9. Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk Were The First Two Films For Specific Reasons
With a lot of options, but not a lot of familiar properties to a wide enough fan base, Marvel chose two films to start off their movie making empire. Iron Man was chosen because they "believed in the concept... and the content". They believed in the concept so much that they went through rejection after rejection by writers who didn't feel that the concept could work. After about 30 attempts, they finally locked in a writer, and then brought on both Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau to write the rest of the history involving the Stark legacy. Meanwhile The Incredible Hulk was selected because Marvel Studios believed there was more to the character than was presented in the 2003 Ang Lee film. Produced as a partnership with Universal, Hulk recast Bruce Banner with the talented (but later to be recast) Edward Norton. Instead of making a slower, more obvious "comic" movie (complete with panel shots and all); the second attempt turned into a more traditional, action-packed entry in the canon. With fringe characters who had a decent enough following to get people excited, it was time to actually start making these movies, which means casting has to begin!