These MCU Characters Need To Make A Comeback

Marvel Studios’ shared cinematic universe is continually expanding, always introducing new heroes, new villains, and everything in between. Spider-Man: Homecoming most recently saw the debut of the Vulture (Michael Keaton) and Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) classmates, Ned (Jacob Batalon), Michelle (Zendaya), Flash (Tony Revolori), and Liz (Laura Harrier).

The next Marvel Cinematic Universe production, Thor: Ragnarok, will introduce Asgardian goddess of death Hela (Cate Blanchett), Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), the Executioner (Karl Urban), and cosmic being the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), while Black Panther will introduce a whole slew of new faces, including Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), Shuri (Letitia Wright), N’Jobu (Sterling K. Brown), W’Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya), Ramonda (Angela Bassett), and Zuri (Forest Whitaker).

The upcoming Avengers: Infinity War will bring together all of Marvel’s big screen franchises, uniting the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange in a superhero epic that will have the most expansive cast of any Marvel movie ever. Infinity War will introduce new characters — like Thanos’ children, the Black Order — and will probably serve as a farewell for at least a handful of characters, too. But what about those little-seen characters whose appearances so far were just one-offs?

We aren’t expecting these characters to show up again anytime soon, and certainly not in Infinity War, but here are some characters who deserve to make a Marvel Cinematic Universe comeback.

The Incredible Who?

The Incredible Hulk is often shied away from when it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It was Marvel’s second solo outing as their own studio, and followed closely behind the red hot Iron Man in 2008, which overshadowed the not-so-jolly green giant’s return to the big screen after 2003’s Hulk. Audiences were largely disinterested, and the Hulk wouldn’t show up again until 2012’s The Avengers (with Mark Ruffalo replacing original Bruce Banner actor Edward Norton).

Nearly everything from Hulk’s reboot has been left by the wayside: his lover, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), hasn’t been seen or mentioned since 2008, left behind as Bruce went on the run. Betty wasn’t mentioned in The Avengers, and in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, Bruce is romantically involved with fellow Avenger Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson).

The ending of The Incredible Hulk also teased the birth of one of Hulk’s longtime comic book enemies, the Leader, after introducing cellular biologist and ally to Bruce Banner, Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson). Discovered by an Anti-Hulk task force, the Strategic Operations Command Center, Sterns gave a forced transfusion of Banner’s gamma-iraddiated blood to British Royal Marines commando Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), who became a Hulk-sized Abomination.

During Blonsky’s transformation, however, Sterns was knocked aside, with Banner’s blood making its way into an open wound on Stern’s head — causing it to grossly enlarge and bubble. Blonsky himself would be defeated by Hulk and captured alive, and audiences would later learn in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Blonsky was being held in a cryo-cell in Barrow, Alaska. According to Roth, Marvel Studios considered using Abomination as the villain in the Avengers sequel, but as of 2017, Roth said he “doesn’t think” Marvel will ever use him again — even though he thinks a return would be “fun.”

The only character to reappear after debuting in The Incredible Hulk is Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt), former United States Army Lieutenant General turned Secretary of State, who returned in Captain America: Civil War. Marvel could have easily used someone else as Secretary of State in Civil War, and Ross’ involvement is a nice reminder that The Incredible Hulk hasn’t been completely overlooked. With Ross having returned, maybe his daughter could, too — even if only briefly, her one time romance with Bruce Banner forever stamped out as a result of his life as a hulking superhero.

Because Marvel owns the rights to the Hulk but Universal holds the rights to any potential solo Hulk movie, “a standalone Hulk movie will never happen,” so says Mark Ruffalo. Instead, Hulk will appear as a supporting player in Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War, and will likely continue to play second fiddle instead of ever starring again in his own movie. Still, Samuel Sterns and Abomination are still out there, ready to be used — maybe the sequel to Ant-Man and the Wasp could team Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Pym (Evangeline Lilly) with the green Avenger? How about a mystical pairing with Hulk and Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) in the Doctor Strange sequel?

Fix the Mandarin, Man

In the comics, Iron Man’s archenemy is the Mandarin. When the Mandarin made his cinematic debut in 2013’s Iron Man 3, it was under the guise of a vicious terrorist who, in the trailers, even sported a tattoo of Captain America’s shield on his neck. In the movie, however, it was revealed that Ben Kingsley’s “Mandarin” was actually Trevor Slattery, a drug-addicted actor, and the “real” Mandarin was Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), the founder of A.I.M. and a mad scientist who conspired to manipulate and profit from the War on Terror. Killian was eventually killed after a fight Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Pepper Potts (Gwenyth Paltrow), and Slattery arrested.

Fan outrage was enormous: Iron Man’s greatest enemy was a ruse. We’d been duped. Marvel would later retcon the situation with the 2014 one shot All Hail the King, catching up with Slattery in Seagate Prison. Jackson Norriss, a member of the terrorist group known as the Ten Rings, infiltrated the prison under the guise of a documentary filmmaker, revealing to Slattery that the Mandarin was real — and he was angry. Norriss broke Slattery out of prison, telling him he was taking him to the Mandarin… dun, dun, dunnn. 

Marvel has since ceased producing one shots, and the Mandarin, Slattery, and Killian have yet to warrant even a mention in the time since. With the real Mandarin out there, it would be a shame if Marvel never continued the plot thread — especially as the involvement of the Ten Rings organization could bring things full circle back to the first Iron Man in 2008, where we learned the group was in bed with Tony Stark’s friend and business partner, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges).

Even if the Mandarin is never tackled on the movie side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe again — say in a potential Iron Man 4 — there’s potential to introduce the shadowy villain by way of the Marvel / Netflix partnership. The Ten Rings organization could stir trouble in New York, leading to the involvement of street-level heroes like Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Iron Fist (Finn Jones), or the Punisher (Jon Bernthal). The Ten Rings were involved in Ant-Man too, trying to get their hands on Pym Technologies’ shrinking serum; maybe one of the Ant-Man sequels will see the return of the Ten Rings and the reveal of their leader?

Stop! Hammer Ties

While we’re at it, what has Tony Stark’s old rival, Hammer Industries CEO Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), been up to? (Besides rotting away in Seagate Prison.) He had a cameo appearance in the All Hail the King oneshot, audiences getting a peek into his life after being apprehended at the end of Iron Man 2 — and as one of the Marvel villains to make it out of their movie alive, there’s always a chance he returns to stir up more trouble.

Let’s not forget: Hammer has a bone to pick with both Stark and Pepper Potts who, as of Spider-Man: Homecoming, is back with Tony after the couple separated before the events of Captain America: Civil War. As seen with Trevor Slattery, the Mandarin has the means to spring people from prison — if he decides Hammer is of use, the pair could team up and go after Iron Man together. Better still, Hammer could even don his own Iron amor and try to kill Tony Stark man-to-man instead of man-to-drone, even though that didn’t work out too well for Iron Monger or Whiplash (Mickey Rourke).

Hammer may not have been seen since his 2014 cameo, but his name and presence continue to be felt in the MCU: in Netflix series Luke Cage, Cottonmouth (Mahershala Ali) sold Hammer Tech weapons, with Hammer’s company having created the “Judas bullet” — the only kind of bullet powerful enough to pierce the otherwise nearly-indestructible skin of Harlem superhero Luke Cage (Mike Colter). Hammer Tech was also behind the invention of Willis Stryker’s (Erik LaRay Harvey) “Diamondback” super suit, and Cage himself was imprisoned in Seagate Prison. With so many ties to Justin Hammer, Luke Cage could be the perfect way to bring back the industrial villain, whether or not Hammer actually suits up for battle or just causes trouble for the thick-skinned hero.

Nova Prime Time

2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy — then a little-known property before James Gunn’s film adaptation turned the cosmic heroes into an A-list blockbuster franchise — landed some high tier actors in Glenn Close and John C. Reilly, who would play Irani Rael, aka Nova Prime, and Rhomann Dey, respectively, high ranking members of the Nova Corps. After arresting Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Dey would later be contacted by the rogue and his band of outcasts, the “Guardians of the Galaxy,” who warned of the plans of Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) to destroy the Nova Corps’ home planet, Xandar, with an immensely powerful Infinity Stone.

Dey convinced Nova Prime of the sincerity of Star-Lord’s warning, with Prime giving the Guardians assistance by way of an entire fleet of Nova Corps ships. With the Battle of Xandar won, Ronan destroyed, and his family saved, Dey grew a newfound respect for Star-Lord and his crew of criminal “a-holes.” Neither Dey nor Nova Prime appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but their home, Xandar, was one of the many planets nearly annihilated by Star-Lord’s father, the Celestial known as Ego (Kurt Russell).

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, currently being scripted by James Gunn, will take place sometime after Avengers: Infinity War — which already catches up with the Guardians four years after the events of Vol. 2 — meaning a potential re-apparance by Dey and Nova Prime would take place almost half a decade after forming a mutual respect with the Guardians. It would be fun to see Dey and Nova Prime backing a team of Guardians who have saved the whole fricken’ universe two more times since they saw them last. The Novas could show in Infinity War or the untitled Avengers 4, but our best shot at seeing them again is Vol. 3, which will once again involve the Sovereign and the introduction of Adam Warlock.

What Happened to Your Faaaaaace?

The Red Skull (Hugo Weaving), the antithesis of Captain America (Chris Evans), attempted to wield the power of the Tesseract during World War II. The former head of Hydra was seemingly killed during a battle with Cap, when the Tesseract opened a cosmic portal that appeared to obliterate him.

In the immortal words of Nick Fury: “If there’s no body, the guy’s alive.” Red Skull could have been blown to smithereens (the Tesseract liked to do that, as seen in Captain America: The First Avenger), but it’s also possible the Skull was just… transported somewhere else. When the portal opened, it appeared to show Yggdrasil, the connector of the Nine Realms (which includes Earth, aka Midgard, and Asgard.

Because of the involvement of the Tesseract, those same kind of portals were seen in The Avengers as were seen again in the Avengers: Infinity War first footage. You shouldn’t go expecting the Red Skull to pop up in Infinity War, but if he is out there somewhere, he could be in a kind of stasis — waiting for his eventual return.

If Marvel wanted the Red Skull dead, they could have gone all Raiders of the Lost Ark and made his death clear cut. Since 2011, fans have speculated that the Red Skull was displaced instead of killed, and having him zapped somewhere into the cosmos would have been a good way to defeat him in 1945, but also allow an open door for the Skull to return somewhere down the line in present day.

Whether he next shows in a potential Captain America 4 or a future Avengers movie, we expect we haven’t truly seen the last of the Red Skull. After all, earlier this year, Samuel L. Jackson seemingly let slip something about Nick Fury and the former Hydra head. Hmm…