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When the Marvel Cinematic Universe began in 2008, even the most ardent of fans wouldn’t have believed that it would still be going strong 17 years later. Thirty-five movies down the line, the MCU has proven to be an unstoppable behemoth – albeit with many peaks and troughs along the way.
The conveyor belt of films and TV shows that Marvel and Disney have produced so far can feel overwhelming. And with such an intense turnover of projects, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the studio has dealt with numerous controversies in that period.
Whether it’s fan backlash, unhappy creators, disgruntled actors or just criticism over sloppy craftsmanship, it often feels like Marvel is never far away from its next stumbling block.
With the critically panned Captain America: Brave New World in cinemas and ahead of a plethora of new films and shows due for release soon – including this summer’s Thunderbolts* and a Fantastic Four reboot – here are 12 times Marvel was caught in a storm that even superpowers couldn’t fix.
12. Fantastic Four’s AI controversy
At the time of writing, Fantastic Four: The First Steps hasn’t even been released, but it’s already put Marvel on the defensive: upon the unveiling of the film’s first trailer, the studio had to issue a statement denying it had used AI technology in its marketing. Fans had quickly noticed issues with the promotional posters released alongside the trailer, including people who appeared to have four fingers, and the same woman’s face appearing twice. A spokesperson for Marvel Studios told IndieWire that fans were mistaken: “AI was not used in the creation of these posters,” the spokesperson said, providing no further information.
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11. Directors leaving following creative differences
Back in 2006, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright was hired by Marvel to direct an Ant-Man film. However, the project spent numerous years in limbo and it wasn’t until 2013 that the film commenced official pre-production. By May 2014, Wright announced he was leaving the project due to, that old gem, “differences in their vision of the film”. Peyton Reed ended up replacing him, with Ant-Man finally released in 2015 – though Wright would go on to admit that he didn’t see it, likening doing such a thing to “watching an ex-girlfriend have sex”. A similar situation occurred with Thor: The Dark World, which was initially to be helmed by future Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins. She departed the project and claimed that Marvel bosses were “too controlling”. In 2020, during an interview with French magazine Premiere, she added: “The director is under control. Yes, it can happen. Furthermore, It shows immediately if a director cannot impose his/her vision. When this is the case, I get the impression that these people are doing a different job than me.”
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10. Deadpool creator cuts ties with Marvel
Deadpool was first created in 1991 by comic book legend Rob Liefeld, who looked on as the character developed a cult fanbase, then an enormous fanbase courtesy of the Ryan Reynolds-fronted movies. Deadpool and Wolverine, released in 2024, is one of the highest-grossing MCU films to date – but Liefeld said he felt ignored by the studio’s bosses at the premiere of the blockbuster after previously requesting a special credit on the film. Speaking on his podcast Robservations, Liefeld claimed: “It was meant to embarrass, diminish, defeat me. At some point, you go, ‘I’ve received the message, and the message is clear.’”
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9. Conservatives threaten boycott after star says ‘honourable’ Captain America is not so American any more
Conservative pundits in the US found themselves clashing with Marvel fans in the build-up to the release of Captain America: Brave New World, following comments by its star Anthony Mackie. During the film’s promotional tour, the actor suggested that the hero is a man with “honour, dignity and integrity,” and that such qualities did not currently represent America. Following the uproar, which saw Republicans call the film “woke garbage,” Mackie attempted to appease the situation. In a statement, he said: “Let me be clear about this, I’m a proud American and taking on the shield of a hero like CAP is the honour of a lifetime. I have the utmost respect for those who serve and have served our country. CAP has universal characteristics that people all over the world can relate to.”
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8. Chris Evans and Jeremy Renner apologise for tasteless joke about Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow
Both Evans and Renner had to apologise in 2015 after jokes they made during an Avengers: Age of Ultron interview with Digital Spy outraged many fans. When questioned about a possible romance between Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner, Renner deadpanned “she’s a s**t”. Evans laughed loudly in response, before adding: “I was going to say something along that line, she’s a complete w***e”.
“We were asked about the rumours that Black Widow wanted to be in a relationship with both Hawkeye and Captain America,” Evans said in a statement after the controversy broke. “We answered in a very juvenile and offensive way that rightfully angered some fans. I regret it and sincerely apologise.”
Renner also issued an apology: “I am sorry that this tasteless joke about a fictional character offended anyone. It was not meant to be serious in any way. Just poking fun during an exhausting and tedious press tour.”
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7. Captain Marvel bombarded with negative reviews by ‘sexist trolls’
After Brie Larson called for more diversity in film criticism in 2019, her solo MCU movie Captain Marvel was flooded with negative reviews from men on Rotten Tomatoes, even before the film was released. “Brie Larson has already said this isn’t for me, I’ll spend my money elsewhere,” wrote one user. The MCU would face similar problems with Avengers: Endgame later that same year, after an illegal torrent started doing the rounds that removed, per a statement by its originator, “all the feminism and gay s***”.
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6. Marvel actors call the movies “monotonous”
Numerous high-profile actors have called out Marvel for the uninspiring environments on their film sets, which mostly consist of green screens. Christian Bale, who starred in 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder, notably called it monotonous. The actor told GQ: “They kept saying, ‘You’re on Stage Three.’ Well, it’s like, ‘Which one is that?’ ‘The blue one.’ They’re like, ‘Yeah. But you’re on Stage Seven.’ ‘Which one is that?’ ‘The blue one.’ I was like, ‘Uh, where?’”
Speaking to The New Yorker in 2021, Anthony Hopkins – who played Thor’s father Odin in three MCU movies – shared similar thoughts: “On Thor, you have Chris Hemsworth – who looks like Thor – and a director like Kenneth Branagh, who is so certain of what he wants. They put me in armour; they shoved a beard on me. Sit on the throne; shout a bit. If you’re sitting in front of a green screen, it’s pointless acting.”
Elsewhere, Mickey Rourke – who played villain Ivan Antonovich Vanko in Iron Man 2 – criticised the studio for cutting many of his scenes. “(They) just wanted a one-dimensional bad guy, so most of the performance ended up on the (editing) floor,” he told Crave Online. “If they want to make mindless comic book movies, then I don’t want to be a part of that. You know, I didn’t work for three months on the accent and all the adjustments and go to Russia just so I could end up on the floor.”
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5. Rebecca Hall has villain role reduced because of toy sales
In 2016, Iron Man 3 director Shane Black said that the film’s main villain was intended to be the character Maya Hansen, played by actor Rebecca Hall. But it was later switched to Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian over concerns a toy inspired by a female character wouldn’t sell as well. Hall later revealed: “Halfway through shooting they were basically like, ‘What would you think if you just got shot out of nowhere?’ I was meant to be in the movie until the end… I grappled with them for a while and then I said, ‘Well, you have to give me a decent death scene and you have to give me one more scene with Iron Man,’ which Robert Downey Jr. supported me on.” It wasn’t until 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok that the MCU would get its first female antagonist, with Cate Blanchett playing Hela.
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4. James Gunn fired from ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 3’ over offensive tweets
In 2018, filmmaker Gunn was fired from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise after a conservative US website unearthed tweets made by Gunn between 2008 and 2012 in which he joked about subjects including paedophilia and rape. Although Gunn apologised for the remarks, Disney and Marvel quickly severed ties with him. The decision proved unpopular with fans and Guardians cast members, with Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel all signing an open letter supporting the director. Gunn was awkwardly rehired a few months later, but not before he’d been snapped up by Marvel’s rivals at Warner Bros and DC to direct The Suicide Squad.
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3. Tilda Swinton’s whitewashed character
Marvel got itself involved in a “whitewashing” controversy in 2016 after Tilda Swinton was cast in Doctor Strange as The Ancient One, who in the comics is Tibetan. Screenwriter C Robert Cargill claimed that the casting was done to please Chinese audiences and avoid “alienating one billion people”, amid the country producing huge box office gains. Things didn’t improve when Swinton decided to seek advice on what to do from the actor and comedian Margaret Cho, who Swinton didn’t know and who had absolutely no connection to the movie. Swinton later called the move “questionable”, but that had “zero regrets”. Cho admitted that the interaction made her feel like a “house Asian”. Marvel boss Kevin Feige later said that he regretted the casting, saying that it was a “wake-up call.”
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2. Jonathan Majors sacked following assault charges
Majors debuted his role as Kang the Conqueror in 2023’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, a film designed to lay the groundwork for Kang as the MCU’s next major villain – the next Avengers team-up movie was even due to be subtitled The Kang Dynasty. All those plans were scrapped, though, when Majors was convicted of assaulting his ex-girlfriend. Majors was immediately dropped by Marvel, and the studio was forced to completely wipe their slate clean. While rumours persisted that Kang may just be recast, Marvel ended up announcing that Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr would instead return to the MCU to play Doctor Doom – in an Avengers team-up, subtitled Doomsday. It’s a move that fans are still struggling to make sense of.
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1. The MCU’s first LGBT+ character
It took Marvel 11 years to introduce an LGBT+ character into their movies, with Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo relentlessly hyping the inclusion in advance of the film’s release. “It was important to us as we did four of these films, we wanted a gay character somewhere in them,” Joe Russo said at the time. “One of the things that is compelling about the Marvel Universe moving forward is its focus on diversity.”
The representation in Avengers: Endgame, though? An easily missable character named “Grieving Man” in the film’s credits and who, for some reason, was played by Joe Russo himself. Marvel has done better with its LGBT+ representation since then, with the likes of Brian Tyree Henry and Tessa Thompson both playing queer characters in the MCU – but this first attempt felt like a patronising slap on the cheek.
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