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From shocking firings to box office bombs, the Marvel Cinematic Universe hasn't been without its fair share of behind-the-scenes drama. Join us as we count down the most devastating controversies that rocked the superhero franchise and tarnished its seemingly untouchable reputation!
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're counting down art picks for the biggest behind-the-scenes
00:09scandals and controversies that severely affected the aura of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
00:1910. The Firing of Victoria Alonzo
00:22Since the MCU's inception with 2008's Iron Man, Alonzo has worked in various capacities in the
00:27franchise. I have a couple of different jobs. I'm also the executive vice president of physical
00:33production at Marvel. So we do a little bit of the studio job, a little bit of the producer job
00:38and everything else in between. This led to her getting the prestigious role of president of
00:43physical production, post-production, VFX and animation. However, in 2023, she was suddenly
00:50fired by Marvel for a breach of contract for promoting her work on Argentina 1985. Reports
00:55soon came out that Alonzo was responsible for the toxic work environment in the VFX department.
01:00Yet there was also contradictory reports stating she was professional and was being used as a
01:05scapegoat by management. Alonzo claimed the real reason for her dismissal was due to speaking out
01:10against Marvel's lack of LGBTQIA plus representation. We have 6,000 characters in our library. We have
01:17many, many stories to tell. Oh, I know you do. Many stories to tell.
01:21She considered a lawsuit against the company, but a settlement was quickly agreed.
01:25Number nine, Inhumans. When 21st Century Fox had the film rights to the X-Men, one of Marvel's most
01:31popular franchises, the company decided they couldn't let a rival earn from it.
01:35So Marvel instigated a company-wide plan to replace the mutants with the Inhumans. After benching the
01:52X-Men in the comics, the MCU released the live-action TV show, Inhumans, in 2017.
01:56We do nothing. We wait. We do nothing. Brother, that's your strategy for everything. Well, here we go again.
02:08And it was a disaster. Fans and critics tore the show apart, with the small budget and confusing story being the main concern.
02:15The lack of enthusiasm caused the CEO of IMAX, which showcased the first episode, to comment that the
02:20underwhelming box office incoming was disappointing. As one of the MCU's major first creative fails,
02:26the show was canceled in 2018 with little fanfare.
02:29You saved the Inhumans.
02:32Number 8. The lackluster first LGBTQ plus character. Representation is important, giving the audience a
02:50chance to see characters they can relate to. As such, for years, fans had been calling for LGBTQ plus
02:57representation in the MCU films.
02:59Home. My mom's.
03:02Beyond slight nods and reports of cutscenes that pointed towards this, there was nothing.
03:07Well, in the lead-up to 2019's Avengers Endgame, director Joe and Anthony Russo stated that would
03:13change with the introduction of the first openly LGBTQ plus character.
03:17Hopefully, we achieved it in a way that will be exciting and satisfying to audiences.
03:22Yet, when it happened, it was underwhelmingly as Joe played a gay man in a support group
03:27for those struggling with the loss of half the universe.
03:29Some fans were frustrated that the role was played by a director who's straight,
03:33rather than bringing in an actor involved in the LGBTQ plus community.
03:37What did you talk about?
03:39Yeah, same old crap, you know. Things have changed and
03:42my job, his job, how much we miss the Mets.
03:47Number 7. Director's Out.
03:48It's not a great look when a director departs a franchise, but several is a completely different matter.
03:54Joe Johnston was one such casualty of the MCU.
03:57So we were able to convince Marvel, which at the time was still a comic book company.
04:03Yeah.
04:04And they looked at the films as advertising for the comic books.
04:09Wow.
04:10But they had a level of control that was sometimes difficult to get around.
04:16After directing Captain America The First Avenger, he spoke in interviews about wanting to bring
04:21in the Winter Soldier for the sequel. Instead, he was gone, replaced with the Russos, and his
04:25Bucky dream was taken. In 2011, Patty Jenkins left the Thor sequel, later stating her desire
04:31to not be blamed for a bad script was a major factor.
04:34Do it for you because you believe in the movie, and whether you succeed or you fail, at least
04:40it was something you believed in. Whereas if you find yourself making something you never
04:43believed in, like, who cares? You succeed at something you never believed in? Like, how
04:48hollow is that?
04:49After working on the idea for years, in 2014, Edgar Wright quit Ant-Man over creative differences.
04:55Then, after success with 2016's Doctor Strange, Scott Derrickson dropped out of the sequel,
05:01also claiming creative differences.
05:02It was still a process of me discovering, um, what about that material really mattered to me,
05:09or what it was about that material that spoke to me.
05:12Number 6, The Terrence Howard Debacle
05:142008's Iron Man will go down as one of the most important films in cinema for being the
05:19launching pad for the MCU.
05:23Next time, baby.
05:24Yet, for its sequel, the scandal erupted when James Rhodes looked vastly different as
05:29Don Cheadle replaced Howard in The Row.
05:31Reportedly, despite having already signed a three-film deal, Marvel approached Howard with
05:36an offer that would pay less and give him a reduced role.
05:39And they called my agent, um, Charles King over at, he was at William Morris at the time,
05:44and they said, um, yeah, we want Terrence, but we, we, we want to come back for a million
05:51dollars instead of the eight million that we had agreed to.
05:53And my agent had an emotional reaction to a business decision, and he said, F you, and
06:00hung up the phone.
06:01There were also reports that Howard was difficult on set and clashed with director Jon Favreau.
06:05The Oscar-nominated actor accused Robert Downey Jr. of being behind Howard's wages,
06:09dropping by an eighth, as Marvel gave him all the cash, which Downey denied.
06:14Howard also claimed he helped Downey get the Tony Stark rub, which Marvel disputed.
06:18So I called Avi Arad immediately.
06:20He was the producer on it.
06:21And I'm like, Avi, um, I hear Robert wants to come in, but you guys won't even let him
06:26audition.
06:26He's like, no, we can't bond him.
06:29Number five.
06:30The Pietro spoiler.
06:31For episode five of WandaVision, fans were set to be in for a surprise.
06:35Wanda, who is this?
06:36Well, unless you followed Spanish voiceover artist Rodri Martin on social media, that
06:41is.
06:42The actor had worked for a Spanish dub of Fox's X-Men films in the role of Evan Peters' Quicksilver.
06:47So before the episode dropped, Martin celebrated on social media that he was reprising his role
06:51as Peters' Quicksilver, completely giving away the apparent reveal.
07:00Long lost bro, get to squeeze his stinking sister to death or what?
07:03While he tried to do damage control by deleting his account, Quir had gotten back to Marvel.
07:08The company soon fired Martin from the role and had Manuel Gamino step in as Spanish Pietro
07:13Maximo for the series.
07:14She recast Pietro?
07:16Number four.
07:17The firing of James Gunn.
07:19With two successful MCU films under his belt with 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy and its
07:242017 sequel, Gunn was one of Marvel's prized assets.
07:28It's weird.
07:28We've got a sovereign fleet approaching from the rear.
07:30Why would they do that?
07:31Probably because Rockets stole some of their batteries.
07:33Dude!
07:35Right.
07:36He didn't steal some of those.
07:37I don't know why they're after us.
07:38What a mystery this is.
07:39However, in 2018, just before he was set to begin production on the third installment,
07:44his social media history was discovered.
07:46From 2008 to 2012, Gunn had made several bad jokes about controversial subjects.
07:52With an itchy trigger finger, Disney fired the director quickly as he released a public apology.
07:57The messages were posted more than seven years ago, but Disney says they have ended their
08:01relationship with Gunn.
08:02The director was back on Twitter today where he apologized for what he had written.
08:07This decision received a lot of backlash, even causing fans to create a petition that
08:11received thousands of signatures.
08:13Gunn, on the other hand, signed on for DC's The Suicide Squad.
08:16Marvel reinstated Gunn to finish his trilogy before he departed to be the co-CEO of DC Studios.
08:21I love that about it.
08:23I love that we get to create true world-building in DC.
08:28It isn't just, we're throwing some superheroes on Earth.
08:31Yeah.
08:32Number three, the Marvels flop.
08:34When the Marvels dropped in 2023, the response was devastating.
08:38So sorry about earlier.
08:40Some critics saw it as a prime example of the Juggernaut franchise's decline.
08:44Fans also agreed with their money.
08:45With a gross production budget of $374 million, the box office only brought in $206 million.
08:53Thanks to marketing costs, this meant the movie cost Marvel an estimated $237 million.
08:59Disney CEO Bob Iger threw director Nia D'Costa under the bus, claiming there was a lack of
09:04supervision during COVID-19, causing outrage among her supporters.
09:08There was people that needed me.
09:11We needed you, Carol.
09:12Another major factor that's been pointed to is Marvel oversaturating the market with content.
09:18With several films per year and Disney Plus giving them a platform for TV shows, arguably,
09:23the audience is tired, which is something Iger has also been concerned about.
09:27Not only did they increase their movie output, but they ended up making a number of television
09:31series, and frankly, it diluted focus and attention.
09:34And I think you're seeing that as, I think, more the cause than anything else.
09:39Number two, AI Secret Invasion.
09:41The Secret Invasion comic story is one of the most well-known Marvel tales, so when a TV
09:46show with the same name and similar concept was announced for 2023, fans were excited.
09:50What the hell are you doing here?
09:53I'm chasing him.
10:04He was one of you.
10:06No, he's...
10:07He's one of them.
10:10But when the opening sequence came on, that changed when people discovered it had been made with generative,
10:16artificial intelligence.
10:17Industry professionals quickly condemned its use.
10:19Method Studios, who made the sequence for Marvel, claimed AI was used as a tool, and no artist lost work.
10:25So you don't keep me posted?
10:26Yeah, just keep me informed.
10:28With Iger stating his admiration of AI, it's no surprise this isn't the first time Marvel has caused controversy
10:34with the technology.
10:35During the 2023 SAG, After a Strike, background actors from WandaVision stated they were scanned
10:41for AI use without complete consent, essentially making their future work redundant.
10:45A lot of actors have expressed concerns, especially background actors, about having their bodies 3D scanned
10:51and having those scans be used and manipulated by artificial intelligence to fill out the backgrounds of scenes
10:58and essentially replace them as a workforce.
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11:14Number 1. Jonathan Majors
11:182023 was a year of ups and downs for Majors.
11:22Firstly, after popping up in Loki, he debuted in Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania as Kang the Conqueror
11:28and was set to be the MCU successor to Thanos as its big bad.
11:31What's coming?
11:35Me.
11:37A lot of me.
11:40Then, months later, Majors was arrested for assaulting and harassing his partner.
11:44In 2024, after being found guilty on several accounts, he was sentenced to probation and had to complete
11:50a 52-week domestic violence intervention program.
11:53This fiasco saw Marvel, as well as his management and PR teams, drop Majors.
11:58It's like the world stopped.
12:00You know?
12:01It's like, you work so hard for things, and then, you know, it's done, you know?
12:09The MCU, now having to change their years-long plan, went back to the nostalgia well by casting
12:14Downey as Dr. Doom for Avengers Doomsday, bringing a mixed reaction from fans.
12:19What can I tell you?
12:20I like playing complicated characters.
12:24Are there any major MCU disasters that we missed?
12:28Let us know in the comments down below.
12:29And don't forget to like and subscribe for more WatchMojo videos.
12:32This is probably the tip of the iceberg, not just for the Walt Disney Company, but for every single major Hollywood studio.
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