Loki sex scenes.
A topless Gamora.
Tony Stark dropping weapons-grade F-bombs.
There's no way these R-rated scenes were making it into the final cuts of MCU films!
Marvel takes some artistic liberties with the Grandmaster in "Thor Ragnarok."
The character's comedy is edgier than most in the MCU.
Perhaps the most NSFW moment in the movie is when Valkyrie mentions the Grandmaster
uses his spaceship for orgies, actually saying the word rather than hinting at it.
"Did she just say Grandmaster uses it for orgies?"
"Yeah.
Don't touch anything."
Director Taika Waititi had plans for the Grandmaster to be even cruder.
In fact, in a deleted scene, the Grandmaster has, for lack of a better term, tentacle sex.
As Thor and Bruce Banner ride together in a ship stolen from the Grandmaster's fleet,
it becomes apparent that the ruler has used this particular vessel before.
A table in the middle of the ship displays holographic videos, and Thor opens one of
the Grandmaster passionately fondling two tentacles.
Even for the Grandmaster, the scene would have been out of place in a PG-13 movie.
"Eye-yai-yai."
Seeing all three live-action versions of Spider-Man together in 2021's "Spider-Man: No Way Home"
was a dream come true.
While many of the action sequences with Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire
sharing the screen are thrilling, one of the most special moments comes just before the
final battle.
As the three Peter Parkers wait for the imminent arrival of their foes, they calmly chat about
life, their striking similarities, and their remarkable differences.
While talking, they discover that Tobey's Peter can shoot webs directly from his wrist.
Tom and Andrew's Peters have to fabricate their webs themselves and shoot them from
a device in their suit.
It turns out there was a bit more to this conversation that editors trimmed down for
the initial theatrical release.
When Sony re-released the movie to theaters in September 2022 as the "More Fun Stuff"
edition, fans got to hear a rather suggestive punchline as part of this exchange.
"It just happens.
Like, I don't know."
"That's so cool, man.
Like, I want to see the holes."
While hilarious, the line is definitely more adult than anything else in the movie.
When it comes to crude humor, Marvel seems to give the Guardians of the Galaxy a looser leash.
Throughout the "Guardians" films, Peter Quill warns his crew not to look at the inside of
his ship with a blacklight, Drax discusses his nether regions being engorged, and Ego
tells everyone he's, uh, anatomically correct as he explains his godly existence.
"Yes, Drax.
I got a penis."
"Ha!
Thank you."
This theme continues during the gang's appearance in "Avengers: Infinity War" when Quill taunts
Thanos about the villain's chin looking like male genitals.
Additional dialogue from "Infinity War" that was ultimately removed would have kept the
Guardians' thread of crotch-related humor going.
In a deleted scene, Nebula sends the rest of the Guardians an urgent message about Gamora,
with a pretty explicit threat.
"Tell Quill not to lose my sister a second time, or I will sew his face to his genitals."
"That's her."
Tony Stark isn't exactly the model of a perfect moral compass, especially in his earlier appearances.
That being said, the wild side of Tony's personality mostly comes through subtext — in what filmmakers
imply rather than what they directly show the audience.
One scene deleted from the first "Iron Man" would have been far from subtle.
In the sequence, Tony throws a party in Dubai and stops to flirt with two women.
"I'm thinking of a number between one and five."
"Three."
"Exactly."
He walks away with his arms around both of them.
As if that wasn't scandalous enough, they pick up a third girl as they stroll through
a hallway.
Then, the camera follows them into the bedroom.
Before things go any further, Tony leaves to get some champagne glasses.
"Why don't you get started without me?"
"Kinky."
MCU movies have their fair share of innuendos, but a scene as sexually explicit as this is
far beyond anything that exists in a Marvel film to date.
In a deleted scene from "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2," Ego shows off a memorial he
constructed for Quill.
The statue is supposed to honor the climax of the previous film, in which the entire
Guardians crew saves the planet Xandar together against an attack from Ronan.
Except, some of the details have been changed to stroke Quill's ego.
Some of the incorrect visuals of the statue play for comedic effect.
Drax is a tiny monkey-like creature on Quill's shoulder, while either Rocket or Groot — it's
difficult to say which — is a shapeless blob behind Quill.
Gamora and Quill's granite likenesses are more sensual than comical, their physical
features manipulated suggestively.
Gamora, kneeling while Quill stands, grabs Quill's hip with one hand and strokes his
inner thigh with the other.
While it's likely the scene was killed for pacing, it isn't a stretch to think that the
fully rendered statue might have been a bit too much.
Do Marvel superheroes curse?
Which words are okay for them to say, and which are off-limits?
Are any heroes averse to swearing altogether?
"S—."
"Language."
As writers pioneered the beginnings of the MCU, their scripts had to discover not only
who these characters were but also define the appropriate level of mature content for
future movies to use as a reference.
In the original version of the opening scene of "Iron Man," Tony Stark drops the f-bomb.
In the final version, most of the scene remains, but editors removed the quick moment of swearing.
It's unclear whether screenwriters included the word in the script or if Robert Downey
Jr. improvised it.
In any case, filmmakers must have decided the profanity was too strong, especially as
a first impression of one of the MCU's centermost heroes.
For the record, CNBC notes that a PG-13 movie can technically have one f-bomb.
Any repeated uses bump the rating to an R. Still, Marvel probably wanted to keep its
family audience in mind as it paved the way for the cinematic universe to come.
The "Guardians of the Galaxy" trailer includes a shot from a scene that's not actually in
the movie.
This tends to be a habit of Marvel, with many MCU trailers showing clips that aren't in
their finished film.
Sometimes, this might be by design, perhaps to misdirect the audience and avoid revealing
a spoiler.
Other times, filmmakers might remove a scene during the editing process between the trailer's
release and the film's debut.
The deleted shot in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" trailer is so risqué that it's shocking
it was ever filmed.
The moment in question shows Gamora with her shirt off, her back and part of her side exposed
as she looks into the camera.
It's possible that the shot was originally part of the scene in which the characters
change into prison uniforms shortly after being arrested.
In the finished sequence as it appears in the film, the camera shows Quill in his underwear
and Rocket fully unclothed but doesn't show Gamora at all.
The deleted shot remains public on Marvel's YouTube channel as part of the trailer.
Captain America, Black Widow, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, and Vision face off against the Black
Order during an epic fight scene in Edinburgh in "Avengers: Infinity War."
In the book "The Art of Avengers: Endgame," designer Phil Saunders shares that the writers
planned on War Machine being in the scene at one point.
In an alternate version of the fight, the Black Order would have sliced War Machine's
suit in half, leading the audience to believe they just saw the hero die before their eyes.
The camera then would have cut to Rhodey, remote-piloting the armor, unharmed.
Had it remained in the film, the scene could have gotten pretty gruesome, depending on
how violent the fake-out would have been and how long the moment would linger on the apparent death.
"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" is arguably the MCU's most violent film.
Director Sam Raimi never goes full-on horror but gets pretty close with macabre visuals
and a signature affinity for the occult.
A deleted sequence would have pushed the limits of the movie even further.
The film's fight coordinator, Liang Yang, posted rehearsal footage from unused choreography
on Instagram.
The clip shows Scarlet Witch snapping necks, bending bones, and splattering the blood of
Doctor Strange's warriors during the battle of Kamar-Taj in a manner much more violent
than the actual scene in the movie.
This alternate version could have poised "Multiverse of Madness" for an R rating.
That may have been grounds for its removal.
This wasn't the only gruesome "Multiverse of Madness" scene that didn't make it to the screen.
In the film's audio commentary track, Raimi, writer Michael Waldron, and producer Richie
Palmer discuss concepts from early drafts of the story.
One version of the Illuminati roster would have included the Wasp among its ranks ... only
for Scarlet Witch to squash the insect-sized hero with her fingers.
The team also ditched the idea of Scarlet Witch severing Mordo's head and delivering
it to Doctor Strange.
For the most part, the romantic and sexual life of Loki remains offscreen.
The audience only sees Loki develop a love interest with Sylvie in his self-titled series, "Loki."
However, the god of mischief tells Sylvie he's pursued other relationships in the past,
to which the audience is never privy.
During the development stages of "Loki," writers planned to show much more of this side of
the character.
In a photograph, head writer Michael Waldron poses in front of a whiteboard filled with
the team's ideas for the show's first season.
One of the plot points mapped on the board reveals the writers' plans for Loki with a
simple but loaded phrase: "Doing crazy mischief aka sex."
Granted, in the writing stage of a project, anything is possible.
The extent to which the writing team considered these ideas is unknown.
Did they develop the concepts of Loki's sexual exploits as full story beats and remove them
much later, or did they only jot the ideas down as quick notes on a whiteboard and nothing more?
We may never know.
Monster children attack Thor
In "Avengers: Infinity War," a hammerless Thor embarks on a quest for a new weapon with
the help of Rocket and Groot.
Eventually, the ragtag trio teams up with Eitri to create Stormbreaker from the power
of the star Nidavellir.
The route to wielding Stormbreaker, though, was initially much darker.
The book "The Art of Avengers: Endgame" chronicles abandoned concepts not only for its namesake
film but also for "Avengers: Infinity War."
Author Eleni Roussos describes an early version of Thor, Rocket, and Groot's adventures together.
In this course of events, Stormbreaker would have been wedged in the skull of the long-deceased
World Serpent.
Rodney Fuentebella, senior visual development artist, explains,
"There was also an idea of how after they got Stormbreaker, as they were escaping, the
children of the World Serpent would attack them, and they would have to fight their way out."
"Well, it better be some hammer."
Depending on their depiction, that might be above the PG-13 pay grade.
Would they be literal ancestors of the World Serpent?
And therefore monsters themselves?
Would they be human children?
Would they be undead?
The answers to these questions would inform the intensity of the scene, but it had the
potential to be terrifyingly mature.