10 Superhero Movies That Almost Turned Out Very Differently

The long process a movie goes through from initial pitch to making it to the screen can often result in some enormous changes from the original idea. Superhero movies, in particular, often fall prey to this. With ballooning budgets and the capacity to make hundreds of millions of dollars back, comic book films have a lot riding on them and so producers and studio execs will pour over them with a fine-tooth comb during the development stages, in a bid to ensure that the movie will be a hit. Sometimes, this constant evolution can seriously damage a movie. For instance, we know that Warner Bros. heavily re-edited and even reshot great swathes of Suicide Squad to bring it closer to the hugely successful trailers. In the result, this meant the film felt choppy and too eager to please. On the other hand, the attempts to lighten up Justice League seem to have been for the better, going by what we’ve seen so far. Here, then, are 10 superhero movies that were practically completely different movies at one stage of their production. Some we would have been really interested to see, while others we definitely wouldn’t… 10) Captain America: Civil War As the highest grossing film of the year, there's no doubt that Captain America: Civil War was an all-round success. The decision to introduce Iron Man and the other Avengers and tear them apart made for a much more exciting and thrilling film. At one stage, though, things could have been very different. Back when directors the Russo brothers weren’t sure they could get Robert Downey Jr. on board, they had an alternative pitch for the film – Captain America vs. Zombies! The third act would have revolved around a villain - perhaps still Zemo - setting off a Madbomb, a concept from the comics that turns people into raging monsters when deployed. Obviously, we're happy with what we ended up getting, but you can’t say that zombies fighting against Cap wouldn’t be intriguing to see. 9) Batman Forever Though not as poor as its follow-up Batman & Robin, Batman Forever should be held responsible for turning the clock back thirty years and reverting the Batman franchise to the level of the campy 60s TV show. However, the Dark Knight’s darkest hour could have been avoided if director Joel Schumacher’s original plan was followed through. According to Schumacher, when he was first asked to take over from Batman Returns’ Tim Burton he wanted to do an adaptation of Frank Miller’s seminal Batman: Year One graphic novel. Unfortunately, Warner Bros. vetoed the idea as they didn’t want to restart the franchise. The irony is that due to the failure of Schumacher’s take on the character, they had to go back to reboot it anyways a few years later. 8) The Dark Knight From the ridiculous to the sublime. Batman Forever and The Dark Knight don’t exactly have much in common apart from sharing the same superhero, but they both went through some changes between the original concept and the final product. Initially, screenwriter David S. Goyer’s plan for the Batman Begins sequel was to make it part one of a big two-part story. In the initial idea, the first part would have ended with the Joker disfiguring Harvey Dent with acid when on trial, mirroring the character’s origins from the comics. The second film would have then been a protracted version of The Dark Knight’s final act, as Dent becomes Two-Face. Someway into writing, however, the narrative was tightened and it became just the one film, and the result is cinematic history. 7) Spider-Man 3 One of the most damning criticisms aimed at Spider-Man 3 is its treatment of Venom. Instead of being the focus of the film, one of the coolest and most beloved Spidey villains ever only properly turns up for about twenty minutes at the end of the movie. And even then he’s in the form of the miscast Topher Grace. It won’t come as much of a surprise, then, that Venom was not originally meant to be in the film. In fact, director Sam Raimi has gone on record about his distaste for the character. His first choice of secondary villain for the film was the Vulture, with Ben Kingsley in mind to play him. Exec producer Avi Arad, however, was adamant that Venom should make an appearance, due to his widespread popularity. 6) The Avengers As universally loved as The Avengers was back when it smashed the box office in 2012, some fans did have a big gripe with it. It wasn’t a perfect recreation of the original team from the comics. In place of Ant-Man and the Wasp, we had two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in Black Widow and Hawkeye. With writer/director Joss Whedon being such a hardcore Marvel fan, why was that change made? Well, Janet Van Dyne aka the Wasp did actually feature in early script drafts. However, Whedon admitted that, for whatever reason, “he couldn’t make it work.” Shortly after that, Scarlett Johansson joined the MCU as Natasha Romanoff and took Janet’s place. 5) Batman In retrospect, it was the perfect decision to break up the Dynamic Duo and not feature Robin in 1989’s Batman and its sequel Batman Returns, as it helped establish the darker tone the film was going for. However, at first, the Boy Wonder was seen as such a big part of the Batman mythos that he almost featured in both movies. First, he was going to appear in Batman, with Kiefer Sutherland lined up to play him until the character was removed from the shooting script. He got even closer to appearing in Batman Returns, though. Tim Burton’s idea for the character was for him to be a young black car mechanic. Marlon Waylans actually signed up for the part and attended costume fittings. Eventually, though, it was decided to hold him off until the third film, where he was played by Chris O’Donnell. 4) X-Men: The Last Stand The first big misstep of the X-Men franchise was 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. While it’s hard to say who's to blame, it's commonly thought that it would have been a lot better if Bryan Singer had stuck around to complete the trilogy, instead of handing over the reins to Brett Ratner. As it was, Singer actually made quite a lot of headway for the film before he was poached by DC to make Superman Returns. In his version, Jean Grey’s transformation would have been the core of the film. The main villain was to have been Emma Frost, who Singer wanted to be played by Sigourney Weaver. After Singer left, future First Class director Matthew Vaughn was also briefly in charge before he bowed out due to disagreements with the studio. 2) The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Whether you like it or not, it's a fact that The Amazing Spider-Man 2’s poor reception was responsible for killing an entire burgeoning cinematic universe. It’s not surprising that it wasn't well-received, though, as the makers didn't seem to be a have clear vision for the film. At least, that’s what we can takeaway from the many significant subplots that were deleted from the movie. First of all, Mary Jane Watson was supposed to have featured, with Divergent’s Shailene Woodley in the role. Though footage was shot, it eventually ended up on the cutting room floor. Even stranger was the subplot that involved Peter’s father coming back from the dead and randomly appearing at Gwen’s graveside at the end of the film. Seriously, where the hell was that plot line going? 2) Fantastic Four Much of the blame for Fantastic Four’s failure can be laid on its chaotic production, with director Josh Trank and the studio coming to loggerheads. As Trank infamously Tweeted, it was originally a very different movie. Fox have so far kept a tight lid on exactly what changes the film underwent, but we can fill in a lot of the gaps thanks to footage that was seen in the trailers but completely absent from the finished product. For instance, the inclusion of the Fantasticar (yes, really) and a big action scene for The Thing. We also know that Doctor Doom was originally an anti-social blogger called Victor Domashev. Due to huge backlash from the fans, this was changed in reshoots and all references to this version of the character were removed. 1) Superman II The most famous example of a superhero movie completely changing during production has got to be Superman II, whose behind the scenes turmoil has become cinematic legend. Initially, the plan was to produce Superman and its sequel in one go, with Richard Donner overseeing both at the same time. However, due to problems between the director and producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind, Donner was removed from the sequel and Richard Lester was brought in. Unlike all these other films, though, we actually have an idea of what Donner’s version would have been like. 2006’s Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut saw the director re-edit Lester’s film and add in his own scenes that didn't make the theatrical cut, like the inclusion of new footage of Marlon Brando as Jor-El and Superman’s tragic climax being transplanted to the sequel, as was Donner’s original plan.