8 Early Drafts That Almost Ruined Great Movies

8. The Avengers Was Almost An Adaptation Of Issue #1

The real genius of The Avengers wasn't just the bringing together of four disparate superhero franchises into one nerdgasm team-up, but of making the film about the real-world question of whether doing that would work. And that was all thanks of Joss Whedon.

When he came on board the project, the original plan was for the film to be a sort-of adaptation of The Avengers #1, where Loki used a rampaging Hulk to wreak havoc and inadvertently brought the heroes together. Sure, it wouldn't have been so simplistic and it's unlikely Hulk would have found his way to the circus, but the basic idea was that the Green Goliath was the inciting incident that brought the team together.

This was actually set up in the proto-MCU; The Incredible Hulk ended with Bruce Banner's green meanie on the run and Tony Stark informing General Ross they were "putting a team together" (later retconned to be a ruse by S.H.I.E.L.D. to keep Abomination locked up) and all the other heroes have a direct run-in with Nick Fury, Agent Coulson or S.H.I.E.L.D. The change-up also explains the faceless nature of the Chitauri; they were late additions.

It's easy to see why it wouldn't have worked; aside from removing the mirroring element, the idea feels smaller and weakens the eventual team-up.