The Marvel Cinematic Universe's first post-credits scene almost looked into the franchise's future…
way into the future.
At the 2019 Saturn Awards, Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige appeared in a brief
video clip to share an alternate version of Iron Man's famous stinger with the crowd.
It's probably for the best that they went with a simplified take, because if they had
used the alternate, Marvel fans' heads would have exploded.
The clip is part of an apparent treasure drove of deleted scenes from the MCU that will be
made available on the Infinity Saga box set, and it features a very different version of
the speech Nick Fury gives to Tony Stark after surprising the billionaire at his home.
The original post-credits scene of Iron Man introduced audiences to Fury, and clued them
in that, yes, all these Marvel movies were going to be connected.
"Mr. Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe you just don't know it yet."
Marvel comics die-hards went absolutely bananas over the reveal of Jackson as Fury and the
teased possibility of an Avengers movie but the alternate version that Feige screened
for fans would have had them freaking out exponentially harder.
Here's the alternate line of dialogue that would have changed everything:
"As if gamma accidents, radioactive bug bites, and assorted mutants weren't enough …"
Wait — what?!
The implication of the existence of Spider-Man and the X-Men in the MCU's very first film,
no less would have blown fans out of their seats.
Fury continues ...
"... I have to deal with a spoiled brat who doesn't play well with others, and who wants
to keep all of his toys to himself."
The "Who the hell are you?"
exchange between Fury and Stark is the same as in the final version, but there's an additional
exchange that is also new:
"Well, what are we avenging?"
"Whatever the hell we want."
The pre-Sokovia Accords era was such an innocent time, eh?
But back to the Fury's mind-blowing opening line.
Remember, at that time, the film rights to the X-Men were owned by Fox Studios, who had
been busily cranking out successful films based on these properties for the past eight
years.
The rights to Spider-Man were held by Sony Pictures, which had fielded an immensely successful
film trilogy based on the wall-crawler, and was a few years away from rebooting the property.
Of course, the last few years have made this alternate version of the Iron Man stinger
scene appear downright prophetic.
Following the striking of a shared custody deal between Sony and Marvel, Spider-Man has
enjoyed a three-year, five-picture run in the MCU.
Negotiations to re-up that deal have recently hit an impasse, making the cinematic future
of the character a bit unclear but in 2008, the idea that Spidey could ever appear in
a film from scrappy upstart Marvel Studios was downright laughable.
Likewise, the formerly Fox-owned properties are now free and clear for use in the MCU,
but it took two seismic developments for that to happen: Marvel Studios and Fox Studios
were both purchased by the same parent company, the increasingly monolithic Disney.
In 2009, the House of Mouse purchased Marvel Studios for just over $4 billion dollars,
which turned out to be a pretty sweet deal for a production house that would eventually
turn the MCU into the highest-grossing film franchise in history.
Then, earlier this year, Disney acquired the film and television assets of Fox for an eye-popping
$71.3 billion dollars.
While one of the primary purposes of the acquisition was to secure Fox's incredibly deep television
library to bolster its upcoming streaming service Disney+, it goes without saying that
bringing all of those legacy characters home to Marvel was some pretty fantastic icing
slathered liberally on that cake.
But in 2008, there would have been no reason to think that the X-Men and the Avengers could
ever play in the same cinematic sandbox.
At any rate, it's fascinating to see what might have been and even more so to think
what else Feige and company will be dragging out of their vault to share with us for the
Infinity Saga's box set release.
It has yet to be announced when the collection will hit store shelves, but we'll be all over
it when it does.
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