After 17 years, 35 movies, and numerous TV series, the Marvel Cinematic Universe remains a Goliath of the entertainment scene. We’re on the cusp of a new era, as the Fox deal will finally add the likes of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to the MCU, meaning hundreds more characters are on the way. That’s before we get to the multiversal potential of bringing back characters from the colorful past of Marvel Movies.
It was always inevitable that some were going to get lost in the shuffle, but as Captain America: Brave New World proved by bringing back Liv Tyler’s Betty Ross for the first time since 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, forgotten characters can return at the most unlikely time. Even though the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are pitched to be supersized adventures, many are “doomed” to remain on the sidelines. With that in mind, here are 10 MCU characters we’re worried we’ll never see again.
Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp)
Like her or loathe her, the introduction of Emily VanCamp’s Sharon Carter in Captain America: The Winter Soldier sent shockwaves through the MCU. Going under the codename of Agent 13, Carter was the great-niece of Peggy Carter and was crucial in helping Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers take down the HYDRA-infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. Following the death of Peggy, Sharon became something of a love interest for Steve, leading to a controversial kiss in Captain America: Civil War.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier attempted to make Sharon Carter more important by revealing her as the villainous Power Broker, then teased a much bigger role with a post-credit stinger. Captain America: Brave New World would’ve been the perfect opportunity to bring back Carter, and with reports that the original plan for Captain America 4 revolved around the Power Broker, this could’ve been the case. Instead, it’s thought the negative backlash to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier led to executives scaling back Carter’s role until it was non-existent.
Mac Gargan (Michael Mando)
One of the MCU’s most frustrating post-credit teases came at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming. Although Tom Holland had appeared in Captain America: Civil War, Homecoming gave him his own standalone that featured Michael Keaton’s Vulture as the de facto big bad. Other villains included Shocker, the Tinkerer, and Michael Mando’s Scorpion. Despite only having a minor role and failing to fully take on his Scorpion persona, Gargan teased a big future for the character and a potential Sinister Six spinoff.
Keaton’s Adrian Toomes met Gargan in prison at the end of the movie, while Scorpion’s mention of some “boys on the outside” seemed like an easy way to cue the Sinister Six. Keaton bizarrely popped up in Morbius, but after Sony’s Spider-Man Universe came tumbling down, the proposed Sinister Six movie has been given the boot…again. It’s assumed that Gargan is still incarcerated, but even with Destin Daniel Cretton’s Spider-Man 4 on the way, it feels like a slim chance we’ll see him again.
Doc Samson (Ty Burrell)
While Captain America: Brave New World showed that The Incredible Hulk is still relevant, that film includes a character even more forgotten than Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns. Modern Family’s Ty Burrell played Dr. Leonard Samson in Louis Leterrier’s movie, although it was a massive departure from the comics. Comic book Doc Samson was exposed to similar gamma radiation to Bruce Banner, but by receiving a smaller dose, he gained superhuman strength and green hair…for some reason.
Burrell’s version of Doc Samson was a simple psychiatrist who didn’t get blasted with gamma, and to make matters worse, almost all of his scenes were cut. Leterrier has openly spoken about how he’d planned a sequel with Grey and Red Hulk, so it’s possible that Doc Samson would’ve had a bigger part to play further down the line. Unfortunately, while Burrell said he’d wanted to play the superpowered version of Samson, being a minor character in a largely forgotten MCU movie means there’s not much chance of seeing him again.
Dr. Helen Cho (Claudia Kim)
One of the MCU’s most infamous forgotten faces is Claudia Kim’s Dr. Helen Cho. Despite only appearing in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Cho’s brilliant mind made her responsible for creating Vision. Sadly, her work with vibranium largely led to her being a convenient plot device to help set up Black Panther. Appearing in just a handful of scenes, Cho was last seen at the Avengers compound. Given that it was destroyed in Avengers: Endgame, we hope she got out alive.
Simply, Age of Ultron’s massive ensemble already meant that a non-Avenger like Cho was fighting against some much bigger characters. While it would’ve been easy to bring Cho back in something like WandaVision as a member of SWORD, her fate remains unknown both pre and post-Snap. Cho’s comic backstory of being Amadeus Cho’s mother might suggest a reprieve, but with Brave New World reportedly cutting Logan Kim’s portrayal of the young Hulk genius, it takes us one step further from Helen’s long-awaited return.
Eros (Harry Styles)
Even though the surprise was spoiled ahead of time, the addition of Harry Styles to the already star-studded Eternals was quite the coup. Playing Eros of Titan, Styles’ character is better known as Starfox, boasting powers ranging from super speed to the ability to induce euphoria. It always seemed strange to introduce the younger brother of Thanos some two years after the Mad Titan was dusted in Avengers: Endgame, but with a complicated family tree, it was a neat setup for this more cosmic branch of the MCU.
Speaking to MTV News in 2022, MCU overlord Kevin Feige teased Eros’ return and said the spacefaring adventures of Starfox and Patton Oswalt’s Pip the Troll are something he’s looking forward to. As we head into Doomsday and Secret Wars, there’s no sign of either or a real way to bring them back into the fold. More worrying is the fact that Starfox appeared in Marvel’s What If…? – An Immersive Story on Apple Vision Pro, with someone else voicing the character. Styles has raised his acting profile in the likes of Dunkirk and Don’t Worry Darling, but his stint in the MCU might be a short one.
Aleta Ogord (Michelle Yeoh)
James Gunn went out on a limb when he helmed 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, taking a relatively obscure superhero team and giving them their own time to shine. Although going with the newer lineup instead of the classic comic book roster was another gamble, it’s now hard to imagine the MCU without that rag-tag gaggle of rogues. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 fleshed out the team’s backstory and went on to confirm they weren’t necessarily the first iteration of the team.
Following the introduction of Sylvester Stallone’s Stakar Ogord, the sequel also briefly showed off Martinex (Michael Rosenbaum), Aleta Ogord (Michelle Yeoh), Charlie-27 (Ving Rhames), Krugarr, and Mainframe (voiced by Miley Cyrus). Stallone and Rosenbaum returned for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and although Aleta is the adoptive sister of Stakar, who also takes on the mantle of Starhawk in the comics, the character will likely be recast or completely abandoned. Yeoh pulled double duty in the MCU, playing Ying Nan in Shang Chi. A variant of Ying Nan (voiced by Michelle Wong) appeared in What If…?, while Aleta Ogord hasn’t been mentioned since 2017.
Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell)
While Jon Favreau’s Iron Man is praised as one of the MCU’s best movies, the less said about Iron Man 2, the better. Despite Mickey Rourke’s grating accent as Ivan Vanko/Whiplash and a bizarre Elon Musk cameo, at least Iron Man 2 made the most of Sam Rockwell’s enigmatic performance as the sleazy Justin Hammer. Effectively a budget version of Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, the head of Hammer Industries became the movie’s main adversary and ended up being incarcerated for his crimes before the final credits rolled.
It could’ve been easy to leave Hammer there, but in the aftermath of Iron Man 3’s hated Mandarin twist, the All Hail the King one-shot hoped to kill two birds with one stone by redeeming both maligned movies. Rockwell briefly appeared in the same prison as Ben Kingsley’s Trevor Slattery, but whereas the latter went on to return for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Hammer has been left to rot. Kevin Feige was asked years ago whether Hammer could return in a Reddit AMA, adding: “I love bringing back characters people think they’ve seen the last of.”
Iron Fist (Finn Jones)
Charlie Cox is suiting up once again to play Matt Murdock/Daredevil, but with Netflix’s Daredevil series being a rare diamond in the rough, many assumed this was always going to be the case. Now that it’s been confirmed that Daredevil is canon in the MCU and not set in some alternate reality where Cox is returning as a variant, it’s raised questions about the other Netflix shows. The streaming giant tried to build its own expanded universe of street-level heroes, but as The Defenders proves, it wasn’t exactly a hit.
Out of all the Netflix shows, Iron Fist took the biggest pummeling. From lackluster villains to accusations of poor racial optics, many were amazed that Iron Fist got renewed for a second season as it limped toward the end of its 23-episode run. Jon Bernthal is confirmed to return as Frank Castle/the Punisher in Daredevil: Born Again, while there are rumors that Krysten Ritter will be back as Jessica Jones in season 2. Finn Jones told The Nerd Shepherd in 2024 how he’d love to return, but for the foreseeable future, Danny Rand remains an annexed part of the forgotten MCU.
Nova Prime (Glenn Close)
Another high-profile casting for the cosmic arm of the MCU was Glenn Close as Nova Prime. Gunn packed a lot into his first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, but with a good portion of it taking place on Xandar, there was plenty of room for Close as the head of the Nova Corps. The character didn’t appear beyond the climactic battle at the end of the first movie, although it’s presumed that Nova Prime died when Thanos stormed Xandar during Avengers: Infinity War.
Despite it never being shown on-screen, a 45-minute scene depicting the decimation of Xandar was shot and then cut from Infinity War, presumably showing the death of many Nova Corps members. Richard Rider/Nova is still MIA in the MCU, with Gunn saying he kept him out of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies because the character is too important. Unfortunately, the reported cancellation of the planned Nova series has scuppered plans for his introduction and a potential return for Close as Nova Prime.
Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg)
The MCU has come up with some great original characters, with none standing out quite like Clark Gregg’s Phil Coulson. From being a kind-hearted Captain America fan to briefly becoming the Ghost Rider, and then a robot, Coulson has had quite a ride. Before he was leading Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson’s big moment was his ‘death’ in Avengers. In typical Marvel style, this death was temporary, although he was later killed (again) in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 5 and returned as a Life Model Decoy.
Gregg did appear in Captain Marvel, but with it being a prequel and Joss Whedon saying Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t considered canon with The Avengers, he’s technically still dead in the modern MCU. The man himself has teased a potential return, telling the Love in the Time of Hydra: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Podcast, “[Coulson isn’t dead] in every timeline!” The MCU has already leaned into this when Gregg provided his vocals for What If…?. Still, there’s no sign of a more permanent return of a live-action Phil Coulson.
The post 10 Marvel Characters We’ll Probably Never See Again in the MCU appeared first on Den of Geek.
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