While most people go to see superhero movies for the action and the typically amazing visual effects, another great factor of movies from Marvel and DC are the regular Easter eggs and cameos that you may see throughout the movies.
Whether it's appearances from real people like Stan Lee in almost every Marvel movie ever made, or from other characters in the franchise or comics that show up in the movie unexpected, like Nick Fury at the end of Iron Man or the Flash in Suicide Squad, cameos and surprise appearances tend to keep audiences on the edges of their seats.
In many scenarios, cameos are great and surprising because of how unexpected they are.
Unfortunately, these cameos are often unexpected because it would have been hard for them to even get the cameo-ing actor to show up, like Matt Damon in Thor: Ragnarok.
Likewise, cameos by other characters, particularly in Marvel, are certainly unexpected at times due to licensing issues with the characters who may be owned by other companies.
Because of this, a number of planned cameos tend to not even come to be, despite the best efforts of the studio. Additionally, a number of shot cameos tend to hit the cutting room floor of more serious superhero movies, as the surprise appearances deter from the intended tone of the movie.
With that in mind, here are the 20 Cameos In Superhero Movies That We Never Got To See.
David Bowie in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
One of the most iconic musicians of the past several decades is David Bowie, who also had a decent acting career in movies such as Labyrinth.
James Gunn, who directed both Guardians of the Galaxy movies, revealed that Bowie was originally set to have a brief cameo in the 2017 sequel, where he would have played one of Yondu's Ravagers.
Unfortunately, Bowie passed away shortly before the movie began production, meaning that he was unable to fulfill his cameo.
One of Bowie's songs "Moonage Daydream" was featured in the first Guardians of the Galaxy, which is how the cameo first came into discussion. The movies had established that the main character Peter Quill was a big David Bowie fan, which would have made his appearance rather fitting.
Christian Bale in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Previous Batman actor Christian Bale was actually offered the opportunity to came in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which was the first movie to feature Batman after Bale was recast.
While a number of DC fans were disappointed that Bale was recast for the movie, it was a logical choice given the different tones of the two movies.
Director Zack Snyder revealed that he wanted Bale to appear in the movie in some way anyways, even if he couldn't play Bruce Wayne.
“I just wanted to hire Christian to play another part to make that obvious," said Snyder. "Christian could play, like, Alfred with age makeup. No! Of course not. But you know what I mean.”
Beast in Deadpool
The first Deadpool movie made a vast number of references to other X-Men characters and movies, including a brief joke about the X-Men hero Beast apparently defecating on Deadpool's lawn.
As it turns out, this was almost more than a one-off joke.
Ryan Reynolds revealed in the DVD commentary that the original idea for the post-credits scene would have actually shown Beast pooping on Deadpool's lawn, with Deadpool shooing him away with a newspaper.
Actor Nicholas Holt, who played Beast in some of the more recent X-Men movies, was apparently up to showing up, but unfortunately scheduling conflicts between the actors kept this cameo from happening.
John Cena in Thor: Ragnarok
During the production of Thor: Rangarok, legendary WWE wrestler John Cena was rumored to make a cameo appearance in the Thor threequel. A number of sources claimed that Cena would make an appearance, including IMDb, which listed John Cena as part of the official cast.
While Thor: Ragnarok did manage to include a number of surprising cameos, including one from Matt Damon, John Cena was not one of the celebrities to make an appearance.
Whether his cameo was cut, or if it really was just a false rumor, remains to be seen.
There's also the possibility that John Cena did show up in Thor: Ragnarok, and we just didn't see him, per his WWE catchphrase.
Wolverine in Spider-Man (2002)
The 2002 Spider-Man movie became a serious game changer for Marvel movies, and arguably for all superhero movies.
While it wasn't the first Marvel movie of the century like X-Men was, it did still revolutionize the genre, and almost had a large connection to the X-Men series, trying to start a cinematic universe long before the MCU even began.
Hugh Jackman revealed that he almost appeared in Spider-Man as Wolverine in a brief background cameo, similar to Stan Lee's cameos throughout the trilogy.
Jackman was apparently really excited to appear in the movie, but the plans fell through due to licensing restrictions from FOX.
Hopefully we will finally get the opportunity to see Wolverine and Spider-Man on screen together in the near future, even if they will be played by different actors.
Lynda Carter in Wonder Woman
The original Wonder Woman actress Lynda Carter revealed that she was almost given a small part in the 2017 Wonder Woman solo movie. Director Patty Jenkins asked Carter to make a brief appearance, but it unfortunately didn't work out due to scheduling conflicts.
"[Patty Jenkins] asked me to do a cameo in this," Carter said about Wonder Woman. "She was in England, and I was doing my concerts. At that time we couldn't get our timing together. So, this next time, if she writes me a decent part, I might do it."
Fortunately, this "next time" scenario might come true, as Lynda Carter is now rumored to finally make a cameo appearance in Wonder Woman 2.
Loki in Avengers: Age of Ultron
Before the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron, there were a number of reports that Loki actor Tom Hiddleston had been on set for the Avengers sequel, leaving quite a few fans confused when the god of mischief did not show up.
"I was part of the dream sequence for the character of Thor," Hiddleston said about his cut cameo.
"I shot for a day and enjoyed it very much, and then I received a phone call from Kevin Feige [who] said that in test screenings, audiences had overemphasized Loki’s role," he stated.
He continued: "They thought that because I was in it, I was controlling Ultron, and it was actually imbalancing people’s expectations so Joss and Kevin were like, ‘Let’s cut it because it’s confusing people.’… It made sense to me when I saw that film."
Stan Lee in Blade
Stan Lee has cameo-ed in almost every Marvel movie ever released, but there are a few exceptions. Shockingly, the former Marvel editor did not make an appearance in any of the three Blade movies.
As it turns out, Stan Lee originally shot a cameo for the first Blade movie in 1998. In this deleted scene, Lee portrayed one of the police officers who went into the blood club during the aftermath of the fight, specifically the officer who discovered the burning body of Quinn.
While it's unclear why this cameo was cut, it's rather disappointing.
What may be even more disappointing, though, is the fact that neither of the later two Blade movies even tried to include the former Marvel editor.
Joker & Riddler In Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice
Following the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, director Zack Snyder that the two Batman villains Joker and the Riddler were originally slated to make an appearance in the superhero team-up movie.
"The Joker and The Riddler both came close to being in this movie," Snyder revealed. "We talked about the possibility of putting them in."
"[Screenwriter] Chris Terrio and I talked about it a lot and felt that their mythological presence is felt in the movie and that’s cool, but I didn’t want to get my eye too far off the ball because I needed to spend the time, frankly, with Batman and Superman to understand the conflict," he said.
Fortunately, both villains still managed to leave their mark in the movie, with graffiti from both villains making an appearance at different points in the movie.
The X-Men in Logan
One of the most shocking aspects of Logan was discovering that all of the previous X-Men besides Wolverine and Professor X had lost their lives.
As director James Mangold revealed, Logan almost opened up by showing the demise of the rest of the mutant team.
“I literally had written an opening which started with that sequence,” Mangold revealed. “But the reason we didn't do it wasn't to spare other films, it was that it redefined the movie."
"It made the movie about the X-Men, instead of being about Logan and Charles. And irrevocably, when you read the script opening that way, it became about this other tragedy, as opposed to that tragedy being something hovering like a shadow in the background for these characters,” he stated.
Nathan Fillion in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Castle star Nathan Fillion almost made a cameo appearance in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, director James Gunn revealed on his Facebook.
Fillion would have been introduced as Simon Williams, who in the comics is both a famous actor and the superhero Wonder Man.
While Fillion would not have shown up in person, his face would have been on a number of movie posters outside of a theater during one of the movie's cut Earth scenes. One poster featured Fillion posing as Tony Stark in a Steve Jobs-style poster.
Fortunately, Nathan Fillion's cameo in the first Guardians of the Galaxy was not cut, which featured Fillion playing a large purple alien in a prison scene.
Zack Snyder in Watchmen
Similar to what he did with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, director Zack Snyder oversaw an "ultimate" cut of his movie that was significantly longer than the theatrically released movie.
However, Watchmen's Ultimate Cut featured something that the Ultimate Cut of Batman v Superman did not: Zack Snyder himself.
During one scene that was deleted from the theatrical release of Watchmen, director Zack Snyder actually made a brief appearance as an American soldier during the scene in Vietnam.
It's fortunate that this appearance was included in the Ultimate Cut of Watchmen, otherwise Zack Snyder fans would not have been able to get a glimpse of one of Snyder's few cameos that he makes in his movies.
Stan Lee's Second Cameo in The Avengers
Stan Lee made a brief appearance towards the end of The Avengers, as part of a news montage that featured him being interviewed in total disbelief of the events earlier in the movie.
However, as the deleted scenes of The Avengers revealed, this was not originally his only cameo in the superhero team up.
A deleted sequence that took place early on in the movie took a good look at how Steve Rogers / Captain America was adapting to life in the 21st century.
During this sequence, Stan Lee actually showed up sitting outside of a diner, briefly giving Rogers advice to ask out the waitress who was flirting with him.
It's likely that this was originally the only cameo that was planned for Stan Lee, but after the scene was deleted, they quickly shot an interview and easily placed it in the middle of the montage.
Arnim Zola in Ant-Man
The opening scene of 2015's Ant-Man featured a number of cameos from characters who had appeared in previous movies, including Peggy Carter and Howard Stark.
However, as some early concept art revealed, this scene almost included the cameo of a rather unexpected villain: Arnim Zola.
Zola's appearance would have been more robotic, presumably hinting that he had already become a computer system like his appearance in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
This cameo was likely cut due to budgetary issues, in addition to the fact that it could have opened up a couple of plot holes.
It's very likely that Zola would have cameo-ed more than once in Ant-Man had this gone through, as his appearance could have paid off later if he returned as one of the buyers from H.Y.D.R.A. interested in the Ant-Man suit.
Darkseid in Justice League
The big bad of the DCEU, Darkseid, was originally supposed to make a brief appearance during Justice League, setting up his involvement down the road.
The DCEU is currently treating Darkseid like the MCU treated Thanos, so his cameo would have worked similarly to Thanos's brief appearance in the first Avengers.
Kevin Smith revealed that Darkseid's appearance would have been in a vision by Superman, similar to Batman's "knightmare" in Batman v Superman, during a scene when Steppenwolf tried to deceive Superman into joining him.
"Steppenwolf tries to tempt Superman into joining his army," Smith explained in his podcast. "And we see Darkseid for the first time in Superman's vision and we see flashes of the 'knightmare' footage that Batman had in Batman v Superman."
Hawkeye in Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The second Captain America movie featured the compromise of S.H.I.E.L.D., with Captain America becoming a fugitive from the law.
One scene that was cut during the pre-production of the movie would have featured Clint Barton / Hawkeye being assigned by S.H.I.E.L.D. to take out Captain America.
"There was a great sequence where Hawkeye was chasing Cap through Washington D.C.," said director Joe Russo. "There was an awesome sequence where they confronted each other in a ravine on the outskirts of D.C. and Hawkeye was shooting a series of arrows closing in on Cap, Cap closing in on him."
"And then Cap took him down and he realized for the first time that Hawkeye was trying to trick S.H.I.E.L.D, where he whispered something into Cap’s ear that Cap had a tracker on his suit and to punch Hawkeye to make it look real, because there was a Quinjet hovering above where they were watching the feedback back at S.H.I.E.L.D.," he said.
Michael Jackson in Blade II
Iconic pop singer Michael Jackson was originally slated to make a brief cameo in the Blade sequel of 2002, where he apparently would have played a vampire procurer who confronted Nyssa.
Unfortunately, even though Jackson was on board for the role, it didn't work out due to scheduling conflicts.
The part was instead given to a lesser known Czech actor, making the character less significant. The scene was ultimately cut from the final cut of the movie, which is unfortunate.
While this cameo seems rather random, Michael Jackson did become a bit of an inspiration on the horror / fantasy genre after the release of his music video for "Thriller", where he briefly portrayed a werewolf.
Steppenwolf in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
The Justice League villain Steppenwolf felt a little out of place when he suddenly appeared as the villain in the movie, but as it turns out, he almost made a brief appearance earlier in the franchise that would have helped to set up his later involvement.
In the Ultimate Cut of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Lex Luthor briefly encountered Steppenwolf aboard the Krypotian ship in a scene that was deleted from the theatrical cut of the movie.
The disappointing part of this cameo is that Steppenwolf's physical appearance in Batman v Superman looked far better than how he turned out in Justice League.
Something went wrong along the way, leaving this deleted cameo as a glimpse of what could have been.
Wolverine & Magneto in Captain America: The First Avenger
The first Captain America movie took place during World War II, which is actually a notable part of history in the lore of Marvel Comics.
In the comics, Captain America wasn't the only Marvel hero to appear in the second World War, and as it turns out, a couple of these other characters were originally slated to appear in the movie.
Wolverine, who served in World War II, and Magneto, who was a prisoner of war, were both originally planned to make appearances in Captain America: The First Avenger.
Unfortunately, due to rights issues, their appearances were cut early on in the development stages of the movie.
This was because they were both owned by 20th Century FOX.
Oscorp Tower in The Avengers
This technically isn't a character or actor cameo, but it was a brief appearance that almost occurred nonetheless, and would have been an integral step in making Spider-Man part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe sooner than it actually happened.
Oscorp Tower, the large structure owned by villain Norman Osborn that appeared in both Amazing Spider-Man movies, was initially planned to pop up in the background of the New York scenes in The Avengers.
Unfortunately, this plan did not work out too well.
"By the time the Oscorp building was fully designed, The Avengers' digital Manhattan was already basically rendered and there was some up-conversion that needed to go down," said a source who had spoken with Amazing Spider-Man producer Avi Arad. "So, for timing, it was scrapped."
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Can you think of any other cameos in superhero movies that were scrapped? Sound off in the comments!