Over 20 movies and hundreds of characters later, we don’t blame you for forgetting one or two… or a dozen. There have been so many characters introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s hard to keep track of all of them, let alone the Easter eggs and cameo mentions on top of that.
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Since it’s Earth’s Mightiest Week, we wanted to take a look back at some of the characters that are forgotten by a lot of the fandom, whether it be appearances in an early movie or a mention that has since fallen by the wayside.
First and foremost, it should be said there’s a huge chunk of characters from The Incredible Hulk on this list, mainly because it’s the most forgotten movie of the entire mythos. Other than that, there might even be an appearance by a television character or two — you’ll have to keep scrolling to find out.
Here are some of the best characters you totally forgot about.
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10. Man-Thing
That’s right — Man-Thing is somewhere at this very moment within the MCU mythos. First “introduced” on Agents of SHIELD, Man-Thing was name-dropped in a conversation between Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) and Pepper Potts as he was incarcerated at the Fridge by SHIELD.
After Hydra took over the agency, Man-Thing was released and somehow managed to find his way to Sakaar, seemingly becoming one of the Grandmaster’s (Jeff Goldblum) champions as his face appears on the tower.
9. Betty Ross
The once-love interest of Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Liv Tyler’s Betty Ross appeared in The Incredible Hulk and hasn’t been seen since. With Banner seemingly having moved on to Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), it’s unlikely Ross will appear in the MCU ever again.
The most interesting part of the whole deal might be that the Russo Brothers have admitted that the doctor is one of the victims of The Decimation.
8. Darcy Lewis
One of the forgotten gems of the Thor franchise is Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings). Appearing in oft-forgotten movies in their own right, Lewis had a few hilarious moments and seemingly evaporated at some point after Thor: The Dark World.
Should the Thor franchise continue in a post-Avengers: Endgame world, it’s unlikely the Asgardian will have another Earth-based movie, so it’s more likely than not that Lewis’ MCU ship has sailed.
7. Cosmo
The goodest of boys, Cosmo appeared in a few quick cameos in Guardians of the Galaxy and hasn’t been seen since, save for a quick in-credits cameo. Fans of the cosmic Marvel comics will recognize Cosmo as one of the most powerful telepaths of the universe, so it’s a peculiar choice that James Gunn decided to use the character in a super small role in one movie.
With a franchise that involves a walking tree and talking raccoon, a telepathic dog would not only fit in, but the consumer product opportunities would be out of this world.
6. The Real Mandarin
No, we’re not talking about Trevor (Ben Kingsley) or Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). But somewhere out there in the MCU, we know that there is, in fact, a real Mandarin leading the Ten Rings.
We know this because of the All Hail the King one-shot where the real Mandarin sent an agent to break Trevor Slattery out of prison. Yet here we are some five years later without any idea the whereabouts of the actual Mandarin, one of Iron Man’s most iconic villains.
5. Lady Sif
In Thor: Ragnarok, we saw the Warriors Three meet their ultimate demise, but Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander) wasn’t among them. Since the actor wasn’t able to film on Ragnarok because of prior commitments with her ABC show Blindspot, it’s been a while since the character last appeared on screen. In fact, her last MCU appearance came on an episode of Agents of SHIELD.
4. Mockingbird
The lone television character on the list, save for Lady Sif’s two TV cameos, Bobbi Morse (Adrianne Palicki) hasn’t been seen or heard of on Agents of SHIELD for a minute. Story-wise, her and her husband Lance Hunter (Nick Blood) left the show to film a pilot for Marvel’s Most Wanted, something that was never ordered to series.
Though it wasn’t ordered to series, Blood has since been back to reprise his role, but Palicki has yet to be seen. Since the actor seems perfectly fine on her current show The Orville, it’s hard telling when — if ever — we’ll see Mockingbird again.
3. Howard the Duck
Like we previously said about Cosmo, it’s bizarre that Guardians of the Galaxy director has used Howard the Duck only in a cameo role in both movies. Voice by a big name in Seth Green, Howard the Duck is certainly a character that’d be a hit in an expanded role. With his brash, adult attitude, Howard would be a welcome addition to the team alongside Rocket Raccoon.
When we last saw him, the talking duck was on the pleasure planet Contraxia, drinking a martini in the MCU version of a brothel.
2. The Leader
Remember when I said at the top that this list had several people from The Incredible Hulk on it? Well, here we go. At the tail end of the lone Hulk solo flick, Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), begins his transformation into The Leader, and that’s it.
Fans have gotten radio silence from the studio since his initial MCU debut, and because of the aforementioned rights issues, there’s a good possibility we’ll never see the character in live-action again.
1. Doc Samson
Do you remember when Doc Sampson was in the MCU? Not just that, but the character was played by Modern Family funnyman Ty Burrell. While Burrell has since gone on to much bigger and better things, it doesn’t change the fact that within the MCU, Doc Sampson is still out there somewhere, albeit it in a pre-transformation phase.
No, he doesn’t have superhuman strength or the neon green hair, but the character exists. Though Burrell is now a bigger name that may be harder to lock down for Marvel Studios, could you imagine he and Mark Ruffalo teaming up? Sign us up.
