Marvel’s Pre-MCU Movie Slate: Every Unmade Film Explained (2004-2006)

Marvel‘s pre-MCU movie slate from 2004 to 2006 recently resurfaced online as a reminder of several canceled projects that never saw the light of day. Many of the listed films, including Iron Man, Captain America, and X-Men 3, did eventually get made, albeit perhaps differently from what was originally intended. However, others on this list were scrapped entirely when the MCU officially began.

The MCU was formally launched with the highly successful Iron Man movie in 2008, and has since extended to 27 movies to date that have consistently broken box office records and multiple TV shows. Marvel, under Disney’s ownership, has been slowly reacquiring the movie rights to more of its characters to continue expanding its cinematic universe. According to several promotional photos from a 2004 event, however, multiple film studios were making movies based on Marvel characters. The planned movies represented in the list include projects from Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Paramount.

Audiences eventually saw a version of most of these movies, which include The Punisher, Spider-Man 2, Blade Trinity, Elektra, Fantastic Four, X-Men 3, Ghost Rider, and Spider-Man 3. However, plans for six of them — Man-Thing, Namor, Silver Surfer, Fury, Daredevil 2, and Deathlok — were disrupted entirely. Here’s every unmade Marvel film explained.

Man-Thing

Unlike the other titles on this list, a Man-Thing movie did technically get made, just not in the way Marvel — and Artisan Entertainment, who owned the rights at the time — originally intended. Based only loosely on the comics written by Steve Gerber, Man-Thing followed a Louisiana sheriff as he investigated a series of deaths in a swamp. The film was intended to have a theatrical release in the United States, but did so poorly with test audiences that Marvel decided to simply release it straight to video in the U.S. instead. It premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel as a “Sci-Fi Original” in 2005. The CEO of Marvel Studios at the time, Avi Arad, admitted it was a mistake not keeping tabs on production, since it was being filmed overseas in Australia. Since then, the Man-Thing Easter egg in Thor: Ragnarok has confirmed that the character is canon in the MCU.

Namor

Namor the Sub-Mariner has a complicated film history with repeated efforts to get a Namor movie off the ground. Philip Kaufman was first considering developing a movie with Marvel Studios in 1997, but when that went nowhere, Saban Entertainment became involved with a script written by Randall Frakes. In 2001, Universal Pictures tried again with David Self writing a new script. Development stalled for years until Chris Columbus was set to direct a Namor movie in 2004. Columbus left the project the following year, and Jonathan Mostow was hired in 2006. Nothing ever came of these plans, and for many years, studios were confused over who actually owned the rights to the character. Namor has been rumored to appear in different MCU movies for some time, and many are convinced Namor will finally appear in Black Panther 2.

Silver Surfer

There have been several unsuccessful attempts to make a Silver Surfer solo film over the years, but the closest one got to being made was in the late 1990s. Geoffrey Wright was scheduled to direct, and artist Gabriel Hardman has revealed some of the storyboards and concept art for Silver Surfer on his Twitter. According to him, Ewan McGregor was being considered for the role of Silver Surfer, and the character would have spent most of the film in his human form because VFX would have been too expensive back then. Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, was also going to be in the movie, played by Steven Berkoff. The project never went very far, and the character later made his live-action debut in Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer instead. Disney’s acquirement of 20th Century Fox makes it likely that Silver Surfer will join the MCU sometime in the future.

Fury

Nick Fury also never headlined his own film despite initial plans for a standalone project. Andrew W. Marlowe was hired to write a script for Fury in 2006, and his story idea was inspired by Jim Steranko’s Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. comic book series. This spy series, which involved the SHIELD Helicarrier, was written before Samuel L. Jackson was cast for the role in the MCU. Although Marlowe’s script was not written for that version of the character, he said it could be tweaked for Jackson’s portrayal. Despite this, Marvel never moved forward with Fury, who has instead remained a supporting but integral character in the MCU. However, the Disney+ series Secret Invasion looks to finally be giving him the center stage, even if it’s not in a feature film.

Daredevil 2

The 2003 Daredevil movie, starring Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock and Jennifer Garner as Elektra, received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Yet, despite the Affleck Daredevil movie’s poor critical reception, there were plans for a sequel. Affleck wanted Fox to show a darker side to the character, even mentioning the storyline from Kevin Smith’s graphic novel series Guardian Devil, which featured strong Catholic themes. There were rumors that Mr. Fear would be Daredevil 2‘s main villain, and Michael Clarke Duncan expressed interest in reprising his role as Kingpin, though he did not want to have to gain weight for the part. Instead, Duncan suggested that Kingpin could have been shown training a lot in jail to become faster against Daredevil. In the meantime, a 2005 Elektra spin-off movie, in which Affleck’s character made a brief appearance, was a critical and commercial failure. Because of its failure, Daredevil 2 was scrapped, and the character was later rebooted in his own Netflix series starring Charlie Cox. Cox’s Daredevil officially joined the MCU with his cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Deathlok

In the early 1990s, a Deathlok solo movie — about a comic book character who is reanimated with cybernetic technology — was at the script stage of development. Screenwriter Randall Frakes, the same writer on the scrapped Namor movie, was reportedly writing the script, but the project never moved forward for unknown reasons. Instead, Deathlok was eventually adapted for live-action in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series. Portrayed by J. August Richards, the character Mike Peterson was introduced in the show’s pilot episode and reappeared numerous times throughout the series as a cyborg assassin. Later in the same series, Phil Coulson learned that S.H.I.E.L.D.-defector John Garrett was considered the first “Deathlok.” At the moment, however, it’s unlikely the character will ever appear in a Marvel movie.

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