Avengers: Endgame - Every Main Marvel Cinematic Universe Character Not In The Movie

Katherine Langford

This is an odd place to start, we admit, Langford, hot off the success of 13 Reasons Why, was cast in an unidentified role in Avengers: Endgame, and it got the internet talking. Then, when it turned out her character didn't make the final cut of the film, people were talking again -- but this time they were mostly confused.

Shortly after the film's release, the filmmakers admitted in a podcast interview that Langford was originally slated to play an older version of Tony Stark's daughter -- one who would see him in that kind of "cosmic weigh station" where Thanos met up with the young Gamora after her sacrifice. Langford was there to bring closure and peace to Tony, but apparently test audiences didn't understand who she was, since it wasn't the actress who had played the character earlier in the movie.

The Vision

While The Vision's absence from the film is understandable -- he was powered by an Infinity Stone, and assembling all of the stones was the whole premise of the movie, so they really couldn't spare one -- fans were hoping to see some kind of closure for the character, who was killed in Avengers: Infinity War and who most expected would make some kind of triumphant return in the follow-up.

It's likely that Vision will make his way back in the upcoming WandaVision series for Disney+, but fans will have to wait until then, since the already-overstuffed Endgame didn't really have an opportunity to spend time fixing him up.

Quicksilver

The brother of Wanda/Scarlet Witch, Pietro/Quicksilver died in his first appearance back in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The MCU hasn't seen him again since, making him one of the rare major characters who never returned from the dead or at least got revisited in some way after he was gone.

With the time travel plot and so much of Infinity War dealing with Wanda's emotional loss, it would have seemed like smart money that they would try and put her face to face with her brother -- but it wasn't in the cards and Wanda was not even part of the time traveling.

Phil Coulson

A SHIELD Agent killed in the line of duty in Marvel's The Avengers, Phil Coulson's sacrifice resonated with the team and shaped their response to Thanos's first invasion in New York. Shortly thereafter, though, Coulson was revived by SHIELD and Clark Gregg became the leading man on ABC's Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.

Fans have long hoped to see Coulson reunited with the Avengers, who were so distraught as a result of his death that it shifted them into a rage-filled high gear to take on Loki and the Chitauri, but then who never learned that their friend was alive and well.

It didn't come to pass, unfortunately -- but we're hoping the last thing that happened to Tony Stark was that he tried to use the Gauntlet to bring Coulson back and died thinking "that son of a..."

Hulk Characters

While basically every character from the Iron Man movies who made sense to appear in Endgame did, basically every other movie franchise in the MCU had at least a few notable exceptions. We're going to run them down here, starting with the Hulk.

Here, it's pretty much all bad guys -- but still, on a cosmic/extinction-level event, one could assume that at least one or two of the villains would step up and help, Crisis on Infinite Earths-style.

The notable missing from The Incredible Hulk? General Ross -- who appeared briefly in Avengers: Infinity War, reminding us that he is still around, before vanishing for Endgame (so, maybe we can assume he got dusted in the Decimation?); and both The Leader and Abomination. Sure, the Abomination might be basically an uncontrollable monster you don't want to try and use, but The Leader with his vastly increased mental capacity likely would be of use against Thanos, and see the good in taking him on, if only out of self-interest.

Thor Characters

Grandmaster, who played a significant role in Thor: Ragnarok and who is still alive, is a pretty notable omission, as is Erik Selvig (although unlike most of the people on this list, he at least had a photo cameo).

Odin and Heimdall are both dead, but they could presumably have made an appearance in the same way Loki did. Of course, unless it was really organic to what was already going on, it might have just added unnecessary runtime and complication to an already long and complicated movie.

MCU TV Characters

There are a lot of characters from the world of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, Marvel's Most Wanted, and Marvel's Agent Carter who could have -- and arguably should have -- been given a cameo in the final battle to remind fans that, at least once upon a time, the idea was that the shows were both as important as the movies and also a part of their shared universe.

Besides Coulson, who is the most obvious, you have characters like Melinda May, Quake, Fitz and Simmons, and Mockingbird. Most of these characters would appear only in a group shot and would have minimal impact on a battle with the forces of Thanos, but it would have been nice to see them standing shoulder to shoulder with newer characters like the Wakandans and the Guardians as an acknowledgment of their role in the history of Marvel Studios.

Also, while the movie would not have actually had time to accommodate it, can you imagine how much fun it could be to see Thanos get a penance stare from Ghost Rider and be faced with the enormity of his evil?

Marvel Netflix Characters

Similarly, the heroes of the Marvel Netflix shows -- while never quite the same as the SHIELD characters either in terms of powers or in terms of integration into the larger MCU -- could have made a brief background cameo, just taking on armies of anonymous bad guys in the big "assemble" shot at the end of the movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy Characters

While we DID get to see the Ravagers (although it was only implied by Ravager presence and not confirmed in any way that Stakar Ogord and team were there), some of the notable persences from the Guardians universe, including The Collector (who could have shown up during a time travel sequence and would have fit into the story they were doing), Yondu (same), and the Nova Corps were absent form the big battle.

The absences of these characters is understandable -- they by and large have limited, if any, connection to Earth -- but they're worth mentioning given the sheer magnitude of the final battle.

Ant-Man Characters

Sometimes it might not seem like it, because the tone is so different and the scale so much smaller, but -- yes, the Ant-Man movies are all still MCU canon. We promise (look, his daughter's in the sequel and everything). Besides side characters like Scott's ex-wife, Endgame could have brought back Ghost/Ava Starr, Bill Foster, and the X-Con trio of Luis, Dave, Kurt.

The absence of the X-Con guys is even more apparent since Luis's van actually does appear in the movie.

Spider-Man Characters

MJ is a pretty obvious omission, if only becuase of Peter's emotional reunion with his classmates in the final moments of Endgame. She obviously would not have been a key part of defeating Thanos (except maybe by Zendaya's sheer screen presence), but depending on what happened in the intervening five years, it's possible that Vulture could have been let out of jail to use his tech and weapons expertise on behalf of humanity.

Black Panther Characters

Nakia was missing in action -- one of the few Wakandans whose location was not accounted for by the end of the movie. Similarly, W'Kabi either didn't make it or was hidden by the crowd (which would probably be the official line of the filmmakers, as the problem there was likely either budgetary or actor availability).

Captain Marvel Characters

Leaving aside that characters like Nick Fury and Phil Coulson could be lumped in with these (but Fury was in the movie and we already talked about Coulson), there are some things to note here.

First of all, there are groups like the Starforce and what remains of the Skrulls could theoretically have been useful in battle. Certainly it would have been nice to just let Goose go ahead and swallow Thanos whole and end the whole thing that way. It's a little surprising we did not get any official sense for where Maria and Monica Rambeau are at this point, although it's possible that it just boils down to their stories not having been written yet.

We guess it's also possible that we could have seen Mar-Vell in the time-travel portions, but like some of the other stories here, that would have been a lot of work for not a ton of payoff to try and explain within the context of Endgame.