What is a good adaptation? By dictionary definition, adaptation means the process of changing and adjusting to better suit a new environment, condition, or purpose. Beginning as a scientific term popularized by Charles Darwin, it became applied to artistic endeavors in the 1860s as old plays were adapted for modern audiences of the time. Of course, this was far from the first instance of adaptation, as humans have arguably been creating adaptations since oral storytelling began thousands of years ago. Changing for a new audience is inherently part of oral storytelling.

Indeed, any English version of The Odyssey is inherently an adaptation. The text attributed to Homer is written in Homeric Greek and thus must be translated into English. Some may object that translation and adaptation are two different things, but by switching languages, one is inherently changing the source for a new environment or purpose. There are some things that simply cannot be said the same way.

Furthermore, the fact that Odysseus’s long journey home was written down at all is adaptation; although it was composed around the 8th century BC, it was transcribed from an oral tradition likely developed over several centuries in ancient Greece. And even after being written down, it seems performance was a crucial part of the storytelling. Changes in every telling were inevitable and perhaps expected. Historians have noted that the poem was often performed in the homes of important families during banquets. The story even ends at one such banquet.

Centuries later, The Odyssey continues to be adapted and thus changed and tweaked. English translations have squabbled about whether a literal word-for-word translation is more honest than one which attempts to take what is poetic in Homeric Greek and make it poetic in English.

Translations have condensed the story to make it more consumable in short sittings. Staged and filmed versions have altered the story in ways both subtle and drastic. Indeed, arguably the most famous film version before now was the Coen Brothers’ O Brother Where Art Thou? which changes the setting to the 1930s American South, among many other differences.

All of this is to say is that change is as inescapable as the tragic fates of Greek heroes. The question is whether changes work for the “new environment, condition, or purpose.” When one of the most high-profile and renowned filmmakers working today, like Christopher Nolan, directs the adaptation, the stakes are only heightened for these questions.

From the opening minutes, one can’t help but question whether this adaptation has the right answers. Within ten minutes, The Odyssey makes clear it is speaking to a 2026 American and broader western audience. The cast all speak with varying American accents, some of which are notably regional and decidedly not Greek. Audiences are treated to a diverse range of skin tones, though all share in the lack of Greek blood. As this does not have the excuse of completely transforming the setting, as the Coen Brothers did, the effect is initially quite jarring.

But then one settles into the vision Nolan always brings to his films, as he adapts this very old story for a new environment and seeks to tell the tale of a tragic man seeking redemption for the destruction he helped wrought. It is a story Nolan knows how to tell, reminding one of the wayward heroes seeking home in Interstellar, Inception, and Dunkirk. Batman is the same to some extent, as is J. Robert Oppenheimer, the subject of Nolan’s last work.

The Odyssey is no Oppenheimer. Nolan’s masterwork was a coup de grace of breathtaking editing, sound design, acting, and had one of his more deeply insightful scripts. While Nolan plunders many depths in The Odyssey, it has some rather lethargic stretches in its first two acts. Relying on Nolan’s oft-used method of telling tales as remembrances, this adaptation positions the narrative as Odysseus recounting his past to Calypso as he tries to remember who he is.

This is one of many changes from Homer’s work. Events and characters are condensed, reordered, or changed to suit Nolan’s vision of the tale. Odysseus does not trick the cyclops by calling himself Nobody, the gods are almost entirely absent (if not deliberately completely absent), and a new ending is written.

But despite its weighty, overdrawn structure at times, Nolan’s adaptation still sings true in so many ways. Accents aside, the talented performers here each suit their roles well, with Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, and Tom Holland getting the most time to shine. Some performers get shockingly little screentime. Indeed, Benny Safdie‘s turn as Agamemnon is much more dependent on filmmaking than acting to emphasize his aura. Lupita Nyong’o and Zendaya are hardly in the film, despite all the offscreen controversy.

It is in filmmaking where Nolan’s work really shines. Filmed entirely on IMAX cameras, regardless of accuracy or authenticity to the imagined Greek settings, The Odyssey‘s set design and costuming are immaculate and rich, serving up visual feast in frame after frame.

The design of some of the story’s most famed sequences is unique and powerful. The cyclops is truly terrifying and otherworldly, the Sirens sequence haunting and unexpectedly saddening, and the depiction of the siege of Troy striking as a marvel of sound and tension. It’s the big-screen cinematic experience that we’ve come to expect from Nolan.

Apart from the imperfections of the first two acts, Nolan brings it home (fittingly) in the amazing third act. Many of Nolan’s choices are unexpected and do indeed create new life and vision for the story. He draws out parts of the tale rarely emphasized in prior adaptations for an effective emotional catharsis.

Despite his reputation as a cold, cerebral filmmaker, Nolan’s entire career has shown a distinct humanism, and The Odyssey taps into that idea constantly. Nolan even seems to respond to the idea with a repeated line from Odysseus about not understanding how gods speak and Athena replying: “Who doesn’t understand thunder? Fire? A child’s smile?” Nolan understands these things well, and the third act is centered on the tragedy of loss in a multitude of ways. There is the joy of being reunited with loved ones, and the pain of facing one’s past and having hope for the future. Throw in some excellent sound design and editing, and The Odyssey occasionally reaches some transcendent places.

While the pacing could have been tightened and Nolan might have wrestled with the questions of authenticity of setting in slightly different ways, The Odyssey still proudly stands as one of the best film adaptations of the poem to date. It is adjusted to a new purpose and asks a modern, globalized, 2026 world to see itself in an Ancient Greek story. It is adventurous and grandiose and tragic and messy and uneven. In that way, it is very Greek.

Tell us your thoughts on The Odyssey below and rank it on Flickchart now!

The Toy Story franchise is one that has kept defying the odds. Traditional wisdom holds sequels are rarely better than their originators. After all, topping the concept that started it all while still feeling like a follow-up to the story is a tight rope to walk. Yet Toy Story 2 and 3 both found new things to say in the world of talking toys, with 3 being a perfect cathartic capstone to a decade and a half of storytelling.

Then, nine years later, 4 came. While derided by some as disrupting the perfect ending of 3, 4 did receive critical acclaim. Finding one last thing to say, it sent Woody’s character off into the sunset a second time and seemingly officially retired the cowboy.

Yet, Disney could not let sleeping dogs lie and thus arrives Toy Story 5. With many already feeling like 4 was a stretch, there is a natural antsyness with 5. How many more endings can Woody have?

Toy Story 5 sidesteps that problem by not feeling like an ending and deciding to not have as grandiose of a story. In fact, Woody and Buzz feel included mostly out of obligation and a better script likely would have jettisoned Woody entirely, as he has no impact on the story. Instead, Jesse headlines as the main character in a repeat of some of her Toy Story 2 beats while also throwing in the modern problem of kids playing more with electronics than traditional toys.

It’s a decent idea and likely the only truly impactful way of saying something new in this universe in 2026. Because it is Pixar, and because it is Andrew Stanton writing and directing, even a more average day for them is still decent. But Toy Story 5 is undoubtedly the weakest entry in the franchise so far.

The script certainly feels like it jammed together those two aforementioned story ideas, part of why 5 suffers overall. The nature of an iPad generation of kids is certainly something worth exploring in a family movie and a deep dive into how parents and their progeny wrestle with finding balance in a world where the screen babysitter is so tempting would have been interesting. Unfortunately, 5 stops short of actually saying anything about that concept and leaves the questions as surface level as the screens that serve as the movie’s antagonist.

Instead, the film spends much of its time with Jesse off at another house wondering if she has any worth left. While lip service is paid to the electronic concept with Jesse conflicting with some older electronic toys, that too is more window dressing than substance. Conan O’Brien provides a hilarious performance as a potty training toy, but Jesse’s disagreements with them seem more a parallel to racial prejudice than themes of electronic ingress.

There are certainly decently emotional beats to mine from Jesse trying to find her way back to Bonnie and form a real friendship for her. At its core, Toy Story 5 continues the ideas of meaningful connections being important in solid ways. Jesse’s emotional catharsis at the end does stir the heart.

But none of it feels truly new anymore. We’ve seen those ideas before and they are well-trodden ground in this franchise. Without anything unique to say, 5 often feels an exercise in redundancy despite what works. When in consideration with the clunky script beats, including a subplot involving a small army of Buzz Lightyears that serve no other purpose than to be literal plot devices, 5 finally feels like the first cheap, overdone sequel.

To be clear, Toy Story 5 is a solid movie. The animation continues to dazzle, there is plenty of humor, and there is something comforting in the well-seasoned vocal performances from Joan Cusack, Tom Hanks, and Tim Allen. One can appreciate that it at least tries to touch on what “play” means to kids today. But in the end, 5 makes Toy Story feel played out.

Tell us your thoughts on Toy Story 5 and rank it on Flickchart now!!!

We hope you’re still with us after that last behemoth of an article, because here’s another one! The Countdown to Doomsday series continues as we chronicle every era of Marvel cinema, revisiting each piece of the cinematic picture and how they contribute to the coming multiverse throw-down.

The gamble of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) paid off big-time with The Avengers, proving that a connected multi-franchise narrative was not only workable, but something audiences were hungry for. Comics fans finally obtained a taste of the storytelling they enjoyed on the page, while wider audiences digested longer-form narratives typical to prestige television, yet with far bigger budgets and spectacle.

Still, The Dark Knight‘s shadow loomed as the only superhero film with a Big 4 Oscar, and its trilogy capper was coming in summer 2012. Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios wondered if they could prove the MCU was more than a gimmick or just one type of movie. They had Disney money now, but big budgets didn’t guarantee high quality.

And as the MCU prepared to stretch its wings, Sony and Fox kept competing, wanting to keep their franchises relevant. Plus, outside of Marvel, Warner Bros. chased the MCU’s dollar signs and prepared its DC properties for their own universe, since Christopher Nolan firmly shut down the possibility of continuing after his third Batman film.

Thus, the 2010s were primed to be the most competitive era of superhero cinema yet.

Era Five: Spidey vs X-Men vs MCU

We define Marvel’s fifth era as the two-year period between mid-2012 to the end of 2014. In these two years, nine Marvel movies released, and they signalled a new type of superhero storytelling in the wake of The Avengers.

On the MCU side, Phase Two began. The MCU started with no specific plans aside from building to The Avengers, but now Feige and other executives were enthused by Joss Whedon‘s Thanos tease. With box-office grosses and audience reaction supporting them, their priority became penning out the rest of the MCU’s path. They could afford to be bold.

While they’d already written the conclusion of Iron Man’s trilogy, Marvel became more deliberate about building towards a specific story with the rest of their films in development: a story that culminated in something even grander than The Avengers. During Thor: The Dark World‘s production, Marvel Studios finalized its grand vision and retrofitted their planned films, including many sequels and a few for new heroes, to match this scheme. By 2014’s end, the MCU’s story was in a much different place.

Luckily for these plans, box-office success continued for the MCU in this era, signaling that the MCU brand itself now drove audiences. Observers coined this phenomenon “The Avengers boost,” and it seemed to bolster each subsequent movie’s profits. This was likely what Disney envisioned when it bought the company. Despite these grand schemes and Feige maintaining oversight to create a house style, he also started pushing filmmakers to bring other genres into MCU movies. He wanted the universe’s tapestry to be something more than just one formula. Marvel’s success at doing so was debated in this era and in the years to come.

Disney’s animation wing delivered another Marvel adaptation. While disconnected from the MCU, the historic Disney Animation Studios making a Marvel movie was corporate synergy at work, and successful corporate synergy if profits are any indicator.

Meanwhile, Sony and Fox were determined to cash in on the somehow still-growing superhero box office. Sony outright rebooted its franchise into something seemingly more modern, while surprisingly working closely with Marvel Studios despite ongoing tensions. In what would define Sony’s haphazard approach to its IP, it rushed things to try to keep up and once again damaged its Spider-Man franchise, resulting in Sony halting further individual Spidey films. Feige was ever eager to bring Spider-Man into the MCU’s fold, and as this era ended, Sony finally conceded (for now) that the MCU was better.

Fox also wanted their own event film, wisely cashing in on nostalgia that now existed for their original trilogy and the enthusiasm over X-Men: First Class to adapt one of the more notable X-Men stories. That the story involved time travel — conveniently allowing Fox to make their soft reboot in-universe and priming the next era of X-Men movies — didn’t hurt either. Unlike Sony, Fox seemed to learn from their mistakes and set up a brighter future, though that sadly (for some fans) kept the X-Men out of the MCU.

If 2014 was any indication, Marvel was more successful than not, launching one of its most obscure properties into a summer hit. The brand now seemed unstoppable. And did they just say Infinity Stones? Ohhh snap!

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Sandwiched between The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises in summer 2012 was Sony’s Spider-Man reboot. As we chronicled back in Era 3, Spider-Man 3 brought an end to Sam Raimi‘s time on Spider-Man films and superhero movies for over a decade. Rather than hire someone else to direct Raimi’s fourth film (and because Avi Arad, working with Sony since his Marvel departure, apparently thought all the script drafts were terrible), Sony opted to reboot the franchise. Some might say it was a tad early for a reboot, but the legalities of film rights aren’t conducive for artistic integrity. Sony was required to make a movie within so many years or lose the rights.

Plus, to be fair, Spider-Man 3 wasn’t well-received. Perhaps Sony wanted to wash out the bad taste. Despite Raimi’s departure, most of the producers remained and were keen to focus on a younger Peter Parker again. As Matt Tolmach ascended to Columbia Pictures president, he worked alongside Amy Pascal, now co-chairman of Sony Pictures (Columbia’s owner), to find a new director. Pascal was involved with the earlier films when she was lower down the corporate ladder, and she saw herself leading the charge of bringing Spider-Man into a new era and making her own stamp on the franchise.

They considered big names like David Fincher (often considered for superhero movies by this point) and Kathryn Bigelow, yet ultimately settled on Marc Webb, who’d recently debuted with the romantic film (500) Days of Summer. Perhaps they liked his voice for youthful characters, or perhaps he would be easier to control than a more experienced director. Maybe it was just his last name.

Regardless, Webb expressed enthusiasm upon being hired. Though he was a fan of Raimi’s movies, Webb hoped to do something different that stood out in the canon. The writing process began with screenwriters Alvin Sargent and James Vanderbilt taking one of their unmade Spider-Man 4 drafts and reworking it into a reboot. Later, Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves and Paul Feig of all people provided further rewrites and contributions.

With a director and story set, next came recasting Spidey. The search dominated the first half of 2010, with Sony considering a broad span of actors for this important character. Some notable highlights included Drake Bell, Alden Ehrenreich, Josh Hutcherson, Joe Jonas, and Logan Lerman. Finally in July 2010, as Iron Man 2 finished its theatrical run, Sony announced Andrew Garfield.

Webb was impressed with Garfield’s humor, physicality, and emotional heft as an actor. While Garfield was little known at the time of casting, the fall release of The Social Network certainly changed that and created anticipation for Garfield’s portrayal. Garfield flung himself into preparation, practicing yoga and Pilates to increase his flexibility and later publicly commented on how demanding his training was. A true Spider-Man fan, Garfield admitted he shed a tear when he wore the suit for the first time, skintight as it was.

The rest of the cast fell into place throughout the remainder of 2010. Gwen Stacy took over as the main love interest, with the studio considering Imogen Poots, Lily Collins, and Mia Wasikowska among others. Yet Emma Stone won the part following Garfield’s casting, thanks to their strong chemistry during screen testing. The pair dated for a time after working together on the films. Despite considering Michael Fassbender, whose reputation grew during filming of X-Men: First Class, Sony ultimately cast Rhys Ifans as Curt Connors/The Lizard, allowing that character to finally become a main villain after teases in the Raimi trilogy.

Sally Field, meanwhile, took the role of Aunt May as a favor to ailing producer friend Laura Ziskin, who sadly passed before the film’s release. In an homage to Raimi, Webb included a cameo from Michael Papajohn, who played the burglar in Spider-Man. Stan Lee also provided his standard cameo. In a fun bit of future looking back, a very young Skyler Gisondo appears as one of Gwen’s younger brothers. He went on to star in 2025’s Superman.

Filming began by December 2010, with Webb eager to do something different than Raimi had done. In the trend of comic accuracy, he decided to have Peter build artificial web shooters, like in the comics. Conversely, and perhaps influenced by The Dark Knight, the team designed a lither and darker Spider-Man outfit than what usually exists in the comics.

Webb also sought to do more action scenes practically, using stunt performers rather than relying on CGI as Raimi’s movies often did. To that end, Garfield and Ifans performed many of their own stunts, with Ifans insisting on wearing the motion-capture suit for the reptilian form of his character. On the even more technical side, as part of the 3D-wave, the film shot in 3D at 5k resolution using RED Epic cameras. While the MCU was converting to 3D in post, Webb committed to the trend and shot in 3D to enhance the effect. This might have delayed the design of Oscorp Tower enough that it could not make it into The Avengers, as we previously detailed.

The film prepared for its summer 2012 release with an ambitious viral marketing campaign. Sony projected the Spider-Man logo on famous world sites such as the Kremlin, Sydney Opera House, and Colosseum, and created websites for The Daily Bugle and Oscorp. It also created a scavenger hunt, placing props in hidden locations that fans could find — perhaps another aspect of the movie The Dark Knight influenced.

July 2012 arrived with Sony likely privately despairing that they didn’t get to include a direct connection to The Avengers. With the MCU’s crown jewel still raking in money, Sony wondered if this reboot could compete.

Early signs were encouraging, as The Amazing Spider-Man set a Tuesday-record $35 million on opening day before the July 4 holiday. But as the holiday weekend came to a close, it finished at $137 million, far smaller than Spider-Man 2‘s similar Independence Day weekend release. The Amazing Spider-Man still managed an overall strong run, playing well overseas with the Chinese box office especially buoyant, and it finished worldwide with $757.9 million, managing 7th at the 2012 box-office. It did much less well than The Avengers, but it did better than any other MCU film that year.

Critical response was equally mid-tier. Many were positive overall and felt it improved on aspects of 2002’s Spider-Man. Garfield and Stone’s performances received almost universal praise. But even positive reviews admitted it often felt a retread of familiar story elements. Harsher critics derided it, finding The Amazing Spider-Man was “dumbed down” compared to the Raimi trilogy and overly focused on appealing to modern, moodier trends. Almost all critics criticized the Lizard as the main villain and the cartoonish motivation driving the plot. The movie’s Flickscore is currently 69.

Roger Ebert liked it. Sadly, it proved to be his final review of a Marvel-adjacent property, as he died from complications of cancer in 2013.

While not an unequivocal success, Sony was pleased enough to continue with the rebooted series. A script for a sequel was already in the works, and Sony ambitiously started planning further sequels and even spin-off movies. Perhaps envisioning a universe to rival the MCU, the movie even plugged a post-credit scene. It was a hilariously vague one, merely featuring a shadowy figure talking to Curt Connors in a jail cell with no solid references or plans. Sony wasn’t about to dethrone Marvel Studios, but they were prepared to keep competing and maintain their own slice of the Marvel box office pie.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

As a later part of the article will describe, this iteration did eventually fail, leading Sony to give up on its own Spider-Man movies. All the same, Garfield eventually successfully returned to the tights in Spider-Man: No Way Home. We’ll talk more about that eventually, but there is some chance the Garfield iteration will appear in Doomsday given how well received his return was in No Way Home. Rhys Ifans also returned in that movie, at least in CGI, but we think that’s the end of the line for him. We’ll save our comments on the rest of the cast.

Iron Man 3 (2013)

With the relative success of The Amazing Spider-Man, fans eager to see Spidey in the MCU were likely displeased. Small movements towards comic-accuracy, like the inclusion of web-shooters, pleased some, but Sony still hadn’t knocked it out of the park. Because Spidey is an anchor Marvel character, fans certainly felt his absence in the MCU, but Marvel had to move on without him. (Feige was likely already scheming on a way to get him involved.)

The latter part of July brought the conclusion to Christopher Nolan‘s trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises. While it was a massive box-office success, grossing over $1 billion, it failed to surpass The Avengers. Plus, critical reception was more mixed, with some feeling Nolan dropped the ball. It was still overall well-received, but certainly it was not the genre-changer that its predecessor was. Four years later, Marvel controlled the box office and cultural zeitgeist, and there was no better way to follow-up on The Avengers than with the conclusion of Marvel’s own most lucrative trilogy: Iron Man.

Of course, given the lengthy nature of blockbuster filmmaking, preproduction on Iron Man 3 began before The Avengers released. As previously hinted at, disagreements on distribution between Paramount and Disney led Disney to buy Iron Man 3‘s distribution rights in 2010, ending Paramount’s run with Marvel and setting up the trilogy-capper as the first film to be funded independently of the Merrill-Lynch loan that started it all.

Iron Man 3 was also the first film of the newly-dubbed Phase Two. Feige announced this at the 2012 San Diego ComicCon, along with the entire line-up of Phase Two, and he confirmed that Thanos would not be the next Avengers villain but that the MCU would build up to him. This Phase expanded the universe and would accidentally be defined by every movie featuring someone losing a hand or arm. Throughout 2012, Feige made further moves, including locking Joss Whedon to an exclusive contract wherein he would write and direct the Avengers sequel, oversee all Phase Two movies alongside Feige, and help develop the first MCU TV series.

All of this cemented the transition away from Jon Favreau. Despite being the pioneering MCU directorial voice, Favreau moved on after Iron Man 2, seeking instead to direct non-Marvel projects such as the failed Magic Kingdom movie and Chef. Favreau did remain as a producer and as Happy Hogan, Stark’s former bodyguard, who in a nice piece of meta-storytelling became even more redundant.

Yet with Favreau unwilling to finish his trilogy, Marvel needed to find a new voice. Once again Robert Downey Jr. used his star power and pushed for Shane Black to write and direct. Black had already contributed story suggestions to Iron Man 2, and Downey felt gratitude to Black for casting him in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang when most of Hollywood wouldn’t touch him. Downey said Black was the only person to carry out the transition from Favreau.

Marvel locked Black in by February 2011, also hiring Drew Pearce to cowrite, moving him from the abandoned Runaway movie they’d originally hired him to write. Black was hesitant to work with Pearce, since he was used to working with writing partners of his own choosing, but meetings with Pearce assuaged his concerns. The pair desired to avoid the trope of two iron suits fighting each other, and they left out magic and space elements more suitable to Avengers adventures.

They were primarily influenced by the “Extremis” story arc, though they sprinkled in other comics references such as the Iron Patriot armor. The initial primary villain was Maya Hansen. Subsequent drafting led to inclusion of Aldrich Killian and the Mandarin, Iron Man’s arch-nemesis that had been teased earlier. It was Pearce who developed the controversial decision to make Mandarin a fake terrorist. While comics fans later criticized the film for this twist reveal, Black found it inspiring and realistic, as a terrorist wouldn’t be so open and obvious about who they were, and the villain’s grandiose nature in the comics made for a fitting disguise.

Even with the Mandarin reveal, Black and Pearce still wanted Hansen as the primary antagonist. Marvel Entertainment executives (likely Ike Perlmutter) shut this down, believing a woman as the main villain would lead to reduced toys sales. Black is on record that Feige had no part in this, but he lacked the power to stand up to the execs at the time. Thus, Black and Pearce were forced to rewrite Hansen and include Killian. They also set the film at Christmas, which is somewhat of a staple for Black’s works.

While Black and Pearce finalized a shooting script, story rewrites continued throughout production, leading to a logistically-frustrating shoot at times, seemingly a running theme with the Iron Man films. With studio space secured in North Carolina, casting began for the new characters. Anthony Mackie auditioned for the role of Mandarin but lost the part to Ben Kingsley, though both would have MCU futures to come (just barely in Kingsley’s case, as early drafts had his character dying). Marvel considered Chinese actors for Harley Keener, a young boy essential to the movie’s plot, as part of an overall push to make the film more appealing to the Chinese film market. A Chinese company agreed to co-finance production, which led to the inclusion of several Chinese film stars including Wang Xueqi. Alternate cuts of Iron Man 3 feature more scenes of the Chinese performers.

But they didn’t cast a Chinese actor for Keener, as Marvel Studios co-president Louis D’Esposito stated they didn’t want to ape Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom‘s dynamic. Marvel brought in Guy Pearce for Killian while casting Rebecca Hall for Hansen after Jessica Chastain bowed out. Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones fame also initially played a role before her character was written out. She too would eventually join the MCU.

Black and the production team sought to do action scenes practically when possible in the effects-heavy picture. One of the film’s more notable sequences of Iron Man catching passengers falling from the sky was filmed with actual skydivers, for instance. Reshoots, an increasingly habitual practice for Marvel and blockbusters by 2013, captured more material with the Mandarin. Despite the push for practicality, Iron Man 3 still featured over 2000 effects shots with 17 effects companies working on them. As Stark advanced his suits in the story, it unfortunately became increasingly impractical to have practical designs for them.

Marvel first began marketing the movie in July 2012, shortly after The Avengers released, at none other than San Diego ComicCon. With a panel discussing the film and displaying Iron Man’s prior armors, it became clear Iron Man 3 would have the most suits yet. Marvel also utilized a massive array of product placement, utilizing the Disney theme parks for the first time, part of the company’s growing synergy with the Marvel brand. Marvel Studios officially moved its executive offices into Disney Studios in April 2013, as Marvel continued to fold into the Disney umbrella. Meanwhile, Feige confirmed in January 2013 that Ant-Man would no longer be the first film of Phase Three, but instead would cap off Phase Two.

Iron Man 3‘s wide release came in May 2013. While this was already the most successful MCU sub-franchise, The Avengers boost was palpable. It made $68.9 million on its opening day and finished the weekend with $372.5 million, the second-highest opening weekend of all-time at that point, behind only The Avengers. It sustained an immense box-office run, surpassing $1 billion after twenty-three days, and finished at $1.266 billion, more than Iron Man and Iron Man 2 combined.

The critical response was a bit mixed, or rather, dichotomous. Some felt it was the best entry in the trilogy, maturely wrestling with Tony Stark’s PTSD following The Avengers and finding interesting things to do with his character in what felt like a wrap for the trilogy. Critics especially praised Downey’s dynamic with Keener. Flickchart users give it an aggregate Flickscore of 75, placing it slightly above Iron Man 2 but far below Iron Man.

Some were less friendly though, feeling it lacked dramatic weight and was too formulaic. Even harsher were many comic fans. In the first big blow to MCU’s claims of source authenticity, a section of fans ripped apart the movie’s Mandarin twist, leading many to this day to consider it one of the worst MCU movies. The backlash was immediate and palpable, much to Black’s shock, as he didn’t think the character was that sacred. As a result, Marvel eventually partially retconned the twist.

Despite this controversy, many remained excited about the MCU overall. With massive profit on a trilogy closer, Marvel and Disney saw the financial potential swelling. Not only could they tell an interconnected narrative, they had an interconnected media system bolstering the profits of each entry.

That said, Iron Man 3 ended Downey’s initial MCU contract. At this time, his MCU future was unclear despite the Avengers sequel coming and plenty of money to be made. Downey vacillated on his returning or if there would be a fourth Iron Man film. In fact, this remains the last solo Iron Man movie, as all subsequent Stark appearances were in team-up movies or as cameos. The one that started it all had his own trilogy come to an end, but while it felt like a conclusion in many ways, the MCU’s nature allowed Stark’s character arc to continue.

The post-credits scene gave no hints as to where the MCU was going. Instead, the scene humorously revealed that Stark’s narration throughout the movie was to a sleeping Bruce Banner. While a funny sting cameo for Mark Ruffalo, it added nothing to the narrative. The MCU went the comedic route on many future post-credit scenes, triggering another debate on whether this was a good thing.

On a final note, Iron Man 3‘s home release featured another One-Shot, Agent Carter. Directed by Marvel executive Louis D’Esposito, it featured the return of Hayley Atwell‘s Peggy Carter, a character with a long MCU future to come. This short was quite popular due to Atwell’s endearing performance, and it eventually led to another MCU TV series. More on that later.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

We’ve spoken plenty on Downey’s return in Doomsday. As it happened, Kingsley also reprised his role in several subsequent Marvel projects, including recently in Wonder Man, a surprising longevity for a Marvel semi-villain character. As for anything else, Stark’s surgery and use of Extremis altered his MCU story arc moving forward, but it seems unlikely to matter for Doom’s backstory.

The Wolverine (2013)

While 2013 is host to another MCU and its first TV show, the summer season was dominated by competition both inside and outside Marvel. After passing on many Marvel projects, Zack Snyder finally made his major superhero stamp with Man of Steel in June 2013, launching the competing DCEU. Christopher Nolan may have been finished directing superhero projects, but he was happy to shepherd his friends’ material, with his signature “darker” grounded style serving as a reference point. Though critical reviews were mixed, and the box-office not quite as spectacular as the last two MCU outings, it served as a rallying point for those dissatisfied with the seemingly formulaic and light MCU.

Fox, meanwhile, continued onward with its X-Men franchise. After First Class‘s success, Fox was teeing up its own event film to try to compete with the likes of The Avengers. But first came The Wolverine.

Despite Fox’s helter-skelter approach, constantly revamping sequel and prequel ideas, they realized Wolverine remained their most popular character. And even with the relative failure of X-Men Origins: Wolverine sidelining many similar projects, Fox had discussed a direct Wolverine sequel as early as 2007 with thoughts of adapting the Wolverine in Japan stories. Some cuts of Origins: Wolverine included a post-credit scene with Wolverine drinking in a Japanese bar, though this was altered to a scene featuring Deadpool in the general American release.

Hugh Jackman was a huge fan of the Japanese stories and pushed hard for a Wolverine movie to go that direction. As Origins‘ production wrapped, producer Lauren Shuler Donner sought a potential writer to develop the idea, though she struggled to find the right fit. In 2009 Fox finally committed to a sequel and hired Christopher McQuarrie, who did some writing work on the original X-Men. Determined to take Logan to Japan, Fox sought for Bryan Singer to direct. He turned it down, as he had with other X-Men projects at the time.

Thus, Jackman again pitched for his pal Darren Aronofsky to direct. With the script finalized by early 2010, Aronofsky eventually committed in late 2010. Jackman was publicly excited about the sequel, hopeful something unique could be made with a McQuarrie script and Aronofsky directing. One of Aronofsky’s first public comments was that he was not treating the movie as a sequel but rather a “one-off,” with the story not following up on Origins and instead set after X-Men: The Last Stand, the first continuation of that timeline in years.

As it became clear that production required an extended overseas shoot in Japan, Aronofsky bowed out, sidelining production. By then First Class was preparing for release, leaving Fox with only The Wolverine to develop in order to keep competing with the burgeoning MCU; Days of Future Past was still in infancy. The 2011 Japan earthquake also sidetracked production, though the inability to shoot created time to find a replacement director.

While Jackman filmed Real Steel, he approached its director, Shawn Levy, about directing. Levy declined, though he would later direct Jackman as Wolverine. Fox also considered a variety of action-oriented directors including Antoine Fuqua, Doug Liman, and Justin Lin. Apparently Guillermo del Toro, another fan of the Wolverine Japan stories, pushed to direct as well, but ultimately he passed due to the lengthy production time. Fox eventually settled on James Mangold, who was building action credentials after beginning his career in drama. Perhaps this appealed to Jackman and Fox due to the direction they wanted to take Wolverine.

Despite Mangold’s hire, Jackman’s busy shooting schedule and further script rewrites from Mark Bomback continued to delay filming. By summer 2012 the film finalized its script again. Fox started hiring its Japanese cast, including Hiroyuki Sanada, another Japanese action actor slowly breaking into Hollywood cinema. Other stars included Tao Okamoto and Rila Fukushima.

As casting news spread, commentators commended The Wolverine for its unusual use of four female leads, a rarity for action flicks. Mangold and Jackman pushed Fox to make The Wolverine the first R-rated mainstream superhero movie since the Blade trilogy, but Fox refused. Speaking of Blade, Jessica Biel was originally in line to return to superhero cinema and play co-villain Viper, though negotiations broke down. For his part, Jackman took bulking tips from Dwayne Johnson, eating 6000 calories a day this time to gain the muscle to play Logan. More importantly, Jackman focused on bringing out Wolverine’s pain as his near-immortal nature caused him to lose everyone in his life.

Shooting finally began in July 2012. Sadly, despite shepherding the project, Shuler Donner was absent from filming due to breast cancer treatment. It was a global shoot, which was becoming normal for Fox’s X-Men movies. Production started in Australia, moved to Japan, and reshoots concluded in Canada. Despite the lengthy delays, production finished in November 2012 allowing post to take over. While still an effects-driven work, it wasn’t quite as FX-intensive as the MCU was becoming, and it only required four effects companies. One of the more difficult characters to render was Silver Samurai, due to the character’s highly-reflective surfaces making him more digital and cartoonish.

Fox mandated the inclusion of the character and some bigger third-act action scenes. Mangold later disclosed that Fox felt the urge to compete with the MCU’s bigger sequences and interfered in The Wolverine‘s production from time to time to achieve that. Mangold wanted to stick to a Japanese noir aesthetic, and he fought Fox’s demands.

While perhaps learning from Origins: Wolverine, Fox didn’t learn enough, and this is reflected in The Wolverine‘s reception after its July 2013 release. Critics and audiences were mixed, as indicated by the 71% Rotten Tomatoes score and 71 Flickscore. Many praised its more mature aspects and willingness to do something different with the character. Jackman’s performance in particular was highlighted for wrestling with the character’s trauma after so many movies. Yet a common critique was that the third act became a schlocky mess. Despite improvements, Fox still couldn’t help itself.

All the same, The Wolverine‘s box office did enough for Fox to continue making Wolverine solo films. It earned a respectable if not great $139.6 million on opening weekend and finished at $414.8 million, outgrossing Origins: Wolverine. A significant portion of that success came from the overseas audiences, as it became the highest-grossing X-Men film internationally.

Accordingly, Fox ordered a third film and brought back Jackman and Mangold. But the studio had another movie coming first, and taking a page from the MCU, they finally included a post-credits scene to set it up. Set a few years following The Wolverine, the scene shows Logan and the triumphant return of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan, six years after their characters were seemingly finished. Even more intriguingly, it appeared to tease one of the more famed X-Men stories, “Days of Future Past.” An expansive time travel dystopia story, it demonstrated Fox had big ambitions and wanted to compete with the MCU.

While the dreams of a fully-united Marvel universe remained off the table, Fox appeared to be finally getting itself together, mostly. With two successes in a row and a clearer game plan for the future, competition was forcing Fox to do better. Though that had its downsides, as The Wolverine‘s final act indicated, the rising tide of superhero movie success was carrying all ships. 2013 was shaping up to be a good year for superhero cinema.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

While Wolverine’s appearance in Doomsday feels assured, that is probably the extent of anything from this movie. The Japanese characters feel too minor for any references, as The Wolverine is an under-the-radar superhero movie on the whole. Some elements were referenced in Logan, though.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Fall 2013 found the MCU expanding in a new way: to the small screen! Debuting in September 2013, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. furthered the MCU’s storytelling and expanded upon the intelligence agency that was a backbone of Phase One movies. It revived Clark Gregg‘s Phil Coulson after his seeming death in The Avengers alongside a cast of other characters, including notably Ming-Na Wen, as they dealt with superhuman issues on a weekly basis. It was a clever conceit co-created by Joss Whedon and his brother Jed, who largely took over running the show.

The hook was that it shared continuity with the films and might affect events in the films, and vice versa. However, the crossovers were fairly inconsistent and one-sided due to Marvel Television and Marvel Studios having separate corporate structures, and due to difficulties between Kevin Feige and Jeph Loeb. The show essentially never impacted the films, aside from two arguable moments. That said, the show’s first season did directly reflect events from the films, including Thor: The Dark World.

Marvel officially announced the Thor sequel in 2011, before the first film even released. This took director Kenneth Branagh by surprise, since he was unused to Marvel’s expansive and rapid approach to franchise filmmaking. While Branagh was initially open to returning to direct, he was soon put off by Marvel’s methodology of quickly moving onto the next movie. He needing more time between lengthy productions, and he ultimately declined the director’s chair.

Marvel did moved quickly, officially hiring Don Payne, who helped write the first movie, as screenwriter the next day. Payne initially wrote Hela as the main antagonist, but as with Iron Man 3, Marvel Entertainment executives shut this down believing it would harm toy sales. As for filling the director’s chair, Marvel wanted to strike the Game of Thrones iron while it was hot and initially pursued Brian Kirk, but Kirk passed. Marvel then pivoted and hired Patty Jenkins, and they also confirmed the return of Tom Hiddleston and Natalie Portman.

Yet by December 2011, Jenkins left the project due to creative differences. She and Marvel never could square on story direction. Marvel resumed chasing Game of Thrones talent at this point, eventually settling on Alan Taylor. Feige cited Taylor’s experience on Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire as further reason for the hire, hoping to ground Thor’s aesthetic a bit more in the Norse aspects and bring some dramatic heft in the vein of those shows.

Marvel was also interested in continuing Thor, Loki, and Jane Foster’s stories post-Avengers and further expanding the universe. To that end came the casting of a new villain, the dark elf Malekith. Without Branagh attached, Marvel had to pursue dramatic actors on its own. They again had Mads Mikkelsen under consideration, but he ultimately passed once he committed to Hannibal. Benedict Cumberbatch was also in the running, yet Marvel eventually settled on Christopher Eccleston. Most of the supporting cast from the first movie also returned, though Zachary Levi notably replaced Joshua Dallas as Fandral after nearly playing him in the first movie.

The writing process took a bit of turn at this point. Quite like Iron Man 2, Marvel decided to use Thor: The Dark World as a launching point for the future, resulting in many revisions. Christopher Yost came in to rewrite, followed by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who were becoming Marvel darlings and worked on this script between drafts of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

This was all because Marvel had officially decided what the MCU’s endgame would be: the Infinity Gauntlet. Disparate elements from various movies had to be retrofitted to become Infinity Stones, including this film’s MacGuffin, the Aether. Rewriting continued even as filming started in England and Iceland. Taylor later said that Joss Whedon came in “like a SWAT team” to rewrite a few scenes that weren’t working during filming.

In addition to changing things for the new MCU gameplan, another major element Marvel changed was Loki. Feige commented that The Dark World was initially meant as the conclusion of the “Loki trilogy” that started in Thor, with Loki’s death intended to be final. However, audience response in test screenings changed Marvel’s mind and led to rewriting his conclusion. Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth‘s dynamic popped so much that reshoots were specifically done to add more scenes of banter between the brothers.

While Taylor was grateful to Whedon in some ways, he apparently lost control of the film during post-production. Marvel allegedly did extensive editing work that substantially changed the final product and narrative, including Taylor’s desire to have Loki die for real. Taylor later commented that he was dissatisfied with the final work and felt his vision was lost in re-editing. He apparently considered quitting directing due to how “wrenching” the experience was. In its desire to be grandiose, it seemed Marvel repeated many of the same mistakes its rivals had in the past.

Perhaps that’s part of the reason for the middling response upon its release in November 2013. Sitting at a mere 67% Rotten Tomatoes score and 67 Flickscore, many felt Thor: The Dark World was formulaic and lacking in genuine drama or heart. The hyper-bland villains were particularly criticized. Its reputation only further sank in the years afterwards, and it was widely considered the worst MCU movie until Phase Four. Still, most at least praised Hemsworth and Hiddleston’s charisma and chemistry together and felt it wasn’t entirely miserable or unwatchable.

The average reviews didn’t hurt the box office. In another likely Avengers boost, Thor: The Dark World opened to $109.4 million in its first five days and surpassed the first film’s gross by day nineteen. It became Disney’s best November release at the time and managed a strong running throughout the holiday period, finishing at $644.8 million.

Despite the uneven critical responses, it seemed Marvel found the secret sauce of connectivity, at least in terms of box-office dollars. With a fun cameo from Chris Evans as Captain America (albeit as an illusory disguise by Loki), the interconnected nature of the movies continued to entice fans.

It was perhaps the post-credits scenes that most tantalized people. The first featured several Asgardian characters visiting none other than The Collector, a notable entity in Marvel Comics. This teased his upcoming appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy, the announced Marvel project that raised the most eyebrows. More excitingly, this became the first direct mention of Infinity Stones (changed from Gems as in the comics). At last, the scene was a major confirmation that Marvel was heading towards the Infinity Gauntlet saga and that Thanos’s teased appearance was queueing one heck of a story. Anticipation for each subsequent Marvel movie only increased, with fans trying to guess which would feature the next Infinity Stone and which Stones had already appeared.

Thus, even with competition, Marvel Studios had to feel strong and unstoppable at this point. With a strong 2014 film slate coming, Marvel also announced a set of TV shows for Netflix. These shows would feature other reclaimed characters that Marvel wasn’t ready to bring to film, including most notably Daredevil. The MCU’s reach was only expanding.

That said, the Marvel One-Shot unknowingly came to an end on Thor: The Dark World‘s home release. The release featured the short film All Hail the King, which saw the return of Ben Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery in a humorous expansion of the character that also served as fan service by retconning the Mandarin reveal. The short explained there was a “real” Mandarin out there displeased by Slattery’s impersonation. This was incongruent to Black’s storytelling, but it assuaged those angered at Iron Man 3. Still, Marvel no longer needed the One-Shots after this due to expanding to TV. Marvel was already everywhere.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

Thor and Loki are both already confirmed to return in Doomsday. As we said in Thor‘s entry, most of the other characters are long out of the MCU. Maybe Portman’s Foster will be back. Eccleston and the Dark Elves were particularly forgettable and won’t be returning.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Spoilers! 2014 is considered one of the best years in Marvel cinema. The two MCU movies are often rated as the MCU’s crown jewels, and many consider Fox’s X-Men movie to be king of its franchise. This is especially notable given most considered Guardians of the Galaxy to be a massive risk, featuring the most obscure Marvel characters to date in any film.

But first was the much less-risky Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Captain America was already one of the more popular Avengers relatively speaking, and Chris Evans‘s portrayal in the prior two films earned the most acclaim alongside Downey. People were more than ready to see a Cap solo outing set in the modern world.

By this time, Kevin Feige was quite conscious about wanting to bring diverse genres to the MCU and giving filmmakers more leeway to leave a directorial stamp. As The Dark World proved, this was a difficult prospect given that Marvel needed each movie to serve a larger purpose, but Feige determined to do better.

It all started on The Winter Soldier with rehiring Markus and McFeely, who did a notably good job at writing the period WW2 superhero film that was the first Captain America. Feige felt this was a great example of the MCU stretching genres, and this time Feige wanted to make a 70s spy thriller. He set the pair to work in mid-2011, preparing for Phase Two alongside the many other creatives as the release of Phase One was still rolling out.

After months of bouncing ideas back and forth with Marvel, the pair arrived at a tale that pitted the old-fashioned moralism of Steve Rogers against the more cynical and morally-complicated present. They decided to avoid most time-displacement humor and wanted to ground the film in a believable reality that eschewed the fantasy elements of The Avengers. They took time to adapt “The Winter Soldier” storyline, taking inspiration on how to execute it from spy thrillers like Three Days of the Condor, The Parallax View, and Marathon Man. Indeed, they leaned heavily on Three Days of the Condor for story structure while throwing in the comics element of the Winter Soldier twist.

Even with all of these influences, the pair still struggled developing the third act. Feige saved the day by suggesting it feature the fall of SHIELD and revealing that HYDRA lived on after the first movie. It was a major decision to say the least, and one that would have lasting ramifications on the MCU moving forward. This let the duo figure out the end of the story, though the inclusion of Arnim Zola proved challenging as the heaviest sci-fi element in a more down-to-Earth tale.

Feige also suggested the inclusion of Nick Fury and Black Widow because these characters lacked solo movies, and because Cap lacked supporting characters given that he was displaced from his time. Marvel even wanted to bring in Jeremy Renner‘s Hawkeye, though they couldn’t figure out a unique writing purpose for him and Renner’s schedule got in the way regardless.

With a general story set, next came securing a director. Marvel’s hunt narrowed to three choices by early 2012, and then one choice, F. Gary Gray, removed himself from the process to direct Straight Outta Compton. A two-horse race came down to who had a better pitch. The winning pair, Anthony and Joe Russo, distinguished themselves in the audition process. They were an unorthodox choice, with their experience largely limited to TV comedies like Community.

Feige was initially attracted to them because of their genre parody episode of Community, “For a Few Paintballs More.” After they were allowed to read the script, the Russos spent two months storyboarding, rewriting scenes, and creating an animatic to showcase their vision for the film. It was this that won them the job and started the MCU’s arguably most notable creative partnership.

Within their winning pitch was the idea to focus on the modern surveillance state and drone warfare. The Russos felt it was impossible to create a political spy thriller that wasn’t topical in some way, and with the Snowden NSA leaks making news headlines at the time, they had ample opportunity to recall Captain America’s older ideals. Marvel officially announced their hiring of the directors and the sequel title at 2012 Comic Con, and added that they would continue their partnership with Cleveland and film there.

They also began hiring cast members. While much of the cast merely reprising roles from earlier MCU movies, Anthony Mackie joined as a new character, Sam Wilson/The Falcon, after narrowly missing on playing the Mandarin. Perhaps this was a better outcome. Two other new characters were Brock Rumlow and potential love interest Sharon Carter. For Rumlow, Marvel considered actors both familiar and unfamiliar to superhero flicks like Kevin Durand, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Josh Holloway. But the part ultimately went to Frank Grillo, who’d built a reputation for action cinema in the early 2010s. As for Sharon, Emilia Clarke again came under consideration, as well as Teresa Palmer, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Alison Brie (sharing the Community connection with the Russos). But Emily VanCamp won the part in the end, based on her work on the TV show Revenge. Hayley Atwell also returned as a much older version of Peggy Carter, ahead of a confirmed Agent Carter TV show.

One of the more eye-raising castings was that of Robert Redford, who joined as a high-ranking SHIELD agent. The Russos were inspired to cast him as an homage to Three Days of Condor, and to ape Henry Fonda‘s casting in Once Upon a Time in the West by having a mostly heroic actor play a villainous role. Redford was intrigued to see what this new form of filmmaking was like. Former UFC fighter Georges St-Pierre joined as a minor villain, Batroc, bringing a physicality to that role. Garry Shandling and Maximiliano Hernandez also reprised their earlier, smaller Marvel roles to further add to the universe.

Filming took place throughout 2013 not only in Cleveland but in California and Washington D.C. as well, with most of the film set in the latter city. In order to more accurately capture the 70s feeling, the Russos aimed to shoot everything practically when possible and to minimize special effects. This included shooting longer takes on action sequences and spending months choreographing realistic fights to sustain such scenes. The Russos were inspired by Heat and Brian De Palma to create action that had grit and consequences. Still, even minimizing special effects in a modern blockbuster involved six different visual effects companies to create the 2500 visual effects shots. The costume team also designed a new Captain America outfit to fit the modern spy aesthetic.

Once the film entered post, the Russos notably edited the film at their trailer on the Community set. They also conducted reshoots once Joss Whedon shared the second Avengers script in order to coordinate the ending of their film with the beginning of that one. Whedon also shot the mid-credits scene, as everything was directly leading into the second Avengers.

Marketing began in summer 2013 and lasted until the film’s 2014 release. Marvel used teaser posters, trailers, and Comic Con panels to build hype and showcase where the movie was heading. Also notable was a new tactic of releasing a “teaser” for the trailer the day prior, a practice that soon became standard in Hollywood marketing. Video games and Disneyland appearances also became part of the marketing machine.

Finally, April 2014 arrived. Continuing the post-Avengers trend, Captain America: The Winter Soldier outpaced its predecessor, earning $95 million in its opening weekend and setting April records for the time. It had a sustained run and finished the year as the fifth highest-grossing title, earning $714.4 million in total. It seemed Marvel Studios couldn’t miss at the box office.

For the first time since The Avengers, there was universal critical acclaim. Sporting a 90% Tomatometer and 91 Flickscore, the movie pleased many with its choice to reduce CGI spectacle and offer harder-nosed action. Many noted the more realistic fight choreography, and some even compared it to The Dark Knight in terms of its topicality. The few negative reviews felt it lost steam and failed to take risks despite its “spicy premise.” Regardless of the few detractors, Feige and company felt they accomplished what they wanted by diversifying the MCU language and genres at play. This didn’t resolve the debate over whether the MCU could allow diversity or not, but it seemed a punch in that direction. It remains one of the most widely-praised MCU movies.

The ramifications for the MCU as a whole left fans wondering, though. With SHIELD’s apparent demise, where would the next MCU movies go? Importantly for fans of the TV show, how could Agents of SHIELD continue? The show answered that with its most critically-acclaimed episode to date and a ratings smash, as the effects of Winter Soldier massively changed the show’s story direction and allowed the show to come into its own. In a rare one-off appearance, Samuel L. Jackson‘s Nick Fury even cameoed in the season finale. Thus, while leaving the show’s premise in a much different place, the MCU’s synergy with its TV side reached its zenith.

As for the post-credits scenes, this was the first time that both of them were serious in tone and advanced plot points. The second scene was minor, to be fair, but it revealed that Sebastian Stan‘s Bucky/The Winter Soldier would return and was regaining his memory, setting up a third Captain America film. The first scene was the bigger tease, revealing the first new additions to the Avengers sequel: Elizabeth Olsen‘s Scarlet Witch and Aaron Taylor-Johnson‘s Quicksilver. These siblings were villains and then Avengers in the comics, full of narrative potential. They were also mutants, though as Fox still held those rights, the scene teasingly called them “miracles” instead.

Did this mean there was a potential X-Men crossover coming? Well, the casting news for that summer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past seemingly put that to bed, yet the rumor mill still stirred. Anything was possible with time travel.

As the first three Phase Two releases proved, the MCU was in a different place than when it began. Each sequel well outpaced its predecessors, regardless of critical quality, indicating a clear buy-in from fans. They were hungry for more Marvel and what this interconnected universe was bringing. With The Winter Soldier, critical prestige also came, indicating that not only could Marvel build a universe but it could create top-tier action movies as well.

The last pre-Avengers MCU film loomed at the end of summer 2014. Even many dedicated comics fans were barely aware of the Guardians of the Galaxy, and they seemed a bizarre choice for this early era of the MCU. Leaping from B-list down to F-list characters hardly seemed the smartest thing choice. Many expected Marvel to fall on its face. No studio would have dared to make a movie for these characters in the past. Could the MCU brand really sustain something so odd?

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

Captain America is, of course, returning for Doomsday. And as we speculated before, we think Peggy Carter might show up again. The Russos’ career in Marvel skyrocketed after this movie, but we’ll leave more details on that to a future article. Mackie’s Sam Wilson became a major returning element in the MCU, including taking over the role of Captain America. He will also return in Doomsday.

The only other characters worth discussing are Rumlow, Alexander Pierce, and Sharon Carter. Grillo returned as Rumlow one more time before his character died, and we don’t think he’ll get any multiverse variants, especially as he’s at DC now. Redford sadly passed last year, so despite his returning in Avengers: Endgame, we think that’s the end of the line. VanCamp’s Sharon has returned several more times and has an open plot thread from one of the MCU shows, so maybe she’ll show up, though we think it unlikely.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

By the mid-10s, it was fairly standard for studios to commission scripts for sequels to their superhero flicks before the first entry even released. This was the case for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and James Vanderbilt began work in 2012. While Sony was overall pleased with its first reboot, the MCU’s Phase Two cut into Sony’s seeming advantage from The Amazing Spider-Man ‘s box-office grosses. Sequels for what were once minor characters nearly matched or surpassed Spider-Man‘s grosses, as in the case of Iron Man 2.

To that end, Sony was initially unsure of whether it wanted Marc Webb to return, especially with Webb wanting more money. They finally worked out a deal, but in Sony’s uncertainty about the future it hired a trio of screenwriters to essentially rewrite Vanderbilt’s screenplay. The trio included Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Jeff Pinkner, who were inexplicably (judging on story quality) hot items in Hollywood. But no one could deny they were penning some of the highest-grossing films of the era.

Sony also responded to the biggest criticism of The Amazing Spider-Man: that it lacked comics authenticity due to its grimmer aesthetic and costuming. Executives pushed to change the suit and make the tone more jovial overall, while still setting up an overarching Oscorp plot that could spin off into Sinister Six movies and compete with the MCU. Perhaps one can see the warning signs already.

Casting news certainly heralded doom, with announcements that Electro, Norman Osborn, Harry Osborn, Alistair Smythe, and Rhino were all joining the movie. Sony seemed unconcerned about repeating Spider-Man 3‘s mistake of stuffing in too many villains, including ironically a Harry Osborn Green Goblin. To top it all, Sony cast Shailene Woodley as Mary Jane Watson to apparently add a second romantic figure for Peter. Apparently, Andrew Garfield also suggested casting Michael B. Jordan as a male version of MJ to explore a bisexual Peter, though Sony quickly shut that down.

Sony realized their folly, at least in part. They cut MJ entirely from the movie despite Woodley filming all of her scenes. May Parker was also sidelined, much to Sally Field’s annoyance as she later reflected her part was essentially non-existent. Unfortunately, Sony maintained the multitude of villains. Even Felicity Jones made it in as Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat.

At least Sony hired talented actors for the roles. In a bold move, they cast Jamie Foxx as Electro, again race-swapping from the comics as they did with Kingpin a decade earlier. Perhaps Foxx added cultural cache. The crew labored intensively in creating his look, using special effects in combination for a four-and-a-half-hour makeup process.

Sony cast Chris Cooper for Norman Osborn, though seemingly mostly as set-up. Paul Giamatti of all people joined as Rhino, though this was also more of a cameo. After considering a broad swath of actors for Harry, including Sam Claflin, Brady Corbet, Boyd Holbrook, and even Michael B. Jordan, they settled on Dane DeHaan, Jordan’s Chronicle cast-mate.

Filming occurred entirely in New York State, a first for any Spider-Man movie. While they used Rochester as a stand-in for NYC more often than not, this kept production in the state’s boundaries. The crew even did all on-set filming in New York, including building a miniaturized version of Times Square.

Webb went an unorthodox route for the score once James Horner declined to return. He recruited a cadre of musicians including Pharrell Williams, Johnny Marr, Mike Einziger, Junkie XL, Steve Mazzaro, and Andrew Kawczynski to assist famed composer Hans Zimmer in crafting a score that was both cinematic and yet reflected the diversity of music trends. The results received mixed appraisal.

Marketing took off from there, with a panel at 2013 Comic Con alongside Fox and Marvel Studios. Sony also merchandised with toys and video games, but perhaps reflective of the more rushed production, they didn’t utilize as extensive a viral marketing campaign as they had for the first movie. In the urge to compete, Sony wanted to get a sequel out as quickly as possible.

May 2014 came after The Winter Soldier‘s successful turn the prior month. The opening weekend seemed to suggest continued success with Sony’s own sequel boost, as the movie earned $91.6 million, though this did not match The Winter Soldier‘s opening weekend. India was a strange source of success for the movie’s overseas take, as it earned $4.3 million there alone.

The run ended with $716.9 million, well below the first film and other recent MCU releases. This was perhaps because it critically bombed. While most critics enjoyed the cast and the emotional ending, these were the only sources of praise. It seemed the lessons of Spider-Man 3 were not learned, as this movie too was derided as an overstuffed mess with too many characters and no clear central narrative. Two films in, and the only improvement on the Raimi trilogy seemed to be the chemistry between Garfield and Stone. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 sits at 51% on Rotten Tomatoes and has a 61 Flickscore.

Sony was initially optimistic about expanding on this film, announcing third and fourth movies in 2013. Soon thereafter, Sony shared news of plans for a two-parter Sinister Six movie, a separate Venom film, a Black Cat movie, and even more. They had dollar signs in their eyes, to say the least. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 featured no traditional post-credits scene, but the ending teased the Sinister Six.

Yet once the box office numbers were in and critical derision piled up, Sony finally got the message. With creatives dropping off the sequels, they pivoted. Sony initially delayed the third movie and discussed potentially bringing back Raimi to direct a new trilogy of Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies with plans to then cross him over into the Garfield continuity, trying to ape the MCU in a different way.

Then, Sony Pictures was hacked in November 2014. With thousands of emails leaking onto the internet, their internal secrets became public. While the after-effects of this are far more reaching than comic-book movies, it cemented Sony’s course change and led to them cancel their Sinister Six plans.

While competition from Sony wasn’t entirely removed, the failure of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 seemed to end their run as a mainline competitor and signaled the conclusion of their era of superhero filmmaking that began back in 2002. Sony’s superhero output was done in concert with Marvel Studios thereafter, though always with tension and mostly to negative results. Thus, Marvel movies continued to consolidate into the MCU, leaving Fox as the lone wolf against Disney.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

Most of our remarks from The Amazing Spider-Man above are applicable here. The villains originating here are the only unique additions. While Foxx’s Electro returned in Spider-Man: No Way Home, we don’t think he’ll be making it into Doomsday or Secret Wars. Giamatti’s comically-ridiculous Rhino is also likely abandoned.

Of course, Stone’s Gwen Stacy perished in this film. With Garfield’s guilt over that loss resolved in No Way Home, we think it unlikely for Stone to return. Sally Field also seems done with the role of Aunt May, and other side characters just lack the cultural presence for the MCU to want to cameo them.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Fox was ready to howl as lone wolf. As we alluded to multiple times now, Fox was inspired by the MCU’s competition in the best way when it came to their next mainline entry. After the success of X-Men: First Class, Fox prepared to launch a new trilogy with the acclaimed younger X-Men cast. Matthew Vaughn was onboard to continue directing with Bryan Singer potentially returning to produce.

This luckily coincided with prior discussions on the continuation of the franchise. Part of the delay for X4 aside from the Wolverine prequels was negotiating contracts for the series mainstays. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner discussed adapting “Days of Future Past” as far back as 2006. With First Class doing so well, Donner was able to pitch Singer on finally coming back to the series he started.

Early story planning was fruitful, with Vaughn excited and proposing the idea of the film opening with Magneto’s magnetic powers being behind the curved bullet in the Kennedy assassination. Singer meanwhile proposed a Vietnam War setting and the possibility of using the time travel inherent in the story to “change history.” He tried to reassure fans that he didn’t mean completely erasing prior films, though Fox likely had the soft reboot ideas in mind already.

Still, even with enthusiasm, creative conflicts arose. Vaughn wanted “Days of Future Past” to be the culmination of the trilogy of new movies with a middle entry featuring Tom Hardy as a younger Wolverine. Yet when Fox read Vaughn’s script, they insisted on doing “Days of Future Past” next. Thus, Vaughn sadly exited, with Fox citing his Kingsman film as the reason for leaving.

Simon Kinberg took writing duties over in November 2011 and received sole credit for the screenplay, though story credit went to a variety of people including Vaughn. Kinberg knew Fox wanted this film to clarify the future of the franchise, and he worked alongside Singer to develop a cohesive set of rules for time travel. Kinberg studied older time travel movies like Back to the Future while Singer talked to James Cameron after Singer finally agreed to return to the directing chair for the first time since X2.

Kinberg and Vaughn discussed how to adapt “Days of Future Past” for the big-screen before Vaugh left. While still using Kitty Pryde’s powers as the basis, they removed her as the central character and instead chose to make Wolverine the time traveler. They developed story reasons for this, though the obvious commercial one was that Hugh Jackman was the face of the franchise. The pair had considered using Bishop or Cable for this role, and using Rachel Summers for the time travel power instead of Kitty. They also considered including a number of other famous mutant characters like Nightcrawler, Juggernaut, and Psylocke.

After Singer took over as director, he brought back his production team from the first two films as well. He hired the same production designer, costume designer, music director, and editor. Thus, not only would this be the big crossover cast and return of franchise originals, but also the return of most of the same creatives who helped start this whole superhero craze to begin with. The question was, could they keep up with the MCU?

Singer began announcing cast members in November 2012 on Twitter. On the First Class side, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicolas Hoult, and even Lucas Till all returned. On the original trilogy side, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, Halle Berry, Daniel Cudmore, Kelsey Grammer (in a small secret cameo) and of course, Jackman reprised their roles.

But there were also new characters. As part of the overall push of superhero cinema to link itself to the Game of Thrones phenomenon, Peter Dinklage joined as the primary human antagonist Bolivar Trask. Further tantalizing fans were announcements of Omar Sy as Bishop and Evan Peters as Quicksilver, popular mutants who had yet to have live-action appearances.

As the post-credits for The Winter Soldier revealed, Taylor-Johnson was already playing Quicksilver in the MCU. This seemed to forestall any potential crossovers, though some fans wondered how this could happen at all. As it happened, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch sat at a very unique crossroads of rights, because the pair were notable Avengers but also Magneto’s children and thus operated in both spheres, allowing the rights to be shared between Fox and Marvel Studios. Funny how the cross-section of legalities and storytelling can work.

Thus, years before the massive crossovers the MCU had coming, Fox set the stage for the first major crossover comic-book movie event (though if you count the first Avengers as beating them to the punch, we won’t argue). The consequence of such a large cast was coordinating that many schedules, which forced filming to occur between April 2013 and November 2013. This also became Fox’s most expensive production apart from Avatar, with the constrained timeframe causing crunch time work for everyone involved.

Still, the production team wasn’t phoning it in. They put lots of time and thought into crafting the look of the different time periods. The team leaned heavily into ’70s style for the past timeline, hoping to recreate the ’70s as well as First Class did the ’60s. They created two dichotomous appearances for the movie’s other main villainous force, the robotic Sentinels. The futuristic ones were horrifying CGI, designed to look inhuman and also reflect Mystique in the origin of their powers and function. The ’70s ones, meanwhile, were clunkier and made to look retro in a fun way.

In order to accommodate the compressed timeframe, Fox hired twelve effects studios to assist, despite only having 1311 visual effects shots. One of the most lauded of the bunch was Rising Sun Pictures, who created the acclaimed Quicksilver “Time in a Bottle” sequence. Visual effects also took over for Mystique’s design, with Lawrence wearing a bodysuit as well. While some of the look was still makeup, this reduced the application time from eight hours to three.

As post-production moved towards an end, marketing entered full swing. There already had been a Comic Con panel in 2013 during filming, and they showed further footage at various other conventions in early 2014, such as CinemaCon. They also used post-credits scenes, such as the aforementioned one from The Wolverine. Yet more strange was a post-credits scene attached to The Amazing Spider-Man 2. This confused some into thinking there would be a Spider-Man/X-Men crossover to compete against the MCU, but this was merely the product of a corporate compromise as Marc Webb was contracted to do another film for Fox. Fox agreed to let Webb direct films for Sony if Sony plugged Days of Future Past.

Singer withdrew from marketing in April 2014 after further accusations of sexual abuse culminated in multiple lawsuits filed against him. While both suits were ultimately dismissed, there appeared to be some credibility as these accusations were discussed in documentaries and generated further discussions, including a claim by author Bret Easton Ellis that two of his former partners attended underage sex parties hosted by Singer and Roland Emmerich.

This was hardly what Fox wanted just a month before their big event movie released, but they had to press onwards. The accusations didn’t seem to hurt the box office. Days of Future Past debuted to an explosive opening weekend, earning $262.8 million, a franchise best. Critics raved upon release, with many considering it the best X-Men film yet, or at the least standing alongside X2. While some found it a bit overstuffed or confusing, those who were devotees of the franchise or of X-Men comics found it richly rewarding. There was a new reverence for the source material in a Fox production.

Indeed, Days of Future Past was seen as a course correction for the mistakes of The Last Stand and Origins: Wolverine with an ending that seemingly retconned away the bad choices of those movies. While not a full reboot, the timeline reset seemed to open the future of the continuity and give a satisfying ending to the original cast that The Last Stand had lacked. The movie finished with $747.9 million, a franchise-best box office. It even managed to top Avatar in many overseas territories as the highest-grossing Fox release.

Future minded, the film’s post-credits scene followed the MCU pattern of teasing the new big villain. Indeed, it appeared Apocalypse would be next, having already been announced before Days of Future Past released. This would serve as the conclusion of the new trilogy with the younger cast members, as the older cast were seemingly retired. This wasn’t the only fire in the oven, either, as Fox was setting up more spin-offs to try to capitalise on their success and keep up with the MCU.

Of final note, the home release contained an alternate edit, the Rogue Cut. Paquin’s Rogue, the original focus character of X-Men, barely appeared as a cameo in this movie. As it turned out, there was a more substantial role for her that wound up being reduced due to runtime problems. Seeing an opportunity in the home release, this alternate cut was made available. It didn’t seem to change things considerably, but it provided some extra material and slightly different plots mechanics.

While Sony was fading, Fox seemed to have found new life. Thus, even as things consolidated under the MCU, Fox kept going and seemed to have learned from their many mistakes over the years. They weren’t perfect, still rushing movies out, but a reverence for authenticity and a more measured approach were aiding them. This meant X-Men weren’t going to be part of the MCU, which seemed to cause Marvel to move away from promoting mutants, even in the comics. But perhaps maintaining competition was a good thing, as the early part of the ’10s seemed to indicate.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

As already discussed in prior articles, many of these older X-Men cast members are returning in Doomsday. Though it is unclear if the younger cast will be joining, we feel more certain that the characters who only appeared in this movie such as Bishop, Wink, Sunspot, and Trask will not appear.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Guardians of the Galaxy is another example of the transformative power of the MCU. Prior to this film debuting, only the most dedicated comics fans had any idea who they were. They were far more obscure even than Iron Man, Thor or most any Marvel character who had received a cinematic adaptation at this point. When Kevin Feige announced them as the only non-sequel MCU movie prior to the second Avengers, it caused many to wonder if Marvel had lost the plot and were overestimating themselves. Certainly any character could work if written well enough, but headlining a major blockbuster was a different matter.

Fittingly, unlike any other hero who had debuted in the MCU, there was no long history of failed attempts to turn the Guardians into a film. While the original iteration of the team dated back to the late ’60s, the modern version this film used didn’t debut until 2008. And certainly they weren’t a headliner comic. They formed the team by throwing together preexisting space-faring heroes who lacked a home in the aftermath of a big crossover comics event. It did sell well enough, but it lacked a major cultural presence.

Yet the team apparently intrigued Nicole Perlman, whom we mentioned last article as a product of Marvel Studios’ writing program. In 2009 she’d been able to pick between many lesser Marvel properties to turn into a feature film script. This was Marvel’s way of starting preparations for the long-term future. Perlman was drawn to the Guardians because of the sci-fi space element. Apparently Marvel was surprised, as they had expected her to pick a romantic comedy.

Perlman spent the next two years as Phase One rolled out continually rewriting the script. She vacillated between which team members to use, including trying a draft based on the ’69 version of the team. Perlman centered the movie on Nova at one stage before Nate Moore, head of the writing program, suggested she instead focus on Star-Lord.

With this advice, Perlman found her anchor. She rewrote Star-Lord into more of a Han Solo type, included 1980s and 90s period music as a tonal element, and created the opening scene of Star-Lord on a desolate planet based on a memory of viewing a drained submarine ride at Disneyland. All throughout this period, Feige kept publicly dropping hints that he was intrigued about the Guardians becoming a movie and was excited for the MCU to expand its space side.

Feige must have seen Perlman’s scripts and decided it was worth a serious attempt. He was eager to do Marvel’s own version of Star Wars. To that end, Marvel Studios hunted for a director. They initially considered Colin Trevorrow, but he turned it down due to not being a comics fan. Peyton Reed and the directing pair of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck were also candidates.

Yet it was James Gunn who beat them all. Marvel initially talked to him in 2012 about merely assisting Perlman in script rewrites. Yet Marvel was attracted to Gunn’s maverick sensibilities and dark sense of humor as seen in Slither and Super, and they eventually offered for him to direct. Gunn agreed, but didn’t care for Perlman’s script, and asked to rewrite it. Feige acquiesced, though he admitted he was scared at what Gunn might bring back.

Luckily, Gunn’s first script was on the same page with Marvel. Joss Whedon was thrilled after reading it, convinced Gunn was the guy to make the Guardians work and noted Gunn’s love of Rocket Raccoon, an element Gunn took to the very end of the trilogy. Gunn commented many times about Rocket being his favorite character. Minor disagreements later arose about the extent Perlman’s script was used in the final movie, with Gunn stating he largely disregarded it.

As Gunn worked with Marvel on further rewrites, he reflected that the character arcs for the central five stayed the same throughout the process. Many other elements changed as Gunn altered Perlman’s script into the final form. He allegedly changed the entire story, character arcs, and added Peter Quill’s Walkman as well as altering the music references to ’60s and ’70s pop hits. One change, at Whedon’s suggestion, was the removal of Star-Lord’s father as an intergalactic emperor. In fact, Whedon’s main advice to Gunn in rewriting was to enhance the weirder elements.

Thanos was the main villain of Perlman’s script, but this changed dramatically in light of Marvel’s new plans. Gunn wanted to remove him entirely, but Marvel mandated he stay to help set up the MCU’s endgame. Thus, Gunn developed the idea that Ronan the Accuser, the new main antagonist, would kill The Other as a way of including Thanos while preserving Ronan’s threat.

Gunn also briefly wrote an origin for the Infinity Stones in his script, mostly as a fun Easter Egg among many other nods to Marvel history in the film. Yet as Marvel calcified on making the Infinity Gauntlet the MCU’s main story, they told Gunn they wanted the Power Stone to be the MacGuffin of Guardians.They actually used Gunn’s origin idea for the Stones in subsequent MCU works. Thus, Guardians became a key linchpin in the forming Infinity Saga, despite being set so far from other MCU films.

As they finalized the script in late 2012, Gunn and Marvel launched the casting process. While Gunn had discretion to use many of his favorite actors for minor characters, such as Michael Rooker as Yondu and his brother Sean as Kraglin, the search for the lead Star-Lord was important to centering Marvel’s newest gamble. They auditioned many actors including Joel Edgerton, Jack Huston, Eddie Redmayne, Michael Rosenbaum, Zachary Levi (despite appearing in Thor: The Dark World), Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Lee Pace.

Gunn was initially taken with Glenn Howerton, yet another actor ended up becoming Gunn and Marvel’s favorite: Chris Pratt. Pratt was cast in February 2013 despite no real blockbuster experience. Most knew him as the schlubby supporting player from Parks & Rec. Pratt had been trying to get into superhero movies for a long while and had missed on several prior Marvel roles and Avatar. Even Gunn was not interested until he met with Pratt, at which point Gunn was instantly convinced. In a movie that was already a risk, Gunn and Marvel decided to take a further risk on Pratt.

The rest of the Guardians followed, with Gunn continuing to make unorthodox choices. Dave Bautista beat out Isaiah Mustafa, Chadwick Boseman, and Jason Momoa (who self-removed from the process as he didn’t want to get typecast) for the part of Drax the Destroyer. It was Bautista’s first major blockbuster role after several smaller movie appearances. Bautista felt quite connected to Drax due to his athleticism and having tragedy in his life, making the four-hour makeup process more tolerable. Marvel initially cast Amanda Seyfried for Gamora, beating Lupita Nyong’o, but Seyfried turned it down after she was concerned that Guardians might be a bomb and hurt her reputation. Thus, Zoe Saldana, who had multiple sci-fi franchises under her belt at this point, took the part.

As for Groot and Rocket, makeup alone wasn’t enough for them, and they had to be created via CGI and motion capture. Sean Gunn wound up as the main stand-in for Rocket mostly by accident, as they were still figuring out how to do Rocket when filming began. He kept the role in all subsequent Marvel films, with Bradley Cooper providing the voice and some facial references. Vin Diesel took the part of Groot, providing both voice work and motion capture, though someone else stood in for him on set. Diesel found it a unique acting challenge — due to Groot only ever saying “I am Groot” — to convey many different emotions and thoughts. He leaned into his grief over losing his friend Paul Walker to fuel the emotional center of Groot.

With the heroes cast, the villains yet remained. The role of main antagonist, Ronan, went to Lee Pace after Pace missed on playing Star-Lord. Though Marvel had been considering Hugh Laurie, Alan Rickman, or Ken Watanabe for this role, Gunn was impressed enough with Pace’s acting that he wanted him in the film in some capacity. As casting finalized in summer 2013, Karen Gillan and Benicio del Toro joined as Nebula and The Collector, just in time for Del Toro to film his post-credits scene for The Dark World. Gillan was highly committed to her role, aiming for Nebula’s voice to be a simultaneous impression of Clint Eastwood and Marilyn Monroe while physically training for two months, taking inspiration from Spartan methods.

Yet perhaps the most important villain casting was that of Thanos. Despite only being in two scenes, Marvel already knew Thanos was in line for much more in subsequent movies. Gunn worked in conjunction with Feige and Whedon to find the proper actor. They quickly settled on Josh Brolin, approaching him with the pitch that he’d be more of a cameo at first before stepping up in status. Brolin was already a big MCU fan and had a prior relationship with Louis D’Esposito, and he readily agreed, providing voicework and performance capture.

Rounding out some of the minor characters were Glenn Close and Djimon Hounsou. Close wanted to be in a superhero film because she desired something as iconic and fun as Judi Dench‘s M that could diversify her career. Hounsou was inspired to be in a superhero film when his son stated he wanted to be “light-skinned” because Spider-Man was, and he wanted to show his son that black actors could be in these movies as well. Laura Haddock joined as Peter’s mother, after previously having a minor role in Captain America: The First Avenger.

Finally, with casting done, filming began in summer 2013. Marvel kept further massaging the work throughout filming to help connect it to other MCU properties, with Markus and McFeely provided finishing touches to the script. Guardians was an elaborate production, and Marvel took the job of making a space adventure seriously. Gunn aimed to do as much practically as possible, as the blowback against the abundance of CGI was already swelling by the mid-10s.

Marvel hired Brian Muir, who sculpted Darth Vader’s helmet for Star Wars, to aid in design work. They crafted many practical sets, including a massive prison with 350,000 pounds of steel. Makeup designer David White also worked extensively to bring Gunn’s vision to life, making casts of most of the actors in order to experiment. By the end, he and his team created over 2000 molds and 1000 prosthetics, including life-size models of Rocket and Groot.

Even for effects that had to be CGI, the team went above and beyond to create realism, such as figuring out new ways of animating Rocket Raccoon to make him look believable and not like a cartoon. Luma Pictures, one of the many effects studios on the film, created a new facial animation system for Thanos. Despite aiming for practicality, Guardians finished with a whopping 2750 visual effects shots, which also pushed it above budget.

Despite the MCU being a bastion of comics accuracy when possible, they continued to make further changes. Gunn originally planed to make the main MacGuffin, the Power Stone, red, as it sometimes is in the comics. Yet because the MCU decided to retcon the red Aether from Thor: The Dark World into a Infinity Stone, they forced Gunn to change the Power Stone to purple. They also settled on changing Drax to grey from green to avoid him looking too much like Hulk. Marvel was forced the change the race of Ronan’s goons to Sakaaran from the Badoon, as Fox held the rights to the Badoon.

Filming concluded in late 2013 and post-production continued through mid-2014. Gunn and Marvel began marketing the film at Comic Con 2013, launching an extensive campaign from there. A property like this needed all the help it could get. Creating a perfect first trailer was important, and the trailer was a smash success, garnering 22.8 million views within its first twenty-fours.

Part of the trailer’s success was the music. A centering feature was Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling,” which had a 700% increase in sales following the trailer’s release. Gunn was pleased because Disney almost went with a different, “cheesier” version of the trailer. This one made the music element prominent, which Gunn used as an anchoring point for the movie’s emotional beats. In combination with an extensive digital marketing campaign, confidence built that a movie based on a “bunch of a-holes” (a line initially only in the trailers that made it into the film based on audience response) might actually be a success.

August 2014 finally arrived, and Marvel’s next big test was here. They’d launched a cinematic universe. They’d proved a crossover film could succeed. Now, the MCU would see how obscure they could get before they lost audiences. If this failed, perhaps the MCU would be too fearful to dig too deep and wouldn’t go beyond B- or C- list characters moving forward.

Luckily for fans of obscurities, Guardians of the Galaxy was an unexpected smash hit. Even its Thursday night preview screenings (now an industry staple two years after the tragic Dark Knight Rises midnight shooting), beat out Winter Soldier. Word of mouth was strong and Guardians set the August opening weekend record, garnering $160.7 million as the weekend concluded.

Critics raved, with many loving the irreverent, zany foray into superhero cinema that combined heart and spectacle in equal measure. Many positively compared it to Star Wars, feeling it was the best movie in that vein in a long, long time. A minority of critics felt it was overstuffed and too laden with jokes and pop culture references, but it has gone on to be considered one of the peak MCU movies, with some still calling it the MCU’s best film.

Certainly audiences loved it. It livened up the box office in an unconventional run, demonstrating staying power by being #1 in non-consecutive weekends and tying The Dark Knight for most weekends at #1 for a comic book movie at four, even beating The Avengers to that mark. It also had the biggest female audience of a MCU film yet, with 44% of the audience women. Guardians wound up as the third-highest grossing 2014 film, finishing with $773.3 million. Not only had it defied expectations, it blew them out of the water.

Central in the film’s praise was the clever use of music which anchored many emotional moments and connected audiences. Gunn included the music to ground Peter as an Earth character, as Perlman’s original script had. He took the process of picking songs seriously, going through hundreds of candidates until he found the ones that worked best. The effort paid off. The soundtrack album topped the Billboard 200, the first soundtrack album composed of established songs ever to do so. Clearly, people were hooked on the feelings that perfectly picked pop music can generate.

While the post-credits for Guardians surprisingly did little to tease anything in the MCU’s future, other than Groot’s return, it did feature a surprising cameo: the Collector in his ruined museum is licked by Cosmo the Space-Dog (who would eventually return) when an unseen voice comments on how disgusting the lick was. The voice is revealed to be none other than Howard the Duck, the feathered superhero who started it all for this article series and for Marvel’s big-screen presence. Gunn certainly has a love for minor characters, though Howard wasn’t actually in the scene initially and was added as a last minute cameo in post-production.

With 2014 wrapping, the MCU kept proving it was unstoppable. Every big gamble Marvel Studios made paid off. They’d launched The Avengers. A series of successful sequels released, even with some early critical backlash. And 2014 brought a pair of movies ranking among the best of their genre. Not only was the commercial aspect working with audience buy-in, the MCU had grown in prestige.

Was it enough to stand alongside The Dark Knight? Opinions varied, but certainly Warner Bros was taking cues from Disney, now rushing its own DC cinematic universe into existence rather than vice versa. But before this era could truly wrap, there was one more Marvel film coming that one many may be surprised to learn is Marvel at all.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium-High

The Guardians had quite a journey ahead after this film. Though they became part of the crossover Avengers movies in a big way, their trilogy had a fairly self-contained conclusion that added a sense of finality to many of the characters that is mostly lacking with other MCU heroes. Thus many of these characters probably will not be coming to Doomsday, despite being around in the canon.

That said, Star-Lord seems highly likely to return based on how Vol. 3 ended. As for the rest, there may be a very small chance of Rocket or Groot showing up. We’ll leave further comments on the Guardians for their last film. The villains specific to this movie don’t seem likely to come back, though. Ronan and Korvath did appear in Captain Marvel since it was a prequel movie, but their characters are dead. Maybe Del Toro’s Collector will get a small cameo, since his fate is unclear.

Big Hero 6 (2014)

In our first article series crossover, the surprise closer of this era is Big Hero 6. That’s right, Walt Disney Animation Studios made a Marvel movie. Though if you didn’t know that, no one would blame you.

The superhero team this movie is based on are another fairly obscure property. The team launched in the late ’90s as a means of grouping several Japanese superheroes together on one team. A Japanese Avengers, if you will. They were meant to spin off from another comic, Alpha Flight, though publishing errors led to their miniseries debuting first. They were never a high-profile comic or team, but they did feature several direct X-Men connections that made them slightly more known than the Guardians.

Still, like the Guardians, there was never a push to adapt them to the big screen before Disney acquired Marvel. But as a matter of corporate synergy, once the acquisition occurred, CEO Bob Iger encouraged other branches of Disney outside of Marvel Studios to explore developing Marvel IP. He specifically suggested looking for the obscure characters that wouldn’t interfere with the MCU and that they could reinvent without upsetting any sizable amount of fans.

Director Don Hall followed Iger’s direction while he was wrapping work on Winnie the Pooh (2011). Scrolling through the Marvel database, he found the Big Hero 6 comics and was immediately intrigued. He pitched development of Big Hero 6 to John Lassoer, chief creative officer of Disney Animation at the time, and it was the winning idea among several other pitches.

Disney announced development of Big Hero 6 in June 2012 right at the height of The Avengers release. Unlike the live-action properties, comic authenticity was not a concern here, and story head Paul Briggs and screenwriter Robert L. Baird made no attempt at fidelity. Baird didn’t even bother reading any of the comics.

Despite the MCU taking off in a big way, development of Big Hero 6 remained confined entirely in the animation studios with no plans of crossing anything over, allowing it to exist in its own ecosphere of creative development. Despite Disney consulting comics creatives like Joe Quesada and Jeph Loeb, there were reports of corporate friction with Disney’s direction on the property. Allegedly, Marvel railed against Disney’s plans to reprint Big Hero 6 comics, though Lasseter dismissed any idea that the movie was causing a rift and stated that Marvel let Disney have complete creative freedom.

Indeed, Animation Studio President Andrew Millstein commented that they leaned more into Pixar DNA for the storytelling. The creative team also turned to Studio Ghibli and other Japanese manga/anime for inspiration as well. Hall felt this was crucial for creating an original look for the movie’s central robot, Baymax. Due to the plethora of iconic pop culture bots, Hall and his team combined this multitude of influences to try to create something that stood out, reviewing The Wind Rises, Spirited Away, Wall-E, Pokemon, and mecha anime like Eureka Seven.

The crew also visited the DARPA-funded robotics team at Carnegie Mellon University to get an idea of where the cutting edge in “soft robotics” was at. Artist Lisa Keene stated from the beginning of the design process that Baymax should be “huggable.” This philosophy led to his final look being vinyl-based. This helped them balance the idea of friendliness with the concept that Baymax still had an intimidating quality to him. The result was something quite far-flung from its comics origins, but certainly in the vein of modern Disney.

Script debates occurred alongside the design struggles. Early drafts didn’t introduce Baymax until much later in the film, but once story artist John Ripa developed a way to introduce the bot earlier, the entire writing crew felt the story strengthened considerably, even if it required extensive rewrites to the first act. Another minor script squabble occurred when Lasseter wanted to excise Baymax’s description of a cat as a “hairy baby,” though he later admitted he was wrong after it did well in test screenings. It’s now one of the film’s more iconic comedic lines.

Among the many deviations from the comics was the film’s setting of San Fransokyo. Created exclusively for the movie, this city combined eastern and western culture/art and was a way for the team to have fun with a new setting. The comic was set in Tokyo but Disney felt Marvel rarely utilized San Francisco. A fictional city was a way to combine both worlds, literally.

Animation and overall production lasted the better part of two years. It led to Disney developing a new hyper-advanced rendering system called Hyperion that required so much computing power it needed 2300 workstations that each held a pair of 300 GB solid-state drives and backed on a central storage system with a capacity of five petabytes. Talk about powerful.

At last Big Hero 6‘s production concluded and it was on deck as Disney’s follow-up to their biggest hit in years, Frozen. Disney hoped to ride the momentum of that film and Marvel mania to box-office success.

Big Hero 6 opened in November 2014 to $56.2 million in its opening weekend in North America, just ahead of Interstellar, which debuted the same weekend. Marvel got to best Christopher Nolan again, if indirectly. Though Interstellar did beat it after accounting for international grosses.

But Disney hardly cared about that as Big Hero 6 finished at $657.8 million total, becoming one of the highest-grossing animated movies of all-time. Critics also raved with a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score, and Flickchart users also mostly enjoy it, as it boasts a 79 Flickscore. Many found it a touching and exciting movie and another staple in the modern Disney lineup, part of a revived era for Disney Animation after a lackluster ’00s. It has gone on to merchandising galore, including an entire land at Disney California Adventure Park.

While there was no crossover with the MCU, the filmmakers were inspired by the comics connection and realized they should do a post-credits scene after seeing Guardians of the Galaxy. Thus, very late in production, they added one featuring legendary comics creator Stan Lee in a voice cameo. Even if the movie was far removed from its comics roots, the Lee cameo speaks to the movie’s connection to Marvel history.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: None

This is our most confident statement of no connection we can make. The film is simply in its own realm outside of other Marvel productions. The Disney Animation wing of Disney did its own thing with the material, and other than its inherent source material, it really isn’t a Marvel product. Doomsday is going to stick to live-action Marvel for its cameos.

With 2014 ending, Marvel Studios’ peak kept rising. Box-office numbers universally rose after The Avengers and Marvel created some of their best movies. Sony’s attempts to compete ultimately faltered, setting the stage for shrewd negotiation to bring Marvel’s flagship character, Spider-Man, into the MCU fold. While Fox remaining stalwart was unfortunate for those wanting a truly united universe, competition mostly had a positive effect, boosting the quality of Fox’s output. Fox’s upcoming Marvel slate seemed to be responding to audience expectations.

One could say the mid-’10s were a golden era for comic-book movies. Anticipation for the Avengers sequel kept swelling, as well as what lay beyond with the Infinity Stones and Thanos. Even with a few Phase Two films having more uneven response, the MCU was a juggernaut at this point. It took an obscurity like Guardians of the Galaxy and launched them into mainstream pop culture. There was now an MCU TV show connecting with the movies, and more shows on the way. Even Disney animation was getting in on the Marvel brand. It was a Marvel world now.

Still, if there was any conflict left, it was the growing critique of MCU sameness. With ten movies under their belt, there was a minority, if a vocal one, already fed up with the light jokey tone and Whedonification of the movies. Feige, for his part, felt the MCU diversified in 2014 with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy. While many agreed the MCU was showing genre flexibility, some still stated those attempts at genre swap were facile at best and that the formula was still there. For those wanting something different, they were ready to support what looked like an emerging competitor in the Zack Snyder-helmed DCEU.

But as the next era came, the MCU planned to stay on top. The Avengers sequel was opening up 2015 and then Phase Two was wrapping with the long-awaited Ant-Man before Phase Three opened with another big event movie, Captain America: Civil War. Whether this successfully built a cohesive narrative towards the Infinity Gauntlet or not, Feige was determined to make each individual film work. Hopefully, the process wouldn’t get away from them. Fox was lining up its own array of competition, including what looked like a much more accurate interpretation of Deadpool and concluding its prequel and Wolverine trilogies by adapting some of the most prestigious X-Men stories from the comics.

Could Fox or the DCEU get the edge? Or was Marvel Studios going to become the only show in town? Only time would tell if Marvel could keep it going or if the entire project would fall on its face from excess. Many had failed before from the same problem. Marvel Studios needed to prove it was different.

Ranking Era Five

It seems like each era has been better than the next once the MCU took off. Whether that trend remains or not, Era Five is chock full of excellent movies. While there are a few duds, the lows here are nowhere as bad as they once were. The studios seemed to finally crack the superhero formula and the lesser attempts from here were usually due to rushing things, rather than being a total mess.

#9: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Flickscore 61)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 deserves the bottom spot of this era. While it wisely course-corrects from some of the needlessly moodier choices of the reboot, it doesn’t eject them completely, resulting in a weird tonal mishmash of Spidey being a fun superhero with scenes where the dark Oscorp conspiracy plot continues. The script also poorly juggles the competing plot threads of Electro, Harry Osborn, and Spidey’s rocky relationship with Gwen Stacy.

Speaking of, Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield remain highlights with their chemistry sparking. Yet, the story separates them a bunch, trying to wrestle with the implications of Peter making a promise to the dying Captain Stacy while also developing the romance further. It is simply too disjointed to function properly and thus botches the impact Gwen’s death ought to have in the end, as effectively acted as a scene that it is. Toss in the goofy Rhino bookends, the rushed Harry Goblin transformation, and strange socially awkward Electro who keeps getting sidelined in his own movie, and the result is a mess. It is funny to see BJ Novak for five seconds as another snide corporate jerk.

#8: Thor: The Dark World (Flickscore 67)

Thor: The Dark World hardly fares better and was rightfully considered the worst MCU movie for a long time. Many exaggerate the dullness of Marvel villains, but Malekith is the epitome of bland. The Dark Elves are built up as this looming ancient threat, yet their motivations are flat and undeveloped. Christopher Eccleston isn’t allowed to do anything with the role, making the central drama lacking.

The inverse from the first Thor with Jane coming to Asgard as the fish out of water has some promise, yet that is a sadly underbaked aspect of the story. As are most of the dramatic threads, such as Thor wisely challenging Odin’s decision-making, Thor wrestling with his responsibility as future king and his romantic interests, Lady Sif’s seeming jealousy of Jane, and Frigga’s final scenes with her son.

Just what is in this movie instead? Bad comedy with Stellan Skarsgard and Kat Dennings. Washed-out ugly frames of Malekith monologuing in a fake language. Many lackluster fight scenes. The redemptive factor is Loki, of course. When Tom Hiddleston is onscreen with Thor, the movie pops with the brotherly rivalry naturally bringing good drama and intrigue. A shame this couldn’t have been centered even more. And the final convergence battle is admittedly whacky enough to entertain as comic-book action.

#7: The Amazing Spider-Man (Flickscore 72)

The first Spider-Man reboot has promise. Garfield nails the Spidey in costume aspect better than Tobey Maguire ever did, with smart-aleck jokes galore. A scene where he takes down a thug is a highlight of how Spidey ought to behave. More time is spent with Peter as a high school student and the film really emphasizes the school’s reaction to Peter when he loses Uncle Ben. As aforementioned, Peter and Gwen are full of chemistry and serve as a solid emotional anchor for the movie.

But this also gets so much wrong. The darker tone and push for realism don’t work that well with a fantastical character like Spider-Man. The “grimdark” aesthetic just ends up robbing the film of joy, and clashes with the Saturday morning cartoon villain that is The Lizard. The movie wants a serious spy espionage backstory while also having The Lizard’s plan be to gas the whole city and turn them into lizards. The film also retypes Peter into an emo skater type that gets the girl right away, which doesn’t feel like an accurate representation of Parker’s underdog qualities.

Worse, it feels a rushed retread of the origin plot beats from Spider-Man. While Sally Field and Martin Sheen are decent replacements for May and Ben, the script seems to recognize the repetitiveness of what it’s doing and tries to change things, yet still feels obliged to include the same story points. The result is a butchered rewording of “With great power comes great responsibility,” the film flying through Ben dying and Peter deciding to be a hero, and something altogether underwhelming. Plus, the decision to have Peter promise Captain Stacy to leave Gwen alone in the end, only for the movie to immediately undercut the choice, still rubs the wrong way and makes Peter look horrible.

The Amazing Spider-Man is hardly the worst movie, but it is firmly mid-tier.

#6: The Wolverine (Flickscore 71)

The Wolverine might be among the most unheralded entries in the Marvel canon. To be fair, the third act is a mess. As other critics noted, it reeks of studio interference and becomes Wolverine fighting a cartoonish giant samurai while the Viper character also acts like she’s from a different medium as she fights Yukio. The late plot-twist also wrecks part of the movie’s logic if you think about it too long.

But until that point, the movie was James Mangold’s glorious warmup to Logan. He gets to wrestle with Logan’s trauma the most in-depth yet, providing the one true continuation of The Last Stand‘s events (Days of Future Past wipes it from canon) as Wolverine mourns killing Jean Grey and is tormented by a life of guilt. The Japanese aesthetic suits Logan well, fitting him neatly into the ronin archetype.

Mangold adds a noir touch as well with the mystery element and yazuka coming after Logan and his allies. The fight on the bullet train is a thrilling one and seeing characters dueling with katana throughout all adds to the movie’s aura. Hugh Jackman really gets to let loose in many ways, making this a fine duology with Logan. But more on that film in a future article.

#5: Big Hero 6 (Flickscore 79)

Disney’s foray into Marvel filmmaking is a real blast. With bright colorful animation and strong worldbuilding, San Fransokyo leaps into glorious being and instantly becomes an iconic Disney location. Baymax also joins the canon of lovable companions, his ignorance quite cute and perfectly tailored to be amusing to people of all ages.

Big Hero 6 also wrestles with some important questions about guilt, responsibility, and revenge. The movie lets its lead character, Hiro, go to some fairly dark places for a children’s movie as he comes close to making a mistake he can’t take back. As contrasted against the lead villain’s arc, this is some really strong character writing throughout.

The biggest flaws of it are a somewhat flatter plot on the whole and falling into the tropes of the genre. Most of the side characters feel far more disposable than they ought to. It also plays into the modern Disney humor that feels a little lacking and leaning on goofiness for laughs instead of actual jokes. These things all hold Big Hero 6 back from being one of the true greats, though it’s still a more than good movie.

#4: Iron Man 3 (Flickscore 77)

This may be a divisive one, but we say Iron Man 3 is unfairly demonized for the twist. Certainly, there is a fair argument to be made about the way it undercuts some of the stakes from earlier in the movie. But we think more of this anger comes from deviation from source material than actual criticism of the writing.

The twist feeds quite well into a Phase Two theme of things not seeming to be what they are and looking deeper under the surface. The criticism of using symbols to distract is well taken and also mirrors Tony’s own arc in the movie of finding value past his armor. On that front, the movie wisely gives weight to The Avengers by having Tony suffer from PTSD after this life-changing battle, something Robert Downey Jr. plays quite well.

Plus, some of the film’s best scenes are with Tony on the run, forced to rely on his mind to solve problems instead of just magical armor. His dynamic with Harley Keener is a highlight, especially with the darker turns the humor goes. It’s a shame the MCU more or less forgets this kid (replacing him with Peter Parker essentially) as there was something there. Shane Black’s humor and direction overall give Iron Man 3 a nice edge and his willingness to be creative with action scenes helps it stand out. The sky dive rescue is still an MCU highlight.

#3: X-Men: Days of Future Past (Flickscore 86)

Days of Future Past can rightfully claim its place as the best of the mainline X-Men movies. While a near thing with X2, we think Days of Future Past narrowly takes it due to the expanse of its story and themes. It threatens to be overstuffed and certainly sidelines the future timeline overall, meaning longtime features of the franchise like Storm and Ian McKellan’s Magneto don’t do much sadly.

But the characters that it does focus on are developed wonderfully. Some may complain the story is too focused on Mystique because of Jennifer Lawrence’s popularity, yet centering the entire conflict on one character’s moral choice and turning away from revenge is exactly what was needed for a franchise that is at its best when examining ethical dilemmas. The conceit of using the less than diplomatic Logan to play diplomat and convince the younger more conflicted versions of Xavier and Magneto to work together is both comedic and yet thematically fitting as it causes all of the characters to be pushed out of their comfort zones and have meaningful arcs.

The weight of the doomed future and power of the Sentinels is really felt as well. The film is chock full of excellent moments from the famed Quicksilver “Time in a Bottle” scene, to past and future Charles talking in a brilliantly acted scene between James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart, and Michael Fassbender’s Magneto continuing to be an excellent wild card. The movie thrills and touches in equal measure and was a fun send-off for the elder X-Men cast at the time.

#2: Guardians of the Galaxy (Flickscore 92)

Some would call this the peak Marvel movie and we wouldn’t argue with them too much. It’s only second-place here because we think there is one just slightly better. But Guardians of the Galaxy remains infinitely watchable. It has to start from ground zero in building up its team, unlike The Avengers, but James Gunn does the job, creating a cast of lovable misfits that we can’t help but empathize with by closing credits. The casting is nigh pitch perfect with the first battle scene they have with each other being not only well-designed and fun action but also showcasing the character’s personalities and ways of interacting.

Gunn doesn’t waste a beat of runtime either, propelling the story along even while developing the divergent backstories and motivations. The bright colorful space aesthetic also manages to stand out in the crowd of MCU movies at this point. Speaking of beats, the soundtrack continues to live up to reputation. Each song matches its moment perfectly. From “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” perfectly punctuating Star-Lord’s final escape from a space prison, to “Cherry Bomb” underscoring a nice satirical tease at the superhero final battle slow walk shot, and “Come and Get Your Love” setting the tone for the movie from the start, this remains Marvel’s best soundtrack.

Best of all, Guardians is just dang funny. While Gunn’s style of humor has its weak points and can get long in the tooth if you watch too much of his material, it is all used in just the right measures and portions here. Drax’s overly literal take on things (sadly changed in the sequels), Rocket’s carefree anarchic glee, and the abundance of situational humor all keep you laughing.

Guardians is an almost perfect space adventure movie. While still leaning into quippy dialogue, we do think it stands out and feels distinct from many of the prior and subsequent MCU flicks. Its humor is a little less slick, more jaded, and the script shows a love for its characters in a way most Marvel movies fall short on. Heck, even the basic zealous villain Ronan works well because of Lee Pace giving it his all and Gunn writing him in a way to stand out against Thanos. Speaking of, this movie manages the rare feat of setting up further MCU films without bogging itself down in exposition and side-plots. Well done Gunn.

#1: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Flickscore 91)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier remains Marvel’s finest work in this reviewer’s eyes, even twelve years later. No, it may not be that much like Three Days of the Condor or the spy movies it draws inspiration from. There’s much more action and jokes. But it also stands out in the MCU canon as a more grounded work and for talking about real political issues.

Indeed, The Winter Solder asks an enduring societal question: how much freedom are we willing to sacrifice for security? The Russo’s had something to say about where America was headed in 2014 and used a character like Captain America to say it. Roger’s old-fashioned idealism and unwavering principles let him be the moral test for the morally grey friends around him like Nick Fury and Black Widow, who’d become used to collateral damage and taking what they deemed as “necessary risks” to do their mission.

The movie’s big HYDRA reveal is still a heck of a moment, even after knowing its coming, though the first time watch made it quite a shock in what was still a fairly young MCU at the time. It demonstrated Marvel wasn’t afraid to shake up its status quo at the time and allow the universe room to do drastic storytelling choices that had lasting effects on the other films. In other words, this was a time of peak interconnected storytelling for the MCU.

Outside of the strong storytelling, thematic work, and character arcs, The Winter Soldier is also a really well-designed action film. One can tell the care that went into most of the action scenes right from the start. The hand-to-hand fight between Captain America and Batroc has an immediacy and sense of danger to it because the fight choreography has actual weight to it. It’s designed to work without cuts to hide the fake blows, a principle carried to the rest of the movie. From the famed elevator fight, to Nick Fury’s car chase, and the two big battles with The Winter Soldier, this has many of the MCU’s best-designed action sequences.

This is the movie that let Chris Evans really get to shine as an actor too. Between being firm against SHIELD, to the pain of learning Bucky survived and became a monster, his brief moment sitting with his lost love Peggy, and even great comedic timing, this film really let Evans claim the character as his own. The movie sadly continues to feel relevant today, as America in 2026 continues to wrestle with eternal battle between security and freedom. Watching this is always a reminder we could use a little more of Captain America today and why we still love superheroes.

Marvel Chart

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
2. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
3. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
4. The Avengers (2012)
5. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
6. Iron Man (2008)
7. X2: X-Men United (2003)
8. X-Men: First Class (2011)
9. Iron Man 3 (2013)
10. Big Hero 6 (2014)
11. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
12. Spider-Man (2002)
13. X-Men (2000)
14. Thor (2011)
15. The Wolverine (2013)
16. Blade (1998)
17. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
18. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
19. Iron Man 2 (2010)
20. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
21. X-Men: The Last Stand (2007)
22. Thor: The Dark World (2013)
23. The Punisher (2004)
24. Hulk (2003)
25. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
26. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
27. Blade II (2002)
28. Daredevil (2003)
29. Blade: Trinity (2004)
30. Fantastic Four (1994)
31. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
32. Fantastic Four (2005)
33. The Punisher (1989)
34. Ghost Rider (2007)
35. Howard the Duck (1986)
36. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
37. Punisher: War Zone (2008)
38. Captain America (1990)
39. Elektra (2005)

When a master filmmaker like Steven Spielberg makes a new movie, any cinephile feels almost obliged to pay attention. Spielberg has dazzled audiences with thrilling action and soaring emotion throughout his career in equal measure. He created the summer blockbuster season with Jaws and helped expand it with his Indiana Jones trilogy and by providing advice to friend George Lucas on his Star Wars series.

The excitement is even more palpable with Disclosure Day, Spielberg’s first foray into sci-fi in eight years and first return to aliens since 2008. Spielberg directed some of the most influential alien flicks of the 70’s and 80’s with Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. and bringing his first original story in the subgenre since then was all the more exciting. Thus, Disclosure Day lands all the more disappointing due to its systemic failures.

To be sure, there is no arguing Disclosure Day doesn’t demonstrate Spielberg’s filmmaking craft remains at a high level. Often feeling like a compilation of his aesthetics across decades of directing action sci-fi pictures, Disclosure Day is replete with captivating visuals. Whether its a camera panning in through a window to focus on a character in the background, cross fading the heads of two characters observing each other through a mirror, or zoom outs as the music swells, Disclosure Day readily reminds you of everything that Spielberg has added to 20th century American movie making. Not only does he harken to his prior alien works, but there is even a car chase reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the smooth sleek dark color palates remind of Minority Report.

Speaking of music, and part and parcel with this greatest hits motif, John Williams scores the work. No one would call it his finest hour and none of the themes truly stand out in his body of material, yet it does sound one of his fresher scores in recent memory. Spielberg and Williams’s partnership is one of the more iconic ones in American film history, and seeing it resound here together is a treat.

Yet perhaps it is all of the merits that make Disclosure Day‘s demerits more crushing. The story walks familiar territory with Daniel (Josh O’Connor) dodging a quasi-private quasi-governmental agency with evidence that aliens exist. He plans to disclose this information to the world, but is held back due to his leader Hugo’s (Colman Domingo) urging and his girlfriend Jane’s (Eve Hewson) fear that such information will cause global chaos due to potentially destroying people’s faith in God. This sets up a theme of science vs religion, one of many themes painfully underdeveloped by the haphazard script.

Burdened by an enormity of plot, even at nearly two and a half hours, Disclosure Day fails to spend screentime efficiently. With multiple characters and ideas juggled, the movie drops nearly every ball by the end. While it attempts to carve a decent pace to avoid bogging itself down, the final edit gives short shrift to any meaningful character development. So often, the movie tells you what to think of the characters and situations without actually showing you those things.

Daniel has apparently struggled with disconnect since being a teenager due to a weird gift with numbers rearing its head, but this is only communicated because he tells this to Emily Blunt‘s Margaret. We get no sense of his life at all prior to the events of the movie, his relationship with Jane, or what his wants and desires were and how the film’s occurrences effect that. The result is a hollow plot device rather than a real person, muting the emotional climax when revelations of the past are finally made.

Jane is revealed early on as an ex-nun officiate and this is shown to be a shock to Daniel. Though precisely why it is is left a mystery, and is never resolved. The edit barely features Jane’s character past the halfway mark outside of a lone scene of her talking again with her nun teacher that attempts to continue the religion throughline. Yet another casualty of the sloppy writing,

Margaret suffers the same issues, set up as a weather anchor who suddenly starts getting inexplicable knowledge and is compelled to seek out Daniel. Aside from some jokey dialogue with her boyfriend played by a decent Wyatt Russell, her character and relationships and motivations are woefully underbaked as well. One gets the sense that five hours of material exist that might better explain and develop the characters and ideas, but the final cut fails at all of that.

Spielberg’s call for empathy and unity as a means of saving humanity are certainly heartfelt. And aspects of the final act work purely because he knows to cinematically convey these emotions and ideas. Yet for the things it does right, the script lets it down with its painful telegraphed choices of telling the audience about something and never giving room to experience these somethings.

The plot is also absurdly silly in many aspects. Conspiracy thrillers always take on a fantastical nature requiring a suspension of disbelief. Disclosure Day pushes this beyond a breaking point though, with characters able to get away with all manner of unplausible acts. This might not have mattered if the characters were developed right and there was true emotional investment. Without those present, the holes sink Disclosure Day utterly.

The sad reality is Disclosure Day is shockingly bad at its core. Because there are talented performers, set designers, and directing, Disclosure Day is still a passable work. It reminds of Spielberg’s better movies. Yet, the biggest disclosure in this film’s release is that Spielberg has hit his lowest point as a filmmaker since Crystal Skull. In an already wildly inconsistent career, David Koepp has hit another low with his script. Disclosure Day is a movie that sacrificed everything on the altar of plot machinations and is all the worse for it.

Rank Disclosure Day on Flickchart now and tell us what you think below!

There was a time when a new Star Wars film felt like an event. The original trilogy was the trend-setting sci-fi fantasy of the late 70’s and early 80’s and defined a generation. And say what anyone will about the merits of the prequel or sequel trilogies, but those, too, felt like events.

Aiding that aura were the long gaps between sets of films. Sixteen years separated the theatrical release of Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. Ten years passed between the end of the prequels and beginning of the sequels.

And now, perhaps unbelievably, seven years have passed between The Rise of Skywalker and the latest feature theatrical release in the franchise. Yet as the time window has shrunk each time, there is an even bigger factor as to why The Mandalorian and Grogu does not feel like an event: there hasn’t been a gap in the same way. Instead, Disney+ hosted seven different live-action Star Wars shows in that time and seven different animated shows, whether new shows or new seasons in older shows, as well.

Now, it would be unfair not to note there was a plethora of Star Wars content between the OT and prequels, and prequels and sequels. The entire Star Wars Extended Universe formed in those periods, with a multitude of books, video games, some animated and live-action shows as well, and more. One could argue there was the same splurge of content between every set of films and Disney is merely doing its duty as owner of the franchise to satisfy fans.

Yet, there is something undeniably different this time. Perhaps because these are all live-action “official” works, they feel more obligatory and present?

Regardless, unlike the peak anticipation for The Force Awakens, it feels as though The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives in theaters with even Disney’s marketing treating it as just another movie. Indeed, that is the biggest criticism of Jon Favreau‘s first theatrical feature since his “live-action” The Lion King, another film that could have the same critiques levied at it. The Mandalorian and Grogu does not feel like an event. It barely feels like a feature film.

Favreau and company do a very adequate job at crafting this work. It is better than many of the trash blockbusters that have occupied cinema screens in preceding years. When it comes to creatively bankrupt IP mining, movies like A Minecraft Movie, Borderlands, Madame Web, and more all spring to mind as much lazier, more cynical, and idiotic films.

Yet, The Mandalorian and Grogu is so lacking in ambition that it is a far less memorable and entertaining experience than watching many of these other far worse movies. For one, it is an editorial slog plainly bearing the hallmarks of having once been 3-4 episodes of the show repurposed together into a feature. The result is multiple periods of narrative dead space, with the seams of story beats so bright it felt like episode credits ought to start rolling.

For another, because it must occupy a safe middle ground, the movie does nothing to advance its characters in any meaningful way. The titular duo are largely in the same exact space at the end of the tale as the beginning. There are no arcs, no difficult decisions to be made, and no sense of stakes or momentum to anything happening. While this avoids having a script loaded down with convoluted plot holes, it also avoids any sense of audience investment or that watching this film brought one something. It’s the Star Wars equivalent of watching ivory white paint dry, though dare we say you might see more change to your wall in two hours than in watching this film.

Yes, Pedro Pascal continues to do an affable job as the stoic Mando, and the puppetry work of Grogu is as cute as ever. If there are commendable aspects to the movie, it is the commitment to using more practical effects at times including multiple puppet characters and a battle with stop-motion animated droids. If only this approach could have been applied to the Hutt characters. They look as though the film tried to transfer the cheaper CG of the Hutts from The Clone Wars show to the big screen and, as a result, are ugly as sin.

Speaking of, the main attempt at an emotional center involves Rotta the Hutt, the son of deceased famed character Jabba. Voiced by Jeremy Allen White, he is the closest thing to emotionally dynamic or complicated this movie has. Unfortunately, such conflict is delivered mostly in bland exposition where White is clearly struggling to find a voice for the character and Rotta blankly tells Mando his backstory and personal struggles without much prompting. This is the most amateurish way of writing in background and is accordingly dull. Further, the decision to have him speak in English the entire movie feels entirely at odds with how Star Wars has shown Hutts to date.

Equally dull are most of the supporting cast. Sigourney Weaver crossing into Star Wars ought to feel like a big deal, yet her character is barely in the movie and has no real personality or character traits. There are apparently a number of cameos from characters originating in Dave Filoni’s cartoon shows such as Zeb and Embo, but one of these doesn’t even speak. Not exactly engaging. Martin Scorsese bizarrely offers a voice acting cameo in this too, though for a minor side character. One has to wonder what happened behind the scenes for that to happen.

One would hope at least the action is solid in a film largely focused on fight scenes with the character work so miniscule. Indeed, when Favreau first helped create the show these characters originate from, one of the more notable aspects were the creative sequences making for a “western” style Star Wars. Yet oddly, most of the battles here are cut in a haphazard manner where its difficult to tell much of anything happening half the time. Aside from the solid introduction sequence, the majority of action can be difficult to make out.

Ragging on the plot beats almost seems pointless given how narratively dead most of this is, but as part of the pervading choice to ensure none of this matters, the movie has Mando lose his helmet again, something the show established is sacrosanct to his code. Yet this all resolves in a manner to ensure there is no consequence to it.

Same for a sequence where Mando is seemingly poisoned by a deadly toxin for multiple days. While this allows one of the few interesting attempts at filmmaking, where there are nearly fifteen minutes of silence focused on Grogu caring for his father figure, it kills the pacing and stretches credulity given how poisonous the venom was said to be. It’s a shame because it gives glimpses of what a better version of this movie could have been.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is one of the most aggressively average films to grace cinema screens. Designed to offend no one, it seems unlikely to stick with anyone either. Indeed, the movie is full of shots referencing older works and more memorable moments in the franchise. Even the two lead characters are ultimately visual stand-ins for things audiences already liked from earlier films. This duo is IP-mining the safe and familiar at its most calculated. Such is where Star Wars is now: turtles all the way down on everything being a facsimile of a facsimile of substance.

Though in a way, it seems perfect as a meta-text on the status of Star Wars. Disney made a movie to match the climate of the audience. There is a lack of fanfare for the newest theatrical release and this is a film thoroughly lacking in excitement or intrigue. Even the mostly great musical score from Ludwig Göransson does little to add thrill to this empty house.

While we now only have a year to the next Star Wars theatrical release, one has to wonder if anyone cares. Even if Star Wars: Starfighter is good, it feels as though excess has diluted the thrill and special feeling this franchise once had. This seems like the direction for most major media franchises too.

Perhaps its time to look back at what The Last Jedi said about letting the past die, letting the Jedi end, and moving on. Maybe the status of the franchise is because the fans couldn’t heed Rian Johnson’s portents that it was time to do something different, and this is what has been wrought.

Tell us your thoughts on The Mandalorian and Grogu below and rank it on Flickchart now!!!!

2026 is home to yet another hot horror breakout in Obsession. Coming courtesy of director Curry Barker (no relation to famed horror icon Clive Barker), who is part of a continuing trend of comedy directors/creatives moving into the horror space, Obsession is one of 2026’s most harrowing watches yet. Anchored by a star-making and darkly captivating performance from Inde Navarrette, it readily stakes a claim for best film of the year so far.

It isn’t because of some vastly original story. Obsession plays in the well-trodden territory of the “monkey’s paw” tale, wherein protagonist Bear (Michael Johnston) has a crush on his co-worker Nikki (Navarrette), though the feelings are seemingly unrequited. “Seemingly” is a key term because Bear is too cowardly to ever fully express himself to Nikki. Regardless, Bear happens to buy a strange, kitschy trinket, the One Wish Willow, and uses it in his disappointment, wishing that Nikki loved him more than anyone else in the world. One can guess where things go from there.

Yet where Obsession shines is in Barker’s pitch-perfect execution. From the moment the wish is used, Barker uses camera framing to create tension, cutting to a wide shot of Nikki standing on her porch in shadow as Bear watches through his car window. This creeping sense of dread is arguably never fully released until the final moments of the film, a testament to Barker’s craft behind the camera.

Obsession is masterful in its balance of tone. Much of the movie aims for a dark off-kilter humor, scenes vacillating between cringe laughter and uncomfortable creepy horror in mere seconds of holding a shot longer than normal. Barker’s instincts are exactly where they need to be, with multiple sequences causing one’s face to scrunch up in discomfort at what’s onscreen before breaking out in goosebumps as the moment escalates.

Much of this works also due to Navarrette’s aforementioned performance. It is not hyperbole to suggest this is an Oscar-worthy turn. She runs a gamut of emotions and places throughout the runtime, alternating between cutesiness, extreme anger, deep pain, and also pulling in a jarring physicality when her character does some bizarre body movements.

She commands attention whenever onscreen, working in perfect combination with Barker’s framing in each shot. One such moment of a closeup on her face cast in shadows is played to perfection as it takes on an intentional uncanny valley look, yet seemingly without special effects. It’s just performance and framing and is super unnerving. Navarrette should launch into the big-time after this one.

While not quite as showy, Johnston does a more than passable job as Bear. His character is this perfect mix of dorky nice-guyness, yet continuing down a wrong path despite all the warning signs. A lesser performer might not commit to the bit and give him more animus one way or the other, but Johnston resists such temptation.

As one might guess, Obsession aims to be a commentary on the entitled nature of the “I’m a nice guy, why won’t she date me?” mindset. This skewers the violation of consent that happens in romantic dynamics at times and the way relationships can become controlling and consuming. Ultimately, the thematic commentary is a weaker aspect of Obsession, as Barker is more concerned in ramping up the visceral experience than anything too searching. Johnston’s Bear also arguably needed to be written a little meaner to justify the morality at work. The film also runs slightly too long, starting to lose a tad of steam midway through the second act.

Such flaws are minor in the end. Obsession is an unrelenting piece of horror filmmaking and goes to some wild places along the way. Despite the conclusion almost being foregone if you have any familiarity with “be careful what you wish for” tales, Obsession still manages plenty of surprises en route.

With news that Barker has the keys to the Texas Chain Saw Massacre franchise, there is hope he might bring quality back to that series. Even if we’d prefer he keeps writing his own ideas. But we’ll try not to obsess about the future too much.

Tell us your thoughts on Obsession below and rank it on the new and improved Flickchart!!!

Perhaps this is the Countdown to Doomsday article you’ve been waiting for. Our series returns as we analyze each era of Marvel cinema on the road to Avengers: Doomsday, examining the tapestry of Marvel movie history and theorizing on how each movie may feature in the ultimate multiverse mashup.

Previously, Marvel entered a downturn. Despite their films still making money, there were arguably seven critical duds in a row, and many questioned if Marvel could sustain multiple successful franchises. Outside of major characters like Spider-Man and the X-Men, none of their movies were considered universally great.

Yet, despite these tumultuous times, Marvel Studios was laying the groundwork for something new and different: a creative company that self-financed and produced their own works, instead of relying on a traditional movie studio to license their IP. It was a big gamble, and failure meant losing even more character rights.

If they succeeded in making great movies, and maybe ones more faithful to the comics, the sky would be the only limit. Kevin Feige hoped success would mean something more than just several successful, yet separate, films. He wanted to redefine serial storytelling at the cinema.

Luckily for comics fans, Marvel Studios pulled off the implausible, and the greatest cinematic universe in history was born.

Era Four: The Marvel Cinematic Universe Arrives – or, Some Assembly Required

The fourth era of Marvel cinema is where film history forever changed. From 2008 to 2012, Marvel Studios released six films that would later become known as Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). While Marvel focused on quality individual releases, the first teases of a larger interconnected narrative started showing up and immediately sent shockwaves through audiences.

There were certainly growing pains, with Feige falling back on what he learned working with Fox and Avi Arad. Resultingly, many of the Phase One films sometimes feel like rote origin stories, even if produced at a competent level and connecting audiences to lesser-known characters like Thor or Iron Man. But the box office talked, and by 2010, Feige and company were fully committed to seeing if a shared universe could work.

The year 2012 was the final test, and the release of The Avengers was not only a passing grade, but a smash hit. With money raining in and critics abuzz, this movie was proof positive that a shared universe was something workable and that audiences wanted. Many were also pleased at the greater move towards comic fidelity, with origin stories and costumes more directly drawn from the comics’ pages than in Fox or Sony‘s output.

This was because fans like Feige led at the executive level. Certainly, they drew heavily from the Ultimate Marvel universe in lieu of the main 616 (that is, Prime Universe) continuity, but this felt better for fans jaded by Galactus space clouds and the X-Men’s plain black leather costumes.

Marvel’s semi-independent status wouldn’t last long, though, as the Walt Disney Company acquired the entirety of Marvel in 2009 and took over Marvel Studios. Luckily, Disney gave plenty of slack to Feige and Marvel executives to continue running their show, but navigating the new relationship between Disney executives and Marvel ones would be a challenge in the years ahead.

While most of this era was about the birth and success of the MCU, Sony and Fox did have a few spare releases throughout this period. These were mostly embarrassments, stark contrasts between the generally high quality of Marvel’s self-produced works and the remnants of the early 2000s deals.

The Avengers‘ release, in combination with the terrible quality of most non-MCU films, had fans clamoring for all rights to return to Marvel. This would allow the MCU to flourish with its entire roster and truly replicate the comics’ shared universe on screen. The MCU’s success, though, further emboldened other studios to make money with the rights they had, setting up a soft war throughout the 2010s between the MCU and the other superhero entities on the block. Additionally, this era also featured a looming shadow from a non-Marvel character that redefined the superhero genre in its own right.

Iron Man (2008)

Just as Blade was an unlikely candidate to launch Marvel’s success at the box office, Iron Man probably wasn’t anyone’s first choice to kickstart a cinematic universe. Strange to think now that this character is a major part of pop culture, but before ’08, most people who weren’t dedicated comics fans didn’t know who he was.

Iron Man sold enough issues to maintain his own series throughout most of the 20th century, but he was never a big hit and lacked much of the spicy personality he would have after 2008. Indeed, during film development, Marvel conducted focus groups wherein they learned most thought Iron Man was a robot.

Not that his minor status prevented attempts to make a movie adaptation. Like most characters, there were many false starts. Iron Man’s rights flipped between multiple studios throughout the 90’s with a variety of scripts written and potential leading men sought after, including Nic Cage and Tom Cruise. Fox approached Quentin Tarantino to write and direct, but they eventually sold the rights to New Line due to having too many other superhero films in development.

New Line got the closest to actually making a movie before Marvel Studios. They commissioned their own script (which even featured a Nick Fury cameo to set up a solo film) and sought Joss Whedon to direct. Then New Line conceived a unique idea of gathering many writers in a room and filming them talking for hours to develop script ideas.

One of these writers, David Hayter, compiled these ideas with elements from prior scripts written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, removed Pepper Potts and the villain Mandarin from the latter. Production seemed imminent, and New Line hired Nick Cassavetes of all people to direct. Yet, this iteration eventually fell apart, and in 2005 Iron Man’s rights reverted to Marvel.

As alluded to in prior articles, Marvel Studios announced in late 2005 that Iron Man would be its first feature, alongside a lineup of six other heroes including Ant-Man and Nick Fury. Marvel felt Iron Man was their best headliner character and started development from scratch. But most screenwriters did not agree, with apparently around 30 passing on the project due to Iron Man’s obscurity and the fact that Marvel was self-producing. Many Hollywood creatives did not believe in working outside the traditional studio system and felt this was a doomed effort.

Kevin Feige was conscious from the start that Iron Man‘s success was monumental to their nascent efforts. To that end, Marvel took the results of the aforementioned focus groups and created animated shorts to raise public awareness of Iron Man. As development continued, Feige tried to kindle the cinematic universe idea and forge a connection with Spider-Man 2, whose original script directly referenced Tony Stark as the creator of Doc Ock’s robotic arms, though this was cut.

Despite cutting the direct reference, Marvel Studios was cautious in its early days and did look to the development of prior Marvel movies. They hired Jon Favreau to direct, who was ironically eager to work with Avi Arad again after Daredevil despite that film’s troubled production. This was also ironic because Arad left Marvel in 2006.

By this point, Marvel had hired two different teams to write scripts, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, and Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. Because they refused to do many rewrites due to reluctance to work with Marvel, Favreau finished the writing process, combining scripts and frequently calling comic creatives like Mark Millar, Brian Michael Bendis, and Axel Alonso for advice.

Next came casting and what became one of the most monumental casting choices of all-time. Funnily, Favreau originally wanted an unknown actor as he felt Tony Stark was the star, not the actor, and comic-book films were successful without being star-driven. Thus, Favreau initially looked at smaller performers like Jim Caviezel, Timothy Olyphant, and Sam Rockwell for Stark (Rockwell would eventually join the MCU as a different character).

Marvel Studios was taken with Clive Owen and actually offered him the part, though he declined. By this time, Favreau met with Robert Downey Jr. and decided he was perfect. Marvel strongly opposed casting Downey because of his very public history of substance abuse, including multiple stints in prison and rehab. While Downey was regaining some of his reputation throughout the mid-00s with several acclaimed performances, most studios were still afraid to cast him and Marvel didn’t want to gamble its already risky venture on a star that might dramatically blow up.

But Favreau was insistent, seeing the actor’s talent and feeling that Downey’s past made him even better for playing Tony Stark. He fought hard and worked with Downey to create an audition tape for Marvel executives showcasing how perfect Downey was. While Feige was on board, the tape wasn’t enough for the rest of the Marvel brass.

As a last resort, Favreau leaked Downey’s consideration for the part to the press. The overwhelming public acclaim at the possibility finally moved the needle. In September 2006, Marvel officially cast Downey. This wouldn’t be the last time a creative used press leaks to convince executives on Marvel projects.

The rest of the cast soon followed with Terrence Howard, another supporter of Downey, getting the role of James Rhodes over Don Cheadle, though Cheadle would be another that would join for the sequel. Gwyneth Paltrow won the role of Pepper Potts after Rachel McAdams turned it down, and Jeff Bridges won the part of Obadiah Stane.

Funnily, Stane was not the film’s original villain; at first he was a supporting character who might later become a villain. Instead, Iron Man’s archnemesis, the Mandarin, was to be the main villain. But given the desire for realism, Favreau felt Mandarin simply didn’t work yet, and instead decided to build up to the Mandarin with references, rewriting Stane into the main villain role. Bridges suddenly found himself the movie’s co-star.

Speaking of realism, the effects and production teams put extensive work into making the Iron Man armor feel tactile. Favreau dedicated lots of screentime to showcasing different stages of the armor and depicting Tony’s incremental improvements on the technology. With Howard Hughes as a direct inspiration for Stark’s character, there was no place better to film than Hughes’s former soundstages, and Favreau explicitly set the narrative in the West Coast to differentiate it from other superhero films. Favreau also threaded in references to Whiplash and even placed a Captain America shield in the background of a shot, though this was more a tease than any planned cinematic universe reference. Such was the nature of the early MCU.

A more concrete cinematic universe plan came when the crew conceived of a post-credits scene featuring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Fury’s “Ultimate Universe” iteration had used Jackson’s likeness years earlier in the comics, making him a natural casting choice. Funnily, despite all that has arisen since and Feige’s constant prior attempts to make a connected universe, the original intent with this scene wasn’t anything specific but just to see if fans would respond. Jackson hadn’t signed on to appear in any other films at this point. They even filmed an alternate version where Fury explicitly discussed mutants and radioactive bug bites, though this version was not ultimately used due to the rights issues.

In what would become a standard for the early MCU, Marvel leaned on San Diego Comic-Con appearances as further marketing as a lead-up to the May 2008 release date. Marvel Studios felt positive buzz but awaited the results with bated breath. Would their big gamble pay off?

It did!

Iron Man exploded to a $98.6 million opening weekend, one of the highest of all-time, kicking off the 2008 summer box-office season with a bang. By June, it passed the $300 million mark and wound up finishing with $585.8 million. Perhaps just as importantly, the critical response was stellar. While some derided the third act, Downey turned eyes with what was universally considered one of the best comic-book performances to date. Many praised the film’s deft balance of comedy, character development, and effects splendor. Roger Ebert gave it a perfect 4/4 and felt it breathed new life into the superhero genre. It was notable for being the first movie to use the Marvel Studios title card.

Marvel Studios was ready to capitalize on this success. After Iron Man‘s debut, Marvel extended David Maisel‘s contract through 2010 and named Feige president of Marvel Studios. With the Nick Fury movie sidelined, and difficulties on Ant-Man, Marvel finally committed to trying for a connected film narrative and rearranged its lineup. Marvel announced a revised slate of films including The Avengers and ceded greater creative control to the people ready to take Marvel Studios into the future.

Speaking of, fans were abuzz about the tease of the post-credits scene. While there had been a sprinkling of such scenes in prior Marvel films, none had paid off or pointed to any specific future story beat. With this one, many wondered: would there really be an Avengers film? Marvel Studios hinted at it in their first ever San Diego Comic Con panel in 2006, but this was more concrete. Could such a thing work? After the official announcement of The Avengers, that was the big question looming over the newly-born MCU.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

With Robert Downey Jr. playing Doctor Doom, speculation is abound as to what the in-universe explanation will be, but most think it will link back to Tony Stark in some manner. Which makes it likely we’ll get an alternate version of the events of this film as part of that backstory. Whether that will mean the return of Jeff Bridges or Terrence Howard is a lot more nebulous, but we fully expect Iron Man to receive direct references.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Perhaps the first answer to that question was The Incredible Hulk. As discussed in a prior article, Marvel initially planned to make a direct sequel to Ang Lee‘s Hulk and Marvel Studios prepared to help fund it with part of its 2006 loan. But Universal drug its feet and ended up selling its rights back to Marvel. Feige was happier with this outcome, ready to properly start Marvel Studio’s Hulk franchise.

They began by filling the director’s chair with Louis Leterrier, after passing on him to direct Iron Man. Leterrier was initially reluctant until he learned Marvel was not making a direct sequel and did not want to replicate Lee’s style. But Leterrier still wanted to pull deeply from the comics and replicate comic panels with his film shots. Zak Penn returned to pen the screenplay, including two scenes cut from his 90s Hulk script that finally made it into this work (Bruce falling from a helicopter and turning into the Hulk, and Bruce unable to have sex because he might “Hulk out.”)

One of the looming situations throughout production was whether the film would be a sequel. Marvel gave no consistent answers during production, or even after the movie’s release. Certainly, Leterrier and Penn included thematic continuations from Lee’s Hulk and because of the desire to redo Hulk’s origin, The Incredible Hulk‘s opening credits refer to Hulk in a certain sense. But Feige was adamant that this film was a reboot and later highlighted that the opening credits contradict Hulk.

One person clear on the idea that they were ignoring Hulk was the star: Edward Norton. Norton was also the source of most of the production drama on this film. A talented and revered actor by early 2006, Marvel was initially eager for him to star, especially having previously considered Norton for Marvel films. They managed to lure him in with a deal that allowed Norton to serve as a cowriter. But this deal wound up being a headache.

With his more artistic notions, Norton rewrote Penn’s screenplay prior to shooting. Then, he kept revising even after filming started. Norton wasn’t interested in Marvel’s burgeoning cinematic universe or in referring to Lee’s film. Thus, Norton made extensive changes include entirely removing Hulk-sidekick Rick Jones, toning down S.H.I.E.L.D. references (an organization introduced in Iron Man), and leaning into the Ultimate Universe’s take on Hulk’s origin, which is that the gamma experiments were an attempt to replicate a super-soldier serum. This later addition did end up gelling quite well with the direction Marvel was headed.

Ironically, Penn received sole writing credit as he argued Norton’s changes were superficial. He apparently took issue with Norton stating at ComicCon that Norton wrote the script. Apparently, Norton’s constant changes were just an hallucination.

This hallucination extended throughout the editing process as Norton allegedly fought Leterrier and Marvel over runtime and other aspects. Apparently poor test screenings played a role too, resulting in the origin material being confined to the opening credits as well as removal of an alternate introduction sequence where Hulk attempted suicide in the Artic (which also showcased a frozen Captain America). Rumors arose that Norton refused to do publicity unless he liked the final cut, though Norton publicly dismissed this as bad journalism. History speaks for itself on that front, with Norton in Africa during the film’s release, though he attended the premiere and Leterrier praised some of Norton’s script additions.

There were cameos aplenty in this one though, especially crucial in the wake of Iron Man‘s success a month earlier. Lou Ferrigno and Stan Lee cameoed as they did in Hulk, with Ferrigno again voicing Hulk. Michael K. Williams, meanwhile, was present as a bystander solely because Norton was a fan of The Wire. Martin Starr also makes his debut appearance as a character that would later appear in the MCU’s Spider-Man trilogy.

But most important to the shared universe was Robert Downey Jr. The Incredible Hulk is one of the few MCU films not to feature a post-credits scene, but the ending scene more or less functioned as one. Because there were no definite story plans for the MCU at this point, aside from vague notions of building to an Avengers film, Bruce Banner’s ending was intentionally left ambiguous.

Thus, Downey reprised his role as Stark for the first time solely as a favor to help promote this movie and with only vague dialogue. Still, the scene does suggest a reappearance of the film’s villain, Emil Blonsky, played by Tim Roth, who had signed on for three more films. Of course, this would not happen for a long time.

The odd caveat of the rights situation was that Universal distributed this film despite Marvel’s deal with Paramount, making it unique in the MCU canon. This situation may be part of why the movie never received a direct sequel. That, and the fact that when The Incredible Hulk debuted in June 2008 it barely surpassed Hulk‘s box office, finishing with a mere $264.8 million. By 2008 this simply wasn’t enough for a big-budget blockbuster.

Reviews improved on the 2003 work though, and apparently Marvel and Universal already had lower box-office expectations. Plus, Marvel Studios was now less concerned about an individual film’s box-office success and more with how well it laid the groundwork for their biggest gamble, The Avengers.

Regardless, this is the only Phase One (as the MCU’s debut era came to be known) film without a direct follow-up. Universal was initially onboard for a sequel, as were the cast members, but as Feige started shaping more of a defined narrative for the MCU it was put on the backburner. A TV show was announced in 2010, but this too fell through. Instead, the Hulk’s next appearance came in 2012, when everything changed all the more.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium-Low

Throughout the years, rumors of a Hulk sequel murmured, but most interviews circle around to the fact that Universal’s distribution rights prevented it from happening. Those rights finally reverted to Marvel in 2023, so something could happen. However, since Bruce Banner was recast, items from this particular film are a bit iffy for reappearance in Doomsday.

Certain characters did finally reappear in Captain America: Brave New World, including Tim Blake Nelson and Liv Tyler specifically setting up Doomsday. But we doubt either will get screentime. William Hurt‘s General Ross had several reappearances in earlier MCU movies, though after Hurt’s passing, Harrison Ford took over the role. With Mark Ruffalo now the MCU’s primary Hulk, we doubt Norton will return, though there is a chance because of the multiverse. That said, given the way Norton’s relationship with Marvel ended, this still seems unlikely. Roth’s Abomination has had several small reappearances, so perhaps he’ll make it.

Punisher: War Zone (2008)

As July 2008 approached, Marvel’s first two self-produced films were a success. While The Incredible Hulk had its flaws, both made money and seemed to redeem the Marvel brand after a rough few years. With two stinger scenes at the end of these movies, hype was building that this interconnected movie universe could work. Throughout the rest of 2008, Marvel Studios secured further distribution deals and filming locations for the next four films on its slate, as well as expanding its office space. It seemed Marvel’s gamble was paying off and they were becoming king of the culture hill.

Then, The Dark Knight released.

Christopher Nolan‘s highly-anticipated sequel to Batman Begins debuted after an impressive marketing campaign and as an emergent counterbalance to Marvel’s lighter tone. While the ’00s had been somewhat of a downturn for DC movies, The Dark Knight laughed at the notion of Marvel superiority by finishing its original run with a monstrous $1.003 billion gross.

Just as importantly, critics absolutely raved, with initial reactions deeming it the best superhero film ever made, and maybe even an all-time action picture. While this article series follows Marvel’s history, The Dark Knight is now regarded as forever changing the expectations for superhero movies, and it remains a contender for the best film of the genre. All that, with much less supposedly-important comic-book authenticity. The Dark Knight‘s success would eventually set the box office stage for a more direct Marvel vs. DC conversation as DC launched its own cinematic universe with Nolan’s aesthetic as a guidepost.

Needless to say, Marvel knew it had to step its game up. Its creatives had their work cut out for them, but luckily, they had their own gritty superhero crime drama “sequel” coming in December 2008. Perhaps it could be the return punch?

As we discussed in our coverage on The Punisher, Lions Gate was initially interested in proceeding with a sequel, and by late November 2004 they had gathered funding. They formally announced the project in March 2005 with Thomas Jane and director Jonathan Hensleigh attached. The initial plan was to start filming in late 2006, and the script was revised throughout 2005.

Yet as 2006 arrived, matters complicated. The script faced continual rewrites, and then Hurricane Katrina delayed plans to film in New Orleans. Hensleigh eventually quit due to frustration over the rewrites, as he had with Hulk. By December, Stuart Beattie started a complete rewrite along with The Shield writer Kurt Sutter. Eventually, in May 2007, Jane had enough of rewrites and dropped out. Even Sutter dropped his name from involvement as rewrites continued into 2008.

With all the main creatives gone, Marvel was forced to rehire new people. The shoddy script kept many away, but eventually Lexi Alexander signed on to direct after Lions Gate assured her that she could make story changes and cast the new Punisher. She went after Ray Stevenson, who had been in talks to play Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk. Her aggressive pitch that they would pay homage to ’80s action movies must have won him over. Stevenson poured himself into the role, reading tons of comics and training himself in martial arts and weapons.

In a strange bit of further serendipity with The Incredible Hulk, the movie was retooled into a semi-sequel/semi-reboot as the final product eschews any direct references to the first film while still sort of acting like a sequel. It was titled Punisher: War Zone to distinguish it.

The main villain, Jigsaw, remained the lead antagonist through all of the rewrites. Alexander was impressed by Freddie Prinze Jr.’s audition, but Lions Gate adamantly refused to cast him. Paddy Considine was also considered, but ultimately Dominic West won the part.

With Lions Gate keeping a tight leash on the budget, they shifted filming from New Orleans to the cheaper Canada. To replicate the comics, Alexander used highly-saturated colored set lightning and intensively color-graded during post. Shots were framed to emulate comic panels as well.

Despite studio promises, Alexander reportedly clashed with Lions Gate throughout filming and speculation was abound that she had been fired after not appearing at San Diego ComicCon to promote the film. As she would state in a series of interviews in following years, she was never fired and felt the final product had enough of her vision. But despite Marvel Studios being supportive, Alexander claimed Marvel would let Lions Gate be the tiebreaker in every creative conflict. She expressed regret over this, feeling that Marvel itself provided better notes than other studios and wishing she could have worked with Marvel without Lions Gate.

The final product was indicative of these creative battles. It bombed upon its December 2008 release, making a mere $10.2 million against its $35 million budget. This was lower-grossing than even prior major failures like Howard the Duck and Elektra. Critics were highly negative as well, giving it a 28% on Rotten Tomatoes. Our users don’t care for it either, as it currently has a mere 62 Flickscore. That said, the performance for Punisher was singled out for praise again, with many feeling Stevenson did a strong job. Ebert was semi-positive with his 2/4.

This film has the distinction of being the first of only two movies to use a “Marvel Knights” banner. Based on the comics imprint of the same name, Marvel developed this label as a means to market more mature, adult-focused films. Because of the failure of this movie and the later one to use the banner, it was quickly retired.

“Marvel Knights” was certainly not Marvel’s desired answer to The Dark Knight. As 2008 closed, audiences anticipated where Marvel Studios was heading, mostly fueled by Iron Man. With an exciting slate ahead, maybe fans could finally get movies that accurately reflected the shared continuity of the comics. But the roadkill that was Punisher: War Zone and the game-changing The Dark Knight meant that Marvel could no longer pansy around. They needed to take things to the next level.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Low

We mostly discussed this when analyzing The Punisher. After Marvel got the rights back, they eventually proceeded with their own MCU version of Punisher. Given the total failure here, we think it fairly unlikely anything from this movie will return. While Feige might have been interested in bringing back prior versions of the Punisher for Doomsday, Stevenson’s sad passing in 2023 means this version will not return.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

As 2009 began, Marvel Studios went into overdrive. Between the competition of The Dark Knight and their own success, they were ready to take everything up a notch. Producer Stephen Broussard started a writing program for the studio to start developing scripts for lesser-known characters and explore creative possibilities. Many of these scripts eventually became future films, but that is a story for future articles.

Marvel was slowly but surely consolidating all of its rights back home, but two major players remained: Fox and Sony. With Raimi gone, Sony focused on retooling its approach to Spider-Man, its last major property. In early 2009, Sony reworked its film rights by returning animated TV rights to Marvel.

Then there was Fox. Despite X-Men: The Last Stand‘s lukewarm response, they were in no hurry to get out of the superhero business. Indeed, many films were on the burners even while the main trilogy was being produced.

The prospect of a Wolverine origin film was first explored in 2004 by none other than Game of Thrones co-creator David Benioff. At this point, he was a relative unknown nepo-baby who started drafting screenplays in the early ’00s. Fox was interested in his Wolverine take, as was Hugh Jackman, who started collaborating with Benioff to finish the script. Writer-director David Ayer also made writing contributions.

We won’t belabor this point, as Deadpool eventually had his own film, but the simultaneous development of a Deadpool solo effort in the early ’00s was important to this movie’s story. Ryan Reynolds was pursuing this with David S. Goyer before it fell apart, leading Benioff to write Deadpool into this film. Benioff also included Gambit, who had similar problems of false starts and failed solo projects, and quickly marked this Wolverine origin movie as a bin for Fox’s misfit toys.

Benioff finished his script in October 2006. As usual in the pre-Dark Knight days, Fox shied away from anything too dark and gritty and hired Skip Woods to tone the script down to a PG-13 rating. The Last Stand had released, causing Fox to reconsider its approach to future X-Men movies. A prequel movie focused on the most popular character would be the perfect palate cleanser, and Fox announced it as their next release.

While Fox initially considered Brett Ratner to direct, perhaps they weren’t happy with The Last Stand and thus sought someone else. They again pursued Zack Snyder, who again turned them down, this time to direct Watchmen.

They eventually hired Gavin Hood, who had built a reputation in the early ’00s as a talented action director. Hood soon suggested making the blood relation of Wolverine and Sabretooth into a major part of the film and worked with Jackman to develop mature themes for the movie to explore.

Speaking of Sabretooth, despite Tyler Mane playing the role in the original X-Men, Liev Schreiber was slotted into the part, perhaps due to his friendship with Jackman. Funnily, Schreiber was originally under consideration to play William Stryker after another original actor, Brian Cox, was also shoved aside. In one of the funnier instances of terrible executive interference, David Harbour was rejected as being too overweight to play The Blob, a character known for being inhumanly fat. Finally, Taylor Kitsch was cast as Gambit despite Channing Tatum‘s prior attempts to play the character. Unfortunately for Tatum, he was never seriously in the running for the role this time, with the studio initially casting Josh Holloway and then considering Chris Hemsworth as well.

Filming began in 2007, continuing into 2008. In a story quickly becoming all too familiar, Fox rushed production and creative conflicts erupted. For one, Hood claimed the screenplay was still incomplete as shooting started, with pages being delivered throughout the shoot, sometimes just the night before the scene was to be shot. For another, Hood wanted to depict Wolverine as suffering from PTSD due to his years of being a soldier, which Fox executives refused to do, feeling that audiences wouldn’t want such weighty matters to be explored in a comic-book film.

Further, Reynolds was upset about the direction of Deadpool. While Deadpool was originally more of a cameo, after Reynolds joined the character expanded into a central antagonist. But this version was vastly altered from the comics, much to Reynolds’ dismay.

Compounding all of this were Jackman and Reynolds’s busy shooting schedules. Both were due on other productions, causing Fox to further rush things along. Yet the shoot was inevitably broken up, dragging into early 2009 and delaying the release further. This was also the first Marvel film in a while not to feature a Stan Lee cameo, since the shooting occurred in Australia.

As shooting and editing finally wrapped, Fox prepared X-Men Origins: Wolverine for release. They hoped to remind which studio started this whole superhero craze and stand alongside Marvel and DC. In an unfortunate occurrence, a full-length quality workprint leaked to the internet in March 2009. Fox and the creative team were upset for obvious reasons, including the fact that the workprint had unfinished effects, and alternate sound effects and titles. As the internet was taking off, the danger of online leaks continued to grow for superhero franchises that were often dependent on keeping characters and plot points secret. Fox estimated there were roughly 4.5 million downloads of the film before release.

This became a convenient scapegoat for a somewhat underperforming box office. Upon the May 2009 official release, Origins pulled a decent $158.1 million opening weekend. This was nothing to shrug at, but it was less impressive than The Last Stand and X2, and Fox blamed the leaks. That said, Origins went on to finish with worldwide grosses of $373 million, which Fox couldn’t be entirely displeased with and was enough to spur them to continue making more films.

Critical reception was a different matter. Most critics were highly negative, with many giving it around 2/4 stars, including Ebert. The Flickscore is only 64. The consensus was that though Jackman and some other performances were good, the flawed production was apparent. Common criticisms included rushed storytelling, poor special effects, a lack of real stakes, and inconsistencies with prior entries despite allegedly being a prequel.

The most angering point for many fans was the butchering of Deadpool. Marvel Studios had shown in 2008 that greater comic book authenticity was possible, and this likely compounded the feeling that Fox didn’t respect the property and treated it like a money-milking operation rather than an artistic endeavor. Jackman would later admit he was unhappy with the final result, and Reynolds remained desperate to do a proper take on the Deadpool character.

While Marvel likely would have preferred their rights back regardless of this film’s quality, the failure certainly increased chants for everything to go back to Marvel Studios. The X-Men deserved better. This didn’t happen though, and the stage was set for the 2010s to see the ultimate superhero film war as different studios tried to craft comparable movies.

Despite a decent box office, the critical response was enough for Fox to retool their plans for the franchise. While they initially planned to make a series of Origins films, with the next focused on Magneto, this script was retooled and combined with others. Fox took inspiration from what other studios were doing and looked to do a soft reboot of the franchise. Fox had to rethink how they did things or be left in the dust.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium-Low

We’ve previously commented that we feel highly confident Jackman’s Wolverine will reappear in Doomsday, as well as Reynolds as Deadpool, though not in Origins‘s particular iteration. But as for anything else, we think it pretty unlikely. Mane took back the role of Sabretooth in Deadpool & Wolverine but won’t make the cut for Doomsday. Any other character in this is simply too unimportant to get a cameo. The Deadpool movies all openly mocked this film, including specifically the Deadpool appearance.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Despite Marvel’s only 2009 release being a blemish, marking two duds in a row, excitement still existed for the burgeoning Marvel Cinematic Universe, a term Feige first used in 2010 after initially calling it the Marvel Cinema Universe the prior year. But the major shakeup for Marvel came at the end of 2009, when the Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment outright for a whopping $4 billion. How far things had come since the bankruptcy days just a decade earlier.

Disney announced it would take over all distribution moving forward once present deals expired. Now that Mickey Mouse money backed Marvel, the MCU was no longer a fledgling indie project with hopes of obtaining further financing. That said, Marvel would now have to answer to Disney executives.

But at least for 2010, despite Maisel stepping down while his vision from years earlier was coming true, Disney seemed willing to give Marvel’s creative team free reign. Marvel capitalized by creating a TV division in June 2010 to start actively developing live-action shows as well as control over their animated works.

But before that came Iron Man II. Development on the sequel started immediately after the first film’s release. While initial pre-production conceived of it as a traditional sequel, Marvel’s box office success caused it to be treated as a piece of a larger cinematic narrative. As Marvel shifted release dates around, this was when Feige coined the informal term “Phase One” as a descriptive term to delineate parts of the narrative that weren’t limited to the particular sub-franchises.

With success came demands, and an intense negotiating process with Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. For a moment, despite Favreau having aspirations of a trilogy, it seemed Favreau wouldn’t return. But finally they struck a deal and soon signed none other than actor and sometimes-screenwriter Justin Theroux to pen the script, an unorthodox choice to say the least. Downey had recommended him because Theroux wrote Tropic Thunder.

Another sticky negotiation was with Samuel L. Jackson. Difficulty likely centered on needing Nick Fury in smaller roles in many films, while Jackson wanted pay that matched his prestige as an actor. Finally, Marvel and Jackson agreed to a nine-film deal, locking Jackson into the MCU’s future.

Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell signed on to play the film’s villains after Rockwell missed out on playing Iron Man in the first film. Emily Blunt was initially going to play Black Widow but couldn’t work out her scheduling problems, and the part instead went to Scarlet Johannsson, who signed a multi-film deal as well. Initial online response to this wasn’t favorable, surprisingly. And of course, Clark Gregg returned as early MCU glue character, Agent Phil Coulson.

Not every negotiation worked out. In the MCU’s first major recasting, Don Cheadle took over the part of James Rhodes from Terrence Howard, after Marvel’s earlier consideration of Cheadle in the first film. While financial reasons were part of it, Favreau also reportedly did not enjoy working with Howard. Howard commented that he felt that Downey essentially took the salary meant for him and pushed him out.

With a creative team set, now came the creating. In addition to more traditional comic-book villains, Downey and others wanted to explore what many jokingly call Stark’s true archenemy in the comics: alcoholism. One of the famous Iron Man storylines is “Demon in the Bottle,” which is all about Stark’s issues with substance abuse. This would make it into the film, but Marvel executives downplayed and changed the storyline’s nature, linking Stark’s erratic behavior to poisoning from the device keeping him alive, instead of booze. None other than future Iron Man 3 director Shane Black made story suggestions during this time, recommending they base the portrayal on J. Robert Oppenheimer’s behavior after creating the atom bomb. Talk about serendipity on multiple fronts.

Filming took place throughout the middle of 2009. Production constructed massive sets and continued to use military assets, including Edwards Air Force Base. Marvel was initially granted permission to film at the Monaco Grand Prix for the first major action sequence, though this was later retracted.

Reportedly, there was major ad-libbing during filming, especially from Downey, which caused Theroux stress that left him bedridden as he had to constantly rewrite to account for Downey’s changes. In what was quickly becoming the MCU tradition, Kenneth Branagh was enlisted to film the post-credits scene to lead into his own movie: Thor. Other scenes were replete with set-up, including Captain America’s shield, maps referencing Wakanda and New Mexico, and other references. This constant interference from Marvel to set up future movies eventually soured Favreau on returning to the director’s chair, and possibly helped inspire his next film, Chef.

The marketing campaign began, and Marvel debuted footage at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con that was well-received. Paramount continued to handle marketing despite the Disney purchase, because it remained the distributor for this movie. This led to a successful May 2010 general release, as the movie took an opening-weekend $51 million and finished its worldwide run with $623.6 million.

While the jury was still out on whether an entire MCU could work at the box office, Iron Man movies were clearly successful. That said, critical response was slightly more tepid this time. Many felt the movie had overstuffed its narrative with set-up for future films, falling into some of the same traps as prior Fox films. Plenty of optimism remained, yet warning signs glared about what could happen if the artistic integrity of each movie was lacking.

The MCU’s next big test was to come the next year. A post-credit scene teased the upcoming Thor, the most fantastical and out-of-this-world character in a comic-book film yet, and the question was whether such a story could connect to general audiences. After all, Thor spoke in the comics with ye olde English. This might be silly on the big screen.

Disney wasn’t worried though, and was happy with the fruits of its purchase. In late 2010 it jumped the gun and bought the distribution rights for The Avengers and Iron Man 3 (already in the works by now) from Paramount, while allowing Paramount’s logo to remain in those films. The House of the Mouse bet big on the success of The Avengers.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

All of the same connections discussed with Iron Man are applicable here. Downey is definitely back, and we wouldn’t be surprised if Paltrow’s Pepper and Favreau’s Happy also come back. But it doesn’t seem likely that Mickey Rourke reprises the role of Whiplash or Justin Hammer returns. Maybe there’s a small chance John Slattery‘s Howard appears somehow in Doctor Doom’s backstory, as he reprised the role in Avengers: Endgame.

Thor (2011)

The Avengers succeeding likely depended on audiences being excited about all of the team’s members, with the hardest sell being Thor. Though Thor ostensibly is the character with the biggest built-in recognition, as he is based on real-life Nordic mythology, his comics exist in a storytelling archetype that is harder for people to buy in to because of his lack of relatability. He is a god, and his adventures usually occur in alternate realms to bring true stakes, which distances readers. His comics have never been the biggest sellers in Marvel’s roster.

That may explain why it took a couple of decades to get a Thor film. Sam Raimi was interested in making a Thor movie back in the ’90s after he finished Darkman. Raimi met with Stan Lee, and the pair made a pitch to Fox, but this was the early 90s where faith in Marvel properties was still quite low. Fox passed.

As with many of Marvel’s characters, interest swelled after Blade and X-Men‘s successes. Initial discussions focused on making a TV show, perhaps due to worry that Thor wasn’t a big enough box-office draw. UPN was highly interested and approached Tyler Mane to star. Marvel Studios managed to get Artisan Entertainment to co-finance, but even with comic book films picking up, studios were reluctant to do the big-time financing necessary for a Thor adaptation.

Things finally seemed to change after Spider-Man took off, with Sony ready to capitalize and develop more Marvel properties. It bought the rights and sought David S. Goyer to write and direct. Yet after the Blade: Trinity fiasco, Goyer lost interest in working on more Marvel properties.Christopher Nolan approached Gover to co-write Batman Begins, and Goyer thought it was a more worthy venture.

As Goyer’s interest died, so did Sony’s, and it sold the rights to Paramount in 2006. Though Paramount initially hired Mark Protosevich to pen a script, this was around the time it struck the distribution deal with Marvel Studios. Marvel reclaimed its rights and Thor became an MCU film. Protosevich envisioned an epic story with Thor banished to Earth in the Middle Ages and a story about “a god realizing his true potential. It’s the story of an Old Testament god who becomes a New Testament god.”

Grandiose ambitions require grandiose budgets, and Marvel had to divide its loan amongst all its prospects. Marvel hired Matthew Vaughn to direct in August 2007, after he famously left production on X-Men: The Last Stand due to his aggravation with Fox executives. Vaughn conducted a major rewrite of the script to half its needed budget. Yet once again development stagnated, and Vaughn left a comic book project for a second time.

Marvel Studios searched for a director who could bring a voice to Thor, having Protosevich rewrite the script in the meantime, and hiring comics writer J. Michael Straczynski to assist in this process. Marvel next approached Guillermo del Toro to direct, a natural fit based on his aesthetics and comic book movie experience. While Del Toro was initially interested, he eventually turned it down to direct The Hobbit, though that sadly did not work out either.

Finally, Marvel landed on Kenneth Branagh, an unconventional choice to say the least. While no stranger to franchises via his acting career, Branagh was still primarily known as a man of the stage, and most of his directing credits were Shakespeare adaptations. Yet, as it turned out, Branagh had been a fan of Thor comics since childhood, when he was drawn to its Shakespearean qualities. He immediately offered the lead role to Daniel Craig, who turned it down because he was still tied up in the Bond franchise.

Marvel looked to speed up development to capitalize on their momentum. They hired TV writers to speed up the refinement of the script and, with Craig out, launched their search for a lead actor. Marvel cast a wide net, considering actors including Alexander Skarsgard (son of eventual cast member Stellan Skarsgard), Charlie Hunnam, Josh Hartnett, Triple H, Channing Tatum, and Liam Hemsworth, the brother of the man who eventually landed the role, Chris Hemsworth. With Hemsworth’s casting, Marvel signaled a willingness to not lean on superstars for box-office draw, as Downey hadn’t been a guaranteed success when cast. No one had considered Edward Norton a Hollywood A-lister, either. Hemsworth’s casting was a narrow thing, as Marvel initially passed on him when he was reluctant to sign a six-picture deal. Chris Pratt auditioned for an unknown part, though his MCU debut was yet to come.

Still, with Thor cast, the rest of the troupe soon followed. Branagh was perhaps the most influential Marvel director yet when it came to casting, as much of the cast credited him for their decision to join the movie. Prior Branagh collaborator Tom Hiddleston was cast as Loki, after initially being considered for Thor. Branagh was also crucial in casting Natalie Portman, as he had noted her intelligence as a performer. For her part, she was drawn to Thor because Branagh was directing. Ray Stevenson returned to a Marvel movie after the disastrous Punisher: War Zone, playing Volstagg of the Warriors Three.

Branagh was also the sole reason for other cast members joining, including Anthony Hopkins as Odin (after Mel Gibson reportedly turned it down), Idris Elba as Heimdall (whose casting caused a minor stir as a black man playing a Norse deity), and Stellan Skarsgard. Colm Feore, who played central antagonist Laufey, commented that filming was aided because of the Shakespearean shorthand they all shared.

Tadanobu Asano, now known for Shogun, also played a minor role as another Warriors Three member. Maximiliano Hernandez, known for The Americans, also made his debut appearance as Jasper Sitwell, a SHIELD agent that reappeared multiple times in the early MCU.

Thor‘s release date moved up after news that Spider-Man 4 had fallen apart. The year 2010 came, and Branagh and company headed out to L.A. and New Mexico. Branagh was excited by the challenge of rendering a grounded human world as well as the fantastical Asgard, which had to be both futuristic and classical at the same time.

But Thor was not just Thor, as it also built towards The Avengers. Clark Gregg joined the cast shortly after filming began, and Marvel decided to lean into him as the link for the early MCU, in addition to Jackson’s Nick Fury. Likewise Jeremy Renner, who had been cast as Hawkeye for The Avengers, provided a cameo appearance to introduce him to audiences since he wouldn’t get a solo film. This required onset rewrites from Joss Whedon, as well as rising stars in the aforementioned Marvel writing program, Christopher Yost and Nicole Perlman. Whedon was on set to film the post-credits scene where Nick Fury talks with Stellan Skarsgard’s character, who wound up being added to The Avengers during development of that film’s story.

On the technical side, Marvel continued to work with diverse effects studios. Branagh initially cringed at this part of the process, but he sought to make his influence on the visual style, aiming for classical aesthetics. He used his frequent composer Patrick Doyle to score the film and create Thor’s theme.

As with all early MCU films, extensive marketing was a big part of the apparatus to make the films successful. The 2010 San Diego Comic Con featured a Thor panel, including clips that mostly were well-received. There were plenty of promotional opportunities, including collective Slurpee cups at 7-Eleven, a common marketing tactic for Phase One films. The post-credits scene from Iron Man 2 was its own form of commercial as well. With Thor being the biggest risk yet, Marvel needed to do all it could to make it work.

Eventually, May 2011 arrived. Marvel held its breath, hopeful. While by no means a slam dunk success, Thor debuted to an impressive weekend gross of $65.7 million and finished its worldwide run with $449.3 million. This wasn’t Iron Man money, but it was far more successful than The Incredible Hulk, perhaps the first sign that Marvel was building a brand at the box office. Critical reviews were fairly similar to The Incredible Hulk. Sitting at a 77% Rotten Tomatoes score and 78 Flickchart score, critics felt it was a decent if not great movie. Many enjoyed Hemsworth’s performance and the odes to a Shakespearean style, though they found its storytelling inconsistent. Ebert was fairly negative.

Regardless of reviews, Thor did its part. It proved the viability of the MCU brand was growing, and it was a satisfying step towards The Avengers. Plus, there was the post-credits scene featuring a fun comics reference: the Cosmic Cube, a super-powerful space weapon! This scene provided the first concrete story details for the anticipated superhero mashup, with the Cube at play and Loki as a lead villain, as he was in the first ever Avengers comic. It heightened anticipation for the summer’s upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger.

But this wasn’t the only universe-building going on. The home release of Thor debuted the Marvel One-Shot, a series of short films that appeared across several MCU home releases and filled the story gaps between movies. The one that came with Thor, The Consultant, sought to explain why Tony Stark was the one approaching Thunderbolt Ross at the end of The Incredible Hulk. It also conveniently served as a retcon of sorts about how the Avengers Initiative was being conducted, with Whedon finishing out the story details. It wasn’t anything special, but it showed the MCU’s willingness to get creative with its storytelling mediums.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

Thor and Loki are already confirmed to be reappearing in Doomsday. Portman’s Jane Foster could be a possibility, though her character’s status as of Thor: Love and Thunder lowers that chance. As for the rest of the cast, their characters are all either dead or have long stopped appearing in the MCU and don’t seem likely to join.

X-Men: First Class (2011)

Before the MCU continued, Fox had its own 2011 summer superhero release. We last left Fox in shambles, with egg on its face following the X-Men franchise’s worst release yet, seemingly unprepared to compete with the newborn MCU or the prestige of The Dark Knight. General audience sentiment felt Fox should release the X-Men rights and let Marvel create comic-accurate X-Men movies.

Fox wasn’t letting go of its money-making potential, but Fox recognized it needed a different approach. In 2009, the studio was developing multiple prequel films including a Magneto film, a Charles Xavier film, and a First Class film, albeit a very different one than the final product. They also considered plans for a fourth mainline movie. Yet with Origins‘s failure, Fox shifted everything to First Class.

Original discussions of a young X-Men movie started in 2003 during production of X2. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner, intrigued at the idea, pushed preproduction forward, hiring Zak Penn to write and direct. As Penn worked on the script, Fox started developing the Magneto origin film, hiring Sheldon Turner to write.

Donner’s project eventually fell apart, and in 2007, Fox hired David S. Goyer to direct the Magneto movie. Goyer’s reputation grew via his involvement with Christopher Nolan. The Magneto film neared production, with Ian McKellan onboard to appear as the elder Magneto as a framing device. Yet the 2007-08 Writer’s Strike sidetracked this film for a time.

Meanwhile, producer Simon Kinberg, intrigued by the then-current X-Men: First Class comics, pushed for Fox to adapt it. Kinberg and Donner soon came together to revive the Young X-Men pitch, convincing Fox to green-light development. They hired Josh Schwartz to write the screenplay, with thoughts of Bryan Singer returning to direct. Singer was open to the idea, but didn’t care for Schwartz’s script and wrote his own with Jamie Moss‘s help.

Fox initially conditioned full production of First Class on the Magneto’s film success, and after the latter faltered, on Origins‘s success. By early 2009 Donner felt First Class was unlikely to happen, as it was on the far back-burner for Fox and McKellan backed out.

Ironically, despite Fox’s earlier conditions, it was Wolverine‘s failure that calcified all current productions into First Class, with Fox feeling it needed to put primary focus on one film to succeed. Elements of the Magneto movie were combined into First Class‘s script. Though Singer denied using any of Turner’s ideas, the Writer’s Guild credited him for the story and left out Moss and Schwartz. Still, Singer is credited for coming up with the Cuban Missile Crisis setting, while Donner landed on the Hellfire Club as primary villains.

In early 2010, Fox put everything on First Class and hired Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz for further rewrites. Fox considered treating First Class as a reboot of the franchise. Yet drama struck when Singer backed out of directing. Without Singer, Fox was uncertain of who they wanted to direct. They initially dismissed turning to Matthew Vaughn, assuming he wouldn’t be interested because Vaughn had left The Last Stand.

Yet after Kinberg saw Kick-Ass and was impressed, he decided it was worth gauging Vaughn’s interest, and sold Vaughn on the idea that First Class would be a ’60s-set reboot that Vaughn could put his stamp on. Vaughn initially thought it was a joke, but seeing Fox was serious, he leaped at the opportunity. He set to make the film a combination of multiple dream projects, including “an X-Men movie, and a Bond thing, and a Frankenheimer political thriller at the same time.” At long last, Vaughn would direct a Marvel film. He felt he had unfinished business after the two prior misses.

Fox gave Vaughn free rein to rewrite the script, which let him add certain characters and remove other elements he didn’t care for. Vaughn focused on centering the Magneto and Xavier friendship and making it believable, while also convincingly showing Magneto’s transition to outright villain. Nolan, meanwhile, continued to influence comics films even when he wasn’t making one, as Vaughn scrapped a dream sequence from the script after Inception‘s release and turned to Batman Begins with the prequel/soft reboot approach. Fox didn’t want to completely disregard prior canon, but continuity was not the primary concern, as the final product certainly indicated.

In that vein, Fox gave special care to casting the younger versions of Xavier and Magneto, seeking to recreate the dynamic of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan while carving a new path. This led to James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender landing the parts, neither of whom were comic readers. Vaughn told them to take inspiration from the original trilogy, but not to mirror it.

As for the rest, Vaughn cast Kevin Bacon as lead villain Sebastian Shaw after Mark Strong turned it down. Despite rumors of Alice Eve playing co-villain Emma Frost, January Jones won the part; she was looking for a drastic change from Mad Men. On the younger side, Zoe Kravitz made her first comic-book film appearance, as did rising stars Nicholas Hoult and Caleb Landry Jones. But most notable was Jennifer Lawrence, who was cast as Mystique on the strength of her Winter’s Bone performance — the The Hunger Games didn’t release until 2012. Lawrence was announced as Katniss in the middle of filming First Class.

As filming began in 2010, Vaughn leaned heavily into a period aesthetic and drew on the Connery Bond movies for tonality, including the era’s misogyny. He mirrored ’60s camera movements, transitions, and used an anamorphic format. Vaughn even paid homage to Bond with his titles sequences. Seeing the desire for more comics authenticity, the movie based its costumes on those from the original X-Men comic.

Despite trying to be a sort-of reboot, Fox and Vaughn still included some cameos and references (perhaps inspired by the MCU). William Stryker’s father is named as a character, and Rebecca Romijn gets a brief cameo as an older Mystique. Most entertainingly is Hugh Jackman’s brief appearance dropping an F-bomb to Xavier and Magneto, as well as to continuity. Sadly, Stan Lee could not make his usual cameo due to filming internationally.

Finally, June 2011 arrived. Just a month after Thor, Fox tested whether it could remain competitive in the comic-book sphere. Its opening weekend finished with $55.1 million, much lower than Wolverine‘s $85 million. Still, Fox was reportedly pleased, meeting their goal of matching the original X-Men‘s box office. First Class finished with $353 million overall.

Finishing behind Thor, formerly a C-list character, indicated a diminished power for the once-premier franchise; it even finished behind the hated Wolverine. Yet Fox felt it did well enough to keep making X-Men movies. Maybe the critical response that truly emboldened them. First Class was the most critically-lauded in the franchise since X2, with some calling it the best X-Men movie yet.

Critics found Vaughn’s stylish direction refreshing and felt the cast was overall fantastic. The movie is credited for helping launch McAvoy and Fassbender to wider mainstream success. As for Vaughn, Fox greenlit a big-budget adaptation of his own comics series, Kingsmen. Some criticism was directed at aspects of the story and cheaper-looking special effects, but much of the stink of Origins was washed away. Few considered it on the level of The Dark Knight or Spider-Man 2, yet it was a reminder that older studios could make something just as good if not better than the new MCU works.

Despite the calls for the X-Men to return home, Fox continued making X-Men movies. Competition continued in the Marvel movie sphere, and dreams of a fully-integrated MCU remained on hold. Setting the stage for what the box-office would look like for the next decade, July 2011 was to be the third month in a row to feature a comic-book movie.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

While multiple original-trilogy X-Men characters are confirmed for Doomsday, no one from the prequel continuity has been discussed. It’s possible Doomsday includes none of them to avoid confusion, since adding multiple timeline versions of characters on top of multiversal variants may ask a lot from general audiences. On the other hand, these versions are well-liked, especially because McAvoy and Fassbender’s reputations have only grown in the years since. We think there is some chance those two will appear.

A different actor reprised Azazel in Deadpool & Wolverine, but we think that none of the other side characters in this movie have any chance of appearing.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

One building block remained before The Avengers: the aptly titled Captain America: The First Avenger. Captain America was a true B-List character at this time. While never as popular as Spider-Man or the X-Men, he had slightly more fame than Iron Man or Thor. His all-American theming is a natural draw for many, and he led the Avengers in the comics when other founding members were off-roster. Indeed, he was the only other Avengers member outside of Hulk to get his own feature-film before the MCU (and was the first ever Marvel character to appear in film, in the original serials.)

That film was an outright disaster (see our first article in this series for more details). By the late ’90s, though, Marvel tried again as its film development surged. They turned to partner Artisan Entertainment to help with financing. Yet legal disputes between Marvel and Joe Simon, co-creator of the character, over rights ownership paused any further development.

Eventually, the suit was settled in 2003 as the superhero film craze heated up. Marvel initially found an easy partner in Warner Bros., but before selling the rights David Maisel made his self-financing pitch to Marvel executives. Thus, Captain America became part of the Merrill Lynch deal, and Marvel Studios was free to produce the film themselves.

Though Kevin Feige pushed an interconnected universe, Captain America was originally going to stand alone with half of it taking place during WW2 and half in the present. Avi Arad was still with Marvel at the time and reportedly had a director and star in mind by 2006. Favreau was interested in directing before the idea of directing Iron Man swayed him. But in 2007 Arad’s pick, Joe Johnston, started discussions with Marvel.

The Writer’s Strike put development on hold, perhaps for the better. After the Strike resolved in 2008, and shortly following Iron Man‘s successful debut weekend, Marvel officially announced the film with the title The First Avenger: Captain America. If anything signaled that the film was no longer stand-alone, certainly it was this title. While Louis Leterrier wanted a shot at his second MCU film and asked to direct, Marvel turned him down and finally penned a deal with Johnston after years of discussions, despite Arad having left Marvel. Feige felt Johnston’s work on The Rocketeer made him a perfect match for the period piece they were going for.

Because of the character’s overtly patriotic American theming, early press asked if such a character could work globally. Anti-American sentiment was running high in the later Bush years. Marvel executives responded optimistically but likely did have internal discussions on how best to frame the story. They intentionally de-emphasized Nazi Party elements of the WW2-set story to get towards a comic-book feel, though Feige did want to replicate the iconic comic-book cover of Cap punching Hitler.

Marvel hired screenwriting-duo Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely to write the screenplay. The pair earned a decent reputation in Hollywood after penning all three Narnia movies, leading Marvel to eye them for this film. This started a fruitful partnership between Marvel Studios and Markus and McFeely, who went on to pen some of the most iconic films in the MCU. For now, their earliest decisions as writers included bringing in a young Howard Stark to build up MCU canon and making the Cosmic Cube, teased in Thor, the movie’s primary MacGuffin.

With the creative team hired, late 2009 brought pre-production and Johnston visualizing all he wanted to do. One of his earliest and more eye-raising announcements was stating that the Invaders would appear in the second half of the film. The Invaders are a WW2-era superhero team that featured Namor, a character Marvel had long attempted to put into a movie. Johnston later (and disappointingly for some) clarified that he simply meant the Howling Commandos. Namor remained off-screen for now.

As Johnston continued to hone a visual design incorporating authentic ’40s visuals and sets with futuristic technology, casting announcements started. The role of Steve Rogers was an undoubtedly important one and lists of actors were considered including notable names like Channing Tatum, Glen Powell, Jensen Ackles, Wyatt Russell, John Krasinski, and Chris Pratt. But Chris Evans landed the role, not longer after James Cameron rejected him for Avatar, as Cameron didn’t find Evans believable as a soldier. The irony is thick.

Steve Rogers was a very different role from Evans’s last comics character, the Human Torch, but the record speaks for itself on the strength of Evans’s casting. Evans turned the role down three times before signing a deal, as he was afraid his reputation would tank if the movie bombed. Once again, Marvel leaned into non A-list talent, despite a loud public rumor mill that actors such as Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Will Smith were in consideration.

Regarding the remaining cast, Marvel announced beloved genre actor Hugo Weaving as the primary antagonist, Red Skull. Sebastian Stan, another failed Captain America audition, was cast as Bucky Barnes and interestingly penned a multi-film deal. Speculation abounded about what this meant, though Feige commented in 2025 that Stan was cast precisely because Feige felt he would be excellent as Winter Soldier in future films, meaning this was always the plan. Hayley Atwell, meanwhile, beat out Emily Blunt, Keira Knightley, and Alice Eve for the role of Peggy Carter. Once again, Blunt and Eve missed on Marvel roles.

Marvel cast Tommy Lee Jones as the main military officer character, leaning into his strengths. Jeff Goldblum came up for a minor role, though Marvel went a different direction. Stan Lee cameoed again, and two Game of Thrones cast members, David Bradley and Natalie Dormer, also appeared in small roles.

As filming started in mid-2010, Joss Whedon leapt in for minor script rewrites to better gel with The Avengers. It seemed Whedon did much of the work to make Phase One a coherent narrative, though undoubtedly with Feige’s involvement. Johnston, for his part, included a nod to the original Human Torch, an android superhero from the ’40s, made all the more ironic by Evans’s prior role. Finally, as production concluded, Marvel announced a title change to Captain America: The First Avenger. A slightly better title?

After filming wrapped, post-production started. As the 2010 era of moviemaking opened, visual effects became more and more prominent. This film reportedly had close to 1600 visual effects shots, requiring thirteen different companies to pitch in. The film used plenty of practical effects too. The team built multiple prop Captain America shields in different materials depending on the needs of a scene, and notably made Red Skull’s mask from latex, giving it a more authentic look than CGI.

This movie was Marvel’s other major promo at the 2010 San Diego ComicCon, with the marketing campaign rolling throughout the end of 2010 and into 2011. Then finally, July 2011 arrived. With Thor already a success, optimism thundered that First Avenger would also knock it out of the ballpark and give Marvel the momentum it needed heading into The Avengers.

That optimism immediately paid off, as Captain America: The First Avenger made $4 million from midnight showings alone. As the opening weekend came to a close, it sat at $65.1 million, a strong number though perhaps surprisingly less than Thor. Still, it kept momentum going and finished its run with $370.6 million worldwide, fairly lower than Thor‘s run, though still plenty strong.

This was all the more surprising given it had generally better reviews than Thor. While some criticized the poor second half that didn’t integrate the sci-fi elements as well as it could have, many felt the period elements of the first half were fantastic. Critics also universally praised Evans’s casting. Ebert commented that this and Iron Man should be Marvel’s blueprint moving forward. Indeed, it sits at an 80% Rotten Tomatoes score and 84 Flickchart score.

As with Thor, the home release brought another Marvel One-Shot, this time providing a funny little interlude of what Phil Coulson was doing between leaving Iron Man 2 and arriving in Thor. It was nothing special and played only for laughs, but it was another small piece of a growing MCU picture.

Yet what surprisingly didn’t build any direct narrative blocks was The First Avenger‘s post-credits scene. Rather than a traditional narrative sting, it instead featured the first teaser trailer for The Avengers. While perhaps disappointing to some, there was little doubt that audiences left the theater hyped for next summer’s release.

After three years and five films of build-up, the MCU’s first event film was coming. It was Marvel’s biggest test yet. They had all the positive hype, vibes, and momentum they could want. People were eager to see if this cinematic universe experiment worked. If it did, it would be a fulfillment of all the creative principles Marvel stood for when it obtained its loan six years earlier. Now there was nothing left to do but wait.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

Chris Evans’s Captain America is already confirmed to return for Doomsday, though with the caveat that it may be a different version than the one we know, depending on the multiversal plot turns. Sebastian Stan will also be back as Bucky, a character that has had quite a journey since this film. As for anyone else, we think it is pretty unlikely, though Hayley Atwell may get a cameo appearance given we last left Captain America with her in Endgame.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)

Well, actually, one other superhero movie came out before The Avengers. A Ghost Rider sequel! Everyone was clamoring for this, right?

Despite critical response not being great, Ghost Rider made enough money for Sony to push a sequel forward. It was also their last non-Spider-Man property and with the Marvel craze only picking up in the late 00’s, plus The Dark Knight bolstering desire for all superhero movies, Sony wanted to capitalize on what they had left.

Even with bad critical reception, Avi Arad immediately announced the sequel in February 2007 with most of the cast onboard to return, including Peter Fonda and Nic Cage. Cage discussed a desire for a darker story befitting the character. By late 2008, Columbia Pictures held story meetings planning to put Johnny Blaze in Europe to chase story elements “very much in the zeitgeist, like Da Vinci Code.”

Eventually, Columbia greenlit the film and hired David S. Goyer in late 2009 to pen the script, whose reputation was bolstered by The Dark Knight at this point. Perhaps Sony hoped to use Goyer’s prestige to create a Ghost Rider movie that might prove equally game-changing. But Sony clamped its purse, nearly halving the budget from the first film, hardly a sign of confidence.

They hired directing duo Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, known for their high-intensity Crank movies. Perhaps they could provide the needed creative spark to light the property up and set it on fire. They were known for some wild filming techniques including hopping on rollerblades and chasing after their shots.

Cage was confirmed to return, but he was the only one. It seemed with the new creative direction and planned time jump that Sony didn’t even bother asking Eva Mendes or Fonda to come back. Taking a page from other comic book soft-reboot sequels, they chucked out everything aside from the star.

Instead, demon Mephisto was reworked into Roarke and was now played by Ciaran Hinds. Child actor Fergus Riordan joined as another long-time Ghost Rider in the comics, Danny Ketch. Johnny Whitworth was ostensibly cast as Blackout, though a very modified version, continuing a trend of non-MCU films showing a disregard for comics authenticity. Idris Elba signed on to play a completely original character, marking his second comic-book film appearance in two years.

Perhaps as part of shooting the film cheaply, filming finally started over in Romania and Turkey in late 2010. As part of a post-Avatar trend at the time, it was converted in post-production to 3D, as were most of the films in this article. Sony spent the remaining budget on a small marketing campaign that made little splash, seeming to indicate they already lacked confidence.

Unsurprisingly, the February 2012 release came and went without much aplomb. Spirit of Vengeance had an opening weekend of $22.1 million, the worst Marvel debut since Punisher: War Zone. It made more money than that film, with a final box office around $132.6-$149.4 million. Not a total bomb, but still a failure that probably barely broke even. Not so ironically, this movie was the second and last to bear the Marvel Knights branding, sharing it only with War Zone. Given it was host to two bombs, Marvel Knights was quietly retired.

Critical reviews absolutely trashed Spirit of Vengeance, stating it made the first movie look good by comparison. While some did enjoy the insanity brought by Neveldine/Taylor to some of the shots or concepts, they derided Spirit of Vengeance as horribly written with terrible acting. Cage earned a Golden Raspberry nomination for an unhinged performance.

Sony got the message. Despite Cage and the directors possibly wanting to do a third film, the lack of enthusiasm and critical drubbing made it clear this franchise was over. Cage commented in 2013 that he was done with the character, and Sony let the film rights expire the same year. And with that, Marvel Studios would be left with only two major franchises and studios to compete with.

Luckily, to the MCU’s probable relief, this movie’s overall lack of presence didn’t seem to effect anyone’s predictions about The Avengers. It really could be said this film was entirely unnoticed and forgotten by May. If anything, it was a final reminder that the MCU’s approach just seemed better. The difference in joy and enthusiasm in making the movies was clear.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: Medium

As we said with the first Ghost Rider, we think there is a decent chance Cage reprises his role for Doomsday. Despite both films being failures, Cage is the one big piece of early Marvel history that Feige will likely want to rope back in. Nothing else in this terrible movie will be referenced.

There could be a reference to the only other actor that played Ghost Rider since Cage though, Gabriel Luna. Marvel has yet to make a Ghost Rider movie since getting the rights back, but they did put the fourth version of the Rider, Robbie Reyes, on TV. He was even set to get his spin-off series until Marvel TV was consolidated under Marvel Studios in 2020 and all current Marvel shows were scrapped. It has yet to be seen when any version of the Rider will roll again.

The Avengers (2012)

With that bump in the road out of the way, we arrive to the end of this era. In a way, The Avengers felt like a culmination of all Marvel movie history thus far. From the rough beginnings, to the birth of the superhero blockbuster in the 00’s, it was a long and winding path.

While many individual hero films were successful by this point, no movie attempted to do an entire team of them — and certainly not as a sequel to an interconnected set of films. Certainly, the Universal Monsters, Godzilla, and James Bond films predated Marvel as cinematic narrative franchises by many decades. But their storytelling was far more simplistic and not as focused on establishing true continuity or progressing narrative.

The Avengers was the test case for the entire MCU. If it succeeded, it validated the creation of Marvel Studios. If it failed, it might mean a premature end to the MCU and Marvel sticking to individual franchises from here on.

This movie didn’t start out as the culmination of multiple other movies. The first serious plans for an Avengers film arose in 2003. That iteration went by the wayside after David Maisel’s self-financing proposal took off and Feige saw the potential of self-production to make the interconnected universe happen after his failed attempts to do it as an assistant producer on the early Fox and Sony films.

Marvel Studios officially attached Zak Penn as screenwriter to The Avengers in 2006 and tasked him with keeping an eye on all of the movies being made in order to create a universe bible. Feige later noted the risk of this production style, because it required investing in a sequel to movies that might not succeed. The ’07-08 Writer’s Strike put a serious damper on all of this because of the need to develop so many films at once, so Marvel worked out special deals with the WGA outside of the major studios.

By its crossover nature, casting for The Avengers essentially began when Iron Man started casting. Most of the major heroes from the individual franchises signed on to this film as part of signing for the other projects, though they excised Don Cheadle to avoid overstuffing the narrative. After Iron Man succeeded, Jon Favreau joined as an executive producer, though he felt no desire to direct. He did comment on the difficulty of melding a tech-based hero like Iron Man with a supernatural one like Thor on the big screen; this required a thoughtful approach to aesthetic. Feige commented in 2010 that he didn’t see the issue, because the MCU treated magic like advanced technology rather than something supernatural.

As 2009-2010 passed and the first MCU films released, Penn started work on his first script. He initially kept Thor to a small role until seeing the strength of Hemsworth’s performance. Marvel also discussed bringing back Red Skull as the main villain, though Loki was always the primary choice.

In early 2010, Marvel’s biggest remaining consideration was filling the director’s chair. Conversations eventually solidified on Joss Whedon, whom Feige worked with all the way back on X-Men. Whedon had been considered to direct several earlier Marvel movies, but as he was officially announced in July 2010 at San Diego ComicCon, his time to shine finally came. Feige described Whedon as perfect and “gung-ho” to bring the team to life.

With Whedon came Whedon’s personality. He immediately wanted to toss Penn’s script and start over. Feige agreed and gave Whedon free rein to write what he wanted, only stipulating that Loki be the main villain, the Avengers have a mid-film clash, and that there be an epic final battle. Whedon later commented he went through many “insane [script] iterations” including one where The Wasp became a primary character. The Wasp’s partner Ant-Man was the other main Avenger with substantial film development at this point, though that troubled production story is for another time. Point being: Ant-Man and the Wasp were sidelined for now.

Eventually, Whedon finalized his script, figuring out how to make the Avengers dynamic of very disparate characters uniting function by reference to The Dirty Dozen, His Girl Friday, and Dr. Strangelove. He then fought Penn to take sole credit for the script, though Penn managed to retain shared credit, noting he wished Whedon was more collaborative.

After Whedon concluded writing, he and Feige visited the films currently in production and made small changes to their scripts to line everything up for the coming event picture. They soon made other major decisions, including passing on Ed Norton whom they felt lacked the collaborative spirit needed for an ensemble film. Norton later claimed he quit.

With Norton gone, Whedon made the second major recasting and hired Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. Ruffalo was Norton’s friend and commented that he regretted how the process played out, but that he was excited. Ruffalo also became the first actor to play Hulk via motion capture. In another change, Hulk’s voice was now a combination of Ruffalo and longtime Hulk voice actor Lou Ferrigno.

Whedon also brought on longtime collaborator Alexis Denisof (Pryce on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) to play The Other, and Cobie Smulders, whom he seriously considered for his unmade Wonder Woman movie. Stan Lee, of course, provided his standard cameo (and one of his funniest), and Harry Dean Stanton got his own semi-cameo. Downey, meanwhile, pushed for the inclusion of Gwyneth Paltrow, which expanded Whedon’s mindset on bringing some other support characters from each character’s individual films.

Finally, with a script set, casting complete, and pre-production wrapping up, filming began. It was a truly national shoot, occurring throughout most of 2011 all across the country. While the famous ending scene, the Battle of New York, shot in NYC, Cleveland served as a stand-in for some scenes. This was a truly massive production with extensive sets built, and over 2200 visual effects shots provided by 14 different companies including industry titans like ILM and Weta. Whedon worked with ILM to create the best-looking Hulk yet, aiming for a desaturated naturalistic look that became a guidepost for MCU CGI characters moving forward.

Another fun production detail comes from the team who rendered NYC’s skyline. Realizing the MCU’s potential, Sony reached an agreement with Disney to include Oscorp in the New York skyline as Sony was nearing completion and release of its Spider-Man reboot. This little nod might set potential for the MCU to encompass non-Disney works. This fell through mostly because the effects team was already done by the time the deal was forged. Another example of a cinematic universe what-if.

The team labored to create iconic visuals, including the now famed circular pan team-up shot. The creatives wanted a motivating reason for each shot. There was no phoning-in The Avengers. Whedon and Feige positively described the dynamic of working together, with Feige maintaining a certain “house” style and ensuring the film felt like a comic book, but giving Whedon relative creative freedom to design action sequences how he wanted.

Impressed with his work on The First Avenger, Marvel tagged Alan Silvestri to compose the score and he created the now iconic Avengers theme. Silvestri commented on the challenge of balancing the overall score across multiple characters with subthemes. As previously described, Disney leapt into handling distribution and, by late 2011, was the studio announcing news for the film, including that The Avengers would also do post-production conversion to 3D.

Marketing was highly ambitious. In addition to five feature films of build-up, Marvel rolled out footage for the movie over multiple years of convention panels, teaser trailers, and cast announcements. With this film, Disney cemented its control over Marvel by dismissing most of Marvel’s marketing department in August 2011. Disney also planned for the future and forged deals for Iron Man 3‘s distribution during the lead-up to The Avengers. Ruthless perhaps, but when Disney saw an opportunity, it struck. Plainly, Disney believed in Marvel.

Then, at long last, May 2012 arrived. A positive world premiere in April left people buzzing, pushing anticipation to peak levels. After six years of development, it was time to see if Marvel’s big gamble paid off.

To call it successful would be an understatement. After Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man opened and blew the doors open for superhero box-office success, The Avengers brought the house down. It set the record for the highest opening weekend of all time at $207.4 million, and records kept falling from there. Audiences loved the movie, generating a sustained box office run and allowing it to cross over $1 billion in just nineteen days. The Avengers finished its run with $1.519 billion, leaving it as the highest-grossing 2012 release, highest-grossing superhero film, Disney’s highest-grossing work, and third highest-grossing movie ever made, beat only by a pair of James Cameron movies.

Just as importantly, critics raved over it as well. Many felt it was the epitome of blockbuster filmmaking, perfectly combining spectacle with an exhilarating team dynamic and finding true humanity in the strange, diverse cast of characters. Mark Ruffalo’s performance was singled out for praise in bringing Bruce Banner to life in a new way. There were a few detractors that found it formulaic in respects, and some criticized Whedon’s visual style as too-TV like for the big screen.

But deriders were few and far between. The movie was massively entertaining and connected people with superheroes in a fundamentally different way. The Avengers became a cultural force upon release and elevated all of the characters in the film to a new status of fame and recognition. Spider-Man and the X-Men were no longer the only recognizable Marvel characters. A generation of children would grow up wearing Avengers clothing, taking their lunchboxes to school, playing their video games, and having Halloween costumes and toys with their logos.

The Avengers started another MCU trend of two post-credits sequences, with one being more of a joke. Inspired by the aftermath of an exhausting day of filming for the TV show Angel, Whedon shot a scene of the Avengers team eating shawarma after the Battle of New York. It was actually shot after the film’s official premiere. Such was the power of the film that shawarma sales skyrocketed across the country afterwards.

Regardless, Feige and company breathed a sigh of relief. They put it all on red, tripled their bet, and won. One of the greatest creative gambles of all-time paid off. The Marvel Cinematic Universe worked.

There was one last Marvel One Shot in Phase One, included on the movie’s home release. Titled Item 47, it was the most in-depth One Shot yet. Featuring a couple who finds leftover alien tech from the Battle of New York to commit bank robberies, this short film further expanded on the aftermath of the film’s events and helped set up the forthcoming TV show, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. More on that in the next article.

Likelihood of Doomsday Connection: High

To say the Avengers are going to appear in Avengers: Doomsday feels redundant. Most of this cast seems likely to return, with the exception of a few perished characters. We even think Thanos might manage to steal a cameo appearance despite his death. Speaking of which…

To say things changed after The Avengers released feels strange to comment on fourteen years later. The MCU and superhero cinema have gone through many more changes since. But none of it would have happened without The Avengers working. Were this a hypothetical box office bomb, or critically average, it’s likely the MCU wouldn’t have moved forward in the same way.

But Feige and company planned on success. They took the time in this first era to do things right. Certainly, there were bumps in the road and creative struggles, but now Marvel Studios had shown up all of the other studios.

That is, with the exception of The Dark Knight. Though the box-office crown was decisively stolen from DC, a common critique was that The Avengers failed to match the maturity and majesty of Nolan’s masterpiece. Many would argue The Avengers is a better comic-book movie, but already there was an undercurrent of feeling that Marvel took too flippant and light a tone.

Indeed, since Whedon’s writing had paid off so well, there was arguably a change in writing approach for many MCU films moving forward, and accusations of a “sameness” became pervasive. Quippy dialogue, undercutting emotional moments with humor, and abundant pop culture references was a winning formula, but as the next era came, fighting the criticisms of that trend became a priority for Feige. A new running discussion emerged about whether the MCU could allow filmmakers to leave an individual mark, or whether the auteur for the MCU was Feige himself.

Debates over comic authenticity did seem to die down around this time. While the MCU was forging its own path, melding together 616 and Ultimate continuities, the MCU’s creatives clearly cared. This largely satisfied fans, especially when contrasted against non-MCU Marvel movies. The shadow of The Dark Knight still loomed as well when it came to tone and aesthetic.

Thus, the MCU turned to the one clear trump card it had over The Dark Knight: the interconnected narrative. With Phase One complete and the team formed, where did that leave the future? The first of The Avengers‘s two post-credit scenes answered that, kind of.

As credits concluded, the film revealed who was in charge of Loki and the Other. None other than comics titan Thanos. The purple semi space-god was the center of multiple iconic Marvel crossover storylines, most notably the Infinity Saga, which featured Thanos gathering Infinity Gems to attain ultimate power and wipe out half of all life in the universe. Was Marvel really teasing this as the endgame for the MCU?

Fans buzzed with speculation and excitement for the MCU’s future, despite Marvel not yet setting an actual path. It was Whedon who conceived including Thanos as the man behind the curtain. Feige and company had no definite idea for the future, so Whedon suggested it as a long-shot and was excited when Marvel executives agreed. But with Thanos on the board, just how would the MCU plan to use him? Would he be the main villain of the assumed Avengers sequel? Or something more?

With the MCU now the clear box-office king, anything was possible.

Ranking Era Four

The fourth era is potentially the best era yet. To be fair, the second era does have some of the best Marvel films to date. But the arrival of the MCU raised the average quality substantially, making for an overall strong era.

#10: Punisher: War Zone (Flickscore 62)

War Zone is the worst of that era though. Despite attempting something neat with the visual style, and Stevenson’s performance being admittedly decent, War Zone‘s script is an absolute mess. The story beats are all over and West is wasted on a bizarre take on Jigsaw.

Lexi Alexander also struggled to deliver a consistent tone, vacillating between extreme violence and silliness. While contrasting gore and comedy can be done successfully, Alexander was lost on how to do it. Though perhaps she shouldn’t be blamed given the studio interference. Either way, War Zone is a loser.

#9: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (Flickscore 14)

Some might say Spirit of Vengeance is a worse movie than War Zone. Indeed, the script probably is, with poor characterization, weak motives for most story beats, and mostly meandering about until it reaches a trope-laden conclusion. The attempted redemption arc for Ghost Rider is completely rushed.

Yet there are qualities that set it above War Zone in entertainment. Cage brings a performance so strange and unhinged that it’s almost worth watching for that alone. As usual, Cage is terrible and yet defies conventional ideas of what makes bad or good acting. Neveldine/Taylor fit right alongside him in that regard, letting loose with some bizarre visuals and choices, attempting to thread in Crank-style unchained action. There are flickers of something interesting here.

Plus, we think this does have the best special effects for Ghost Rider’s look in any media so far. The burnt skull and jacket match the character’s aesthetic perfectly and the skull face is animated in a cleaner manner.

#8: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Flickscore 64)

Origins: Wolverine is not without redeemable qualities. Jackman provides a solid performance, as does Liev Schreiber. Their brotherly relationship in the movie is a highlight The early team dynamics of Weapon X are also fun with Reynolds showcasing hints of the potential of the Deadpool performance.

But these qualities do not make up for everything the film does wrong. The rushed sloppy script provides an unsatisfying story. The movie never sells the romantic relationship Wolverine has as his moral center. And the second act turns into cameoing multiple mutant characters in a rush, with no respect for their source material.

Speaking of no respect for source material, Deadpool is truly as awful as reputation suggests. Sewing the mouth shut of the Merc with a Mouth feels a direct insult to the fans and is completely unsatisfying as a final battle for the movie. The multitude of cheap special effects including Wolverine’s claws looking like a cartoon, and the de-aged Patrick Stewart, are horrendous.

That opening montage of Logan and Sabretooth fighting in multiple wars still slaps though.

#7: Iron Man 2 (Flickscore 74)

Iron Man 2 shares a problem with Origins, rendering it the worst of Phase One MCU. That is, a second act that sidelines the action to set things up for other movies. Iron Man 2 is even worse in that regard. The primary villains, Whiplash and Justin Hummer, literally are confined to a room so Tony Stark can be free to talk to Nick Fury, introduce Black Widow, resolve his poisoning subplot, and help bring about Rhodey obtaining armor and becoming War Machine. Plus, they plug Agent Coulson heading to New Mexico to deal with Thor.

This bad writing really weighs an otherwise solid film down. Despite Rourke’s quirky take, Whiplash is a fairly intimidating villain in his first battle with Iron Man at Monaco. Sadly, the final act reduces him to another robot armor but there was early promise. Rockwell is massively entertaining as Hammer, and Cheadle accommodates to the role of Rhodey well (though this reviewer is in a minority of liking Howard better).

Downey is even more settled in the role, and the bones of the alcoholism subplot hint at where Downey might have taken things. It’s a shame the movie doesn’t let these stronger aspects breathe or integrate them better with the Whiplash plot or MCU set-up. Unfortunately, Iron Man 2 is the worst entry of its trilogy.

#6: The Incredible Hulk (Flickscore 71)

Missed opportunities also defines the disappointment with this movie. The Incredible Hulk is fairly entertaining in many respects. Ed Norton is really solid as Bruce Banner, and supporting cast members like Tim Blake Nelson and Roth bring a quirkiness somewhat lost as the MCU progressed. William Hurt also impresses as General Ross.

While not yet reaching the level of effects in The Avengers, this Hulk is still an improvement on the 2003 version. Letterier wisely hides him in the shadows early in the movie to build hype and unveils him like a horror monsters, which the Hulk is in a way. Liv Tyler and Norton sell their pining relationship well too.

But the story is just too bland overall. Banner mostly runs around from act to act with little aplomb or motivation. The movie builds up to a Hulk vs Abomination fight that lacks imagination and becomes two muscular CGI monsters swinging into each other in a boring manner, though we do get the thunder clap. The Incredible Hulk is hardly the worst movie, especially in view of the worst Marvel projects. It’s just bland.

#5: Thor (Flickscore 78)

Thor is a very solid movie. While Marvel somewhat struggled to figure Thor out for his first view outings, Hemsworth’s casting shined immediately, as did Hiddleston’s Loki. Branagh’s Shakespeare sensibilities honed in on highlighting the tragedy of the jealous brotherly relationship and Asgard takes on a stately nature. Especially with Anthony Hopkins’s natural grandiose nature.

While some of the fish out of water humor works with Thor on Earth, it is the Earth aspects where the story feels indeed earthbound. The arc of Thor being humbled by his morality and learning to respect human life is quite rushed, with his change of heart quite literally occurring over a single night. Portman and Skarsgard bring enough of a wry yet emotive sensibility to stand as solid supporting characters, but it doesn’t quite make up for this script deficiency.

Thor’s theme soars though and the film’s overall look works, despite Branagh’s strange obsession with Dutch angles. This feels the closest to original era Thor comics out of any MCU work, for better and worse.

#4: Captain America: The First Avenger (Flickscore 84)

The First Avenger is truly a tale of two halves. Not that the second half is entirely bad, but a clear step down from the first part. The movie’s opening half is an excellent WW2 period movie, setting up Steve Rogers as the ideal everyman, determined to make a difference despite the odds against him. Evans nails the role out of the gate, aided by well-penned scenes between he and Stanley Tucci’s Dr. Erksine.

The romantic dynamic between Steve and Atwell’s Peggy Carter is also well-written and acted, serving as a core for Captain America’s character throughout the MCU to come. The film’s final scene really sells the melancholy of Rogers’s loss too and is one of the best endings in an MCU movie. On the campier yet stills strong side, Tommy Lee Jones nails his general role as does Weaving as Red Skull. Seeing Captain America use his shield for the first time is pure Marvel magic.

All of that said, the second half struggles with scripting issues. It montages most of Captain America’s missions because the movie ran out of story. The laser weapons also don’t quite integrate with the tone set, though are crucial for bringing the more comic-book element and setting up The Avengers. The film just struggles to keep momentum and tension after Captain America’s first rescue. It feels as though Marvel intentionally left things open for a future flashback movie, though that never came.

There is enough here to clearly stand about Thor and Iron Man 2. Yet it doesn’t quite match the best Phase One films. Though the Captain America theme is another highlight, one of the best themes in the MCU outside The Avengers‘s theme.

#3: X-Men: First Class (Flickscore 85)

While this era is mostly defined by the successful Phase One films, Vaughn managed to bring one of the best X-Men movies. His 60’s aesthetic is quite a blast and there is a spritely snarky energy throughout the entire film. It feels like an X-Men work with a real voice again, after the franchise fell into a rut post-X2.

The new cast nail their roles, especially McAvoy and Fassbender, who arguably improve the Xavier/Magneto dynamic beyond Stewart and McKellan. Bacon is appropriately hammy and Lawrence is strong here when she’s really trying as Mystique. The only dud role is Jones’s Emma, who has some flat line delivery and seems a bit lost in her character.

The movie does become overly cheesy at moments and the plot stops in the second act for a training sequence, though the training scenes themselves are sufficiently entertaining. The other minor X-Men introduced feel a tad shallow as characters, despite the strong cast. Yet even with these flaws, First Class still does so much right. It is just plain fun.

#2: Iron Man (Flickscore 91)

The MCU’s debut flick bore so much weight, and luckily, Favreau rose to the challenge. Iron Man holds up nearly twenty years later and remains one of the best MCU and superhero movies overall. Downey’s magnetism as Tony Stark pops from his first scene, paired with a pitch perfect AC/DC soundtrack.

The story really sells Tony’s change from selfish playboy to someone realizing he has greater responsibilities and care for the world. While none of the supporting characters are ground-breaking, Paltrow, Favreau, Howard, and Bridges are more than up to the task. Bridges seems to have plenty of fun chewing scenery.

Above all, Iron Man sells the tactile nature of its world. Watching Tony develop his armor and use it for the first time is fascinating, and the effects team makes it feel realistic. This movie still bears the best-looking version of the Iron Man suit. While the third act is a bit weak, descending into a bland hero mirror fight (if trying to be clever with the icing issue), Iron Man does so well beforehand that it is easy to forgive.

#1: The Avengers (Flickscore 93)

The Avengers remains a blast to watch. A movie like this had so many different ways it could have wrong, but Whedon’s strong script and deft direction keep matters in hand and deliver top-tier entertainment. For a film having to balance six main characters, it keeps a surprisingly even allocation of time even if the powers and performances of Stark and Rogers steal the show more often than not. Ruffalo effortlessly transitions into the role of Bruce Banner, providing his best performance in the MCU to date here.

There may be a slightly cheap look to some of it as Whedon’s TV origins seem to get in the way in certain set design and framing choices. Yet the movie is so replete with cinematic moments that it is easy to ignore. Rogers and Stark trading barbs, “I’m always angry,” Mjolnir slamming Cap’s shield, Hulk sucker-punching Thor, “Puny god,” “We have a Hulk,” and the list goes on and on. While the criticism that the MCU aped this formula a bit too much at times moving forward is probably fair, Whedon’s MCU debut remains the best instance of this style and showed how well Whedon understood adapting comics.

Above all, the movie communicates the idea of heroic sacrifice and the arc of the team learning to set aside their differences to save a city. And Hiddleston’s Loki rises to the occasion of being the main villain for an event movie, bringing a nuance that naturally developed fans. Of course, Whedon’s eye for visuals helped create the now-iconic team-up shot that has been referenced many times since.

It may not be a perfect movie in every respect but it was perfect for what Marvel and superhero cinema needed at that time. It was the anthesis of The Dark Knight, and the example of what excellence on the flip side of the superhero coin should be.

Marvel Chart

1. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
2. The Avengers (2012)
3. Iron Man (2008)
4. X2: X-Men United (2003)
5. X-Men: First Class (2011)
6. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
7. Spider-Man (2002)
8. X-Men (2000)
9. Thor (2011)
10. Blade (1998)
11. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
12. Iron Man 2 (2010)
13. Spider-Man 3 (2007)
14. X-Men: The Last Stand (2007)
15. The Punisher (2004)
16. Hulk (2003)
17. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
18. Blade II (2002)
19. Daredevil (2003)
20. Blade: Trinity (2004)
21. Fantastic Four (1994)
22. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
23. Fantastic Four (2005)
24. The Punisher (1989)
25. Ghost Rider (2007)
26. Howard the Duck (1986)
27. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
28. Punisher: War Zone (2008)
29. Captain America (1990)
30. Elektra (2005)

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is unfortunately the complete opposite of Miranda Priestly. Lacking bite or edge, it plays it safe with mushy kindness between the characters and leans heavily into nostalgia rather than telling a story of real substance. Unlike a cerulean sweater, The Devil Wars Prada 2 does not feel the product of years of investment and decision-making.

The original, The Devil Wears Prada, was no masterpiece. It played in the same space that many early-00’s chick flicks did with characters engaged in lofty dream jobs oblivious to economic realities. They were a good bit of fantasy, and this one was no different.

That said, The Devil Wears Prada did manage to be a cut above with talented performances and a somewhat uncompromising look at the fashion industry. For every praise about the art of fashion, there were many scenes putting the shallowness and cut-throat nature on full display. Priestly was an antagonist elevated by the nuance of Meryl Streep‘s fantastic performance.

But The Devil Wears Prada 2 enters 2026 in a different world than 2006. It’s as though the screenwriter decided the escapism and bite of the original was not what modern audiences wanted, and rather embarrassingly devotes many a line of dialogue to making Anne Hathway‘s Andy into a spout of the assumed collective frustration towards capitalism, fashion’s excesses, and any other “virtuous values.” Everything from gentrification of old apartment buildings, to corporate downsizing, and the shrinking field of journalism are all throw into the film’s sauce. Andy even makes sure to apologize for complaining about losing her job when so many others have it harder, a line that felt meant to be spoon-fed right to the audience.

Were a more talented chef stirring the pot, perhaps The Devil Wears Prada 2 could have taken these various elements and melded them into a satisfying medley of flavor with both surface flair and deeper appeal. The ideas were all there to make this movie a real commentary on where fashion stands in 2026 and how professionals had to navigate a different economic market than twenty years ago. But instead, they allowed that drug nostalgia to spill into the stew and utterly ravage it.

One of the bigger crimes comes in the characterization of Miranda overall. The first film ended with Miranda making a vicious move to assert the thesis that no matter what Andy did to earn Miranda’s respect, the industry and its head honchos were inherently never going to do so and would betray whoever they needed to get ahead. Thus, Andy exists working for Runaway with her morality intact, if her doe-eyed innocence reduced.

Indeed, it seems director David Frankel decides to make the primary purpose of the editing beats to leap from one nostalgic moment to another without regard to any other narrative flow or telling a cogent storyline. The editing is so all over the place that it feels like three different versions of a movie mashed together. It treats every instance of Andy and Stanley Tucci‘s Nigel interacting with a doe-eyed fondness, hoping to reinvoke the spritely friendship from the first film. And while there is some amusement in seeing Miranda to attempt to navigate a business meeting in 2026 where the workplace tolerates far less verbal thrashing than Miranda dealt out in 2006, these moments too are more played as callbacks than new moments in their own right.

While the ending of this film attempts to have some dialogue vaguely enforce the same principle, it’s a complete kid-gloves version of the scene. Instead, Miranda is lacking the same forceful vigor here and too much of the movie is having Andy and Miranda make nice with each other. By the end, it hardly feels like the same character anymore, though Streep continues to do well. The ending also feels like a betrayal of Andy’s character and not at all what her character would dream of doing.

Emily Blunt‘s Emily, meanwhile, feels added to the film as an afterthought. She’s thrown in haphazardly in the first two acts in ways that feel the product of multiple rewrites with little narrative cogency. This is compounded in a very sloppy final act that attempts to take the idea of Miranda’s corporate espionage from the first movie and put it on overdrive. As part of the theme of everything needing to end with happiness and harmony, Emily’s rather massive betrayal of Miranda and Andy is brushed over.

The movie has its merits, to be fair. There are some funny moments and amusing performances from Justin Theroux and Blunt acting as a dating couple. B.J. Novak always seems at home playing cartoonish corporate executive jerks. The ideas it hints at seem intriguing.

One just wishes something more than 00’s nostalgia was driving this recent wave of movies. Between this and Freakier Friday, it seems only a matter of time until things like 13 Going on 30, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Failure to Launch get sequels. Hopefully, they can make films that don’t feel like they were edited to be split into Tik Tok reels.

Hopefully, they can have something to say.

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“Is this all there is? Is there nothing more?”

The self-aware robotic probe V’Ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture has evolved to the point where it is can ask what may be the quintessential human question. The question is rhetorical, addressed to no one, but even so, it may be the fundamental question of art.

So it makes sense that filmmakers would put the question in the mouths of their heroes. Art is, after all, (according to Ionesco) the process of an artist trying to show us what it is like to be them. And all artists, by definition, ask this question.

The question is so powerful that it can spark the beginning of a hero’s journey. In this article, we examine films which in some way explicitly ask the question “Is there nothing more?”. It is not the framing of the question per se we’re interested in; what is interesting are the answers we get.

The question is, technically, a yes or no question. So we can sort such films into two basic classes: those that answer “Yes, there is more to life than what you see”, and those that answer “No, actually, this is it”.

Neither answer is wholly correct, of course, and neither is wholly positive or negative. It is the aim of each film to make some sort of case for whether the hero finds their destiny “out there”, or whether their ultimate path leads much closer to home.

I would like to book a flight to Fiji

“Biggs is right. I’m never gonna get out of here.”

Thus speaks Luke Skywalker in act one of Star Wars. He has just learned that his best friend intends to join the Rebel Alliance, an almost unimaginable leap beyond the horizon of adventure for a young, orphaned farm worker. Every day Luke thrusts against his traces, firm in the belief that there is more to the galaxy than his uncle’s moisture farm.

So too with Rabbit from 8 Mile, Lloyd Christmas from Dumb and Dumber, the young Flynn in TRON: Legacy, and poor, poor Truman Burbank.

Remy in Ratatouille, Ariel in her underwater cave with trophies of the promised world beyond, Belle bashing the ordinary world of the hard-working villagers right to their faces. In fact, most modern Disney films start off like this, with our hero proclaiming how small their world seems to be, and how much bigger it ought to be.

This whole article is about characters which incite us in the first act towards a sense of cosmic antsyness, the feeling that the confines of their world are too small for their sense of their own potential. We touched on this obliquely a few years ago in our article about characters who find their own adventure – what distinguishes our discussion today is how the film itself chooses to address these plot-inciting frustrations. Does it sympathize and validate? Or does it ultimately deny the character a world any larger than their present one?

For the characters just mentioned (Luke, Rabbit, Remy, etc), the story of the film winds up supporting their claim. It justifies these feelings by unlocking the characters’ cages and showing them that, yes, you’re right, there is so much more to the world than you know, and your destiny is to live “out there” not “in here”.

The personification of this trope is surely Truman Burbank, the orphan who at birth was unknowingly co-opted into a grand project of corporate-media gaslighting, a sentient soul destroyed through archonic manipulation of his free will, all for the purpose of ratings.

Truman’s fable does not, crucially, end in a Men In Black-style reaffirmation of cosmic limits, but rather in their destruction. Truman’s lifelong sense of wanderlust and unbelief in the apparent limits of his world is triumphantly, catastrophically ratified by having him literally find a door in the sky.

The “Truman” class of films takes an “affirmative” stance on the main character’s existential unease. The filmmaker agrees with the hero and, by implication, wants us to as well: The narrow circumstances of one’s current context and cultural situation are not “real” permanent limits but are, at worst, temporary and permeable. At best, they are illusory.

And furthermore, it is laudable (say these filmmakers) for each of us, the main characters in our own films, to question these limits constantly, and to search unceasingly for that door in the sky.

I’ll Never Look Farther Than My Own Backyard

On the flipside from Luke Skywalker, we have another orphan with kind but unimaginative guardians, trying to find joy in a dust bowl. Dorothy Gale is beset with a multitude of persistent, banal problems, but none as persistent as the nagging sensation that there is some other place which embodies her image of how good and beautiful the world could be.

From the same era we must also consider George Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life – a lifelong dreamer and inner-adventurer for whom circumstances seem to keep him stapled to his sleepy little American town. And there is also Josh Baskin from Big, a child chafing against the gates of an adult’s world.

And perhaps most painfully, Jack Skellington, who having reached the top of Halloweentown’s cultural hierarchy, realizes there are no more pumpkins left to conquer, and he plummets to the deepest, darkest depths of despair ever captured in a children’s film.

Heroes in this class of films start off the same as Luke and Ariel and Belle: they are convinced that their misery is due to the limitations of their current world, or at the very least its failure to be some other greater world that they can imagine. They are given the opportunity to actually genchi genbutsu, to stop imagining and “go and see”, to actually go try and find the adventure that they’re so sure is waiting for them.

But something different happens for them by the third act.

In the “Dorothy” class of films, the denouement is characterized by the hero realizing that their misery was not the result of their world by itself but rather their perception of it. Sometimes the heroes actually regret the journey they felt compelled to make, the time and effort spent representing a kind of rock bottom to their essential spiritual error.

For Jack Skellington, his attempt to break new creative ground by co-opting Christmas was an unmitigated disaster. Within the course of three acts he has gone from crying “empty tears” because of the “empty place in my bones that calls out for something unknown”, to realizing that he now feels like his “old bony self again”.

Jack reclaims his crown as Pumpkin King and returns to where he started in Act 1, now educated and invigorated by his full-circle journey. On the outside nothing has changed, certainly not the world that caused his breakdown. But on the inside Jack has returned to Halloweentown a different person….somehow.

Josh Baskin’s main conclusion from being forced into adulthood is that the grass is not greener – adulting is way harder and way more full of bullshit than being a kid. (Oh and also his mom is still at home grieving the fact that her son has been “kidnapped” for several months and maybe yeah feel a little bad about that.)

George Bailey keeps his dreams of travelling the world alive his whole life. Just like Truman Burbank, his dreams of Fiji and other exotic locales are symbolic of a life filled with the adventure, pleasure, and sublimity that are painfully absent from his current life as a half-deaf townie banker.

It is only through the efforts of an agent of the Christian god that George Baily becomes convinced that all that he thought he was lacking in his life can in fact be found in the gripping adventure of husbandhood, fatherhood, and municipal fiduciary activism. It is his current life that is wonderful, not some other imaginary life out there waiting for him.

And as for Dorothy Gale, her brush with traumatic brain injury taught her that a wonderous world of fantasy and adventure can in fact be quite terrifying. She had never realized how much her peace of mind depended on living in a world she understands.

Dorothy discovers that a world in which the “dreams you dare to dream really do come true”, is a world which is alien to anything resembling real life. It is devoid of the simple, comfortable pleasures of family and familiarity. Such a world, it turns out, is not the world that Dorothy prefers to live in.

The dichotomy between these two types of stories have existed since the birth of storytelling. Both of them fit cleanly into Campbell’s Hero’s Journey framework (each interprets the “Return” stage differently but all the phases are there).

In both cases the hero spends the first act in some sort of torment about their present situation. By the last act they have arrived at a new level of alignment and peace with their situation and thus is “victory” defined for them.

For Truman (and his brethren), the first-act torment is what sews the seeds of their eventual liberation.

But what about for Dorothy, and Josh Baskin, and George Bailey, et al, who all wind up, at least physically, back where they started? What purpose did all that fretting serve? Was it “just” character development?

This is a question we must ask of own lives. Is the value of thinking about some aspect of the world you want to change, measured solely by whether it leads you closer to the world that you desire? When we sit around and dream about things that never come true, and worry about things that we cannot change, are we just wasting time?

What these movies teach us is that the answer is almost certainly no. The hero must start from a place of dissatisfaction, because it is their journey from there, in the first act, to the realization of the third act that allows them to undergo their requisite change. This is simply not possible without them exhibiting some form of frustration or conflict or sense of incompleteness at the start of their story.

And so it is with us: Frequently those chapters of life so characterized by growth and change started with us feeling dissatisfied, some grit in the oyster shell, the sense that something wasn’t right about how we fit into the world.

Maybe we complained to those around us; maybe we started to push back against walls that seemed to others to be immovable. The net result may or may not have been some outwardly visible change our world, but our story did nevertheless move forward.

There is one other point to be made about “Dorothy”-class films, and it’s a hypothesis that is actually made by The Truman Show:

TV: And there’ll be another episode of I Love Lucy same time tomorrow, but right now, it’s time for Film Classics. Tonight we present the endearing, much-loved classic, Show Me the Way to Go Home. A hymn of praise to small town life where we learn that you don’t have to leave home to discover what the world’s all about. And that no one’s poor who has friends. Full of laughter and love, pain and sadness, but ultimately redemption.

In the film, the director of the involuntary-reality-show The Truman Show is engaged in a long-term psy-op against its star. Using the educational system, the media, and carefully choreographed traumas, Christof spends his day psychologically undermining Truman’s urge to explore beyond the bounds of his prison. This is the price of maintaining a televisable status quo.

Even stripped of its gnostic-conspiracy-theory vibes, we must still consider the implication that the screenwriter is making here: Are “Dorothy”-class films (of which the fictional Show Me the Way to Go Home is clearly a stand-in) “bad” in some way? Do stories that punish (or at least argue against) those who choose to peek through their bars serve as a braking force against the human soul?

Is it “spiritually harmful” to consider there may be no place like home? Is it “regressive” to applaud George Bailey’s acceptance of the missionary-position American Dream rather than to insist on embracing his lifelong dreams of a transformative, adventurous life?

What is a child to think when they see that the end result of Jack Skellington’s brave new creative experiment is him crying in a graveyard, and then returning to the safety of his original lane?

A conspiracy-minded, 80s-punk-adjacent viewer would see the sinister hand of conformity propaganda in these films. Seen through that narrow lens, they are “obviously” a concerted effort to subliminally inculcate and reinforce obedience to a Western middle-class cultural norm.

But (as always) the truth is much more subtle and much more kind. Let us reframe the actual difference here in a more judgement-neutral form:

“Truman”-class films nourish the side of ourselves which can see the unseen potential of the world. “Dorothy”-class films help us see the world and live in it.

Neither is correct; both are essential. This hidden dialectic lies beneath some of the most important films ever made. Realizing its existence allows the viewer to pull these films off the screen and into our lives.

Because we live this dialectic every day. Life seems designed to be full of obstacles, but one cannot live in a state of perpetual revolution, constantly at war and never at peace. Nor can one abdicate the responsibility to exert one’s will upon the world. In each moment we must make a choice.

Fortunately, we have been training for this. All these films are “game tape”, thousands of simulations of this choice, both realistically and in metaphor. We can use the examples of these heroes to find our own path, sometimes like Dorothy, sometimes like Truman, sometimes in some third way which strikes a balance between acceptance and escape.

The horror-comedy seems to be in vogue in 2026. Over Your Dead Body is at least the third release in the subgenre in the last two months. Perhaps studios are seeing an appetite for facing darkness with laughter. Or that’s what these creatives need to do in times such as these.

This film comes courtesy of The Lonely Island member Jorma Taccone, his first movie since co-directing Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. This trio has had quite a career since SNL launched them into the spotlight, writing and directing some of the better comedies of the last ten years, if also some duds.

Over Your Dead Body lands right between gem and dud. Starring Jason Segel and newly-minted scream queen Samara Weaving as a married couple on the outs, who travel to a cabin for a weekend getaway while each has a secret plan to murder the other. If you’re thinking this type of darker comedy premise doesn’t seem in line with typical American comedies, you’d be right. This is a remake of the Norwegian film The Trip, and certainly comes across as an Americanized version of a quirky European comedy.

Because Taccone directs, the movie has plenty of merit. The gory and more morose aspects of the humor play better than they would have had a more typical studio director been at the helm. The film’s careening sensibilities and madcap energy often serve it well. Segel and Weaving strike the right tone in their performances, as do Timothy Olyphant and Juliette Lewis. And Paul Guilfoyle provides one of the best cameo-like roles in a movie like this in awhile.

But American films like this often struggle to dedicate screentime to this type of tonality while also writing consistent characters and a satisfying narrative. It often feels like the script more wants to pay lip service to the central emotional arc of the couple learning to resolve their differences than actually spending time with it. Perhaps it is due to a lack of trust in their audience or simply a laziness. To be fair, creating solid, well-crafted character arcs is easier said than done. Yet so many great movies demonstrate that comedy and good characterization do not have to work independently of each other.

Over Your Dead Body manages to be an enjoyable experience overall. There are several instances of clever comedic set-ups and pay-offs indicative of the filmmakers doing more than phoning it in. Which is perhaps why it’s a shame that this doesn’t quite fully live up to its potential. With a little more in editing, this could have been a new cult comedy classic.

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