Alternate Versions Of Every MCU Movie We Almost Got To See

13. Iron Man 3 With A Female Villain

In the final cut of Iron Man 3, Dr. Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) is the scientist who helps villain Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) create Extremis, and she's semi-randomly killed off by Killian in the third act without much fanfare.

However, shortly after the movie's release, Hall stated that she originally signed on for a much larger, more morally ambiguous role, and was supposed to actually survive the movie.

Writer-director Shane Black later confirmed this, adding that Hansen was effectively written to be the main antagonist, but because Marvel bosses felt that young boys wouldn't buy action figures of female villains, the idea was nixed.

Would It Have Worked?: Definitely. Pearce did fine enough work with a fairly mediocre villain, but Hall's an incredibly talented actress, and considering how allergic big-budget movies generally are to casting women in antagonistic roles, it's a shame Iron Man 3 didn't buck the trend.