The Marvel Cinematic Universe has many memorable characters, and the main characters of the franchise can vary from film to film. However, up until this point, the main characters have been the Avengers and Thanos. While new characters like Black Panther and Captain Marvel have now become main characters now that Captain America and Iron Man are gone, there is still a core group of characters moving the story forward.
However, part of the reason why the MCU has been so successful is that many of the side and supporting characters are also dynamic and interesting. In fact, many of these characters deserve more attention and are vastly underrated.
Maria Hill
While Maria Hill has appeared in many Marvel films over the years, she hasn’t had much character development or exploration since the first Avengers film.
She’s a character that a lot of fans enjoy, and she’s extremely intelligent and capable. It’s a shame that her backstory wasn’t explored more in the films especially because she was one of the few female characters in the early years of the films.
Peggy Carter
Peggy Carter is another character that many fans love who didn’t really get her due. While she did get her own television series, it was canceled after two seasons, and the movies are definitely what more people watch. The way her storyline was handled in the films wasn’t fair to the character at all.
Avengers: Endgame ended up getting rid of her past character development to ensure Steve Rogers got to be with her. For such trailblazing, strong, and badass women, it’s a shame.
Sif
Sif is another character that appeared in some of the early MCU films but never got her due. She was a character with a lot of potential who didn’t get as much story or character development as she should have.
Her skills as a warrior made her fascinating, and it would have been great to see her get to interact with more characters.
Pepper Potts
Sadly, many of the characters on this list are women because for many years the MCU had amazing female characters who didn’t get enough screen time. Pepper Potts is clearly an extremely talented woman with leadership skills. When she started running Stark Industries, it was a great thing for the company.
However, most of her scenes in the films just revolve around her relationship with Tony Stark, and she mostly gets portrayed as just a love interest. However, this character has a lot more potential than that.
Loki
If you're looking at the Marvel fandom, Loki might not seem like an underrated character as he’s so well-loved by many fans. He’s also one of the few characters on this list that is going to have his own Disney+ series, so there is an opportunity to explore the character more.
He definitely has got more stories than many other characters on this list, but he’s also truthfully just as interesting as Thor.
Hela
Hela is the only character on this list who is purely a villain, and she also only appeared in one movie.
However, she made quite an impact. She was one of the more engaging one-off MCU villains, and the performance by Cate Blanchett definitely elevated this character. It’s a shame that the family dynamics between Hela, Thor, and Loki couldn't have been explored more.
Maria Rambeau
Maria Rambeau is a character that has only appeared in one film, and it’s likely she might not appear in future Captain Marvel movies. However, hopefully, she will be. As an amazing pilot and a single mother, she is a really relatable character who has the potential to be one of the more compelling non-super characters.
Many fans also really enjoyed the relationship between her and Carol Danvers, and they feel like it makes more sense to make this a queer relationship than between Carol and Valkyrie.
Bucky Barnes
Bucky Barnes is another character who has a large number of fans. He’s definitely a fan-favorite character, and he will also co-lead an upcoming television series.
However, up until this point, Bucky hasn’t gotten all that much screen time or character development. While the character is still really compelling given his backstory with Steve and what HYDRA did to him, he should have been given more screen time.
James “Rhodey” Rhodes
Rhodey is another character on this list who is a person of color which points to another problem that the MCU has had for many years.
While Rhodey is a fascinating character given his military background and relationship to Tony Stark, he gets cast in mostly a sidekick role. There are many things about him that could have been given more story development.
Shuri
In Black Panther, Shuri is one of the main cast members, but she only barely showed up in the last two Avengers films. Hopefully, this will change in future films and not just in Black Panther 2.
Her youthful energy, sense of style, snarky sense of humor, and the fact that she’s the smartest person in the MCU make her fascinating. This character deserves to get a lot of character development in the future.