What Could Have Been / Marvel Comics Film And TV

What Could Have Been in unsorted Marvel Comics films and TV shows outside the ones that have their own WCHB pages.

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Works with their own pages

• Blade Trilogy
• Fantastic Four Duology
• Fantastic Four (2015)
• Hulk
• Marvel Cinematic Universe
• Spider-Man
• Sony's Spider-Man Universe
• Spider-Man: The Animated Series
• The Spectacular Spider-Man
• X-Men: The Animated Series
• X-Men: Evolution

Animated Films

Big Hero 6

• Cass Hamada was initially shown with a tattoo on her forearm, before it was removed from the final film. Gogo would also have had tattoos.
• Hiro's cat, Mochi, was also supposed to get an "upgrade" and join the team as Rocket Cat, but this was scrapped and instead used as a quick gag in the "nerd lab" scene.
• Early concept art showed that Yokai had his own team of supervillains (including Mr. Yama and his goons). He also would eventually be consumed by microbots, which would take on his shape and act as the real villain.
• Originally, GoGo was a very cynical character: She disliked Honey Lemon because she thought her fashions were due to boys, attention-seeking and did not approve of Hiro ordering her what to do when they formed Big Hero 6 because she always wanted to be number 1.
• The 2013 Rotoscopers video and early information regarding the plot depicted Hiro with a slightly different backstory: He was already attending classes with Tadashi and could not fit in with the other students due to his intelligence (though he doesn't seem to mind). The Rotoscopers video also depicted Hiro as part of a "science club research team" lead by Tadashi (most likely consisting of Honey, GoGo, Wasabi, Fred) in which each individual would make different things and would eventually lead up to a competition. Like Tony Stark, Hiro felt pressure over using his intelligence for good or just building battle robots in the basement (garage in the final film). Also, in early stages of the story, Hiro was responsible for the creation of Baymax, as opposed to Tadashi, just like in the comic book. And the early plans for Wasabi was to make him the quiet, strict character with talent for being a sushi chef like in the comics. Cass was also originally planned to be Hiro and Tadashi's mother rather than their aunt.
• Mr. Sparkles, the Bonsai Bombers, and the Fujitas were villains set to be in film, but were scrapped. A redesigned Mr. Sparkles appeared in TV series continuation (his original design can be seen in the film on a poster in Hiro's room◊) and the hostess at the robot fighting match in the opening does resemble one of the sisters.
• Originally, Fred was going to use Hard Light holograms which he shaped into Kaiju, an homage to his ability in the comics where he could project an aura shaped like a giant monster.
• Man of Action Studios actually wanted to revisit the characters with a cartoon, similarly to what they had recently did with M. Rex (which became Generator Rex). However, this is when they learned that Disney was already in development with a feature film, thus their plans were aborted and had no creative involvement with either the film or the animated series that followed.
• Baymax originally looked a LOT different◊. In fact, more concept art◊ shows he was originally going to look identical to Tetsujin 28 (on the upper-left).
• Some early concept art had Hiro having a crush on Honey Lemon.
• A sequel was planned for the film but instead, it became a TV series.

Other projects

• Howard the Duck was planned to be animated but a contractual obligation with Universal Pictures forced producer George Lucas to turn it into a live-action film instead.
• After the success of the first two Ultimate Avengers films, there were plans to adapt Ultimate War, the crossover mini-series that pitted the casts of The Ultimates and Ultimate X Men against one another. Little is known about the film, but it reportedly would have featured the Avengers and X-Men battling over the fate of Magneto, with Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver showing up as well. The DVD was also planned to include a solo Thor film, which would have been based on the original Beta Ray Bill story from Walt Simonson's run. The project was shelved in favor of Hulk Vs., and was eventually cancelled entirely after Disney purchased Marvel.

Live-Action Films

Silver Surfer

• In the early 80s, producer Lee Kramer approached Marvel about making a Silver Surfer movie, which would've co-starred Olivia Newton-John as the Surfer's love interest. Envisioned as an epic in the vein of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the film was planned to have an operatic rock soundtrack with 1000 guitars, and Kramer approached Paul McCartney (a massive comic fan) to write music for the project. Due to the Fantastic Four's movie rights belonging to Constantin Films, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby collaborated on a graphic novel called Silver Surfer: The Ultimate Cosmic Experience, a new standalone origin story for the character that was planned to be used as the basis for the film. Despite concept art being created and McCartney expressing interest, the film never got off the ground.
• Quentin Tarantino approached Constantin Films about making the movie, but was turned down.
• In 1991, a group of film students finished a short film starring the character, which used then-revolutionary CGI effects. Despite massive interest from various studios and Oliver Stone contacting the students about adapting the short as a feature, the project ended up in limbo.
• John Turman wrote a screenplay, which featured the Surfer coming to Earth ahead of Galactus' arrival and encountering various quirky human characters, including Alicia Masters. The Surfer ends up stripped of his powers after an encounter with an evil military general, but eventually regains them and is convinced to turn against Galactus by Alicia.
• In 1999, 20th Century Fox approached a still-unknown James Gunn to write a Silver Surfer treatment. He turned down the project in favor of a Spy vs. Spy film, which also never got made.
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was supposed to lead to a Silver Surfer spin-off, as well as a third Fantastic Four movie, which would've reportedly featured the Black Panther. In interviews at the time, director Tim Story expressed interest in casting Djimon Hounsou as Black Panther. J. Michael Straczynski was brought in to write the Silver Surfer movie, which would've been both a sequel and an origin story, and would've featured Galactus in his iconic humanoid form instead of as a sentient cloud. The underwhelming performance of Rise of the Silver Surfer ultimately ended up killing both projects.

Other projects

• Before the legendarily bad Roger Corman-produced The Fantastic Four, there were plans on making a film starting the Human Torch. This is the main reason why the Torch didn't show up in The Fantastic Four (1978) cartoon.
• Years prior to her debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there was a solo Black Widow film that almost happened. A script was written up by David Hayter before the failures of Catwoman (2004) and Elektra led the executives to conclude that there wasn't an audience for female superhero movies. For a while it looked like the popularity of Scarlett Johansson's portrayal of Black Widow would lead to the film being Saved from Development Hell, but this turned out to be false. Instead, Captain Marvel became the MCU's first female headliner. Black Widow would have to wait until 2021.
• In Men in Black, the Arquillians subplot was originally going to involve the Baltians, a rival alien race that was going to return a galaxy to the Arquillians as a sign of peace. Scenes from this version of the film can be seen in the "Metamorphosis of MiB" featurette on the DVD.
• The title role in Daredevil was initially won by Matt Damon. However, Damon ended up having Creative Differences with the director Mark Steven Johnson and left. Colin Farrell, Edward Norton, Guy Pearce and Vin Diesel were also candidates for the role up until Ben Affleck stepped in.
• Michael Chabon pitched short movie treatments for the Fantastic Four and the X-Men. The Fantastic Four was to be set in an Alternate History which, tonally, "was forever November 21st, 1963" and, plot-wise, was to involve Doctor Doom travelling back in time to assassinate a key world figure in order to remake the world into a grim dystopia that was pretty much the real world. Soviet agents were also going to be involved somehow.
• George Clooney was considered for the role of Nick Fury right around the time Fury (MAX) dealing with its version of the character—and said mini killed the deal as Clooney was disgusted by some of the stuff in it, including a scene of Fury strangling the main villain with the latter's own intestines, and bowed out of the project.

Live-Action TV

The Incredible Hulk (1977)

• Shortly after the series ended, Bill Bixby wanted to do a crossover film with The Amazing Spider-Man (1978), and Bixby even had Nicholas Hammond (Spidey's actor) onboard and ready to go, but Universal Pictures passed. Their claim was that Lou Ferrigno was unavailable, though Ferrigno would later reveal that he'd never even been contacted nor had he even heard of the proposal until 2003.
• A fourth television film, Revenge of the Incredible Hulk, would have seen Banner resurrected, and with the ability to control his Hulk power. Apparently dying didn't exactly cure him. It just would have made it so that Banner could control himself when he transformed... that and actually talk, something the Hulk really didn't do outside of the two-part episode "Prometheus" when Banner was trapped halfway between human and Hulk. However, the movie was cancelled due to Death of the Incredible Hulk receiving low ratings. Another movie that would have been a backdoor pilot for Iron Man was also being considered, and a She-Hulk movie was in pre-production at one point as well.
• Both Richard Kiel and Arnold Schwarzenegger had been considered for the role of the Hulk. Arnie was turned down for being too short, and while Kiel had the job initially and even filmed a few scenes, it was also decided that he was too small (in his muscles, at least) and was replaced. Kiel writes in his autobiography that this was definitely for the best, as his being blind in one eye caused problems with the contact lenses and even resulted in a hair-raising partial loss of vision while he was driving home from the shoot.

Other projects

• The 1996 TV movie adaptation of Generation X was supposed to be a pilot for a proposed TV series, but the movie's negative reception killed this idea in its tracks. Considering the quality of said movie, this is probably a good thing. Still, a live-action TV show based on an X-Men spinoff would have been interesting.
• About two years before shows like The Incredible Hulk and Wonder Woman became front and center, there were actual plans for a series involving Black Widow and Daredevil. Angela Bowie, then-wife of David Bowie was to be the Widow and Ben Carruthers was to be Daredevil. However, all that came out of that was just photo shoots of the two actors in costume.
• Before getting picked up by Netflix, Jessica Jones (2015) was originally pitched to ABC, which likely would've meant toning down some of the content. Ms. Marvel was also originally going to appear as a supporting character (as she did in the comic), but plans for Captain Marvel movie killed any chance of that. Ms. Marvel was subsequently replaced with Patsy Walker.
• Marvel had plans for a Mockingbird series that was to air on ABC Family. The series would have featured Bobbi Morse as a geeky college freshman who ends up recruited by a spy agency, with a tone that was compared to "Alias meets Felicity."
• An X-Men TV show called Hellfire was announced in 2015, with the premise revolving around a special agent who tries to thwart the Hellfire Club's plans for world domination during The '60s. The planned series was cancelled by Fox in favor of a different X-Men series by Matt Nix.

Western Animation

Other projects

• Spider-Man: The Animated Series' adaptation of Secret Wars (1984) was originally going to feature a number of additional characters, most notably Mister Sinister. These were later scrapped for numerous reasons, namely costs since Sinister's voice actor, Chris Britton, is Canadian based (the cast of X-Men: The Animated Series had previously been flown to LA from Canada for their appearance in the crossover, which proved expensive).
  • The oddest of the bunch for the heroes of that storyline was the Lizard. That was because originally, it was supposed to have been the Hulk. However, he had his own cartoon on UPN at the time and was replaced with She-Hulk. However, she ended up joining the Hulk in his series so the green-skinned character was replaced again with the Lizard.
  • An outline was written for an episode featuring Spider-Man teaming up with Ghost Rider to fight Mysterio and Dormammu. It ended up scrapped because Marvel was developing a Ghost Rider cartoon for UPN, and Fox refused to promote a character who was about to end up on a rival network.
  • Had the series continued, Peter and Madame Web would have found the real Mary Jane in an alternate Earth version of Victorian London around the time of Jack The Ripper, with the ripper turning out to be Carnage.
  • At one point, there were plans for Fox Kids to do a low budget adaptation of the first 26 issues of the original Silver Age comics, which would have extended the contract with Marvel long enough to allow the network to continue airing Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
  • Potential ideas for future episodes had Spider-Man: The Animated Series lasted longer.
    • The villains the Puma and the Beetle were considered to appear.
    • The Kingpin's son Richard Fisk would have assumed the identity of the Rose.
    • Because the Hulk's own cartoon had ended its run at the time, it would've been possible for him to finally make a guest appearance instead of just being mentioned.
• Had Fantastic Four: The Animated Series been renewed for a third season, there were plans to adapt Sue's pregnancy arc. She-Hulk and Medusa would also have appeared and joined the team.
  • Iron Man: The Animated Series also had third season plans. Dubbed "The Fall and Rise of Tony Stark", where Julia puts Tony into a downward spiral after a "put up or shut up" ultimatum, and Tony had to deal with his inner demons.
• X-Men: The Animated Series:
  • Marvel originally didn't want Beast on the show, which is why the writers had him get arrested and imprisoned after the two-part season premier as a compromise. After the initial 13 episodes, an agreement was reached, and the writers were allowed to fully integrated Beast into the main cast.
  • Likewise, the higher-ups initially listed Professor X and Jean Grey as "secondary characters" who shouldn't take up too much screen time, if any. The writers fought for their inclusion, but the effects of this initial edict can still be seen in the way Jean was somewhat underutilized in the early episodes of the show.
  • Thunderbird was originally going to appear in the two-part pilot episode as the unfortunate X-Man who gets killed by the Sentinels. However, someone up top felt that killing off the team's only Native American member might have some Unfortunate Implications, so the Sacrificial Lamb was instead changed to the obscure Silver Age character Changeling (who was renamed "Morph" to avoid confusion with the Teen Titan of the same name).
  • Stan Lee originally wanted to appear in a live-action introductory segment in front of each episode, but the creators feared that this would make the show seem too juvenile. Lee would eventually go on to film similar segments for Fantastic Four: The Animated Series and Iron Man: The Animated Series a few years later.
  • 76 episodes were completed, but there was a 77th script that never made it into active production. The episode would've brought back Colossus and his little sister Illyana for a Darker and Edgier story set in Russia, which also would've seen the return of Omega Red. The script was ultimately rejected after multiple people expressed concern about its premise and subject matter.
• There were plans for a second season of Silver Surfer: The Animated Series but it never materialised due to Marvel's bankruptcy atr the time.
• A second season of The Avengers: United They Stand was planned with Thor guest starring in a two-part episode, and a crossover with the X-Men which would have lead to a couple of cases of Acting for Two.
  • Apparently, Bob Skir and Marty Isenberg were supposed to be the writers of this show, but then Hasbro and Fox called them in to help create Beast Machines, since they had been working on other FK shows like Godzilla: The Series, and as a result, they were pulled away from their dream project. And look what happened. (Admittedly, Beast Machines has been viewed more favorably in recent years, and it helped pave the way for Isenberg to work on Transformers: Animated.)
• The Micronauts animated series, set to air on the Sci Fi Channel from 1998-1999, including a five-part miniseries, 26 episode syndicated series, action figures and a Marvel tie-in comic.
• Jack Kirby's Devil Dinosaur comic book was originally developed as a pitch for an animated series. However, the development deal failed to turn into a production deal, and the comic itself ended up getting cancelled soon after.
• Jack Kirby also pitched a Thor series to Ruby-Spears, which was never picked up. A piece of presentation art showing the Midgard Serpent attacking a city in Asia is just about the only publicly known evidence of proposed series that still remains.
• In an earlier version of "Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel", Iron Man would have gained the ability to wield Thor's hammer after the powers get swapped. However, according to Swampy, this was shut down by Marvel, and the conversation Thor and Iron Man have in the final version is based on their conversation with the Marvel representatives about what can and cannot be done with the hammer.
• Spider-Man Unlimited:
  • At one point very early on in production, the producers had briefly considered doing the show as an adaptation of Spider-Man 2099.
  • Spider-Man was supposed to meet his Counter-Earth counterpart, with the twist being that this Peter had never lost his Uncle Ben, and as a result had become his world's version of Venom. Marvel demanded that this plot thread be nixed after the unanimously poor response to The Clone Saga.
  • A possible script for "Destiny Unleashed Part 2" can be seen here.
  • Also this website lists summaries for unproduced episodes and other ideas that reveal the following:
    • Spider-Man encounters Counter Earth versions of Mary Jane and Black Cat.
    • Lord Tygra defecting from the Knights of Wundagor to form a government to unite humans and beastials together.
    • Venom and Carnage merging together to become King Carnage.
• Spider-Man: The New Animated Series
  • The show was originally supposed to feature Black Cat in an episode. However, once the producers got the popular rapper Eve to voice the part, they instead created a new villainess named Talon, who was essentially an African-American Expy of Black Cat.
  • It ends on a similar coda to The Spectacular Spider-Man: After Spider-Man is influenced by the Gaines twins to mistakenly throw Indy off of a building, putting her in a coma, New York comes to hate Spider-Man. After defeating the twins, Peter packs his Spider-Man suit into a briefcase, loads it with bricks, and throws it into the river. A second season was planned, where Peter retrieves his suit, and other villains emerge, such as the Vulture, but it was canned.
• The Spectacular Spider-Man. Greg Weisman hoped for a 65 episode run (ending with Peter's graduation from High School) - however Marvel got the animation rights to Spider-Man back from Sony, but Sony still held the rights to "The Spectacular Spider-Man " work product. Sony couldn't make more seasons of Spectacular, because they no longer had the animation rights. Marvel couldn't make more seasons of Spectacular because they didn't have the rights to that version of the character. And because of that, we wind up ending with the revelation that all of Peter's friends save Mary Jane are alienated from him, Harry hates Spider-Man, Gwen remains his girlfriend after some emotional blackmail from Harry, and Peter didn't even stop the bad guy. One assumes later seasons (even just one more given a few episodes' warning it was about to end) would have chosen a more upbeat coda. Some fans have even went as far as to pretend the non-canon Spidey/Gargoyles radio play produced months later is a more upbeat and hopeful conclusion to the series.
  • Greg Weisman has stated that the third season was to include Hobgoblin and Scorpion. Norman Osborn was not to return until at least Season 4. Carnage and Hydro-Man had both appeared in non-powered form during Season 2. Dr. Miles Warren might have finally gotten to upgrade himself and become a proper supervillain. And some statements made online indicated that Molten Man was being groomed to join the fight alongside Spider-Man.
  • Apparently Weisman had more backstory for the nature of Flash and Peter's rivalry planned out and how they stopped being friends. Also although the rights were tied up, Weismen said he would have liked to have been able to have had a Spidey/Human Torch crossover. The Big Man/Tombstone was going to be Wilson Fisk, but his rights were tied strictly to Daredevil adaptations and thus couldn't be used. He apparently approached Marvel about continuing the series in comic form, but they never got back to him (Disney/Marvel and Sony's iffy-ness about the rights probably played a factor).
• Ultimate Spider-Man:
  • An early poster showed the Shroud (Kitty Pryde's costumed identity from the Ultimate Spider-Man comics) as part of Spidey's team instead of White Tiger. Several other characters also had slightly different designs.
  • Both past Spidey voice actor Josh Keaton, and future Spidey voice actors Robbie Daymond and Yuri Lowenthal auditioned to voice the show's version of Peter.
• Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends was supposed to have Spidey team up with Iceman and the Human Torch. However, the rights to the Torch were still being held up, so they ended up making a new heroine known as Firestar.
  • Firestar was originally going to be named Heatwave. This was possibly changed due to the fact that DC Comics already published a Flash villain by that name.
  • The Black Knight episode almost featured the Dane Whitman version of the character in addition to the original Sir Percy iteration. However, the story editor felt casual viewers would be confused by two different heroes named Black Knight, so Dane ended up being cut.
• Attentive viewers of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes might have noticed a few fleeting references to Wolverine and the X-Men (2009), such as Nick Fury asking one of his agents to send Whirlwind to the Mutant Response Division. Josh Fine, associate producer of Wolverine and supervising producer for the first season of The Avengers, later revealed to have considered making some crossovers between those two shows. Wolverine would have gone on a SHIELD mission with Hawkeye and Black Widow. The Beast would have teamed up with Ant-Man in a different episode. However, Wolverine and the X-Men underwent cancellation before Marvel could make those crossovers. Christopher Yost, head story writer of The Avengers, still went on to publicly confirm that Wolverine and The Avengers take place in the same universe. An EMH tie-in comic written by Yost himself contradicts this, though. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are seen as teens who defected from Magneto's Brotherhood, which is completely at odds with their portrayal in Wolverine and the X-Men (2009).
• Speaking of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, some early choices for the first villain the Avengers would capture together included Doctor Doom and Magneto. However, it apparently seemed inappropriate for "Earth's mightiest heroes" to team up and defeat a villain who another superhero team had already fought several times before. Thus, the episode about the Avengers' founding saw them overcoming Graviton, whose control over the forces of gravity made him a worthy opponent despite his obscurity. The heroes would later get to fight Doctor Doom in the second season premiere.
  • As well, Captain America was supposed to fight the Nazis during World War II instead of HYDRA. However, the censors told Marvel that they could either use real ammo for fight scenes, or they could have their Nazis. They went with the real ammo.
  • Prior to the show's cancellation, the crew had mentioned that the third season would have been the "magic" season. Doctor Strange and the Scarlet Witch would have appeared, with the latter even having been foreshadowed during the second season (a photograph of her was on Nick Fury's wall during the Secret Invasion storyline).
  • The Sentry was originally going to be introduced in "Assault on 42" as one of the inmates in the titular prison. After this, he would've gotten his own spotlight episode dealing with his origin, followed by him becoming a member of the New Avengers in their self-titled debut.
  • Avengers Assemble was originally going to be a direct follow-up to Earth's Mightiest Heroes, with the focus on a new team of Avengers. After The Avengers broke box office records, the new show was cancelled mid-production in favor of a cartoon starring the cast of the movie.
  • Christopher Yost posted some additional details on what would've occurred in Season 3, including the debuts of (in addition to the aforementioned Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver) the X-Men, The Defenders, The Eternals, Tigra, the West Coast Avengers, and Nova, as well as villains like Magneto, Nightmare, Kulan Gath, the Juggernaut, the High Evolutionary and Rama-Tut. A two-part episode adapting elements of both Avengers vs. X-Men and House of M would've served as the finale. Also, Carol Danvers would've adopted the Captain Marvel identity.
  • Character designer Thomas Perkins did some concept art for the aborted third season.
• In the 1980s, ABC picked up a series starring Daredevil and a guide dog named Lightning the Super-Dog. The project was dropped due to a verbal altercation between a Marvel employee and an ABC exec. According to Tom Brevoot, the altercation seemed to be the cover to Daredevil Vol. 1 #184, which sported Ol' Hornhead holding a revolver on the cover.
• Other shows pitched during that same period included an Iron Man show, as well as a series starring Ant-Man and The Wasp. Two other proposed Marvel series would've been about entirely new characters, with one being called The Monstress (which would have starred a tall and beautiful female barbarian) and Muffy (a show about a transforming VW Beetle).
  • Lttle note about Muffy: if the concept of a transforming VW Beetle sounds familiar, it should: this was one of the first potential ideas Marvel came up with in adapting a toyline they were working on with Hasbro, a little line called Transformers. Yup, "Muffy" eventually became Bumblebee.
• A Teen Hulk cartoon was pitched in the 80s, seemingly based on the recurring Teen Hulk Joke Character from Crazy Magazine. As the name implies, the show would've been a comedy about a jittery teenager named Chester Weems (with the presentation art even having the phrase "Help, mommy!" written above him) who could transform into the Hulk, à la Fred and Barney Meet the Thing. Another proposal was called Hulk Hound, and featured the Hulk as an anthropomorphic dog.
• Wolverine and the X-Men (2009):
  • The end of the series hinted at an adaptation of Age of Apocalypse as the story arc for season 2, which would have featured Cable, Havok and Deadpool, among others, along with the return of Emma Frost. Character designs of both new characters and series regulars in AoA attire have since surfaced on the internet, most notably at Facebook's Save Wolverine and the X-Men page, along with some script samples. There were even designs that put Cyclops and Jean Grey in their 90s era Jim Lee costumes (designs that showed Cyclops actually smiling).
  • Deadpool was also confirmed to show up in Season 2, but the show didn't make it that far.
  • Furthermore, Wolverine and the X-Men was originally conceived as a solo Wolverine cartoon (to cash in on the solo X-Men Origins: Wolverine film), presumably focusing on his early life before he joined the X-Men, but someone apparently decided Wolverine wasn't a strong enough seller on his own so they changed it to an X-Men show where he just happened to be in charge - for better or worse.
  • Jim Ward revealed at a panel at SDCC 2012 that when he was originally cast as Professor Xavier, he wasn't going to emulate Patrick Stewart, but decided to do so after he'd heard Tom Kane emulating Ian McKellen as Magneto.
• At the time of Marvel's near-bankruptcy in the mid-1990s, they were planning solo shows based on two of their heroes. First, another Daredevil series was pitched to Fox Kids in 1999, but it was pushed back to air alongside a live-action movie that ended up not being made. Concept art shows that the villains would've included The Kingpin, Elektra, The Punisher and Namor; It would have been Darker and Edgier than similar shows of the time.
  • Secondly, a solo Captain America series- scripts, models and a one-minute pitch film were in the can when the plug got pulled; the timeslot that would've gone to it on FK Saturdays instead went to The Secret Files of The Spy Dogs.
• A cartoon spin-off was supposed to follow Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk movie, which would have aired on Kids' WB! alongside X-Men: Evolution. Like Evolution, the series would've had a high school focus, with the main character being Bruce Banner's teenage son Bryce, who would've had the power to transform into a Teen Hulk. Jason Marsden was reportedly cast as Bryce, but the project never made it into active development.
• Likewise, a show called Hulk: Gamma Corps was originally supposed to air to cash-in on The Incredible Hulk. It never got off the ground, but elements of it (such as the Leader's gamma chargers) were absorbed into The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
• A Thor cartoon was planned to follow the release of the first live-action movie, with Marvel Animation aiming to produce an initial batch of 26 episodes. Concept art of Thor and Loki was revealed, including a piece that showed Thor wielding a hammer that resembled Ultimate Mjolnir.
• According to the producers, Iron Man: Armored Adventures would've featured Wolverine as a guest-star had it been renewed for a third season.
• There was to be an X-Men animated series in 1983 for NBC, but similar to the case of the Titans cartoon, it was scrapped in favor of having more cute and child-friendly shows to ape the success of the Smurfs. The lineup would have included Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Cyclops, Kitty Pryde (using the codename "Ariel"), Ms. Marvel (renamed "Lady Lightning"), Thunderbird, and Videoman (who had previously appeared on Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends). It would've been a High School AU of sorts, featuring the cast as teenagers attending a public high school. Ironically enough, that's pretty much the premise of the much later X-Men: Evolution TV series.
  • The 1989 Pryde of the X-Men cartoon was developed as a pilot for a potential series (again on NBC), but Marvel ran into financial issues and nothing further got off the ground, including an idea for a second special detailing the history of Jean Grey and the Phoenix. (The original idea for the special would've involved the Sentinels, but that was dropped for Magneto and the Brotherhood to pitch toys.)
• X-Men: Evolution:
  • Spyke originally was supposed to have been called "Armadillo," and had a different hairstyle. Several of the other X-Men also had completely different costumes, before the producers decided on a more uniform look for the cast.
  • Iceman was going to be the last member of the original team before being replaced by Spyke.
  • Some elements of the aborted fifth season were foreshadowed in the Bittersweet Ending to the series:
    • Jean was going to become the Phoenix, as it would adapt "The Dark Phoenix Saga" as the main basis.
    • Scott and Rogue were going to be a romantic couple.
    • Psylocke and Emma Frost were going to appear in the season. The former was going to be an agent of SHIELD, while the latter was going to be a new student and member of the Inner Circle.
    • Magneto was going to redeem himself and would become the teacher of the New Mutants, while Wolfsbane and Jubilee were going to return to the team.
    • Gambit, Colossus, Havok, Angel and X-23 were going to join the team, as seen in the final shot of the series.
    • The new X-Men line up was going to consist Cyclops, Nightcrawler, X-23, Iceman, Beast, Shadowcat, Colossus, Rogue and Storm. They would also wear uniforms inspired by the X-Men Film Series.
    • The Brotherhood were also going to redeem themselves and working as SHIELD agents, while Scarlet Witch's hairstyle was noticeably longer.
    • A fleet of Sentinels were going to be led by Nimrod, implying that there were plans to adapt the "Days of Future Past" storyline.
    • Mister Sinister was going to appear, according to producer Boyd Kirland.
    • The anti-mutant sentiment was going to continue.
    • Danielle Moonstar would have met the X-Men, as foreshadowed in Kitty's dream in the penultimate episode of the series.
    • Legion's story arc would've been resolved.
    • In relation to the planned Phoenix saga for the series, the Shi'ar race, Madelyne Pryor, Bishop, Cable and Rachel Summers were also planned to appear as well as the possiblity of having Scott's father Corsair showing up.
• Ben Bates created a fully-voiced animatic pitch for a Captain Marvel cartoon that was not picked up. The short featured Carol Danvers (who could change into Captain Marvel via a Magical Girl Transformation Sequence) battling the female villains Titania and Letha, and also had an appearance from Spider-Woman as Carol's friend and crime-fighting partner. Concept and pitch art produced for the show also indicates that Squirrel Girl would have appeared had the series been picked up.
• Donald Glover, a.k.a. Childish Gambino, was working on an animated series for FX about Deadpool, but FX, citing "creative differences", announced that the project had been canceled presumably because of the infamous Disney/Fox merger that was happening at that was taking place at that time.
• Lauren Faust once pitched an action-comedy series called Kitty Pryde and the New Mutants, which would have starred Kitty, Dani Moonstar, Karma and Wolfsbane. Faust never heard back from Marvel, but eventually wound up doing a similar idea for DC with Super Best Friends Forever and DC Super Hero Girls.

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