The success of Marvel has given opportunities for actors to seriously boost their careers in recent years. Actors like Chris Pratt, Chris Evans, and Dave Bautista have become very big-name actors in the industry since they began their work with Marvel.
They can arguably credit their success to the superhero flick that they signed up for all those years ago. Despite this, working with Marvel hasn't always been the most pleasant experience for everyone.
Movies like Thor: The Dark World, Blade Trinity, and several of the X-Men films were not as smooth of a ride as more recent Marvel movies like Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: Ragnarok.
Thor: Dark World, in particular, received a number of complaints from its cast and crew, claiming the entire experience was supposedly studio controlled, with the studio heads refusing to give almost anyone creative control, making the several months of production into a truly unpleasant time.
Earlier Marvel movies received a bad rap from actors as well, as many superhero films did during the early 2000s. Even DC movies had many issues, with Halle Berry at one point coming forward to sarcastically thank Warner Bros. for including her in the "piece of s**t, god-awful movie" that was Catwoman.
Sometimes the complaints of actors are just actors being stuck-up and unfavorable, whereas other times, such as in the example of Catwoman, they make some very reasonable points.
With that said, here are the 15 Actors Who Regretted Being In Marvel Movies.
Idris Elba - Thor: The Dark World
Later this year, Pacific Rim actor Idris Elba will appear in his fifth Marvel movie, reprising his role of Heimdall in Avengers: Infinity War. While he has stayed on with the franchise for several years now, the experience hasn't always been the best for him.
Shortly after the release of Thor: The Dark World, Elba opened up to Telegraph about almost quitting. "This is torture, man. I don’t want to do this," Elba recalled telling his agent. Had he not been contractually obligated to return on set, it was likely that he would've walked.
Reportedly, Elba's largest issue with The Dark World was his lack of development.
Heimdall was present throughout much of the movie, but, like many characters in the film, was barely used as part of the plot, and was only there for obligatory purposes.
Considering that he had become one of Hollywood's biggest stars, the entire experience was almost degrading for him.
Terrence Howard - Iron Man
Marvel Studios typically tries to avoid recasting their characters, almost always managing to bring back their actors. One of the most notable exceptions to this is Tony Stark's oldest friend "Rhodey," who was recast between Iron Man and Iron Man 2.
There was reportedly a lot of bad blood between Robert Downey Jr. and Terrence Howard during the time of these films. For the first movie, Howard actually earned a larger paycheck than Downey, but Downey demanded a bit more pay for the sequel.
This, in turn, bumped Howard's paycheck down a grade, leading him to walk away from the project and never forgive Robert Downey Jr. for his "betrayal."
“It turns out that the person I helped become Iron Man… when it was time to re-up for the second one, [he] took the money that was supposed to go to me and pushed me out,” Howard told Bravo.
Fortuantely, Howard's predecessor, Don Cheadle, ultimately became a better fit for the role in the eyes of most Marvel fans.
Ben Affleck - Daredevil
It's hard to see Ben Affleck as any superhero except Batman, and this was exactly his intention when he first took the role of the Caped Crusader. Affleck never stopped regretting his role in the original live-action Daredevil in 2003.
When the New York Times asked Affleck about taking the role of Batman, Affleck said, “Part of it was I wanted for once to get one of these movies and do it right — to do a good version. I hate Daredevil so much.”
Clearly, Affleck wanted to clear his name in the superhero fandom, and for the most part it worked. For better or for worse, superhero fans only really think of Affleck as Bruce Wayne now.
While this isn't always the most positive thing, as many people despise Affleck as the Dark Knight, it is still an improvement from his role as Daredevil.
Jessica Alba - Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer
There's nothing worse for an actor than being completely controlled by a director. Actors and actresses strive on being able to add creativity to their characters, in order to help make them real in their head. Unfortunately for Sue Storm actress Jessica Alba, this was not the case for the sequel to Fantastic Four.
"The director was like, 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica.' He was like, 'Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in,'" Alba said, stating that the movie had nearly made her quit acting.
Alba explained that the way that the director wanted her character to perform didn't feel natural or "human" at all, which would explain why audiences complained so much about her performance.
Wesley Snipes - Blade Trinity
While Wesley Snipes never opened up publicly regarding his hatred of working on the third Blade, stories from on-set said it for him. Patton Oswalt, in particular, told several stories from on set, claiming that Snipes had become very hard to work with, and all he'd ever say to other cast and crew members was "I am Blade."
"They let everyone pick their own clothes -- there was one black actor," Oswalt recalled, "And he wore this shirt with the word 'Garbage' on it in big stylish letters. ... And Wesley came down to the set, which he only did for close-ups. ... He comes on and goes, 'There’s only one other black guy in the movie, and you make him wear a shirt that says ‘Garbage?’ ... And he tried to strangle the director."
Things came to a climax when director David Goyer confronted Snipes and said the project would be better if he quit, as they already had all of the close-ups they needed of him and could use stand-ins for the rest.
Snipes decided to remain with the project after that, but would only communicate with others using passive aggressive Post-It notes.
Lea Thompson - Howard The Duck
Actress Lea Thompson may be best known for her role in Back to the Future, but her leading role as the singer Beverly in Howard the Duck made her into a cult icon. While she never complained about the fame that came from the movie, there was one word that Thompson said best described her time on set: "pain."
This, understandably, can best be attributed to the infinitely awkward intimate scene that goes down toward the middle of the movie.
While intimate scenes are almost always awkward for the actors involved, this scene was even more awkward, as it was between Thompson and Howard the Duck himself.
Whether it was because of this scene specifically, or because of the on-set experience as a whole, Howard the Duck was apparently very painful for Thompson, and it would explain why she never took a role where she co-starred with a duck again.
Mickey Rourke - Iron Man 2
As fantastic as the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become, Iron Man 2 was definitely one of its lower points. Mickey Rourke would agree with this statement, as he full on hates the movie, despite being the primary antagonist Whiplash.
“I’m not a Marvel fan," Rourke said on Late Night With Seth Meyers. "I did, once, a movie for Marvel … and they cut the whole f**king thing out.” Rourke went on to compare it to the great experience he had on Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, where the director didn't "waste his time" shooting content that would never be seen.
Mickey Rourke wasn't the only great actor to be wasted in a villain role whose content was drastically cut. Other villains like Malekith the Accursed, Ronan the Accuser, and Hela didn't see much beyond the cutting room floor, despite being played by phenomenal actors.
Jennifer Garner - Elektra
As disliked as the original Daredevil starring Ben Affleck was, most people agree that its spin-off Elektra, starring Jennifer Garner, was far worse. While Jennifer is too nice and protective of her career to go out publicly and complain about a project, evidence has been found about how much she really didn't like the movie.
"I heard [Elektra] was awful. [Jennifer] called me and told me it was awful," Garner's ex-boyfriend told Us Weekly "She had to do it because of Daredevil. It was in her contract."
While it was shocking to hear Garner complain about her own work, can we blame her? Elektra did not stand the test of time, and Garner is most likely proud of that, hoping that more and more people will keep forgetting that any of it ever happened.
Gwyneth Paltrow - Iron Man 3
Gwyneth Paltrow is considered Hollywood royalty by most, being the daughter of Blythe Danner and Bruce Paltrow, which would explain why she holds her acting résumé to a higher standard than most.
Considering the prestige that Paltrow typically holds herself to, it was shocking to see that Paltrow agreed to be in the Iron Man series in the first place, and even more shocking that she is still on board today, as she is set to appear in Avengers: Infinity War.
A little while back, Paltrow sat down for an interview with Entertainment Tonight and opened up about her distaste in working with Marvel lately. “I don’t think I like it anymore,” Paltrow admitted, claiming that acting just isn't her thing anymore.
She also admitted that she was getting tired of Marvel being so secretive, as they wouldn't tell her which movies she would be in at times.
This is why it's so surprising to see Paltrow still working with Marvel today. Maybe it's in her contract, or maybe it's just for the money.
Edward Norton - The Incredible Hulk
The feud between Marvel and actor Edward Norton has become something of a legend in Hollywood that seriously hurt Norton's career.
When Norton first agreed to star as Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk, he only agreed to do it if he could rewrite a few small parts of the script. This isn't uncommon for lead actors to do, especially for actors that also write like Norton.
However, only a couple weeks before production, Norton gave Marvel a completely new script that he demanded they shoot, otherwise he was reportedly going to walk.
Desperate to keep their star, but unable to completely change their production schedule, director Louis Letterier opted to shoot a combination of both scripts which, unfortunately, did not turn out the best.
The studio ended up having to fund a lot of money into reshoots in order to make a comprehensive story, and Norton was not pleased. This feud continued for a while, with both sides trying to blame the other. Needless to say, Norton was let go from The Avengers, despite him being open to returning as Hulk.
Famke Janssen - The X-Men Franchise
Jean Grey actress Famke Janssen didn't have much of an issue with the X-Men series until the time of X-Men: Apocalypse, when her character was recast with Sophie Turner. Following the news of the recasting, Janssen went public about her disappointment with the sexism in Hollywood.
“Women, it’s interesting because they’re replaced, and the older versions are never to be seen again,” Janssen told Entertainment Weekly. “Whereas the men are allowed to be both ages."
Janssen went on to insist that the older Jean Grey should've continued in the movies, much like her previous co-stars Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen did.
While it's certainly possible that FOX didn't ask for Janssen to return in a prominent role due to the negative backlash on her performance in X-Men: The Last Stand, Janssen took personal offense, and likely won't be working on a Marvel movie again.
Kate Mara - Fantastic 4
Making only $56 million back at the domestic box office, it's rather clear that not a lot of people went to see the 2015 version of Fantastic 4 in theaters. Included in this group of people who didn't see the movie is one of the movie's stars Kate Mara, who played Sue Storm.
Mara admitted to The Times that she was "a little bit gun-shy" to see the movie after hearing how bad it was from critics and audience members alike. The House of Cards actress saw it best if she wasn't associated with the movie, hoping that it wouldn't affect her career negatively.
Mara later revealed that she might be open to a sequel, but this would most likely be to redeem her name in the franchise. Most of the movie's cast and crew regretted their work on the project, including Director Josh Trank, and all have made it clear that they want to do better going forward.
Hugo Weaving - Captain America: The First Avenger
Hugo Weaving is arguably one of the biggest fandom actors of all time, having played significant roles in The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, Transformers, and Captain America: The First Avenger. Of all of those movies, the latter was the one he ultimately regretted the most.
"It’s not something I would want to do again," Weaving told Collider, regarding his experience playing the Captain America villain Red Skull.
"I did sign up for a number of pictures and I suppose, contractually, I would be obliged to, if they forced me to, but they wouldn’t want to force someone to do it, if they didn’t want to. I think I’ve done my dash with that sort of film," he said.
While Weaving doesn't completely regret being in The First Avenger, saying it was a good experience for him, his regret appears to be in signing a multi-picture contract. It's likely that we won't see Red Skull return to the MCU any time soon, despite the actor being obliged to return if asked.
Ryan Reynolds - X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Ryan Reynolds may have redeemed his portrayal of Deadpool in 2016's Deadpool, and later this year with Deadpool 2, but his track record of the character has not been perfect. He first appeared as the Merc With The Mouth in 2008's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and it was not a pleasant time for him.
“It was a very frustrating experience,” Reynolds told People. “I was already attached to the Deadpool movie. We hadn’t at that point written a script yet. [Origins] came along and it was sort of like, ‘Play Deadpool in this movie or we’ll get someone else to.’ And I just said, ‘I’ll do it, but it’s the wrong version. Deadpool isn’t correct in it.'”
Reynolds credited the issues in Origins to the writers strike that took place during the time of pre-production and production of the movie.
Even though the movie lost its writers, they still had a deadline.
Reynolds recalls most of his dialogue having to be written by himself. It's fortunate that FOX gave Reynolds the chance to make his own version of the character, otherwise Deadpool may never have been redeemed.
Andrew Garfield - The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The Amazing Spider-Man movies were not up to par with the previous Spider-Man films, or even the more recent Spider-Man: Homecoming, and that is something that star Andrew Garfield is willing to admit.
When Garfield first signed up to be in the movies, it was a dream come true, but everything changed when the sequel came around and the studio's priorities had changed, as they supposedly focused more on setting up spin-offs and sequels than on the story itself.
“I found that really, really tricky," Garfield told Variety. "I signed up to serve the story, and to serve this incredible character that I’ve been dressing as since I was three, and then it gets compromised and it breaks your heart ... I got heartbroken a little bit to a certain degree.”
According to reports, Garfield lost so much hope in the franchise that he would often stop showing up to mandatory meetings during the production of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, as seeing his childhood hero Spider-Man being ripped to shreds was too much for the actor.
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Can you think of any other actors who regretted working with Marvel? Sound off in the comments!