10 Most Disturbing Moments Cut From Marvel Movies

For better or worse, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become known for various commonalities across its long run. When going into a Marvel movie, one can generally expect plenty of jokes amid all of the fighting. There will likely be a post-credits scene of some kind, even if it never gets paid off. And an MCU movie will probably be fun for the whole family without too much over the top violence.

Granted, the MCU has branched out in recent years. "Deadpool & Wolverine" was rated R and took full advantage of its higher rating. But for the most part, MCU movies still largely fall into the PG-13 camp. There will be action sequences, and characters might die. But it'll be in a way with minimal blood and probably no organs getting exposed. Audiences shouldn't expect something so over-the-top it crosses the line into bad taste. But what even hardcore MCU fans might not realize is that the franchise has toyed with some pretty disturbing ideas in the past.

Some of these ideas existed simply as concept art, but other scenes were fully filmed and just barely missed the final cut. The most disturbing moments cut from Marvel Cinematic Universe movies could've fundamentally altered the movie-going public's view of the franchise and may have even pushed some of these films into R-rated territory. Here are the 10 most disturbing examples.

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More so than any other Marvel hero, there's a tragic sense of melancholy associated with the Hulk. Bruce Banner is a scientist who becomes a green rage monster following a gamma accident. In 2008's "The Incredible Hulk," in which he's played by Edward Norton, he's on the run from a military that wants to use him to kickstart the super soldier program. In a deleted scene, we witness Bruce Banner trying to take his own life. After hiking into a frozen, remote wilderness, he stands atop a glacier and points a gun at the ice. Before he can pull the trigger and cause an avalanche, killing himself in the process, he transforms into the Hulk, who breaks the gun.

This would have been how the film opened, an undoubtedly dark introduction to Bruce's struggle with his alternate persona. It certainly would have been impactful, though it would have been a bit too dark for the fledgling superhero franchise, especially following the antics of "Iron Man." A version of this scene would later get referenced in "Avengers" when Bruce (now played by Mark Ruffalo) talks about putting a gun in his mouth, but the "big guy" spit out the bullet. It's not quite a description of this dark deleted scene from "The Incredible Hulk," but it certainly calls it to mind.

No one should be surprised when a villain does something evil, but there's something particularly brutal about one deleted scene from 2016's "Doctor Strange." The sequence shows Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) and his zealots descend upon a church. Kaecilius has a quick conversation with the church's priest about the Bible, with Kaecilius stating flat out that there's no afterlife. To prove it, he murders the priest on the spot, spilling blood all over the good book in the process. It's pretty shocking, so it's no wonder it was ultimately cut from the final edit.

The sacrilegious nature of this scene is perhaps not the only reason it was cut. Kaecilius says how the Bible "promises eternity but fails to deliver." When the priest tries to discuss the afterlife, Kaecilius states that the concept of an afterlife is a contradiction. However, the MCU has shown us that multiple versions of an afterlife do indeed exist. "Black Panther" shows us the Ancestral Plane, and the ending of "Thor: Love and Thunder" depicts Jane (Natalie Portman) entering Valhalla. Having Kaecilius insist that no afterlife exists kind of undermines him as a credible, knowledgeable villain.

Moviegoers were undoubtedly prepared to see a lot of their old favorites in cameo capacities in "Avengers: Infinity War," but one appearance that definitely caught most people by surprise was Red Skull, played here by Ross Marquand. After seemingly meeting his doom in "Captain America: The First Avenger," back when he was played by Hugo Weaving, he returns on Vormir to lead Thanos to the Soul Stone. Red Skull definitely looks worse for wear compared to the last time we saw him. His eyes are more sunken than before. However, in some of the concept art, he looked a lot worse.

Early concept art for the film reveals that the plan was to basically turn Red Skull into a monster. There are several different designs. One has what can only be described as flesh sacks covering up his eyes. Another has him looking more beast than man, as his head takes on an almost dinosaur-like quality with just a small protrusion for a mouth coming through. 

Not only would this have been a terrifying addition to "Infinity War," but it would've added more confusion. Chances are plenty of people wouldn't even know it was Red Skull, which is kind of the whole point. Some of the designs have his skin as white as opposed to red, so that would've made things even more baffling. The design we get in the movie may seem simplistic by comparison, but for the sake of moving the epic story along, it gets the job done. 

Thanos (Josh Brolin) has no shortage of MCU scenes that showcase his brutality, but he could've had one more if a deleted scene from "Avengers: Infinity War" had made the final cut. It takes place during the Battle on Titan, and Thanos would've used the Soul Stone to turn the Guardians of the Galaxy into astral projections. In essence, he would've stripped them of their souls, so their bodies would've been limp on the cold ground before Mantis saves the day.

It's a dark idea: Had they been unable to reunite with their bodies, they would've just kept floating around for all eternity. And it would've been a different type of fight sequence, as Spider-Man (Tom Holland) would have had to protect their bodies from Thanos. The logic behind cutting the scene was likely that it was far too convoluted of an idea to explain to audiences quickly amidst everything else happening in that film. 

While the scene itself is dark, Holland did reveal a funny anecdote from filming it. He told IMDb, "At one point they were all lying down on the floor, the Guardians, and Karen [Gillan, who plays Nebula] fell asleep. She was so tired from being up so early all the time. Everyone was like, 'Karen! We're filming!'" Even if the scene didn't make it into the film, at least Gillan had a chance to catch some Zs during what was surely a hectic production process. 

"Avengers: Infinity War" ends in a dark place with Thanos succeeding in his mission to wipe out half of all life in the universe. Of course, this was only the first half of the two-part epic finale to close out the Infinity Saga. "Avengers: Endgame" involves the Avengers trying to bring everyone they lost back to life, but even though they kill one version of Thanos early on in the film, it's a big timeline out there. Thanos and his army are still a massive threat, and the Russo brothers wanted Thanos to make quite an entrance at one point in "Endgame."

The directors of "Avengers: Endgame" wanted Thanos to decapitate Captain America (Chris Evans) at some point in the film. Their idea was that, during the time heist, a past version of Thanos would catch on to what the Avengers were doing. He would then go back to 2014 and decapitate Captain America from that time period before returning to the present and showing off the head to the Avengers just to show he means business. 

It's an admittedly cool idea, even if it raises questions as to how bloody they could get with the decapitation while remaining in the realm of PG-13. And it would send "Endgame" into full-blown horror territory as the living Steve Rogers would have to contend with seeing his own head rolling toward him. It's a disturbing proposition, but ultimately, it sounds like they couldn't find a way to make it fit organically within the larger story and scrapped it.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe sure does have a thing for trying to cram in decapitations: Concept art was drawn up of Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) trying to intimidate Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) with the decapitated head of Baron Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) for "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." The art shows Wanda materializing the head out of thin air while proclaiming, "There's the last person who threatened me!" To be fair, "Multiverse of Madness" is the closest the MCU has skewed to horror, and with Sam Raimi at the helm, it's no surprise he tried to see how much he could get away with in a Marvel movie. 

While seeing Mordo's disembodied head would've been dark, it at least would've provided an explanation for what happened to Mordo after the events of the first "Doctor Strange" movie. "Multiverse of Madness" presents a variant of Mordo from another universe, but the most we get about the original Mordo is that he tried to kill Doctor Strange at some point. The sequel fails to fulfill the promise of the original "Doctor Strange" where Mordo vows to get rid of all the sorcerers, instead pivoting to Wanda as the big bad. 

Even without Mordo's head being brandished by Scarlet Witch, "Multiverse of Madness" actually gets away with plenty of disturbing imagery. Black Bolt (Anson Mount) losing his mouth and then attempting to scream through the skin before Wanda blows his brain up is far more disturbing than any decapitated head.

"Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" saw several gory scenes left on the cutting room floor that really could've amped up the film. Another stunt sequence that was choreographed (although not properly filmed) involves Wanda's raid at Kamar-Taj. She uses her magic to blow through various sorcerers, resulting in one of them getting decapitated. Wanda then has the headless corpse attack other sorcerers for her, using it as a tool during the battle.

This entire sequence is an onslaught of horrors, as the sorcerers are completely outmatched and Wanda kills everyone gruesomely. Why does the MCU want decapitations so much? They got away with it once in "Avengers: Endgame" when Thor chops off Thanos' head. But maybe since that's a hero killing a villain it's more suitable for Marvel's typical sensibilities. One of these days, a Marvel movie will have the courage to show a villain taking someone's head off in the bloodiest fashion possible.

This is the third "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" entry on the list, and despite all of the great horror moments that made it into the film, we wish the movie pushed the envelope even further. One cool idea that was scrapped prior to filming involved a desert of Doctor Strange corpses. Concept art depicts what was described as the Incursion Universe. It shows Strange, Mordo, Wong (Benedict Wong), and Scarlet Witch wandering through the wasteland. The bodies of other Stranges are littered throughout, including one impaled on a long, protruding spike. It feels like this was supposed to be the incursion-destroyed universe Strange encounters toward the end of the film where he gets into a musical-themed battle with another, darker Strange. 

What's even more interesting than all of the Strange corpses is the team-up: It appears as though Strange, Mordo, Wong, and Scarlet Witch are working together in this concept art. This could've just been a team-up used for illustrative purposes, or maybe there was another version of the script where all of them were working together to stop some kind of greater threat. But looking at all of the disturbing moments that were cut from "Multiverse of Madness," it's clear that Doctor Strange got off easy in the movie we ended up with. 

One of the best aspects of "Thor: Love and Thunder" is Christian Bale's performance as Gorr the God Butcher. He's an exceptionally interesting character to bring into the Thor franchise, as he was once deeply religious but then loses his faith and goes on a crusade to rid the galaxy of all gods. It seems that there were several disturbing scenes involving Gorr that got cut from the film. In an interview with IGN, Bale revealed how they filmed a scene of Gorr carving his religious tattoos out of his skin: "We did shoot that. It was perhaps a little bit too extreme to be included in the film."

Self-mutilation wasn't the only thing that had to be axed from Gorr's arc. Bale also shot scenes with Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster and Peter Dinklage's Etiri. He didn't specify what those scenes entailed, but there's a chance we could've seen Gorr go on a killing spree, murdering various deities from across the cosmos. Another potentially spine-chilling moment left on the cutting room floor involves Gorr unleashing a 30-second, visceral scream. It was inspired by the "Come to Daddy" music video from Aphex Twin, but apparently it was also too much for Marvel.

Marvel Cinematic Universe movies always have a sense of humor, and the "Guardians of the Galaxy" franchise is arguably the best example of this, with James Gunn's films being jam-packed with humor that pushes the boundaries of what's acceptable in a PG-13 flick. For example, the first "Guardians" film sees Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) telling Rocket Raccoon (played by Gunn's brother Sean on set and voiced by Bradley Cooper) about how the inside of his spaceship looks like a Jackson Pollock painting under a blacklight, and there was a gag cut from "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" that makes this seem tame.

Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) insists to his mother, Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), that he will ensure their enemies suffer, but he goes off on an odd tangent. He says: "I'm going to mush their brains between my fingers. I'm going to p*** on their dead bodies and make love to their carcasses." To be fair, Ayesha seems aware that this is a step too far and reprimands him. After all, Adam was just born, so he doesn't know any better. But implying he'd be okay with necrophilia is a bit much for a Marvel movie, particularly for a character who becomes a hero by the end.