20 Fails That Nearly Killed The Marvel Film Universe

7. Maya Hansen Was Originally The Main Villain (Iron Man 3)

Rebecca Hall's Maya Hansen is one of the more complex characters in Iron Man 3: her Extremis research had perfectly good intentions, though was appropriated by Aldrich Killian for far more nefarious purposes. However, in the first draft of the film's script, Hansen was actually written as the primary antagonist, which doesn't really make sense at all. Why It Would've Ruined The MCU: How Hansen's arc would've played out is anyone's guess, yet Hansen in the comics had a generally good alignment, and to make her an unambiguous baddie would've completely flown in the face of that (though given what Shane Black and Drew Pearce did to The Mandarin, they clearly didn't care much about being faithful). Furthermore, if Hansen was the main villain, would that mean Aldrich Killian would've only been a small part of the movie, or perhaps not in it at all? It's difficult to imagine Rebecca Hall pulling off a front-and-center villain, so short of recasting the part for a more aggressive, in-your-face actress, it definitely made sense to have Hall's character be a more down-to-Earth, morally complicated character.