10 Ways The MCU Was Almost Unrecognizable

This one is two-fold. First, it's incredible that a deal was reached in the first place. Second, we were almost forced to live in a world where we had Spider-Man, but lost him.

There was a time -- not long ago -- when the MCU was distinctly Spider-Man-less. We never thought we'd see him interact with Captain America or Iron Man. Then, in 2015, Marvel and Sony reached a deal to include Spidey in the MCU, and nerds everywhere rejoiced.

Consider this: had The Amazing Spider-Man 2 not failed, we probably wouldn't have Spider-Man in the MCU today.

We wouldn't have gotten two standout villains in Vulture and Mysterio; we wouldn't have seen the touching father-son (or uncle-nephew) relationship between Tony and Peter; and we wouldn't have a quippy, energetic techie in the MCU after Iron Man's departure. Things have been all the better with Spidey involved.

Then, in 2019, we thought we lost him. Marvel and Sony's deal fell through, and fans across the world wept tears of bitter sadness. One drunken phone call later, a new deal was negotiated, but what if it hadn't been?

The plot threads teased in his two MCU films would have NEVER been resolved.