The Five Biggest Gambles That Were Make-Or-Break For the MCU, And One Absolutely Failed

The MCU is the highest-grossing movie franchise of all time, and despite the massive success that it has found, it took a lot of major risks to get there. In its early days, the MCU was an underdog, with it focusing on lesser Marvel heroes in comparison to FOX’s X-Men series and DC’s The Dark Knight trilogy. It might be hard to imagine in hindsight but Iron Man was hardly a sure-thing at the time – and Downey Jr. was an equally risky pick. Nowadays, the MCU is the gold standard of superhero cinematic universes, and while it’s had some hurdles to get over, the experiment has overall been a success.

While the MCU did have some easy wins, there were a lot of make-or-break decisions for the franchise that defined what the MCU is. Not all of these risks have paid off, but for those that have, they shifted the output of Marvel Studios and beyond.

5) Making Jean Grey A Spider-Man Villain

The MCU’s biggest risks aren’t exclusive to the franchise’s early days, as it is still taking big swings to this day. Ahead of the release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the identity of Sadie Sink’s character was a major mystery. It was clear that she was an antagonistic force in the film, but many MCU fans expected her to be a more traditional Spider-Man villain. Instead, the film revealed that Sink was playing one of the most iconic X-Men heroes: Jean Grey.

Introducing Jean Grey in a non-X-Men movie was a big enough risk on its own, but making her a villain was an even bigger gamble. Luckily, this move seems to have worked out for the MCU. Not only did the secrecy contribute to the marketing and massive box office success of Brand New Day, but it also helped revitalize interest in the future of the MCU. The casting of a young actress immediately appeals to younger audiences, a group that the MCU has struggled to capture in recent years, and introducing her in a Spider-Man movie immediately captures viewers who wouldn’t have otherwise checked out an X-Men movie. While the risk has just recently paid off, it’s clear that this was an incredible move for Marvel Studios.

4) Killing Marvel Television In Favor Of Disney+ Shows

While all of the other risks on this list paid off, this one absolutely did not. In the MCU’s early days, Marvel Television released a series of shows that went to network and cable, such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, and Cloak & Dagger, as well as a Defenders universe that released on Netflix, including Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and The Punisher. However, Marvel abruptly stopped supporting these shows in the late 2010s, instead shifting focus to making shows on Disney+. Programs like WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki were more heavily tied into the movies, but things quickly went downhill.

Disney+ shows like What If…? and Secret Invasion proved that the Disney+ shows were incredibly inconsistent, and there was constant fan outcry for the Marvel Television characters to be brought back. Luckily, after a few years, they began to creep back in. Daredevil appeared in shows like She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Echo before getting his own show, Daredevil: Born Again. Originally, this revival was meant to ignore the three Netflix seasons, but it later underwent a creative overhaul. Now, it’s a direct continuation of the original Marvel Television show, reintroducing characters like Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. Now, it seems like Marvel is winding down some of its Disney+ output, with one of the exceptions being more seasons of Daredevil: Born Again.

3) The Ending Of Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War was the beginning of the end of the Infinity Saga, telling the story that everything before had led up to. It was the ultimate crossover, finally gave Thanos the spotlight, and told the story of the Infinity Stones. However, it ended with half of the MCU’s superheroes dying. Almost every MCU fan lost a character they love at the end of Infinity War, and for a year audiences were left hanging on an incredibly dour note.

While killing a massive chunk of the MCU’s cast could have turned fans off to the franchise, it only made the release of Avengers: Endgame even more exciting. Fans couldn’t wait to see how the surviving Avengers brought their deceased comrades back, and the deaths only made Thanos a more terrifying villain. The ending of Infinity War had to walk a fine line, and it did so masterfully.

2) Recasting Bruce Banner In The Avengers

2008’s Iron Man famously kicked off the MCU, but just over a month later, the franchise’s second film was released: The Incredible Hulk. The film starred Ed Norton as Bruce Banner, giving the series another massive star. However, when Banner returned in 2012’s The Avengers, he didn’t look like Norton. Instead, Hulk was played by Mark Ruffalo, with the events of The Incredible Hulk being mostly ignored. Recasting the MCU’s second lead superhero was a massive risk, and it could have been a sign that the cinematic universe wasn’t able to overcome the challenges of maintaining years-long stories.

However, fans embraced Ruffalo’s casting with open arms, and while Norton did a good job in his film, he wasn’t really missed. Mark Ruffalo’s Banner has become one of the most prominent recurring characters in the MCU, with him still appearing all these years later in Brand New Day. While the actor unfortunately hasn’t gotten his own Hulk solo movie, he has played incredible roles in every MCU project he’s appeared in, and hopefully he’ll continue to get the spotlight in the coming years.

1) The Casting Of Robert Downey Jr. As Iron Man

While a casting change was a risk for the MCU a few years later, the franchise’s first casting choice was the ultimate make-or-break gamble. In the late 1990s, Downey’s legal troubles and struggles with addiction led to his career backsliding – taking a major blow in the early 2000s. Betting the entire MCU on Downey’s comeback role was a huge risk, and the fact that his controversial role in Tropic Thunder made its debut only a few months after Iron Man probably didn’t make the higher-ups at Marvel Studios any more confident about their choice.

However, audiences and critics alike loved Downey in Iron Man. The actor remained the face of the MCU until Tony Stark’s death in Endgame, and even now he is returning to the franchise as Doom in Avengers: Doomsday. Downey is an A-List, Oscar-winning actor, and his recent successes can be directly traced back to Iron Man. The casting of Downey is the best choice that the MCU ever made, and this was far from certain ahead of Iron Man‘s release.