10 MCU Characters Who Died Way Too Soon

10. Maya Hansen

Iron Man 3's Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) created the Extremis virus before it was appropriated for nefarious means by the "Mandarin" Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), yet by film's end ultimately joined the MCU's pantheon of thoroughly wasted female characters.

In the film's third act, Hansen was unceremoniously shot dead by Killian, in a moment that confirmed both the squandering of Hall's acting chops and the abrupt dismissal of an intriguing character.

More to the point, director Shane Black and writer Drew Pearce later confirmed that Hansen was originally supposed to be Iron Man 3's primary antagonist, before Marvel exec Ike Perlmutter made the overruling decision to bin her, fearing that young boys wouldn't buy a toy modelled after a woman.

Hall herself stated in interviews that Hansen's death was a last-minute decision. She said, "Halfway through shooting they were basically like, 'What would you think if you just got shot out of nowhere?' I was meant to be in the movie until the end."

Given that Hansen was a decidedly more interesting character than Killian, it's tough to deny that Marvel stuffed shirts made a supremely bone-headed decision by ditching her early.

Thankfully for fans, Perlmutter and his much-maligned "Creative Committee" now have nothing to do with the MCU, and it's all for the better.