Marvel's Avengers managed to juggle its (at the time) big cast of superheroes to make a film that wasn't only coherent, but one of the MCU's best movies to this day still.
A lot of that came down to not introducing any new heroes or villains, just quickly re-introducing our protagonists and Loki and spending its time showing the characters interacting, usually through snarky comments and punches.
But as the franchise's first team-up was in development, writer and director Joss Whedon planned to have Iron Man villain Obadiah Stane's son Zeke as the villain, and for the film to introduce The Wasp, who would have been played by New Girl's Zooey Deschanel.
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As quoted in the new official book The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, producer Jeremy Latcham said: "It was all about The Wasp. He wanted to cast Zooey Deschanel. [Wasp] was the funniest character in the whole movie, and well-written."
"Yeah, I took some wrong turns there," Whedon is quoted as saying. "The Wasp happened because there was a short period where it looked like we weren't going to be able to get Scarlett [Johansson back as Black Widow], so I was panicking.
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"I thought, 'Hold on, we could do The Wasp.' Then, I fell in love with that. But we did get Scarlett, and then I realised that I had written this entire movie about The Wasp. Oops. I overcompensated there."
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Abrams Books The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Tara Bennett and Paul Terry
Obviously, Evangeline Lilly eventually got cast as The Wasp, who initially acted as a supporting role in the first Ant-Man movie before becoming the joint lead for both sequels.
The book has also revealed that Kevin Feige considered killing off a lot more Avengers in Endgame, which would have required a lot more tissues.
Avengers: Endgame is out now on DVD, Blu-ray, 3D, 4K and digital download, and is available on Disney+.
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Abrams Books The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Tara Bennett and Paul Terry
Marvel Studios Marvel Phase 1-3 complete set Blu-ray
![Avengers: Endgame 4K Includes Bonus Disk [Blu-ray] [2019] [Region Free]](https://hips.hearstapps.com/vader-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/1565171628-51DyZnkLD7L.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:* "Avengers: Endgame 4K Includes Bonus Disk [Blu-ray] [2019] [Region Free]")
Disney/Marvel Studios Avengers: Endgame 4K Includes Bonus Disk [Blu-ray] [2019] [Region Free]
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Disney/Marvel Studios Avengers: 1-4 Complete Blu-ray Boxset Includes Bonus Disk [2019] [Region Free]
Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
