20 Fails That Nearly Killed The Marvel Film Universe

3. Captain America Was Originally A Standalone Movie

Captain America: The First Avenger was originally conceived as a standalone superhero flick, but once Joss Whedon was hired to write and direct The Avengers and essentially became the "Godfather" of the MCU, he provided some alterations to the Captain America script to tie it into the MCU. Speaking of the process, Whedon said, "I just got to make some character connections. The structure of the thing was really tight and I loved it, but there were a couple of opportunities to find his voice a little bit - and some of the other characters - and make the connections so that you understood exactly why he wanted to be who he wanted to be. And progressing through the script to flesh it out a little bit." Why It Would've Ruined The MCU: Captain America would likely still be a fun movie even if the MCU references (Howard Stark and the final scene in particular) were removed, but in tying it into the franchise, we get a more complete lead-in to The Avengers. After all, if no reference was made to Cap being thawed out in the present day, this would create more leg-work for Whedon in The Avengers, where he'd have to waste precious screen time explaining how Cap got to where he is and so on. It could've dragged the film's pacing way down and made it less entertaining: instead, both Captain America and The Avengers benefited hugely from Cap not merely being a standalone film.