Theres a lot of good superhero movies out there, and a few that sucked. But before any of these could come to fruition, they had to go through a lengthy development phase. Herein, some very eye-catching images are usually cooked up by concept designers, as the filmmakers attempt to nail down their vision with the help of some talented artists. Sometimes, the directors and the studios can see which designs are blatantly the best and decide to run with that. But on other occasions, bad choices are made and awesome concept art ideas end up ditched in favour of cheaper, less interesting designs that will be easier for the studio to produce. As a salute to some of the best designs that went ignored, here are ten pieces of unused superhero movie concept art that are better than those which actually reached the cinema screen
10. Hulkbuster
Josh Nizzi dreamed up this excellent Hulkbuster design for Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Its different to most of the Iron Man designs audiences have seen before, and impressively detailed. Plus, theres a grey/silver colour system that makes it somewhat similar to Ultron (serving to point out the similarities between Tony and his evil murder-bot creation) as well as functioning as a call back to that original makeshift Iron Man armour from the first film. However, Joss Whedon and Marvel decided to press ahead with a chunky-looking red and gold version of the Hulkbuster armour instead of Nizzis design. From a cynical standpoint, this decision resulted in a more generic and recognisable Iron Man-looking suit that would probably sell more toys than a unique grey/silver variation from the usual theme. Few complained about the look of the Hulkbuster when the finished film reached cinemas, but theres certainly something to be said for Nizzis alternative vision. It may be less toy-selling friendly, but it shows a terrific amount of imagination, and a determination not to just rehash old ideas.
