The Greatest Marvel Movie Scene Ever Was Cut Before You Could See It

For the first time since 2023's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3," Marvel Studios and its head honcho, Kevin Feige, have a homegrown critical success, and, just maybe, a new Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise that can stand on its own. The jury's still out on the latter, but, as of now, "Thunderbolts*" is inarguably a hit with reviewers (88% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and moviegoers (who gave it an A- CinemaScore). Provided the movie holds well at the box office (which it should, given the positive word of mouth), the Feige fam should be downright stoked as they near the kickoff of their pivotal Phase Six launch, "The Fantastic Four: First Steps."

Still, six years after "Avengers" Endgame," it's amazing to see this once formidable franchise staggered by a series of misfires (namely, "The Marvels," "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," "Captain America: Brave New World," and the overabundant Disney+ shows). Prior to 2021, second-guessing Marvel Studios was a fool's errand. Its miraculous run from 2008's "Iron Man" to 2019's "Avengers: Endgame" set a commercial franchise gold standard that may never be surpassed — and this heater started with a big-budget gamble on a character who was, at the time, considered to be a B-level hero. There would be other risks going forward (most notably, James Gunn's oddball "Guardians of the Galaxy"), but the brand was so strong after "The Avengers" that a box office windfall was guaranteed. Marvel could've made a "Howard the Duck" movie and earned a tidy profit.

It's fair to say Marvel Studios made the right call every step of the way. Totally fair. But it made one inexplicable mistake that stuns me to this day — one that the vast majority of Marvel fans know nothing about. Again, you cannot argue with the company's overall success, but somewhere between Joss Whedon's first draft of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" and the finished film, Marvel and the filmmaker kiboshed what would've been the most rousing scene in superhero movie history. And this still bums me out.

10 years ago this month, "Avengers: Age of Ultron" hit multiplexes the world over as the penultimate installment of the MCU's Phase Two. Aside from the mild letdown of "Thor: The Dark World," the Marvel movie brand was in splendid shape. Shane Black's "Iron Man 3" remains the most thematically fascinating MCU film, while "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" might be the franchise's most thrillingly propulsive entry. Then came Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy," which wound up being the third highest grossing film at the worldwide box office in 2014.

Marvel still had its core group of Avengers under contract for more movies, which gave it the highly profitable luxury of extending the Thanos saga over a whopping 11 more films. (As Warner Bros. proved with its "Justice League" rush job, patience is a virtue when it comes to franchise building, provided you've earned it.) But most moviegoers weren't privy to the stars' contractual obligations in 2015, which meant there was still a sense of jeopardy heading into "Avengers: Age of Ultron." So, when a rumor began circulating in the months leading up to the release of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" that one of the Avengers would perish in the film, fan speculation ran wild all over social media. No one felt expendable at this point. Who could the MCU afford to sacrifice?

Having read Whedon's screenplay, I knew the answer: The rumor was bulls***. No one died. Writing for Ain't It Cool News at the time, I was pressured to reveal some of what I knew, but I had no interest in spilling a single bean. For starters, debunking a spoiler would be a spoiler in and of itself. Secondly, one character actually did come very, very close to dying, and I just assumed Marvel was priming the pump for the screenplay's amazing third act moment — which, if executed correctly, would send moviegoers leaping out of their seats in fist-pumping ecstasy.

Joss Whedon was playing with house money when he wrote "Avengers: Age of Ultron." His first film as a writer-director for Marvel, 2012's "The Avengers," was the third-highest-grossing film of all time behind "Avatar" and "Titanic." I'd read that script prior to production as well, and it was just a, well, marvelously constructed thing. Whedon is a uniquely gifted storyteller, and, as I flipped through the pages of the most anticipated Hollywood blockbuster since "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace" a full year in advance, I couldn't believe a) my luck and b) how blissfully perfect it seemed to be. Whedon far exceeded my expectations. He was clearly born to send the superhero genre skyrocketing into the stratosphere and beyond. "The Avengers" (cheekily titled "Group Hug") was the best superhero screenplay I'd ever read — until I got my mitts on "Avengers: Age of Ultron."

Marvel already had a reputation for radically refashioning its movies during principal photography and post-production (not always for the better, though "Iron Man 2" was a mess on the page as well), but Whedon's final cut of "The Avengers" was largely unaltered from what worked so thrillingly well on the page (his early draft even included Thanos' post-credits sequence). As such, I figured I was reading the actual movie. Even though Whedon's script for "Avengers: Age of Ultron" had twice as many plates spinning as "The Avengers," he deftly segued from one complication to another as if he'd been dying to tell this story his entire life. That screenplay was a Cadillac.

On the page and in the completed movie, the main narrative and thematic thrust of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" deals with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Bruce Banner's (Mark Ruffalo) reckless creation of the eponymous villain (James Spader). They're a couple of Dr. Frankensteins/Oppenheimers who've unleashed an AI extinction-level threat on the entire planet — and they're both honorable enough men to know they have a sworn duty to save Earth from their monster. Alas, on the way to the calamitous reckoning in the fictional Eastern European country of Sokovia, Banner suffers a Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen)-provoked Hulk-out, which results in a wide swath of Johannesburg getting leveled. The film doesn't explicitly say, but it's safe to assume that he killed hundreds, if not thousands, of people. An understandably devastated Banner resolves to never become the Hulk again. The Avengers will now have to defeat Ultron without their heaviest hitter.

As you know, Ultron's big plan is to blast the Sokovian capital city of Novi Grad into the sky and then slam it back to Earth, thus wiping out all of humanity. But while the Avengers receive some new, helpful assistance in the form of the Vision (Paul Bettany), Scarlet Witch, and the latter's brother Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), contending with Ultron's multitude of robot minions is seemingly too tall an order.

Here's where Whedon's draft departs from the movie.

The only way to save the planet is to disable Ultron himself, which Stark views as his sole responsibility; ergo, he takes on the suicide mission of battling the far more powerful folly of his unchecked genius in the hope that he can buy the the other Avengers enough time (including, thank Asgard, Chris Hemsworth as a just-returned Thor) to neutralize Ultron's army. So, Stark suits up and confronts Ultron in a centuries-old cathedral.

Though Stark initially puts up a good fight, Ultron gradually gains the upper hand. The AI baddie relishes every second of this thrashing, battering Iron Man until much of his body — arms, legs and abdomen, but not his head — are exposed. Finally, Ultron stands over a conquered Stark (who looks and sounds as if he's on the verge of death), ready to deliver the coup de grâce. There is no Avenger in the vicinity of Ultron. Stark is going down. Then this happens (and I'm recalling the dialogue from memory).

An arrogant Ultron asks, "Are you ready to die, Stark?

Stark, suddenly back to his jaunty self, replies, "Wait, you think that's me in there?"

The arm sticking out of the shredded suit turns green.

Ultron freaks out. "What???," he cries.

Then, boom, the Hulk bursts out of the armor.

Cut to Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) in a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopter circling Sokovia, where she sings, "My boyfriends back, and you're gonna be in trouble."

The Hulk proceeds to utterly thrash Ultron.

Ultron wisely taps out of his set-to with the Hulk and flees for safety, at which point the film generally ends with the Avengers en route to where they'd be at the outset of "Captain America: Civil War." And that's why the decision to cut this crowd-pleasing bit out of the movie remains so puzzling to me: It would've changed nothing in the near- or long-term.

When "Avengers: Age of Ultron" was released, Birth.Movies.Death, without revealing the specifics of the scene (because it was potentially being saved for a future movie), asked Whedon why the Hulk's big moment was cut. According to Whedon:

"It's a great gag, but I couldn't justify it. We were building a lot of the final battle around it, and it was killing us. Even when we were shooting. We had to stutter-step everything else, and eventually in post I convinced them we need to jettison this concept. I knew I could write a conclusion for Bruce and Natasha that I thought would be much better storytelling, and would be a real moment."

This would've been an opportune time for Marvel to override its director (or, at the least, strongly insist on keeping the gag in the movie), but, again, Whedon was playing with house money. Marvel trusted his billion-dollar instincts, and thus the scene was jettisoned. The studio toyed with wedging this moment into the Russos-directed "Avengers: Infinity War" (during the Wakanda battle), but the powered-up Thor's return gave the film all the rah-rah juice it needed. And now, with Stark and Iron Man out of the picture for the foreseeable future, it's safe to say the bit is dead. And Marvel Studios is none the worse for wear from exercising it.