Canceled Marvel Movies We Still Want To See

Marvel, and specifically the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has dominated the zeitgeist for nearly two decades at this point. There's always plenty of talk as to whether general audiences are getting tired of Marvel movies, and while the MCU may not be as infallible as it once was, there's still ample interest. 2024's "Deadpool & Wolverine" crossed the $1 billion mark, and "Daredevil: Born Again" has been largely viewed within a positive light. Sure, every so often you get a "Captain America: Brave New World" that underperforms, but superhero movies will always have a place within the cultural landscape.

Some might argue that there are already too many Marvel movies, but they're could've been plenty more. For every Marvel project that winds up in theaters, there are numerous others where a script was written or even went into pre-production but got cancelled for one reason or another. Honestly, some of these cancelled Marvel movies sound better than many of the films we've wound up with. 

We'll never know if these synopses would've paid off, but we'd still love to see some iteration of these movies come to fruition. With the multiverse more popular than ever, anything is technically possible, so maybe some of these projects aren't quite dead yet. 

Here are some cancelled Marvel movies that we still want to see!

Channing Tatum's Gambit could've made a name for himself long before being an incomprehensible card dealer in "Deadpool & Wolverine." Work on a solo "Gambit" movie dates to 2014 with Tatum in the lead role and promising a different kind of superhero movie. Rupert Wyatt, who previously made "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," signed on as director. It even had a release date on the calendar on October 7, 2016, but that never came to pass. 

Wyatt quickly dropped out of "Gambit," apparently not wanting to compromise his creative vision for the project. "Edge of Tomorrow" helmer Doug Liman was eyed for the director's chair for a period of time, and even Edgar Wright of "Shaun of the Dead" fame was courted to no avail. The film frequently saw many starts and stops over the years, and when Disney purchased Fox in 2019, the project was officially declared dead. Lizzy Caplan, who at one point joined the film as the female lead, described the film's plot to Variety as such: "They wanted to do, like, a '30s kind of screwball romantic comedy set in [the X-Men] world, which would have been really fun."

But Tatum's Gambit would eventually make it to the big screen with a small supporting role in "Deadpool & Wolverine." For people who followed the movie's journey for the past decade, it was finally some semblance of payoff, even if Tatum's role was mostly there as a joke with no one being able to understand his thick accent. Tatum has also been confirmed to appear in "Avengers: Doomsday," and even though the jokey Gambit may seem like an odd fit for the more serious film, the actor has put in enough work to enjoy his victory lap. 

"Spider-Man 3" ends with Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) and Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) embracing during a dance. After going through a roller coaster of emotions, as well as the death of their friend Harry Osborn (James Franco), the scene implies there's still a future for the two. An implication is all we have to work with, because director Sam Raimi never had the chance to make a follow-up despite being interested in one. 

Sam Raimi's vision for "Spider-Man 4" involved the Vulture being the main villain, and there would've been a plot thread of his daughter, the Vulturess, taking over The Daily Bugle. Other possible ideas have leaked out over the years, such as Spider-Man fighting a bunch of C-list villains,  like Shocker and Prowler, during the opening sequence, as well as Anne Hathaway joining the franchise as Black Cat. 

As for what exactly happened to Raimi's "Spider-Man 4," he was reportedly unhappy with various iterations of the script. He seemingly wanted to get this story just right, especially considering the more tepid response to "Spider-Man 3" compared to his previous two outings. Sony wanted "Spider-Man 4" to come out on May 6, 2011, and with Raimi not sure he could deliver a solid Spidey outing by that time, he stepped aside. 

Maguire would play Peter Parker once more in "Spider-Man: No Way Home," and there's a decent shot he could reprise the role yet again in the MCU's upcoming "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Avengers: Secret Wars." It's a fun nostalgia play, but we'll always wonder what could've been had he got just one more film. 

Deadpool fans were convinced Taylor Swift would play Dazzler in "Deadpool & Wolverine." Of course, that never happened, and as of now, the character's only big-screen appearance came in 2019's "Dark Phoenix," and the less said about that the better. She's a popular mutant in Marvel Comics with the ability to turn sound vibrations into attacks, and in another timeline, she could've been an early precursor for the superhero movie boon with her own movie in the 1980s. 

We can't say whether it would've been good, but it would've absolutely been bonkers in the most deliciously '80s way imaginable. Gary Goddard wrote a script, and the plot would've reportedly seen Dazzler, played by Bo Derek, getting transported to a dystopian world alongside the Avengers and Spider-Man. It was ahead of the curve as far as superhero team-ups, and it would have also involved Cher, the Village People, and KISS playing various roles in the dystopian New York City. 

It doesn't appear as though the project got past the script phase, and it sounds like Derek was all right with that. In an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment in 2021, Derek revealed how she was offered a lot of gigs throughout the 1980s, and it was all a bit much. "I was being offered everything," she stated. "I had a huge offer for a ton of money to play a female wrestler. You can see that I'm not really the type! Playing Dazzler — this incredible rock performer — would have taken a lot of training, so I wasn't anxious to do all that." 

As it stands, Dazzler has yet to break out beyond the comics, but maybe someday she'll get her big break, even if someone other than Taylor Swift has to play her.

When it comes to canceled Marvel movies, "Spider-Man 4" and "Gambit" come up pretty frequently. Honestly, anything with superheroes is automatically going to garner more attention than non-superhero comic adaptations. But in the 1990s, there was talk of a movie based on the "Mort the Dead Teenager" miniseries, which only comprises four issues in total. Despite Mort not being as recognizable as a name as Spider-Man, this project still attracted some serious attention. 

The comic is about Mort, a dead teenager who can't enter heaven or hell, so he's sent back to Earth to see everyone mourning him. It sounds like a bit of a bummer, but the film adaptation quickly garnered some A-list talent. Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis signed on to produce the project, and when they left, Quentin Tarantino came aboard to keep it going. Rumors suggest Elijah Wood could've played the titular Mort, and Jessica Simpson also reportedly signed on to star as a love interest. 

It's unclear why "Mort" fell apart, but it's worth noting that Tarantino signed on around 2002, the same year "Spider-Man" swung into theaters. It's possible the powers that be determined superheroes were the next big thing and didn't necessarily want to waste time on resources about a dead kid getting into afterlife shenanigans. But this is one Marvel project we wish would've happened if nothing else to see what Spielberg, Zemeckis, and/or Tarantino could've done with it. And with superheroes now dominating everything, a comic book adaptation that's a little off the beaten path sounds like a pleasant alternative. 

Quentin Tarantino has many projects he tried to make but couldn't for one reason or another, one of which was a "Luke Cage" film back in the '90s. The director's actually a big comic book fan with one of his other favorite heroes being Shang-Chi, an appropriate pick given the kung-fu influences in "Kill Bill Vol. 1" and "Vol. 2." But it was "Luke Cage" that he had his eyes on after the success of "Reservoir Dogs," and he would've maybe done it too if he had better friends. 

Tarantino appeared on an episode of the "3 Girls, 1 Keith" podcast and explained how his comic book friends thought Wesley Snipes was the only choice to play Luke Cage in a film, even though Tarantino wanted Laurence Fishburne. The argument apparently got so intense that he just dropped the whole thing. "I go, 'Look, I like Wesley Snipes, but Larry Fishburne is practically Marlon Brando. I think Fish is the man,'" Tarantino recalled. "And they're like, 'Yeah, but he'd have to get in shape in a big way. Snipes is that way already!' And I go, 'F*** that! That's not that important! F*** you, you ruined the whole damn thing!"

It's unclear how much of this is in jest, but either way, Tarantino went on to make "Pulp Fiction," which instantly put him on the map of most iconic directors of the era. Tarantino forging his own path led to such amazing films as "Jackie Brown" and "Inglorious Bastards," but it'll always be fascinating to wonder what the comic book film genre would look like today had the filmmaker dipped his toes in it in the '90s.

Doctor Doom, despite being one of the most popular Marvel villains ever, has been done pretty dirty on the big screen. Iterations of the character in the 2000s "Fantastic Four" franchise as well as the 2015 reboot failed to make much of an impression. Robert Downey Jr. will play the big bad in "Avengers: Doomsday," hinting at several possible comic storylines, but it's still likely a multiversal variant of the character rather than a pure distillation fans would likely adore. It just makes us wish Noah Hawley had a chance to make his "Doctor Doom" movie before Disney acquired 20th Century Fox. 

In 2017, reports surfaced that Hawley, who previously worked on "Legion," was working on a "Doom" movie. Mads Mikkelsen even expressed interest in playing the titular character, but it's unclear if any casting ever became official. Perhaps most intriguingly, Hawley described the "Doctor Doom" movie as being a political thriller, even likening it to "Captain America: The Winter Soldier."

Sadly, the film wouldn't come to pass as all this was taking place right before Disney acquired Fox, bringing all of its Marvel characters into the MCU, including Doom. Hawley admitted to speaking with Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige around this time to try to make Doom work within that greater cinematic universe, but it doesn't appear that anything ever came from it.

Long before 2016's "Captain America: Civil War" would adapt the iconic comic book arc, 20th Century Fox allegedly wanted its own version with the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. Screenwriters Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller were working on a script around 2011 that would've included pretty much all the characters Fox had the rights to, and that includes Daredevil and Deadpool in the mix as well, and Paul Greengrass of "The Bourne Supremacy" was in talks to direct. 

Nothing ever materialized, but luckily, we do know what this proposed "X-Men vs. Fantastic Four" film would've looked like. Johnny Storm would've gone supernova in the middle of New York, kickstarting the film's events and making the government want to register superheroes. This would put the superheroes on opposite sides of whether or not to sign up, which would lead to one battle between Wolverine and Mr. Fantastic. 

On top of all that, the film would've teased a Skrull invasion at the very end, suggesting the shape-shifters would factor into future installments of the 20th Century Fox-Marvel universe. "X-Men: First Class" came out in 2011 instead, and while it's a great movie, it'd be fascinating to see how the "X-Men" franchise would've developed with this take. 

There have been several attempts to make a solo "Silver Surfer" movie over the decades. The character, as a lonely herald of Galactus, has a lot of potential with cosmic angst and existentialism, but nothing's ever transpired. That includes Quentin Tarantino reportedly writing a script at one point, but arguably, the funniest attempt to get a "Silver Surfer" movie off the ground comes from two USC students who didn't even have the rights to the character.

Two film students — Erik Fleming and Robert Letterman — shared a passion for the character and wanted to make a short film showcasing him using what was available in visual effects in the early 1990s. They got permission from both Marvel and Constantin Films, the latter of which owned the film rights to the character at the time, but neither was committing to a full "Silver Surfer" movie. They made the five-minute film, which is worth checking out on YouTube, and they immediately caught the interest of studios.

After screening it at USC, the short got the pair some buzz. "We get calls from every single studio, every single agency," Fleming told CBR. "We're having lunch with presidents of studios. No one's ever heard of the Silver Surfer and they think we own the rights to him. And we're like, 'No, we're idiots, we don't own it.'" It may have not gone beyond the initial short film, but a somewhat corny-looking '90s "Silver Surfer" movie would've been rad. 

20th Century Fox passing on a "Fantastic Four vs. X-Men" film isn't the only major "What if" in that continuity. Byron Burton, who worked as an assistant to "X-Men" film composer John Ottman, wrote a script titled "X-Men: Fear the Beast," planning it as a spin-off of the franchise starting with "First Class" that would see Hank McCoy, aka Beast (Nicholas Hoult), try to gain better control over his animalistic nature. 

You can read the entire script for "X-Men: Fear the Beast" online, and it would involve Hank traveling to an Inuit village that's being terrorized by a creature. Ottman described the tone to The Hollywood Reporter, saying, "We wanted to have the tenor of John Carpenter's 'The Thing' where you are in this inhospitable environment." The story also would've brought in various other X-Men characters like Wolverine, Jean Grey, and Storm. Sadly, the story was shot down by Simon Kinberg, who was overseeing the franchise at the time and directing "Dark Phoenix." He didn't even read it, as he didn't want it to influence his own plans for the franchise's future. 

Most interestingly, "Fear the Beast" would've introduced Mister Sinister at the very end, setting him up for a multi-film arc. The villain was teased at the end of "X-Men: Apocalypse" as well, but he's never made a grand debut on the big screen just yet. Maybe the X-Men under the MCU can change that. 

Why is it seemingly impossible for anyone to make a "Sinister Six" movie? Back in 2013, Sony was very interested in developing a "Sinister Six" spin-off of "The Amazing Spider-Man" universe with Drew Goddard working on the screenplay. Goddard's vision for the film would've been inspired by old Marvel summer annuals that were a bit out of the mainline continuity. Goddard seemingly wanted to do a supervillain team-up that could be a fun one-off while not stepping on any other films' toes in this ever-expanding franchise. 

We'll probably never know what that looks like as "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" underperformed at the box office, killing any hope of spin-offs. This is despite the fact the sequel had several scenes setting up the introduction of the Sinister Six, including teases of Vulture's wings and Doctor Octopus' robotic arms. Meanwhile, Andrew Garfield was out as Spider-Man, and Tom Holland took over the role in the MCU. In a 2018 interview, Goddard kept his hopes alive that his "Sinister Six" could happen one day, but it's been a long time since that statement was made. 

It seemed like Sony was building up to a different "Sinister Six" movie with its slate of villain-centric solo films like "Venom," "Morbius," and "Kraven the Hunter." However, the Sony Spider-Man Universe appears dead after the tepid reception to "Kraven the Hunter," so it's unclear if a "Sinister Six" film of any sort will ever happen or if Sony will simply continue focusing on tried-and-true Spider-Man stories like "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" and "Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse."