Marvel Studios has a reputation for long-term planning, but in reality the studio is a lot more flexible than most viewers believe, making quite a few course corrections in their 10 year history. Back in 2008, when Marvel launched the MCU with Iron Man, it was an open secret that everything was building up to The Avengers. But the studio was new, relatively untested, and idea of a shared cinematic universe had never been attempted on this kind of scale before. As a result, there were a number of stumbles on the road to The Avengers, and Marvel were forced to adjust their approach.

The rise of Marvel visionary Kevin Feige saw the studio begin to commit to long-term plans, most notably in the Phase 3 announcement back in 2014. An organizational restructure in 2015 finally pulled the film studio out from under Marvel's Ike Perlmutter, with Feige placed solely in charge of Marvel Studios, reporting directly to Disney. The controversial Marvel Creative Committee was shut down, bringing an end to the office politics that had plagued Marvel Studios since its inception. Under Feige, Marvel has given their directors a far greater degree of creative freedom than they previously enjoyed. This flexibility has, by its very nature, increased the number of course corrections along the way.

Over the course of this tumultuous journey, then, there have been a whole lot of course corrections. Here, we'll take you through some of the biggest in Marvel's history. Examples include Marvel's ever-changing plans for the Hulk, the decision to make Thanos the central villain of Phase 3, and the addition of Spider-Man into the MCU.

The (Real) Mandarin As The Main Villain Of Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3 The Mandarin Ben Kingsley

When Marvel released Iron Man back in 2008, the post-credits scene made it clear that the studio had a long-term plan in the works. Marvel was already planning to release an Iron Man trilogy, with Jon Favreau set to helm all three films. Favreau revealed this plan in interviews to celebrate the home release of Iron Man, even telling SuperHeroHype that the trilogy was intended to build up to the Mandarin.

That's why the first two Iron Man movies are chock-full of Mandarin references, most notably the terrorist organization known as the Ten Rings. Favreau envisioned the Mandarin as leader of the Ten Rings, the Emperor figure who he hoped would become an iconic and memorable villain.

"So the Mandarin, to have that kind of weight to him is really a matter of using all the narrative tricks to do it, but a dude running and jumping around in robes shooting these beams and rays that have powers that really, if you take them literally, would throw off the balance of the whole universe. So how do you do that and keep the whole thing together, but yet fulfill the expectations from the book?"

Unfortunately, whatever Favreau's plans may have been, behind-the-scenes drama led to his stepping down after Iron Man 2. His replacement, Shane Black, was interested in telling a very different story. "We quickly latched on to... the idea of the dual personality of Tony as an out superhero who is basically using his self-definition through the false face of Iron Man," co-writer Drew Pearce explained. They wanted a villain who served as a mirror for that theme, and so ditched the idea of the Mandarin as the architect of the Ten Rings. The Mandarin became nothing more than an actor - a fake terrorist hiding the activities of the real villains.

Critics loved the twist, but comic book fans of the Mandarin were furious. The pushback from fans was so fierce that Marvel actually made a one-shot, All Hail the King, that retconned this decision and revealed there is a real Mandarin in the MCU after all. "We all thought they’d eat it up because it never occurred to us the Mandarin is as iconic to people as, say, the Joker in Batman," Black admitted ruefully in an interview with Uproxx in 2016. "They just wanted to see the magic rings shoot lasers."

The Hulk As An Enemy, Not An Ally

Mark Ruffalo as Hulk in Thor Ragnarok

Watch the first few Marvel movies carefully, though, and you'll immediately see another course-correction. The post-credits scene of The Incredible Hulk sees General Ross approached by Tony Stark. "I hear you have an unusual problem," Stark comments, "What if I told you we're putting a team together?" It clearly indicates that Stark and Fury intended to send the Avengers to track down the Hulk. That was an obvious nod to the Marvel Comics Ultimate range, where the Avengers' first mission was to stop the rampaging Hulk. Fast-forward to 2012, though, and Joss Whedon has abandoned that idea for The Avengers. S.H.I.E.L.D. seem to have known where Bruce Banner was all along, and recruit him as an ally.

This was a pretty sharp disconnect, and Marvel decided to fix it by shooting their first ever one-shot, The Consultant. This revealed that the World Security Council were pushing for Emil Blonsky, the Abomination, to be part of the Avengers Initiative. Given Blonsky was being held prisoner by Ross, S.H.I.E.L.D. figured they'd have to antagonize the General into refusing to play ball. That's why they sent in Tony Stark, "someone so inept that General Ross will refuse to release Blonsky."

Asgard Cut Off From The Nine Realms

thor-Asgard-gate

Thor was another crucial step on the road to The Avengers, but the film ended in a sequence that caused Joss Whedon major headaches. The film saw Thor thwart his brother Loki's scheme by destroying the Bifrost Bridge, in effect cutting Asgard off from the rest of the Nine Realms. This was a crucial plot-point, but it left Whedon faced with an awkward question: how could Thor be part of the Avengers if he couldn't get back to Earth? Whedon explained it with a throwaway line to "dark energy," suggesting the All-Father had used his own magic. Even Whedon himself wasn't particularly happy with this solution, as he noted in the commentary track.

The Bifrost was swiftly restored for Thor: The Dark World, and it fell to an official Prelude comic to reveal that the Asgardians used the Tesseract to repair it. Amusingly, the idea of "dark magic" being used to trigger the Bifrost is actually revisited in Infinity War.

Page 2 of 3: Thanos Causes Problems

Guardians of the Galaxy Thanos

Thanos Becomes the Big Bad

In an interview with Slash Film, Kevin Feige admitted that the idea of using Thanos in The Avengers was "Joss. Joss, Joss, and Joss." Whedon had always loved Thanos, and his script called for a major cosmic villain to be behind Loki's attack on Earth. He approached Marvel with the idea of it being Thanos, and to Whedon's delight, Marvel signed off on it. As a result, he filmed the post-credits scene in which Thanos learns his invasion has been unsuccessful. Whedon hinted at the comic-book-accurate version of Thanos, though, showing him smile with delight when told, "To challenge [the humans] is to court death."

The post-credits scene clearly set Thanos up as a major villain, but Feige swiftly decided the best place to explore his character was in Guardians of the Galaxy. But James Gunn's portrayal of Thanos dovetails more with the comic-book portrayal too; there's no concept of "rebalancing the universe," and the film explicitly states Gamora's people were wiped out.

Thanos's story, and his motives, wouldn't be fleshed out until Marvel began working on the script of Infinity War. The Russo brothers completely rewrote Thanos's motive and origins, to the extent that the MCU's Thanos doesn't seek to woo Death - he believes he's serving the cause of life. The Thanos of the MCU believes the universe is out of balance, tipping towards an extinction-level event, and only a dramatic cut in population numbers can avert the end of all life. For unknown years he's been traveling the galaxy, slaughtering half the population of every planet he visits. A flashback sequence reveals that's what he did to Gamora's homeworld, directly contradicting Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Infinity Gauntlet

Infinity Gauntlet Thanos War

The decision to focus on Thanos actually caused a major problem for Marvel. The cosmic side of the MCU had been launched by 2011's Thor, a film that was steeped in Marvel's cosmic mythology. The movie featured some scenes set in Odin's Treasure Vault on Asgard, and Marvel populated the vault with a number of cosmic items. They even brought some samples along to San Diego Comic-Con to show them off to fans. And, crucially, those treasures had included the Infinity Gauntlet.

Though Marvel didn't know it, the decision to include the Infinity Gauntlet would cause one of the longest-running continuity problems in the entire MCU. Because, back in 2011, Marvel had no idea they'd be using Thanos as a major villain going forward. Odin's Infinity Gauntlet was finally explained away in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, with Hela dismissing it as a fake.

But even that fix has now been undermined. The Russo brothers introduced a new twist in the story of the Infinity GauntletInfinity War revealed that Thanos was the first being to wield more than one Infinity Stone, and he'd only recently had the Infinity Gauntlet made. So what was Odin's Gauntlet a fake version of in the first place?

The decision to pivot towards the Infinity Gauntlet also caused Marvel to retcon some of their early decisions. The Tesseract, for example, was originally the MCU version of the Cosmic Cube - another powerful artifact from the comics, utterly unrelated to the Space Stone. That's why the Tesseract was portrayed more as a power source than a portal in Captain America: The First Avenger. Changing the Tesseract into the Space Stone allowed Marvel to ultimately return to the character of the Red Skull, who had been killed while holding it in The First Avenger. The Russo brothers ultimately brought the Red Skull back in Infinity War, revealing he'd been transported to the planet Vormir, and had become guardian of the Soul Stone.

Iron Man No More

Shane Black's Iron Man 3 left Marvel faced with another major problem: the film clearly set itself up as the end of Tony Stark's superhero journey. The movie's conclusion sees Tony Stark accept the frailties of humanity, destroying his old home and all the Iron Man suits. He even has the Arc Reactor removed from his chest. Its a powerful, emotionally cathartic moment, but Marvel still wanted to use Tony Stark in Avengers: Age of Ultron. In an interview with Two Kids and a Coupon, Kevin Feige remembers Whedon asking, "Now what am I supposed to do? What am I going to do in Avengers 2?"

In the end, Whedon's solution was a simple one - he ignored the problem completely. Age of Ultron sees Stark suit up without any reference to the events of Iron Man 3, severely disrupting his character arc. The issue wasn't addressed until 2016's Captain America: Civil War, when the Russo brothers had Stark compare superheroism to an addiction, a pattern of behavior that he just couldn't break.

Page 3 of 3: Spider-Man Enters the MCU

Spider-Man Enters the MCU

In 2014, Marvel took the unprecedented step of announcing their entire Phase 3 slate. It included a number of sequels, including the likes of Captain America: Civil War and Thor: Ragnarok, but also promised to launch some whole new franchises: Captain MarvelInhumans, and Black Panther. This announcement, more than any other, earned Marvel a reputation for forward planning. At the same time, though, it's important to note that the studio remained remarkably flexible. In 2015, in an interview with Slash Film, Kevin Feige explained that most of the plans weren't "super specific."

"For the most part in broad strokes that are broad enough and loose enough that if through the development of four or five movies before we get to the culmination, as you say, we still have room to sway, and to go, and to surprise ourselves in places that we end up.  So all the movies ultimately when they are finished can feel like they were all interconnected and meant to be and planned far ahead, but can live and breath as individual movies that can be satisfying by themselves."

Behind the scenes, though, negotiations were underway that would radically change the Phase 3 plan. Marvel had approached Sony with the idea of sharing the rights to Spider-Man, allowing Marvel to add Peter Parker into the upcoming Captain America: Civil War. Screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely actually worked on two drafts of the script, one with Spider-Man, and the other without. As McFeely noted, “We had him in, and sometimes a month or two later Kevin would come back and say, ‘No, negotiations are not going quite as well. Don’t plan on him!’‘ The deal was finalized in early 2015, just months before filming began on Civil War.

The Spider-Man deal forced Marvel Studios to seriously adjust their plans for Phase 3. The deal with Sony specified that Marvel would produce a solo Spider-Man film, Spider-Man: Homecoming, which would be financed and distributed by Sony. Adding a new movie to the phase forced Marvel to rethink the journey to Infinity War. A number of release dates were shuffled around, while Inhumans was dropped completely, with Marvel Studios passing that project down to Marvel Television for an event series.

Was Age of Ultron Setting Up Planet Hulk?

Perhaps the most amusing course correction was the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, which saw the Hulk leave the Avengers in a Quinjet. Joss Whedon originally intended to have the Quinjet head into space, with an early draft of the script even saying the Quinjet's signal was lost near Saturn. Then, much to Marvel's horror, an internet scoop hit the Internet claiming the studio were setting up a Planet Hulk film. At the time, they weren't, and Marvel approached Whedon to ask him to change plans. The Quinjet had originally been seen flying in space, but that was changed in post-production for blue skies. Dialogue was adjusted too, revealing that the Quinjet's signal had been lost somewhere in the Caspian Sea. It seemed Marvel had dodged the bullet.

In an ironic twist, by 2016 Marvel had decided they were going to send the Hulk into space after all. Marvel wanted to do something big for Thor: Ragnarok, and Chris Hemsworth was pushing for a major cameo. Executive Producer Brad Winderbaum came up with the idea of absorbing the Planet Hulk story into Ragnarok. "So," Feige reminisced, "I had to tell Joss... We were like, ‘You gotta change it Joss, he’s not going to space.’ A year after I go, ‘Joss, guess where he’s going?’ ‘He’s going to space.'

Related: Did Marvel Change Hulk’s Story In Avengers: Infinity War?

Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War

The first two Thor films are generally considered among Marvel's weakest films. With Thor: Ragnarok in the works, Kevin Feige was determined to pivot in order to make the franchise successful. Recognizing both the comedic skill of Chris Hemsworth and the phenomenal popularity of Marvel's cosmic films, Feige decided this film should be more amusing, more fun, and certainly not Earthbound. Executive Producer Brad Winderbaum fell in love with Taika Waititi's Boy, and decided he was the perfect fit.

Tonally, Ragnarok is completely different to the previous Thor films. It's a straight-up superhero comedy, one with more humor than any other Marvel film to date. Meanwhile, the plot sees Waititi transform Thor's world; secondary characters are swiftly killed and replaced, love-interests are written out in an offhand manner, and the entire history of Asgard is transformed into a metaphor for British Imperialism. Thor himself is reworked, losing both his hammer and an eye, ultimately learning that his powers are part of his identity and not simply a gift bestowed by an enchanted weapon.

Oddly, Avengers: Infinity War actually feels like another course correction, abandoning the changes made in Ragnarok. Waititi's new secondary characters are entirely absent, and Thor gains both a new weapon and a replacement cyborg eye. It's notable that the God of Thunder doesn't even wield his lightning powers until Stormbreaker has been forged, a fact that sits uncomfortably with Ragnarok's climax.

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Marvel Studios is continuing to plan ahead. According to Kevin Feige, the studio has "more than 20 movies on the docket." Disney CEO Bob Iger recently revealed that the studio is even considering "a new franchise beyond Avengers," a tantalizing hint that suggests the House of Ideas really do have some pretty radical concepts in play. No doubt those plans will still be subject to change, though, especially if Disney's proposed purchase of the bulk of 21st Century Fox is approved. That would see the X-Men and Fantastic Four finally join the MCU, although Feige has warned that the impact will be some years away.

But it's possible some of the future course correction will be harder to spot. Feige has implied Marvel actually made something of a mistake in announcing their entire Phase 3 slate. He feels Infinity War stole the spotlight from Age of Ultron, while the speculation about the title of Avengers 4 has "gotten out of hand." It's notable that Marvel don't seem to be in a hurry to announce their Phase 4 plans, suggesting Feige prefers to keep his cards close to his chest going forwards.

More: Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie Released So Far

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