The best decision Marvel ever made (according to their accountants, at least) with regards to their cinematic output was to take the time to build a "cinematic universe," what with characters who could appear across a multitude of movies, and storylines that would have a ripple effect throughout the entire francise at large. This is how comic books have worked since forever, of course - what better way to replicate the feeling of an all-encompassing world than to replicate that for the movies? The results, you'll agree, have proven to be both highly addictive and totally immersive. What started with
Iron Man in 2008 has blossomed into a billionaire dollar goldmine in 2013 - thankfully, though, the quality of each installment remains admirable. Marvel's biggest cinematic hit to date, though, has been
The Avengers, as directed by Joss Whedon, who you'll know from
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and perhaps
Firefly. Currently the third highest grossing movie ever made,
The Avengers felt like years of hard work finally paying off in the best possible way - having hinted at a "superhero team-up" over the entire span of MCU movies up until that point,
The Avengers pulled together all our favourite characters for an epic battle to save mankind from alien destruction: Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Thor all put in appearances. Now, having established their personas with such an impressive amount of detail, it's nearly impossible to imagine an
Iron Man movie without Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, or a Thor who isn't embodied by Chris Hemsworth. You might be surprised to learn, then, that these choice actors weren't originally first in line to play these massively iconic roles... Consider that, once upon a time, the
entire line-up might have been completely (and bizarrely) different...