12 MIA Marvel Cinematic Universe Characters Unlikely To Ever Return

Iron Man 2 is considered one of the weakest entries in the MCU, guilty of devoting too much time to setting up future films and not enough to actually having a cohesive narrative of its own.

Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer served as one of the film’s two antagonists, being more nuanced in his role as Tony Stark’s business rival than Mickey Rourke’s one-dimensional Whiplash. Imprisoned following the finale, it’s hard to believe that his influence and conniving ways wouldn’t have secured a relatively quick release, but he has not shown up again outside of the All Hail The King One-Shot, where he deludedly stated that he and Tony were ‘still cool’.

Rockwell is an incredible acting talent, so choosing not to bring him back again in some capacity is quite baffling. Between the likes of HYDRA, A.I.M., Cross Technologies and the Ten Rings, however, the MCU has hardly been short of morally dubious organisations that can facilitate villainous schemes. Somebody is presumably still running his company and their governmental contracts, but now that his rival is dead, there is no connection that could conceivably bring Hammer back into the fray.