10 Ways The MCU Was Almost Unrecognizable

10. No Ego

One of the big criticisms of the first Guardians of the Galaxy was its horribly unremarkable villain, Ronan the Accuser. A great villain from the comics being played by a great actor like Lee Pace seemed like a surefire recipe for success, but alas, it was not. Instead, we got a dull villain with shallow motivations and a pouty demeanor (not helped in the least by the constant jutting of his bottom lip).

The sequel rectified that in glorious fashion when the filmmakers cast Kurt Russell as Ego the Living Planet (fun fact: Matthew McConaughey was originally offered the role). While not Marvel's BEST villain, he was definitely one of their BETTER ones, indisputably a step up from Ronan.

Originally, though, his presence was less than certain. You see, Fox originally owned the rights to the character. James Gunn didn't know this. He just assumed Marvel held the rights, so he made Ego part of his plans. Marvel had to negotiate with Fox, trading off one of their characters for Ego. Which character was that?

Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

As far as trades go, it was a pretty solid deal. We got Ego, and Deadpool got his buzz-headed sidekick. A win-win.