The superhero movie genre has never been as big as it is today, and a great deal of the success can be attributed to the influx of Marvel movies, specifically with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The shared universe is about to release its 21st film since 2008, but Marvel movies were being made long before. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man and the original X-Men helped kick off the new milenium, while the first true live-action movie came with Howard the Duck in 1986.
In the forty-plus years since, some of the greatest superhero movies of all-time have come from Marvel’s library of characters. But, for every couple of major hits, there are also movies that disappointed audiences. There’s been the highs of Spider-Man 2 or The Avengers, but then the lows like Fantastic 4 or Daredevil. Of course, not every Marvel movie that is put in development gets made.
In the latest Screen Rant video, we take a look at 10 cancelled Marvel movies we wish actually got made. One of the most high profile films is Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4, which was cancelled when the director asked for more time to develop the movie. But, there’s also even older projects like a cancelled female-led musical Silver Surfer or a few different takes on Doctor Strange. Check out the full list in the video below:
Since all of these projects were cancelled, only a few of them continued on in some form. ABC, IMAX, and Marvel TV famously swooped in to save Inhumans from a complete cancellation, but they did anything but. The Inhumans TV series was a complete misfire and made a future on the big screen anytime soon even more unlikely. The Magneto origin movie was also somewhat saved, as Fox decided to fold elements of the movie into the soft reboot to the franchise they did with X-Men: First Class. Considering how much of a standout Michael Fassbender’s Magneto has been, it makes the potential of a true standalone movie all the more intriguing.
While these are just ten of the projects we know about, there could be many other promising pitches that soon get cancelled or completely retooled. Once Disney’s deal for Fox becomes official, Marvel Studios will regain access to the X-Men and Fantastic Four and Kevin Feige is expected to reboot almost all of the characters - except for maybe Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool. This could close give Drew Goddard another cancelled superhero movie in X-Force, while it would also mean the end of Channing Tatum’s Gambit, Tim Miller’s Kitty Pryde, and many more. If these Marvel projects do wind up being cancelled, then there could be several new candidates worthy of being on this list.
