10 Ways MCU Movies Were Almost WAY Darker
7. Agent Coulson's Death Was Toned Down
For much of Avengers Assemble in 2012, as Bruce Banner put it, they weren't a team, they were a time bomb. Cap and Iron Man hated each other's guts, Thor was more concerned with taking Loki back to Asgard than with protecting Earth, and Banner himself was still thought of more as a threat than a hero.
The thing that ultimately put the superheroes on the same page was the untimely death of Phil Coulson. The S.H.I.E.L.D agent was murdered by Loki upon the Quinjet, but in many regions, his death scene was toned down in order for the film to maintain its all important PG13 rating.
In all versions of the movie, Loki stabbed Coulson in the back with his sceptre, but many versions censored the shot so that the bloody tip of the blade wasn't shown to protrude through the S.H.I.E.L.D agent's chest. This was thought to be too graphic, and its inclusion would have earned the movie an R rating.
Of course, this was changed so the bloody tip of the weapon wasn't seen. This may have been a bit much for the younger audiences, however the change did spark many theories that Coulson wasn't really dead. While this did end up being true, it really had nothing to do with the sceptre not going all the way through his chest.