Dark Facts About Marvel Movies They Really Don't Want You To Know
TheGamer
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20 Strange Facts About Marvel Movies That Really Make You Think
Marvel tries to sweep a lot under the rug. TheGamer's uncovered some secrets that the Marvel movie executives really want to hide. The Marvel movies are, for the most part, a stark reminder that superheroes can cross over to film seamlessly when put in the right hands. Notice how I said right hands, as when put in the wrong hands (I point you to any of the Fantastic Four movies as examples of this) you get dumpster fires of cinema that need to be hosed out with an arctic blast from Iceman. Those terrible films carry with them some dark secrets. These are shameful things that the filmmakers want to keep in the shadows as opposed to the shameful things they promote in the light. Sometimes these things have to relate to the movie that we see on screen but other times it has to do with behind the scenes drama that makes some people look really bad. That doesn't mean that good movies are free from these dark secrets. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, for example, has several classics under its Belt of Strength (that's a Thor equipment piece for those unfamiliar) but there are definitely things that they don't want you to know about. From their media-shy figureheads all the way to their biggest actor making unsavory comments to one of his co-stars, the MCU isn't perfect. Even the great Marvel movies before like Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy have some hidden secrets that I'm going to pull the webs off of. Here are 20 dark facts about the Marvel movies they really don't want you to know. THEGAMER VIDEO OF THE DAY Wolverine And Spidey Were Almost Together
via comicbook.com (top) and theverge.com Now that Disney put FOX out of its misery and bought them out, they finally secured the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises. Fans are salivating at the mouth to see Wolverine interact with beloved characters like Captain America and Spider-Man. Speaking of the wall-crawler, those two were almost together on screen a long time ago. Back during the production of the first Spider-Man film in 2001, Kevin Feige (we'll be seeing a lot of him on this list) went up to Hugh Jackman with an idea for the cameo. Jackman was down for it but the goofs behind the scenes couldn't locate his costume. Jackman couldn't stay in New York for long and so he had to leave never filming his scene. Why he couldn't just wear an undershirt and jeans is beyond me. Bad Music Choices
via welcometolevelseven.com (original art by Mark Harmon) Speaking of things that fans have uncovered, there is another major problem with Marvel movies that hasn't gone unnoticed by a YouTuber. The YouTube channel called Every Frame A Painting created a video essay called The Marvel Symphonic Universe, which conducted a social experiment asking fans to hum a theme from the MCU. Nobody could do it, that's because the music in Marvel films is bland and unmemorable. This is hardly a Marvel exclusive problem, but it's still glaring given the giant studio funneling money into these films. Because of the growing use of "temp music" in cinema, filmmakers have a preconceived idea of what the music should sound and tell their composers to do it "like that." Because of the lack of risk, nothing is taking a chance at being memorable. Thanos Wasn t Always Planned
via www.marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com After ten years and several films, television shows, Netflix series and billions of dollars later, the heroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will finally take on the big bad of their world; Thanos. Knowing Marvel and how far away they plan their stuff, you would think the Mad Titan was a part of their plans from the start. You would be dead wrong. It was only around the time of The Avengers that the idea of teasing Thanos entered the minds of Marvel. It was director Joss Whedon who made a last-second call that there should be somebody in the shadows who was helping Loki in his invasion of Earth. Of course, that purple-faced grinning monster appeared on the silver screens and fans lost their minds. Ike Perlmutter Was Ruining The Movies
via comicvine.gamespot.com (left) and forbes.com (right) Most fans are somewhat familiar with Kevin Feige on the left, but not as many people know of the man on the right known as Ike Perlmutter. This notoriously private individual is actually the Chairman of Marvel Entertainment and he is the reason behind many faults with Marvel Studios. Perlmutter can be blamed for a lot of things. He was, in fact, the reason why people of color weren't given solo movies or why popular Avenger Black Widow wasn't given a solo movie because he thought those things wouldn't sell. Feige was fed up with this old man's outdated mindset and cheap spending habits and in 2015 successfully campaigned to report to Disney CEO Bob Iger instead of Perlmutter. Perlmutter is also the reason why the Inhumans was heavily pushed, so you know where to point the finger for that debacle. It s Hard Being The Hulk
via marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com "I was low. I didn't see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the big guy spit it out." That's a quote from Dr. Bruce Banner in The Avengers. Now already that is some heavy imagery but there's no way that Marvel would have actually shown something like that. Well, they technically didn't in any film, but deleted scenes is another matter. The second movie saga in this and the only solo Hulk movie in the MCU, The Incredible Hulk had a deleted scene which shows in more detail what Banner was talking about in The Avengers. While its PG-13 rating prevented the film from actually showing Banner shooting himself, we knew what Marvel was getting at. In a post-Logan and Deadpool world, we might have seen the true scene. Jane Foster Swept Away
via polygon.com The first two Thor movies may have had their fans, but those films were largely forgotten when the mega smash hit Thor: Ragnarok was released this past fall. Fans of the original and its sequel may have been disappointed that Natalie Portman's Jane Foster was basically just swept away and forgotten about. It should be a pretty big deal that the main character's love interest was pushed aside like a dirty pair of socks but don't worry, Portman isn't shook up about it. The second Thor movie was originally set to be directed by Patty Jenkins, the same director of Wonder Woman. Portman was stoked to work with this, but when Jenkins was fired her enthusiasm went way down and when she was finally let go of the franchise in 2016 she or nobody else seemed to care. At least we got Valkyrie. Robert Downey Jr Allegedly Stiffed His Friend
via syfy.com Fans know that the role of James Rhodes changed actors from the first Iron Man movie to the second one. Played currently by Don Cheadle, War Machine was originally played by Terrence Howard before the role was recast. If what Howard alleges about his co-star Robert Downey Jr. is true, then it doesn't speak well of the Golden Avenger. Downey Jr. wasn't the highest paid actor in the first Iron Man movie, Howard was. However, when re-negotiating for the sequel came, Howard was dealt a massive pay cut as the studio felt he wasn't that important to the movie. Howard originally got his friend Downey the job, but when Howard asked him to help him out, Downey did nothing. Well, Howard is known for being a donkey on set, so maybe we should thank Downey. Leather Now With
via sheknows.com We are all very grateful that Scarlett Johansson rocks the leather jumpsuit for her role as Black Widow, and I think we all agree there. Well, we should bestow even more respect upon her given the fact that she goes madness to keep it on! In an interview with Jay Leno, she described wearing it as basically running around in "sweaty pajamas". If that wasn't bad enough, in another interview Johansson said that the outfit would get so darn hot that she actually began to hallucinate in one of her fight scenes in one of the Avengers movies. Perhaps she hallucinated that she had superpowers but alas, t'was a dream. The Spider Goes Down The Drain
via forward.com For whatever people think about Andrew Garfield's actual performance as Peter Parker in the Amazing Spider-Man series, the man is obviously a huge fan of the character. He has spoken at length about how hard he fought to inject more character development for Parker but his scenes were, unfortunately, cut time and time again. Not only were his scenes cut, but so was he and for a seemingly minor infraction. When Sony was hacked back in 2014 and a flood of private emails was released to the public, it was revealed that Garfield had refused to show up to an event in Brazil that was set to announce the reveal of Amazing Spider-Man 3. Garfield said it was due to an illness, and while it's never been confirmed that this was why he was let go from the franchise, it's possible that this was the reason. The Toll Of Playing Mystique
via youtube.com (SaturnusHybrid) maxim.com and yournewswire.com Alright, so the X-Men movies may not have aged very well and some of them are just bad but the makeup and special effects work on Mystique has always been amazing. There is a price to pay for playing the shape-shifting mutant though, and that's a price that the two women who have played Mystique know all too well. From the original X-Men all the way to X-Men: First Class, the total time it took Rebecca Romijn and Jennifer Lawrence to get prepared was EIGHT hours. They finally trimmed it down to three hours for X-Men: Days Of Future Past. This long process and the potential toxicity of all the makeup has been Lawrence's main reason that she considered leaving the franchise. Kitty Pryde Outed On Set
via viralcypher.com Wow, Brett Ratner really is awful, isn't he? Accused by multiple women, Ratner should be known by Marvel for directing what many consider to be the movie that dealt a crippling blow to the X-Men franchise X-Men: The Last Stand. It was on the set of that movie that Kitty Pryde actress Ellen Page was the victim of some awful treatment by the disgraced director. Page was 18 at the time of the film and in a Facebook post stated that Ratner told another woman at a meet and greet that they should hang together so she could realize she's gay. Not only is that inappropriate, but Page hadn't come out yet. The actress who played Rogue Anna Paquin corroborates these claims. If only Paquin had Rogue's power to lay a whooping on Ratner. Edgar Wright Treatment
via ew.com Ant-Man was no way near close to a big name in Marvel and to be honest, he still isn't. But that didn't stop that movie from being a nice little nugget in the MCU. Wright is a prestigious director with several critically acclaimed movies and when it was announced that he would be brought on to direct and write the pint-sized hero, some fans wet their pants with glee. After working with Joe Cornish since 2006 to bring Ant-Man to life, Wright left the project over creative differences with Marvel. Some fans were royally upset that Marvel didn't accommodate Wright more after all the time he spent on the film, but that just the way giant studios roll, yo. Directors Ignored Kevin Feige
via flixster.com (left) and via collider.com (right) While Kevin Feige wasn't a household name before he rose to prominence as the creative head of the MCU, he was definitely a part of the Marvel movies that were made before the MCU. Yes, Feige was a producer on such classics like Fantastic Four... and Daredevil... What the heck, Feige!? If you ask the man, don't blame him for those failures. In the same story for Vanity Fair mentioned in a previous slide, Feige spoke about how frustrated he was that in some of those films he produced, he offered plenty of creative advice only to watch it go ignored. It must have been such a relief to Feige that once he came onboard to the MCU he would be in charge of the creative destiny of Marvel... as long as Perlmutter butted out. Sam Raimi Knew Spider-Man 3 Was Meh
via thehollywoodreporter.com and youtube.com (Red Lion Movie Shorts) We sometimes forget just how many fingers are in the creative pie on such massive projects like superhero movies. A perfect example of how this process can get hair pulling for directors is the much-maligned Spider-Man 3. One of the criticisms of the controversial sequel was that there were too many villains crammed into the picture. Ignoring the fact that other superhero movies like The Dark Knight and Captain America: The Winter Soldier had multiple villains work, we can't lay the blame on Sam Raimi for this. The forced inclusion of Venom into the film was pushed by producer Avi Arad due to his name value. This was a thorn in Raimi's side and certainly helped him leave the franchise by the time of Spider-Man 4's production. Lack Of Oscars
via stgeorgeutah.com and pinterest.co.uk Superhero movies, in general, have a hard time when it comes to garnering Academy Awards. Aside from aesthetic categories like makeup or special effects, the soaring hits of the genre get ignored at the Academy Awards. In fact, the only actor to win an Oscar was Heath Ledger for his iconic portrayal of The Joker. With all its massive success at the box office and critically, one would think that at least one Marvel movie would break the trend but that hasn't been the case. Marvellous performances from actors like Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans have gotten them nothing from the Academy. Terrific directing from James Gunn? Nada. Heck, if DC can get an award from them for Makeup and Hairstyling, Marvel should have gotten at least ten. The Clone Conspiracy
via netflix.com (left) and marvelcinematicuniverse.wikia.com (right) If there's anything you can count on comic book fans to do, it's that they will look too deep into an issue that is a simple mistake. I count myself among them, after all, and while this one didn't end up amounting to much, it was still a puzzling choice by Marvel. Alfre Woodard is a gifted actress. Apparently she is so gifted that Marvel decided that they had to cast her twice. Twice in the same year, in fact, as not only did she appear as Tony Stark's plot device... err, I mean Miriam Sharpe, but also as one of the villains in the Netflix series Luke Cage. Marvel was quick to quell any suspicion that these two roles were related, but it just makes me wonder why they couldn't find someone else for the bit in Civil War. The Timeline Has Errors
via deviantart.com (Grimbro) and reikidoc.blogspot.ca Marvel is usually on the ball with keeping their continuity and story details down pretty pat. That doesn't mean they're flawless, however, as there have definitely been mistakes that can make fanboys burst into a Hulk rage. The most egregious of these errors in the timeline belongs to Spider-Man: Homecoming. In the film, it states at one point that the events in the movie take place eight years after the Chitauri invasion of New York. If that were the case, Spidey's first solo adventure in the MCU would take place in 2020, two years after Infinity War is supposed to take place. Obviously, this wouldn't make sense and Marvel knew this, assuring fans in October that a new timeline will be released to explain everything. WE DEMAND ANSWERS, FEIGE!!! Cap And Hawkeye Shamed Black Widow
via xdesktopwallpapers.com On the comics (and to a lesser degree the films) side, Marvel has shown a commitment to create and support female characters after years of those ladies being shown simply as objects of desire. Leave it to Hawkeye and Captain America himself, of all people, to go against this mission. In a press junket for Avengers: Age of Ultron, Chris Evans and Jeremy Renner made a joke about how Black Widow must get around, being involved with so many of the guys on the Avengers roster. This was quite a shock to many Marvel fans, but Renner and Evans were quick to apologize for their comments and they probably would just like to forget the whole thing ever happening. Maybe those guys were just jealous of the Hulk... The Office Evolution
via slashfilm.com and vannuysoffices.wordpress.com Marvel Studios is now the biggest juggernaut in the movie world and even before it was you would have assumed that Marvel would supply the head of their movie division with a nice office space. This was far from the case for Kevin Feige. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair Magazine's Joanna Robinson to promote Avengers: Infinity War, Feige dropped some gems about the origins of Marvel Studios. A shocking fact came about when Feige admitted that up until 2013, his offices were basic. He was sharing buildings with a company that makes freaking kites for God's sake. I suppose all that suffering was worth when you get to have Mjolnir and Iron Man armors in your current office. Bad Color Grading In Marvel Movies
via youtube.com (Mahvl Mahvlson) Due to the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there have been plenty of fans and critics who have done video essays on various topics in the franchise. One of them from a Youtuber by the name of Patrick (now there's a cool name) H. Willems made an essay entitled Why Do Marvel's Movies Look Kind of Ugly? In the video, Willems points out that because Marvel movies are shot on digital cameras, there is little contrast in the shots hence everything looks washed out and muddy. With just a few tweaks in Photoshop, Willems makes scenes from some of Marvel's movies pop with better visual aesthetics. If a YouTuber is able to do this, there's no excuse why a billion dollar studio owned by Disney shouldn't be able to do the same.