12 MIA Marvel Cinematic Universe Characters Unlikely To Ever Return

It’s well-known that Marvel haven’t been able to use many of their most notable characters in the MCU because of their previous practice of selling the film rights to individual characters like Spider-Man and the X-Men.

2008’s The Incredible Hulk, the black sheep of the MCU given how it has been forgotten in the grand scheme of things, was also affected by this practice. The film was a co-production between Marvel and Universal, the latter of whom still own the rights to standalone Hulk films, which has been a stickler for Marvel since.

The film's relative level of anonymity means that a number of plot developments and characters have now been left in limbo for over a decade, and are probably never going to be revisited.

Chief amongst these is Tim Blake Nelson’s transition from Samuel Sterns into The Leader in the film’s conclusion. One of the Hulk’s most notable adversaries, his unexplored existence for 15 years in-universe is a huge plot hole that will likely never be explained.