10 Movie Moments Everyone Was Waiting For (That Never Happened)

There's nothing quite like spending weeks or months fantasising over what could be about to unfold before taking in the latest much-anticipated blockbuster or edge-of-your-seat drama in a movie theatre.

And with social media now giving fans an ever-present platform to theorise and make many a case as to what they believe could or even should come to pass in an upcoming sequel, prequel, or - in those rarest of cases - an entirely new property, there's an argument to be made that it's actually never been easier to tailor an incoming flick to its targeted audience.

But even with that often being the case, that still doesn't necessarily guarantee that a movie studio will deliver on those intriguing moments that are seemingly too obviously satisfying to pass up on.

Now, there's nothing wrong with brilliantly swerving an audience and delivering them something entirely unexpected on occasion. It's nice to be kept on your toes, after all. Yet, in the following cases, the most blatant option would've clearly been the wisest and most rewarding call.

But from refusing to follow through on the promises made in prior entries and trailers, to just generally not giving an audience what they understandably expected coming into the cinematic experience, the folks behind these movies had no intention of gifting their viewers with glorious beats and reveals that felt about as inevitable as forking out on a ridiculously-priced tub of popcorn yet again...

While he would more than make his presence felt in the heat of this summer's blockbuster box office battle with his $1 billion mega-hit return to all things Maverick, a great many fans were actually expecting to witness Tom Cruise shake-up the cinematic system a few weeks earlier during a certain MCU offering.

On the back of Patrick Stewart's Professor Xavier making a jaw-dropping appearance as the assumed leader of The Illuminati in trailers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, rumours of Tom Cruise rocking up as a Tony Stark/Iron Man variant - acting as a knowing nod to his almost-casting as the hero years earlier - began to understandably intensify.

The reveal of John Krasinski as an alternate universe Mr. Fantastic during the flick, another MCU fan-casting come to life, only seemed to add more fuel to this fantasy, too.

But despite the film's screenwriter Michael Waldron actually running this much-wanted development by Kevin Feige, he'd later inform Rolling Stone that Cruise was likely never a possibility due to his shooting of the next few Mission: Impossible flicks at the time.

Sadly, this mission was simply impossible for Waldron and the rest of the Marvel team to pull off.