10 Ways The Marvel Cinematic Universe Almost Turned Out Completely Different

6. Zak Penn's Avengers Script

Marvel continued their track record for choosing unlikely directors for their big-budget blockbusters by hiring Joss Whedon, known primarily for his work in television and director of just one $40m feature film, to write and direct the studio's $220m epic superhero ensemble The Avengers. Whedon's script delicately balanced the multitude of characters and subplots, marrying the huge-scale action scenes with plenty of character moments and no shortage of witty dialogue. However, The Avengers would likely have been a much different movie without the input of a writer/director with as much knowledge and grasp on the source material as Whedon. Zak Penn was originally hired to write The Avengers in June 2007, and as the events of Phase 1 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe unfolded onscreen the script went through constant revisions, with Penn saying in 2009 that 'my job is to kind of shuttle between the different movies and make sure that finally we're mimicking that comic book structure where all of these movies are connected.' However, by the time Joss Whedon signed on to write and direct the movie he decided on a complete overhaul of the script, dismissing Penn's work by stating 'there was a script... there just wasn't a script I was going to film a word of.' In the end, Zak Penn received a story credit on The Avengers with Joss Whedon the sole screenwriter. While little is known about Penn's version of the script (although it was rumored to include the Red Skull), its probably for the best that his draft was completely abandoned. After all, this is the guy that wrote Elektra and X-Men: The Last Stand and was essentially replaced on The Incredible Hulk by Edward Norton, not the most encouraging track record for someone tasked to write one of the most highly-anticipated blockbusters of all time.