Sadly, not every actor who joins the Marvel Cinematic Universe ends up sticking around.
Some become unhappy with Marvel, some fall out of love with blockbusters altogether,
and some become victims of scheduling conflicts.
These are the reasons some of the MCU’s key players have said farewell to that universe.
A lot of fans were surprised when Marvel Studios announced in 2010 that it wouldn't ask Incredible
Hulk star Edward Norton to reprise his role in Avengers.
The company put out a press release saying, in part:
"Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in
the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented
cast members."
Norton's agent called the statement "offensive" and claimed the studio unexpectedly cut off
negotiations.
Norton changed his story over the years, telling NPR in 2014 that he chose to leave the role
because he wanted more diversity in his career.
"What's the problem?"
Before 2010 there was already bad blood between Norton and Marvel.
Norton signed on to the lead in The Incredible Hulk under the condition that he could rewrite
Zak Penn's script.
Marvel agreed and while Norton's added scenes were filmed, most were cut before release.
Two months before the movie’s premiere, Entertainment Weekly reported Norton was refusing
to do press for the film.
And the break with Marvel still appears to be on Norton's mind.
In July 2018 - just over a decade after Incredible Hulk's release - he took a swipe at Marvel
during Comedy Central's Roast of Bruce Willis, using his turn at the podium to say:
"I tried to be like [Willis].
I did a big action movie called The Incredible Hulk.
You know what went wrong?
I wanted a better script."
Tim Roth, who played The Incredible Hulk’s main villain Emil Blonsky, has revealed in
the past that Marvel actually considered bringing him back for the sequel to The Avengers.
He told Crave Online:
"They were going to do it.
They were thinking, in The Avengers 2 or something […] It just kind of got swept under the
carpet I guess."
It isn't clear from what Roth said whether they were considering Abomination as the main
villain, or if he would have been working with Ultron.
Roth has since said he isn't confident about returning to the MCU, and considering the
unlikelihood of a Hulk sequel, his doubts are understandable.
Answering fan questions on Reddit in 2017, Roth wrote:
"I don't think Marvel will ever use me again, but it would be fun."
Luckily, if Roth were to reprise the role, the fact that it’s been so long since he
last played Blonsky would actually help to serve his character.
Roth was in his late 40s when The Incredible Hulk hit the big screen, and the fact that
his character was an expert soldier in an aging body was one of Blonsky's prime motivations
for allowing himself to be transformed into a monster.
According to Terrence Howard, the sole reason he didn't get to reprise his role as James
Rhodes in Iron Man 2 and beyond is simple - money.
Howard discussed his side of things in 2013 with Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live,
alleging that Robert Downey Jr. was partially responsible.
"It turns out that the person that I helped become Iron Man… took the money that was
supposed to go to me and pushed me out."
Howard said Marvel signed him up for three films and then, when it was time to make Iron
Man 2, they demanded he take an almost 90 percent pay cut.
“And I called my friend, that I helped get the first job, and he didn’t call me back
for three months.”
In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Howard clarified that he was cast before Downey and
that he took a $1 million pay cut to help convince Downey to jump on board - though
Marvel took issue with Howard's story.
During a second appearance on Watch What Happens Live in 2017, the actor said fences had been
mended between him and Downey - but also that Marvel threatened him with legal action after
his public attacks on Downey and Marvel.
“Am I gonna come back and be War Machine?
I think they could have a huge franchise off of it, but f--- ‘em.”
When Entertainment Weekly asked Chris Hemsworth and Kevin Feige about Jane Foster's absence
in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, their answers focused largely on the film’s narrative.
Hemsworth explained that Thor and Foster had broken up and that his character was enjoying
being "a solo cowboy."
“Sorry to hear that Jane dumped you.”
“She didn’t dump me.
I dumped her.
It was a mutual dumping.”
Feige added that with Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie, the filmmakers were matching Thor with a warrior
who was, quote, "much more his equal and in many ways his superior."
But a much earlier story suggested there was a real-world reason for the breakup.
According to a report from THR, bad blood started flowing between Portman and Marvel
as early as 2011 over the firing of director Patty Jenkins from Thor: The Dark World.
The report, citing unnamed sources, said Portman was on the fence about participating in the
Thor sequel because she wanted to spend more time with her son, who was only six months
old at the time.
The fact that Jenkins' involvement in Thor: The Dark World would make her the first woman
to direct such a big superhero film was what convinced Portman to sign on.
THR's sources said once Jenkins was fired, Portman was livid with Marvel, but contractually
obligated to continue.
Whether or not the story is true, publicly Portman has said she's open to reprising her
role as Jane Foster.
Talking to ScreenRant in early 2018, she was asked about the possibility and said:
"I'm completely open to everything.
But I have no news about that."
While 2017's Thor: Ragnarok was unquestionably a hit, one event in the film left fans furious.
When Hela arrives on Asgard, she immediately murders two of the famous Warriors Three:
Volstagg and Fandral.
“Who are you?
What have you done with-”
Hogun the Grim at least gets a few lines of dialogue and a bit of a tussle with Hela before
she kills him.
Kevin Feige addressed the reason why Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi and Tadanobu Asano won't be seen
again in the MCU in a November 2017 junket press conference.
Feige said the filmmakers wanted to make sure the audience saw Hela as a real threat.
He explained:
"[The Warriors Three] had noble ends, mainly to serve the arrival of Hela.”
The following month at the Heroes and Villains Fan fest in San Jose, California, Levi admitted
to fans that he was disappointed not only with leaving the MCU, but that Fandral's final
words were left on the cutting room floor.
According to Levi, the way the scene was originally shot, the swashbuckling ladies' man charged
Hela crying "For Asgard!" before dying.
While the Red Skull does appear in Avengers: Infinity War, that wasn't actually Hugo Weaving
under all those prosthetics - it was The Walking Dead’s Ross Marquand who replaced Weaving
for the third Avengers film.
While Weaving had signed a multi-picture deal with Marvel Studios, he decided he didn't
want to return after Captain America: The First Avenger, and told Collider he wasn't
concerned about Marvel muscling him into fulfilling his contract.
He said:
"I would be obliged to, if they forced me to, but they wouldn't want to force someone
to do it, if they didn't want to."
Unlike Terrence Howard and Natalie Portman, there aren't any reports of Weaving harboring
any harsh feelings toward Marvel; rather, he simply wanted to turn his attention away
from blockbusters.
Weaving told Collider:
"I think I've done my dash with that sort of film.
It was good to do it and try it out, but to be honest, it's not the sort of film I seek
out and am excited by."
For a long time after Captain America: The First Avenger, the only blockbuster films
Weaving had been a part of was his return as Elrond in the first and third Hobbit movies,
and even in those films his screen time was relatively short.
While you'd be hard-pressed to find many fans complaining about Josh Brolin's casting as
Thanos, he wasn't actually the first actor to play the Mad Titan.
Brolin first played Thanos in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy, but it wasn't Brolin giving
us that sinister profile in the mid-credits scene of The Avengers - that was Damion Poitier
, best known as Duprez in HBO's True Blood.
Poitier told Geeks WorldWide that he didn't know he'd been cast as Thanos until he was
sitting in the make-up chair.
He said:
"I thought I was Kl'rt.
I thought I was going to be Super Skrull, because the whole rumor was that the Skrulls
were going to be in Avengers."
No reports suggest that Marvel was in any way unhappy with Poitier's performance.
More likely it wasn't a question of Poitier being the wrong choice, but of Brolin being
so right.
Kevin Feige has told Collider:
"You look at [Brolin's] face and the performance he gives, he could be Thanos without any effects.
He has that kind of face and that kind of gravitas to it."
Though he never reprised his role as Thanos, The Avengers wasn't Poitier's last appearance
in the MCU.
He also had a small speaking role in Captain America: Civil War as one of Crossbones' henchmen.
“Drop it.
Or I’ll drop this.
Drop it!”
Sadly, Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Quicksilver didn't survive 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron.
“You didn’t see that coming?”
His death came as a surprise to many fans, who were quick to speculate that the motivation
to kill the character had something to do with Evan Peters being introduced as Quicksilver
in the previous year's X-Men: Days of Future Past - long before Disney acquired Fox.
Speaking to MTV in May 2015, Kevin Feige said Fox's Quicksilver had nothing to do with the
decision.
He said:
"[Quicksilver's death] adds stakes to the ending of the film… to show repercussions
to Ultron's actions, and also in a way to solidify Scarlet Witch's character, and Wanda's
arc in the movie and where we'll see her in the next films."
Feige went on to say Quicksilver died in "every draft" of the script.
In 2016, while promoting another movie, Taylor-Johnson echoed Feige and said Age of Ultron writer/director
Joss Whedon was "lulling the audience into a false sense of security," and playing with
the widespread fan belief that it would be Hawkeye who didn't survive the film.
But Taylor-Johnson had a slightly different story to tell while talking to CinemaBlend
in 2015.
While he did say the plan always was for Quicksilver to die, he also admitted there was a costume
designed for him if his character were to survive - and that it was, in his words, "really
cool."
Oh well!
"Keep up old man!”
“Nobody would know.
Nobody."
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