Welcome back, nerd squad.
Today we are going to look into the dark vault of Disney and Marvel as we look at the top
10 MCU controversies you won't believe.
Some of these you may already know about and some of them may be completely new knowledge
to you but regardless all of them are pretty unbelievable in retrospect.
I know a few on the list greatly shocked me personally.
However because I found so many so shocking, I'd like to let you know my ranking here may
be a bit wonky.
It feels a bit wonky to me actually so feel free to give me your suggestion of a re-rank
in terms of order in the comments below.
I feel like there are multiple here that are worthy of our top 1 spot.
And be sure to stay tuned till the end of this video as I have some bonus content coming
up for you.
Okay, let's get counting.
10 Ed Norton
Did anyone else forget this movie was going to be part of the MCU?
The Incredible Hulk came out in June of 2008, a mere few months after the first Iron Man
film.
Neither was attached to Disney at this point but both were attached to Marvel.
And Norton was set to actually join up with the Avengers in 2012 as their Bruce Banner
and Hulk.
However due to Norton's demanding level of involvement in the filmmaking process.
It was felt that Norton was not a team player and too hard to work with so Marvel recast
the role as Mark Ruffalo.
Which although seemed like a radical call at the time, now I think back and imagine
how strange it would be to have Norton as Banner in the MCU.
Ruffalo has embodied him so well that it's hard for me to imagine anyone else as the
Hulk.
9 Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese made a statement about how he did not like Marvel movies, saying that
they were weren't about genuine human interaction and psychology.
And implying that they weren't really art but were more akin to a theme park, where
the actors who are in them are really just doing their best when it comes to what is
asked of them.
And then the internet basically exploded.
Joss Whedon and James Gunn both responded acknowledging that Scorsese is a brilliant
filmmaker and that they both appreciate his work but were upset to hear how he felt.
James Gunn in particular likened his reaction to the films to movie-goers reactions to the
Scorsese film, the Last Temptation of Christ, protesting it without even seeing it.
Honestly Guardians is one of my all time favourite films.
So it also makes me sad.
But also it would be really weird if Scorsese really loved Marvel films.
Because he's Martin Scorsese.
Seeing him fangirl over them would be maybe even more unbelievable.
8 Nick Fury's Eye
When Captain Marvel came out there was a lot of controversy surrounding the film but rather
unpack all of that, I'd like to focus on something that I both found hilarious and confusing:
how Nick Fury lost his eyes.
In the comic book, the injury is alluded to as being the result of being caught up in
a grenade blast.
But Nick Fury in the comics was also originally very different so I guess Marvel thought it
was time to revisit this event and give it a new explanation in the updated timeline,
where young Fury still has both his eyes by the time he's a SHIELD agent.
The film Captain Marvel allows a look into what Fury was like when he was younger when
he first met Carol Danvers.
For one he's a lot more easy-going so much so that people speculated the Nick Fury of
the future might even be a Skrull.
How could these two men be the same person?
We also learn that he lost his eye as a result of a glorified cat scratch.
Okay, so it's not a cat, it's an alien Flerkin named Goose who is actually Chewie in the
comics and poses as Danvers cat.
So at least it's from the comics.
But this still left a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouth, feeling this lessened
and was disrespectful to Fury's character.
I personally thought the moment was very funny but was also a little confused.
As later in the timeline, Fury mentions in another film that last time he trusted someone,
he lost an eye.
Implying that he had a strangely close bond with Goose and that he considered the flerkin
to be a someone.
Hmmm.
7 Ed Wright
If you don't know who Ed Wright is he was one of the credited writers for Ant-Man and
was originally slated to be the director for the origins film.
But beyond that he has also directed such amazing films as Scott Pilgrim vs the World
and all films of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and the
World's End which all star Nick Frost and Simon Pegg.
So he's known for being pretty out there a brilliant.
Unfortunately Ed Wright did not end up directing the film due to creative differences with
Marvel.
Basically Ed Wright had written a script for the film with Joe Cornish.
People loved it.
Joss Whedon even said it was one of the best scripts Marvel ever had.
But then it came time for the making of the film after an 8 year on and off again involvement
from Wright due to him working on other projects, the previous credits I just listed.
Cornish and Wright attempted two rewrites based on Marvel's notes and after the second,
Marvel turned to in-house writing staff, excluding Wright.
The script Wright got back displeased him as he felt they had altered his vision and
he walked.
He then left to make Baby Driver.
Yeah!
Baby Driver!
Why Marvel?
We could have had Wright!
6 Black Widow
There is much controversy around Black Widow's treatment in the MCU and even Scarlett Johansson's
treatment by the press when she appears in interviews and on panels with her fellow castmates.
But beyond he being asked about how she looks so good while her male cast members are being
asked about character depth, Black Widow's death was one of the most controversial story
points of Endgame.
Johansson's opinion was that she felt the death and self-sacrifice was fitting.
It was a moment where Natasha had finally felt she was part of a family, had friends
and wanted to protect them along with protecting all of humanity.
Truly it was a moving scene.
And the self-sacrifice was poignant.
But some have referred to the choice of killing off Black Widow as the common comic book trope
of putting women in refrigerators.
If you're not familiar with this phrase.
Google it.
There is a website and ton of memes that await you.
Black Widow was just starting to get some real character development just before she
was killed off, leaving fans feeling unsatisfied.
Her character has always felt like main character who just never was properly developed.
She is one of the core Avengers but is only now getting her own standalone film after
her apparent death in the MCU.
Not only that, but Tony sacrificed himself and got a huge funeral and Natasha got nothing
but a few lines of mourning.
Sure, she's a spy.
Maybe she can't have a funeral?
But couldn't her friends and teammates at least have some kind of top secret memorial?
Something.
I mean, she might not be dead.
Maybe they'll bring her back.
I hope they do.
Just no Black Widow clones, please, Marvel.
Okay?
5 Mandarin
When Mandarin appeared as a villain in Iron Man 3 and Ben Kingsley was cast in the role,
people were obviously excited.
Until it turned out that this wasn't the Mandarin at all but an imposter, an actor named Trevor
Slattery, merely acting under the guise of Mandarin.
Then comic fans were outraged that they would disgrace Mandarin's image in this way and
use one of the best Marvel villains only to discard him and reveal him as a fraud.
Fans were so outraged in fact that Marvel was forced to release a short that amended
this issue by having Slattery contacted by the true Mandarin during his time in prison,
who was pretty unhappy to have been impersonated, almost as unhappy as all the raging nerds.
IMDB has Mandarin listed as making his true debut in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten
Rings.
4 Ancient One
As much as Tilda Swinton is a phenomenal actress and could play anyone, when she was cast as
the Ancient One, it left everyone doing a double take.
The Ancient One is a character very much steeped in Tibetan culture and is presented in the
comics as an Asian man.
However because of strict Chinese censorship laws the Ancient One's Tibetan heritage would
have to be cut in order for the Doctor Strange film to have been shown in China.
So director, Scott Derrickson decided to go the other way with the appearance of the character
entirely.
Instead he cast Swinton, with the role actually being written specifically for her and instead
having her character being of Celtic descent.
This created a great uproar, accusations of white washing and depriving an asian actor
of such a great role.
Derrickson apologized in the midst of the controversy, ensuring people that his decision
was made to protect the integrity of the character as he felt the Ancient One in the comics was
a stereotype of Asian culture and mysticism and wanted to move away from that.
The crazy part was that he said he never thought people would get upset about this casting
choice.
3 Agent Coulson
We all remember the death of Agent Coulson.
It was moving, heartfelt.
It brought the Avengers together at a moment where there were torn apart, divided.
Phil Coulson's death made the Avengers.
It was a great death cause it made a huge difference and set the Avengers down a path
of togetherness, turned them into a team, a family.
So many times in comics, deaths aren't meaningful cause they never stick but this one--What?
He's alive?
In Agents of Shield he...?
They brought him back!
What!
How is that even--!
It ruins the whole point!
Okay, so apparently after Phil Coulson died in the MCU, they brought him back to lead
Agents of Shield.
He was brought back using Project TAHITI which was meant to be used in the death of an Avenger,
using a drug made from an ancient dead Kree corpse to bring them back to life.
Marvel did this because Coulson had so many fans who were sad to see him go.
As happy as fans were about this development it also incited a lot of rolling, prompting
fans to be kind of disgruntled with the fact that Marvel can never let anyone stay dead.
Also no one ever tells the Avengers!
WTF!
2 Diversity
The MCU has gone over 10 years without any queer representation in terms of their superhero
community.
That is a long time.
Longer than it took us to get Black Panther which also honestly took too long, especially
considering how big of a character T'Challa is in the comics.
Black Panther was introduced in 2018, ten years after the franchise started.
Diversity and representation has always been a controversial topic for Marvel.
Especially when it comes to the MCU but even in comics it's has never been Marvel's strong
suit and it's definitely never been Hollywood's either.
The first openly gay character we had in the MCU was played by Joe Russo in Endgame and
was met with a lot of critcism from the gay community.
The team expressed they thought it important the first character just be your average person,
they didn't want to make it look like they were making a huge show, they wanted it to
be grounded in reality.
Russo specifically felt it was important that one of them even portray the role out of solidarity.
While some felt this was too insignificant, while others applauded the more casual approach,
the bottom line is at least we are finally moving forward when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation
with heroes like Valkyrie being officially confirmed as queer and a major character in
the Eternal film.
1 Terrence Howard
If you've watched the Iron Man films and the Avengers films in the MCU franchise, you are
no doubt aware that Tony Stark's judgemental military best bud, Rhodey aka War Machine
was recast after Iron Man 1.
The role was originally given to Terrence Howard and Howard apparently left the MCU
due to not wanting to take more than 50% pay cut when it came to working on the sequel.
What you may not have known is at the time of Iron Man 1, Terrance Howard was the highest
paid actor in the MCU, reported as receiving between 3.5 and 4.5 million dollars for the
role.
Where Robert Downey Jr apparently only made 2.5 million.
Marvel studios had apparently agreed to pay the actor an additional 5 million should a
sequel be greenlit.
But when it was they apparently offered him a measly 1 million instead, so he walked and
they recast the role with Don Cheadle.
But what you may not know is that Marvel apparently low-balled Howard because he was so difficult
to work with.
Don't get me wrong, Marvel can be controlling too but Howard is famous for his controlling
and angry attitude when it comes to working on sets.
Combine that with a history of assault charges and it's understandable why Marvel wanted
to offer him a steep pay cut.
It seems like they wanted to guide him out the door.
Thank you so much for watching, nerd squad.
I hope you enjoyed this list.
What do you think is was one of the most shocking MCU controversies?
Where there any changes made in the films that you just could not abide?
Let us know in the comments below.
And while you're on your way down there be sure to like, subscribe and ring our bell
for all the nerdy notifications.
And speaking of comments I have some bonus content for you in the form of responses to
some from my last video, top 10 House of X Facts that Change Everything.
Don't worry.
There are no spoilers in these comments.
Gabriel AJ says, "When I hear Marvel, I think of X-Men."
Me too!
I'm a huge X-Men fan and have been since I was a little kid.
They are maybe my favourite Marvel or superhero team overall, ever.
Mutant Messiah writes, "I stopped reading any Marvel comics after the events of Avengers
vs X-Men but after hearing positivity on Hickman's House of X and Powers of X, here I am again,
I'm on HoX 5 and PoX 5 and am loving it so far."
Yes yes yes!
And keep reading, I'm sure it's going to only get better from there.
To be honest, I feel like both these series could potentially be my new favourites in
terms of X-Men.
Anyone that has abandoned this team needs to come back for House of X.
It's so good and so beautiful.
Alright, that's all the time we have for comments today.
This is top 10 nerd and I'm your host, Amanda McKnight, reminding you as always to stay
nerdy, YouTube.