21 Actors And Directors Who Left Marvel Or Were Let Go Due To "Creative Differences"

Emily Blunt was supposed to play Black Widow!

Chelsi

• Published in Film & TV
• June 18, 2022

The latest in the line-up of Marvel films is Doctor Strange: Multiverse in the Multiverse of Madness. The sequel was released in May of 2022 and earned more than $930 million worldwide making it the highest-grossing film of the year so far.

Marvel Studios is set to release its 29th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe this July. The movie, Thor: Love and Thunder are directed by Taika Waititi and is expected to perform well at the box office.

The point is that the films in the MCU are commercially successful due to their continuing storyline. Fans are heavily invested in the stories of their favorite superheroes ever since Iron Man kickstarted the first phase.

There is no doubt that playing any part in these successful movies is a game-changer for any actor or director. Career trajectories are significantly changed once you get cast for a role in any Marvel movie or when you're tapped to direct one or a series of superhero films.

Robert Downey Jr. made a historic comeback after hitting rock bottom when he became Iron Man. Chris Evans went from playing typical male-leading roles in romantic comedies to leading the Avengers.

Marvel has successfully marketed their movies into highly-anticipated, certified hits worldwide. The studios went through a lot of recasting and "parting ways due to creative differences" before they landed on the actors and directors who will give life to the comic books; these are some who almost made cinematic history:

1. Andrew Garfield was supposed to continue his run as the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in The Amazing Spider-Man 3

He was supposed to announce this alongside the Sony CEO at the gala during the World Cup in Rio de Janeiro

The actor was late to the event and didn't feel well. He ultimately didn't attend.

The execs were obviously pissed at him, so much so that the discussions to reintroduce a new Peter Parker began. Garfield made an appearance in the latest Spider-Man film.

2. Our original movie Spider-Man was Tobey Maguire. He almost lost the lead on the sequel after tense salary discussions.

The actor made $4 million while the producer was paid $30 million. Maguire felt he was lowballed.

Maguire had a history of back problems but the studio executives felt he was weaponizing his health issue to negotiate his salary. They offered the role to Jake Gyllenhaal.

His future father-in-law and president of Vivendi Universal, Ron Meyer participated in the negotiations. The actor agreed to go through medical exams to prove his back issues then received $17 million for the next film.

3. Director Scott Derrickson was the director for Doctor Strange and was set to direct the sequel

But Marvel announced that they came to a mutual agreement and ultimately decided against directing the second film due to creative differences

Years later, the co-writer for the film, Steve Cargill who also left around the same time revealed that Marvel wanted to do two films while the director only wanted to make one. The two teamed up and made The Black Phone instead of working on the sequel.

Sam Raimi was tagged in and directed another Marvel movie since directing the third Spider-Man film

4. Stephen and Donald Glover were supposed to write, produce, and direct a Deadpool series on FX

FX and the brothers ultimately pulled away from the series due to creative differences

Donald Glover took vengeance and released his final episode script on Twitter. In his version, Deadpool theorized why the series was canceled.

Stephen also thought out loud and said the Taylor Swift episode they pitched was the final straw that broke the camel's (FX) back

5. Patty Jenkins, the director of Wonder Woman, was supposed to direct the second Thor movie

Three months after signing the contract, she left and said she felt she couldn't make a good movie out of the script they were going with

She shared her principle on Vanity Fair that directors aren't supposed to make movies they didn't believe in. If she made the movie, she would have received backlash as a female director who missed a lot of important details.

Alan Taylor was hired by the studio but he wasn't 100% happy with the movie either. Marvel edited his version heavily during post-production.

6. Comedy legend Robin Williams was initially hired to voice the lead in Howard the Duck

Unfortunately, the animation was filmed before the voice acting was recorded. The animators voiced the character and his movements matched their actions. Robin Williams was confined to the script and his comedic adlibs had no place in the movements.

He quit 3 days after recording began saying he felt hancuffed to match the movements of the duck's bill

Chip Zien replaced Robin Williams for the role

7. The role of Fandral in the original Thor movie was supposed to be played by Zachary Levi

He left because the production schedule clashed with his schedule with the TV series Chuck

Stuart Townsend was hired to play Fandral instead

8. Townsend didn't stay as Fandral for a long time either

He was let go due to creative differences just when production was about to start (similar to what happened when he was replaced by Vigo Mortensen as Aragorn for Lord of the Rings)

Josh Dallas was then cast as Fandral

9. Dallas only stayed on as Fandral for the first Thor movie

He had to let Fandral go because of his prior commitment to the TV series Once Upon A Time as Prince Charming

It wasn't an easy decision to make because the actor actually enjoyed playing the character

The role went to the original: Zachary Levi who gave life to the character until Fandral's death in Thor: Ragnarok

10. Damion Poitier played an unnamed character in The Avengers. When an extra sequence featuring Thanos was filmed, the actor volunteered to play the character

He wasn't credited for his part and the Josh Brolin was officially cast to play Thanos for Guardians of the Galaxy

It wasn't the last time we saw Damion in an MCU film. He played a mercenary in Captain America: Civil War and did stunt work for the second Thor film

11. Edgar Wright was supposed to write and direct Ant-Man

He has been working on a treatment for the movie since 2003 for a different studio. He showed the treatment to Marvel founder Avi Arad and president Kevin Feige who agreed they will base the script off of Wright's work

He put in all the work, finished the first draft of the script in 2008, and recommended Paul Rudd for the lead. Marvel wanted a rewrite of the script and delayed production.

The studio didn't like Wright's rewrite and gave the task to their in-house writers. The new script lost his writing style and Wright parted ways with MCU two months before filming began

He had dedicated 8 years of his life working on Ant-Man for MCU but Wright shared they parted ways amicably. Peyton Reed was hired to direct Ant-Man instead

12. Cassie Lang, Ant-Man's daughter, was played by Emma Fuhrmann

Disney announced a year later Cassie will appear on the upcoming Ant-Man movie but it will be played by Kathryn Newton this time

Fuhrmann wasn't informed she won't be coming back to play the role until Disney announced the changes

13. Ed Norton played The Hulk in the original movie and he was planning to stay as The Hulk for a second film

Marvel initially liked Norton's ideas for the sequel but later on said it wasn't what they envisioned for the character

Marvel announced Ed Norton won't be coming back as Bruce Banner for The Avengers franchise

Ed announced through his agent that they disagreed with Marvel's statement as it painted the actor in a negative light

Despite the tension, Marvel pushed through with their new choice of Hulk: Mark Ruffalo

14. Spanish voiceover actor Rodri Martín dubbed Evan Peters' character in X-men. He was supposed to do the same for Pietro Maximoff in the series WandaVision

He announced the happy news on Twitter but deleted the tweet moments later

His premature announcement spoiled Pietro's return in the fifth episode of the hit series

The studio fired him and hired the actor who dubbed the Spanish version of Daredevil, Matt Murdock

15. John Watts directed three Spider-Man films for MCU and he was set to direct the reboot of Fantastic Four

The director needed a break from directing superhero movies after spending 7 years on the Spider-Man franchise

Marvel released a statement saying they understood and supported the director's decision

They are looking forward to working again in the future and the director is still expected to continue his work in the Spider-Man movies

Marvel is yet to hire a director for the Fantastic Four reboot

16. Terrence Howard was supposed to play Rhodey (War Machine) in three Marvel movies

He only played the role in the first Iron Man. Apparently, things fell apart during negotiations when the actor was only offered 12.5% of the pay they originally signed on

In an interview with Andy Cohen, the actor said: "It turns out that the person I helped become Iron Man...took the money that was supposed to go to me and pushed me out."

Don Cheadle got the role for the succeeding movies

17. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D's Will Daniels was played by Dillon Casey for only two episodes

During his run on the show, he was suffering from opiod addiction which negatively affected his off-cam behavior

As expected, he received a call that he won't be playing the role anymore. He said he couldn't blame the studio for killing off his character because he would have done the same

He went to rehab in 2018 and the actor has been sober ever since

18. Joe Johnston was the director of the first Captain America movie

He told Marvel he was interested in making a sequel and he particularly wanted to focus on the Winter Soldier. He said he would be on board if they ever decided to produce the sequel

Marvel didn't like the his idea of setting the Winter Soldier movie in the 40s. They hired the Russo brothers to direct the Winter Soldier and keep the plot of the movie linear

19. Hugo Weaving was supposed to play Red Skull for three Marvel movies but he only appeared on the first Captain America

The studio asked him to be on two Avengers movie but they offered him a salary that was less than Captain America's pay for the two movies combined

He said negotiating with Marvel was impossible and he wasn't that interested in the role anyway

Red Skull was reprised through CGI magic and a lot of stand-ins. The voice over was done by Ross Marquand.

20. According to reports, Lionsgate was set to release a Black Widow movie in 2004 and David Hayter was going to be the director

The director was so invested on the film he worked on the script for two years and even named her daughter Natasha

At that time, two female-led movies failed to earn at the box office and Lionsgate pulled out of the deal. Marvel and the director pitched the movie to several studios but felt none of them were willing to invest and take the movie seriously

Black Widow's first appearance happened years later in the second Iron Man film and her solo movie was released in 2021. Hayter didn't play any part in the production of either of the films.

21. Emily Blunt was supposed to be Black Widow

She ultimately turned down the role because of her contractual obligations to another movie, Gulliver's Travels, a film she did not want to be in

She was heartbroken because she went back on her word but her decision led to Scarlett Johansson landing the role of Black Widow

Can you imagine how different these movies would have been had Marvel stuck to their original plans? We would have a different image of The Hulk and Black Widow for sure.

In another universe, these actors and directors are still involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Maybe we need Dr. Strange to show us a glimpse of that.

Chelsi