Marvel’s Missing Characters Who Could Return in Marvel Studios Shows on Disney+

It’s a television takeover as the Marvel Cinematic Universe expands with more than a dozen television projects from Marvel Studios coming to the Disney+ streaming service, where new and existing characters take part in a story spanning both the big and small screen. Characters crossing over from the feature film side of the franchise include WandaVision‘s Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), not seen since 2013’s Thor: The Dark World, and Ant-Man and the Wasp‘s S.H.I.E.L.D.-turned-FBI agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park).

During Disney Investor Day on Thursday, where Marvel chief Kevin Feige announced a deluge of new film and TV projects, Feige confirmed another returning character when he announced Tim Roth would reprise his role as the Abomination in She-Hulk. Roth last appeared opposite Edward Norton’s Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk, the second Marvel Studios movie, in 2008.

In 2019, Feige said he enjoys “bringing back characters people think they’ve seen the last of.” Feige pointed to the returns of The Incredible Hulk‘s Thaddeus Ross (William Hurt) in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War and Harley Keener (Ty Simpkins) in last year’s Avengers: Endgame, some six years after we last saw him in 2013’s Iron Man 3.

Projects announced December 10 include the Don Cheadle-starring Armor Wars, expected to bring back Sam Rockwell‘s Iron Man 2 villain Justin Hammer, and Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn’s Skrull-centric Captain Marvel spin-off Secret Invasion.

Here are some of the little-seen characters who might return in the slate of Marvel Studios series lined up at Disney+:

Justin Hammer

Smarmy military contractor Justin Hammer plotted against Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in 2010’s Iron Man 2, which ended with the villain captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. super-spy Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). We last saw him as an inmate of Seagate Penitentiary in 2014 Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King. 

In the Marvel Comics story that inspires Cheadle’s Armor Wars, it’s Hammer who sells Stark’s stolen technology to his many armored enemies.  

Christine Everhart

Another little-seen character from Iron Man and Iron Man 2 is journalist Christine Everhart (Leslie Bibb), last seen as the anchor of WHiH Newsfront in a series of web shorts released to market Ant-Man (2015) and Captain America: Civil War (2016). 

Samuel Sterns

Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) was in the process of transforming into big-brained Marvel Comics villain the Leader when we last saw him in The Incredible Hulk, where Bruce Banner’s gamma-irradiated blood seeps into a head wound given to him by the Abomination. 

Betty Ross and Dr. Leonard Samson

Banner’s ex-girlfriend Betty Ross (Liv Tyler), and her former boyfriend Dr. Leonard Samson (Ty Burrell), haven’t appeared on-screen since The Incredible Hulk. In the comics, the psychiatrist becomes a gamma-powered superhero called Doc Samson, while Betty becomes the gamma-fueled Red She-Hulk. 

Lady Sif

Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander) is rumored to appear in Loki, about Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) time and dimension-hopping adopted brother (Tom Hiddleston), ahead of her reported return in the Taika Waititi-directed Thor: Love and Thunder. Alexander last reprised her Thor role in Marvel Television’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in 2014 and 2015 after appearing in 2013’s Thor: The Dark World. 

Harley Keener

Iron Man fanboy Harley Keener made a cameo appearance at Stark’s funeral in Avengers: Endgame, taking place more than a decade after their adventure together in Iron Man 3. His connections to Stark make him a possible candidate to appear in Armor Wars or Ironheart, about a young genius inventor (Dominique Thorne) who creates the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man. 

Trevor Slattery

Another loose end from Iron Man 3 is Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), an actor hired to pose as the international terrorist called “the Mandarin.” In All Hail the King, Ten Rings member Jackson Norriss (Scoot McNairy) poses as a journalist to capture Slattery and bring him to the real Mandarin — real name Wenwu (Tony Leung) — who we’ll meet in next summer’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. 

Helen Cho

In 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, world-renowned geneticist Helen Cho (Claudia Kim) was recruited by Ultron (James Spader) to build him a Vibranium body that became Vision (Paul Bettany). Might she return alongside Vision and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) in WandaVision? 

Erik Selvig

Astrophysicist and professor Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) taught Darcy and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) in Thor, returning as a key character in The Avengers, The Dark World, and Age of Ultron, currently his last appearance. The character was referenced in both Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home, and his ties to the Avengers makes it possible he resurfaces almost anywhere in the MCU. 

Mitchell Carson

Ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. Head of Defense Mitchell Carson (Martin Donovan) is among the HYDRA operatives who does some dirty dealing with Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) in 2015’s Ant-Man. Carson manages to escape with a briefcase containing stolen Pym Particles pioneered by Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). 

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