were eager to find the next hot comic to turn into a potential film franchise, and Marvel was all too willing to option their most popular heroes to the highest bidders.

From this brief superhero craze came a few successful movies, like Blade, and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. But by and large, many properties were bought up by out-of-touch executives on a monthly basis, only to flounder in production hell for years when they couldn’t figure out what to do with them. So let’s jump into the multiverse and travel back to the '90s - to a time before Kevin Feige and the overly-saturated superhero entertainment landscape we have today - and take a look at the “Marvel Universe” that could’ve been.

Philip Kaufman’s Namor

In 1997, Marvel hired Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff, Invasion of the Body Snatchers) and writer Sam Hamm (1989’s Batman) to bring Prince Namor - aka the Sub-Mariner - to the big screen. Not unlike Aquaman, the plan was to make an origin film that focused on the growing tensions between the people of land and the underwater kingdom of Atlantis. In fact, Kaufman was interested in making the movie because it provided him with a fun and unique opportunity to shine a light on important environmental issues.

Unfortunately for Kaufman, Namor fizzled out. In subsequent years, there were a few more attempts to bring Namor to the big screen: Chris Columbus (Home Alone) tried in 2004, and Jonathan Mostow (T3: Rise of the Machines) was attached for more than five years. Rights issues led to further delays until finally, in 2022, Namor made his much anticipated big-screen debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Oliver Stone’s Elektra

It seems almost unthinkable that Oliver Stone (Platoon, JFK) would be interested in making a superhero movie, but for a brief period in the early '90s, the critically-acclaimed and outspoken filmmaker came close to directing an adaptation of Frank Miller’s quintessential graphic novel Elektra: Assassin. The eight-issue run follows the titular psychic ninja as she embarks on a mission to destroy The Beast, an otherworldly entity who, under the guise of a fascist president, aims to destroy the world.

After selling the rights to New Line Studios, Frank Miller was hired to write a draft of the screenplay. Later, writers Jim McBride and L.M. Kit Carson were brought on to do a second draft that toned down the overt supernatural elements of the source material. Oliver Stone then boarded the project, and eyed volleyball player Gabrielle Reece to play Elektra.

But just as pre-production started picking up steam, the film rights were sold to 20th Century Fox, and Stone’s vision of Elektra: Assassin was canned.

Joe Johnston’s The Incredible Hulk

Fresh off the success of 1995’s Jumanji, filmmaker Joe Johnston was hired to direct the big-screen adaptation of The Incredible Hulk from a script by Jonathan Hensleigh (Jumanji, Armageddon). Given his background working for LucasArts as a visual effects artist, Johnston seemed like the perfect fit to bring Bruce Banner’s VFX-heavy origin story to life.

When Johnston boarded the project, Universal - who owned the screen rights at the time - had already gone through dozens of drafts, mainly from writers Michael France and John Turman. (By 1997, Turman had written ten different drafts; elements from each would eventually make their way into Ang Lee’s films)

Progress on the script was slow, and Johnston eventually left the project in favor of making October Sky. Luckily, Hensleigh stepped in and was able to convince Universal to allow him to direct Hulk as his directorial debut. Turman was brought back to write another draft, as was Zak Penn, and then Hensleigh ditched those in favor of starting from scratch.

Pre-production finally started in late 1997, even as more writers - including JJ Abrams - were hired to rewrite the script. Filming kept getting pushed back, and costs were piling up: between the scripts, VFX, and prosthetics, Universal had already spent $20 million. With the estimated cost approaching $100 million, Universal began worrying that first-timer Hensleigh wouldn’t be able to handle the job. Frustrated with the entire experience, Hensleigh eventually resigned from directing duties in 1998. Ang Lee finally boarded the project In July 2001.

Chris Columbus’s Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four is one of those superhero properties that never seemed to find its cinematic footing, with each new iteration being worse than the one before. 2004’s Fantastic Four was poorly received, and its sequel fared even worse. The ill-fated reboot, Fant4stic, was ruined by studio interference and an unprofessional director. And then there’s Roger Corman’s infamous, never-officially-released 1995 adaptation that was, in essence, just a bid to keep the film rights.

But in the late 1990s, there was a brief glimmer of hope that fans would actually get a decent film centered around Marvel’s most famous superhero family. Fox hired Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) to direct and co-write alongside Michael France (who also contributed to Hulk). However, as the proposed budget ballooned to upwards of $160 million, Columbus stepped down and Fox brought in Peter Segal (Tommy Boy) to take over directing duties.

By the end of 1998, however, Peter Segal had dropped from the project. Sam Weissman (George of the Jungle), Raja Gosnell (Big Momma’s House), David Goyer (Blade: Trinity), Peyton Reed (Ant-Man), and even actor Sean Astin were all considered to direct before Tim Story was officially hired to direct the 2005 film.

Geoffery Wright’s Silver Surfer

In the mid '90s, it was announced that Australian filmmaker Geoffery Wright - best known for directing the gritty Eric Bana drama Romper Stomper - had been hired to direct Silver Surfer from a script written by Richard Jefferies (The Vagrant, Cold Creek Manor). With pre-production underway, Fox set a prime-time summer 1998 release date.

Wright was interested in casting Ewan McGregor for the titular role, and sought Steven Berkoff to star as the larger-than-life Galactus. Due to budget constraints and tech limitations, Wright and Jefferies focused a majority of the film around Norann Radd’s life before gaining his powers and metallic sheen. (In other words, it was an origin story.)

Before cameras started rolling, however, the project was canned. There isn’t much information as to why Fox didn’t move forward with the film, but they did try again a few years later when they hired Andrew Kevin Walker (Seven, The Killer) to draft a new script. Of course, that project also fell apart.

The Surfer finally debuted in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, with the intention of following that up with a standalone film. Unfortunately, the sequel’s critical and commercial failure resulted in the cancelation of any standalone Silver Surfer project in the pipeline.

Nicolas Cage as Iron Man

It’s hard to envision anyone other than Robert Downey Jr. playing Iron Man, but before he made the character his own in Jon Favreau’s 2008 film, none other than Nicolas Cage was lined up to play Tony Stark in his own origin film.

In 1996, 20th Century Fox purchased the screen rights to Iron Man from Universal Studios, who had previously been planning a low-budget movie with horror director Stuart Gordan at the helm. Nicolas Cage voiced interest in playing the character, and movement on the project picked up pretty quickly after that. Stan Lee and co-writer Jeff Vintar (I, Robot) whipped up a script which featured a new origin story for Stark, and introduced MODOK as the main antagonist.

But by 1998, Cage had moved on. Soon after, Tom Cruise threw his name in the hat, which led to another round of rewrites, before ultimately he bowed out because Fox couldn't afford him. By 2000, 20th Century had sold the Iron Man film rights to New Line Cinema, as they had too many superhero films in the pipeline and needed to cut some fat from their production schedule.

For the next five years, a revolving door of writers continued to refine old drafts and hammer out new ones until 2005, when Disney bought out Marvel and announced Iron Man would be their first official release, which eventually gave way to the MCU as we know it.

Wes Craven’s Doctor Strange

In 1992, Savoy Pictures attempted to bring Doctor Strange to the big screen for the first time. Wes Craven, whose career saw a recent resurgence thanks to the success of Scream, was approached to write and direct an origin film for The Sorcerer Supreme. The plan was to start filming before the end of 1993, with a release sometime in 1995.

It’s unclear why the project fell apart, but around the time Doctor Strange was in the early stage of pre-production, Savoy Pictures had a string of costly box-office failures, and was forced to abandon the more expensive films on their production slate, and sell off titles already in the midst of filming.

For the next few years, Doctor Strange would be passed between studios like a bad curse: Miramax, Paramount, Columbia, Dimension, Regency, and Full Moon productions all had plans to make a Strange movie in the late '90s and early 2000s, but budgetary constraints and an inability to find a creative throughline stalled production until the 2010s.

David Goyer’s Venom

When it comes to 90s superhero movies, it’s hard to escape David Goyer’s name. From this list alone, Goyer was involved (in some capacity) in developing the scripts for Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Fantastic Four, Hulk, and now Venom.

In 1997, Goyer was hired to write and direct an adaptation of the famous anti-hero for New Line Cinemas. The origin story focused on the antagonistic relationship between Eddie Brock and Cletus Kasady, aka Carnage. Dolph Lundgreen was attached to star (either as Venom or Carnage - it’s unclear which part he was up for), but nothing ultimately came of the film.

It’s unclear why production stalled on Venom, but after two years of no movement, the screen rights for the comic reverted to Sony, who debuted the iconic villain in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3.

James Cameron’s Spider-Man

Before Sam Raimi signed up to direct the groundbreaking Spider-Man trilogy with Tobey Maguire, James Cameron was in the running to direct the web-slinger in his first big-screen adaptation.

Marvel originally met with Stan Lee in the early '90s to discuss plans to produce an X-Men movie, to be directed by then-wife Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Strange Days). However, as the conversation shifted over to Spider-Man, it became clear to not only Stan Lee, but Cameron himself, that he should direct a Spider-Man movie.

Cameron eventually developed a “scriptment” for his vision, which is basically a script sans dialogue. Much like Raimi’s future films, Cameron’s vision centered primarily around Peter Parker (played by Leonardo DiCaprio, if Cameron had his way) and his relationship with Mary Jane Watson, while also coming to terms with his new-found powers.

The film’s villains were Electro, here a Donald Trump-esque business mogul, and the Sandman, who works under Electro’s command. Cameron also didn’t shy away from profanity or sex, with his script being more adult-oriented than other iterations of the wall-crawler, while still falling within the confines of a PG-13 rating.

Unfortunately, legal issues kept Cameron from realizing his vision. Like many other Marvel properties at the time, Spider-Man was caught up in a web of litigation as the company financing the picture, Carloco Pictures, went belly-up in 1996. MGM bought out the production company, and thus the rights to the Spider-Man movie. But Marvel then filed a lawsuit against MGM, claiming the rights were reverted to them in light of Carloco’s bankruptcy.

Through it all, Cameron remained determined to make his Spider-Man movie, which to this day he believes is the “greatest movie I never made.” But once Marvel regained the rights, and 20th Century Fox bowed out of the film’s production, Cameron abandoned ship so that he could focus on his next movie: Titanic.

Wesley Snipes as The Black Panther

In 1992, Wesley Snipes spearheaded the production of a Black Panther movie, eager to bring the revolutionary African superhero - the first ever to appear in mainstream Marvel comics - to the big screen. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Snipes talks about his vision for the film, and why he thought it would be a major cultural movement:

“Black Panther is an iconic character who much of the world was unfamiliar with and the communities that I grew up in would love…I think Black Panther spoke to me because he was noble, and he was the antithesis of the stereotypes presented and portrayed about Africans, African history and the great kingdoms of Africa…It had cultural significance, social significance. It was something that the black community and the white community hadn’t seen before.”

Snipes began shopping the project to studios, writers, and directors. Columbia signed on to fund and suggested some potential directors, including up-and-coming directors John Singleton and Mario Van Peebles. Snipes never met with Peebles, but did with Singleton, whose vision of the film was darker and far more political than Snipes envisioned.

Snipes met with a few writers, but was unable to find the right combination of creatives to get Black Panther up and running. (It was also questionable whether technology could actually bring his vision for Wakanda to life). When it became clear that Black Panther was going nowhere, Snipes decided to switch lanes and board another gestating Marvel project: Blade

This article has been edited from its original version, published on Movieweb.com in Nov, 2023.