Every Announced Marvel Studios Movie That Has Been Canceled

Marvel Studios is one of the most successful companies in the film industry, but even they’ve had to pull the plug on a few projects. One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s defining traits is planning ahead; with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige steering the ship, full slates of movies spanning several years are announced well in advance, allowing fans to get an idea of how the franchise’s overarching story will come together. Since the MCU is a shared universe bringing together a variety characters, it helps to have an outline of where things are going. Filmmakers can collaborate with each other, figuring out how to make it all flow smoothly.

However, even the best laid plans can encounter speed bumps. Marvel has been pretty fortunate in that a majority of their announced films eventually made it to the big screen, but other projects haven’t been as lucky. With shifting priorities and other factors at play, Marvel’s schedule has to remain fluid to accommodate any changes that might arise. Here are the few MCU movies that never made it past the announcement stage.

Runaways

A film adaptation of Runaways was in development during the earliest days of Marvel Studios, with writer Brian K. Vaughan (who co-created the comic) signing on to pen a screenplay back in May 2008, just as the original Iron Man introduced unsuspecting audiences to the MCU. A couple of years later, the project seemed to gain traction when the creative team of director Peter Sollett and writer Drew Pearce came aboard, but then things stalled. As Marvel Studios progressed through what would become the Infinity Saga, Runaways kept getting pushed to the backburner in favor of other projects. Feige and Co. could never find the right spot for it, and the film never came to fruition.

[Related: Is Marvel Already Reversing One of the Biggest Changes to the MCU?]

However, Runaways eventually found new life as a television series, which ran for three seasons on Hulu from 2017-2019. The show received positive reviews throughout its run, with critics considering it an entertaining adaptation bolstered by strong performances from the cast. Like many Marvel TV shows from this era (i.e. pre-Disney+), any connections it had to the larger MCU were mainly limited to minor references, though it does include the Dark Dimension and the Darkhold, which play a role in prominent MCU projects. While Runaways was removed from Hulu and Disney+ in 2023, the full series is available for purchase on Apple and Amazon.

Inhumans

Another Marvel project that transitioned to the small screen, the Inhumans film adaptation was even further along than Runaways. Back in 2014, when Marvel unveiled their Phase 3 slate, Inhumans was part of the plan, scheduled to premiere in November 2018. With the X-Men film rights locked in at 20th Century Fox (and Disney’s acquisition of Fox years away from happening), a prevailing thought amongst the fan base was that the Inhumans were being positioned as the MCU’s mutant replacements. However, in 2016, Inhumans was removed from the schedule, which might have been a byproduct of how Phase 3 shifted after that original announcement. In 2015, Disney and Sony struck a landmark deal that allowed Spider-Man to become part of the MCU, and things were shuffled around.

As part of the changes, Inhumans moved forward as a TV show instead, premiering in 2017. Unfortunately, it became one of Marvel Studios’ most notorious misfires. The critically derided show (11% on Rotten Tomatoes) lasted only one season. That said, Anson Mount reprised his role as Black Bolt in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. For those morbidly curious, Inhumans is streaming on Disney+.

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty

After concluding the Infinity Saga in grand style with Avengers: Endgame, Marvel had a massive void to fill as they searched for the Multiverse Saga’s big bad. It was decided Kang the Conqueror would follow Thanos’ footsteps, with then rising star Jonathan Majors cast in the role. The actor made his MCU debut in 2021’s Loki Season 1, appearing as Kang variant He Who Remains. From there, Marvel started laying the groundwork for the character to become the overarching threat. At San Diego Comic-Con 2022, the fifth Avengers movie was confirmed as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and Majors appeared in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Loki Season 2 in 2023.

However, once Majors was found guilty of assault and harassment in late 2023, Marvel dropped the actor and retooled Avengers 5. Rather than recasting the Kang character (who, even before Majors’ conviction, had struggled to catch on with audiences in the way Thanos did), the studio went in a completely different direction. At San Diego Comic-Con 2024, it was revealed Robert Downey Jr. will return to the MCU as Victor von Doom, serving as the main antagonist for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.