5 fascinating reveals from the new Story of Marvel Studios book

Marvel has just released a dense book set detailing the history of Marvel Studios — that is, the first 10 years of Marvel Studios, considering they’re not done yet. This massive set it is filled to the brim with a lot of never-before-heard stories from behind the scenes at Marvel Studios, straight from the creatives who made it happen.

The book, The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has been out since October 19. And already, many stories are beginning to spill out from its pages and into the news. We’re sure the books are worth reading in full for hardcore Marvel fans, but we’ve selected a few of the most fascinating stories to bubble up so far.

1. Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom

Robert Downey Jr. has made his role in the MCU clear: “I am Iron Man.” Since his first appearance as the character in 2008, he’s become the godfather of the MCU. But there’s a possibility that Downey could have been the star of another Marvel movie as well. In the book, Iron Man director Jon Favreau says that, “Marvel had already met with [Robert Downey Jr.] before, I think, to play Doctor Doom.”

The first Fantastic Four movie came out in 2005, and Julian McMahon ultimately got the role of Doctor Doom. Those movies were hit and miss, so we wonder if Downey’s superhero career would have ended early had he appear in them. Then again, MCU superstar Chris Evans (Captain America) was in those films as the Human Torch, so maybe Downey could have made a comeback too.

2. Marvel causes a civil war with Civil War

Many know Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige as the innovative genius behind some of the MCU’s best ideas. But not everyone in the studio was supportive of those ideas from the jump, especially when it came to Captain America: Civil War. Apparently, on the Marvel Entertainment side, the Marvel Creative Committee was not in favor of having Iron Man fight Captain America at the end of the film.

“Civil War started a civil war in Marvel,” co-director Joe Russo said in the book. “But when we drew the line in the sand, it became a moment where that company was either going to slowly bend back toward where it had come from, or it was gonna slowly start to bend toward new territory.”

This all eventually led to Disney’s then-CEO Bob Iger stepping in and letting Marvel Studios be independent of the committee, so they were free to do what they wanted.

3. Marvel says “No” Ghost Rider, Daredevil or Punisher

While we have seen Daredevil and the Punisher in Netflix shows, Marvel Studios did not originally want to use those characters on the big screen. The higher-ups at Marvel saw the MCU was already doing well with the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy, so they decided to give the other characters away to Marvel Television instead. The plan was to have a vast television “empire” with these remaining characters, but we all see how that worked out.

4. Sony was furious when Kevin Feige suggested teaming up on a new Spider-Man movie

No one really ever wants to give away their prized possessions. So it was with Sony after the production of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, starring Andrew Garfield. The movie hadn’t done particularly well, but Sony exec Amy Pascal was planning to go ahead with a sequel anyway, because what else are you going to do when you have hold of a valuable superhero property?

Then in walks Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige, who suggested to Pascal that they scrap plans for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and let Marvel take the creative lead on a new movie, the one that would eventually become Spider-Man: Homecoming starring Tom Holland. “At first, I was super resentful,” Pascal said. “I think I started crying and threw him out of my office, or threw a sandwich at him – I’m not sure which.”

But then she started to think about it and came around. “By the fifth [Spider-Man] movie, we weren’t giving them anything new. And I have to be honest about it, we were trying so hard to be different, we even went into places to be different that we shouldn’t have. We weren’t fresh anymore.”

And so the joint Sony-Marvel custody agreement over Spider-Man began, and is still in place to this day.

5. The Wasp almost replaced Black Widow in The Avengers

The Avengers solidified the “original six” superheroes in the fan-favorite movie from 2012. But the original Avengers team could have looked a bit different. After it looked like scheduling conflicts might prevent Scarlett Johansson from acting in the movie, director Joss Whedon thought of writing in the Wasp instead.

"The Wasp happened because there was a short period where it looked like we weren’t going to be able to get Scarlett [Johansson due to scheduling conflicts], so I was panicking…I thought, ‘Hold on, we could do The Wasp.’ Then, I fell in love with that. But we did get Scarlett, and then I realized that I had written this entire movie about The Wasp. Oops, I overcompensated there."

What’s more, Whedon wanted to cast Zooey Deschanel as the Wasp. As we know, the character would eventually find her way into the MCU via the first Ant-Man movie, there played by Evanglline Lilly. Hot different might the MCU have looked if Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne’s technology been implemented much earlier in Phase I?

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels