The Marvel Cinematic Universe has come a long way since Phase 1 launched with 2008’s Iron Man. That movie soon led to a historic cinematic saga that has done many things right, from picture-perfect casting to exciting fight scenes and CGI. However, the MCU has also stumbled, and some of its most notable mistakes date back to the first few movies.
To their credit, the MCU’s producers did what they could to perform course corrections for some of these flaws. Some retcons and plot revisions contained the worst of the damage, but some problems still linger, and only a remake could erase them entirely. If the MCU’s producers could do it all over again, they could easily remove these baked-in problems and make the MCU near-perfect from the start.
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10 Not Having Prominent Female Leads Early On
Over time, the MCU started adding powerful and prominent female characters ranging from Gamora the alien assassin to the juggernaut Captain Marvel and Hope Van Dyne as the Wasp. Many of them didn’t appear until Phase 2 or later, though, with Black Widow and Maria Hill being the only female heroes of any caliber in Phase 1.
Black Widow and Maria Hill felt like token characters at the time, and the MCU didn’t treat them much better later on, either. If the MCU got rebooted, Captain Marvel and Hope Van Dyne could appear much earlier and serve as founding Avengers alongside Iron Man and Captain America.
9 Too Many One-Liners
Humor was an essential part of the MCU, to remind moviegoers that these were comic book movies with a lot of inherent silliness to them. Quippy dialogue and comic relief can become annoying if taken too far, however, and many moviegoers are getting tired of endless banter in the scripts.
The MCU has since become a parody of itself with endless one-liners and forced humor, such as inThor: Love and Thunder in Phase 4. A remake of the MCU could tone down the one-liners and save them for the best moments, such as when Iron Man gave his life performing a Snap while saying “And I… am Iron Man.”
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8 Black Widow & Hulk’s Unnecessary Romance Subplot
2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron introduced a bizarre subplot between the Incredible Hulk and Black Widow, with Black Widow using her personal charms and gentleness to “tame” the Hulk. The movie also had tense drama between Bruce Banner and Natasha that didn’t do much for either character or the plot.
The romance subplot felt like a failed experiment, and it explored the two characters in meaningless ways. To streamline the story and improve these characters, an MCU remake would omit this entirely, and find other ways to flesh out Natasha Romanoff’s emotional state.
7 Unneeded Plotlines, Such as Malekith’s Revenge
The standalone MCU movies often featured plotlines and villains who didn’t impact the MCU beyond the confines of the movie where they appeared. The MCU needed breaks from major antagonists like Thanos and Ultron and the plots involving them, but even then, some plots felt like pure fluff.
The best example was Malekith the Dark Elf, seeking revenge for a lost battle from centuries ago. Nothing about that conflict mattered once Thor: The Dark World ended. Meanwhile other antagonists like Darren Cross, Loki, and even Red Skull continued to matter in some way after their defeats.
6 The Mandarin Fakeout With Trevor Slattery
2013’s Iron Man 3 introduced a villain named The Mandarin, leader of the Ten Rings organization, but he was a fake. That character was an in-universe actor named Trevor Slattery, who was asked to create “The Mandarin” to distract everyone from Aldrich Killian’s real plans.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings did a reasonable job retconning this, but an MCU remake could do more. A remade series would use the proper Mandarin the first time, and not have people like Trevor Slattery pretend to be someone they absolutely aren’t. Iron Man 3 didn’t even need that plot twist at all, regardless of how distasteful it was.
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5 Heroes Fighting Their Villainous Counterparts
Several MCU villains made the hero and villain mirrors of one another. While there were some poetic reasons to do that, the MCU overplayed its hand, and it almost became a running joke that the heroes keep fighting their villainous counterparts. Iron Man faced Iron Monger and Whiplash, for example, while Scott Lang/Ant-Man battled Yellowjacket and Shang-Chi fought his martial artist father to the death.
Ideally, an MCU remake would only do this once or twice, and for the sake of deep commentary about certain heroes and villains not being so different after all. The original Marvel comics have plenty of other villains for the live-action heroes to face aside from their counterparts.
4 Too Many Fluff Villains
Too many of the fluff villains created unnecessary plotlines, and the villains themselves weren’t much better. Most MCU antagonists were one-off foes in standalone movies, and they tended to be forgettable and disliked. Such antagonists include Ivan Vanko, Justin Hammer, Malekith, and Crossbones.
An MCU remake would focus on the more impactful and memorable villains, such as Loki, Erik Killmonger, and Thanos, and have them appear repeatedly and survive their first encounters. That way, the villains would get longer, better arcs across the movies and not feel like a monster of the week.
3 Constant ‘Daddy Issues’ Plotlines
Drama was an essential part of the MCU, giving the heroes and supporting characters relatable personal problems to worry about in between fights. This included family drama, and too often, that drama defaulted to “daddy issues,” with many MCU fathers being abusive, neglectful, or otherwise harmful.
A little of that could go a long way, and the MCU overdid it. Tony Stark had unresolved issues with his father Howard, for example, while Gamora and Nebula clashed with their foster father Thanos, and Shang-Chi had problems with his ancient father, Xu Wenwu. Remaking the MCU would mean toning down the daddy issues and generating personal drama from more diverse and original sources.
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2 Obvious Fakeout Deaths
The MCU has become famously reluctant to kill off its heroes or even some of its villains, since those beloved characters are what sell movie tickets. A little plot armor could be forgiven, but the MCU went too far and started relying on fakeout deaths to protect its most popular characters.
Loki did that several times, and not even his actual death in 2018’s Infinity War truly killed him. Groot also seemingly gave his life to protect the Guardians of the Galaxy when fighting Ronan, only to be reborn from a twig. If remade, the MCU could find better, less cheap ways to raise the tension and protect its heroes.
1 Killing Off Phil Coulson
Agent Phil Coulson was introduced early in the MCU as a smart and professional ally of Nick Fury’s, but he didn’t last long. The MCU killed him off in 2012’s The Avengers, and bringing him back for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. did little to cheer fans up about his death. He could have stuck around to help shape the MCU a little more.
A remade MCU series would keep Phil around, and show fans what he would do in traditional spy thriller plotlines like Ant-Man and Secret Invasion. In fact, Phil Coulson would do well in Secret Invasion, being a grounded and witty character who has Nick Fury’s absolute trust. In a remade MCU, fans could see that happen.
If the MCU could start all over again, the producers would be wise to tweak the formula for Black Widow, the Mandarin, Phil Coulson and more. Read More