5 Deleted Marvel Cameo Appearances That Could Have Changed Everything

Ever since the days of Clark Gregg's Phil Coulson appearing across multiple Phase One Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, the MCU has become famous for featuring cameos from pre-existing characters amidst other features. That's continued well into the current phase, even as audiences no longer need reminders that these movies are interconnected, as seen by the five best Marvel supporting characters in Tom Holland's Spider-Man movies. If you're watching any MCU movie or TV show, chances are you'll experience a cameo from another property, meant to remind you that these stories always inhabit a larger world. 

However, that doesn't mean every proposed cameo from a MCU character ends up getting realized. On the contrary, over the years, there've been several instances of MCU cameos either never getting filmed or receiving the axe in the editing room. The best examples of this phenomenon are five notable deleted Marvel cameo appearances that could have changed everything. Looking back, these cameos would've upended all kinds of MCU norms. That includes everything from a legacy of fictional U.S. Presidents only appearing once to finally bringing back an early baddie for more adventures.

Whatever the reason behind the monumental nature of these cameos (and whatever factors led to them never actually becoming a reality), these five jettisoned Marvel appearances are fascinating to think about. If nothing else, they reflect how not every conceived MCU cameo automatically reaches the silver screen.

Madame Web is famously the Marvel Comics character whose "web connects them all," but when it comes to the Netflix/Marvel shows, it was Rosario Dawson's Claire Temple who united everybody. After debuting in the first "Daredevil" season as an everyday person who could help tend to that show's titular lead's wounds, Temple began appearing all over the other Marvel/Netflix programs. She even had a prominent role in "Luke Cage" as the love interest of Luke (Mike Colter) himself. Because of her prominence, Claire Temple has endured as a beloved individual in the fandom. She's even registered as one of the Marvel/Netflix characters people most wanted to see in the MCU.

That got so close to becoming a reality with "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," which deleted a scene that would've featured Temple checking in on an injured Peter Parker/Spider-Man as part of her work as a nurse. Temple making her proper mainstream MCU debut here would have been fitting, given that "Brand New Day" featured other Marvel/Netflix figures like Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle/The Punisher and the ninja group The Hand. However, this scene ended up on the cutting room floor for currently unknown reasons. Maybe her return here in an emotionally vulnerable moment for Spidey proved a tad distracting.

Whatever the reason, Claire Temple showing up in a massive "Spider-Man" movie would have been a huge win for the character and another sign of how ubiquitous she is in MCU media. Top that, Madame Web.

If you want to see Tom Hiddleston's Loki in the MCU, there's no shortage of places to do so. The first three solo "Thor" movies each featured him, while Loki also anchored his own two-season Disney+ show with "Loki." The character even functioned as the main villain of "The Avengers" before having tiny appearances in "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame." Believe it or not, though, there were once plans for Loki to show up in yet another MCU feature. The lone "Avengers" installment, "Avengers: Age of Ultron," that doesn't feature Hiddleston's Loki did shoot a cameo appearance of the trickster God.

Part of what really happened behind the scenes on "Age of Ultron" included a tremendous amount of uncertainty over what would end up in the film's final cut. Writer/director Joss Whedon and various Marvel head honchos were constantly at each other's throats, resulting in some chaos. One concept that was shot involved Loki appearing in Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) psychically-induced vision. According to Hiddleston, though, test audiences were perplexed when Loki showed up. Though just meant to be another figure from Thor's past that Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) uses to torment him, some viewers thought this cameo indicated Loki and Ultron (James Spader) were in cahoots.

Thus, to ensure a cleaner, less confusing experience, Loki's "Age of Ultron" appearance was ditched. This ensured there was a four-year gap in Loki's MCU presence between "Thor: The Dark World" and "Thor: Ragnarok." Somehow, Tumblr survived.

If you're a U.S. President in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you don't stay in office for very long. Barack Obama apparently was only a one-term President here, given that he was no longer in office by 2013, when President Matthew Ellis from "Iron Man 3" was in charge. Meanwhile, Dermot Mulroney's President Ritson only appeared in "Secret Invasion" and didn't even warrant an off-handed mention when Harrison Ford's President Ross took office in "Captain America: Brave New World." Ross was vacated from that position of power by the end of "Brave New World." In a world of Hulks, Chitauri, and Skrulls, it's hard to keep the Oval Office in hand, we assume.

However, President Matthew Ellis, one of the most prominent original characters invented for the MCU, almost got to appear once again in another feature film in this franchise. The character's actor, William Sadler, confirmed that he filmed a small appearance for "Ant-Man," but that the production opted to go in a different direction and left his scene out. Given that nothing in the final "Ant-Man" cut even remotely references Washington D.C. or the U.S. Presidency, it's hard to tell what Ellis was going to do in this film.

While Sadler was a one-and-done presence in the MCU movies, he did get to reprise his President Ellis role in a trio of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." episodes. It may not be the equivalent of an "Ant-Man" cameo, but it's more follow-up appearances than President Ritson got.

One early story in the expansive tome "The Story of Marvel Studios" concerns how the finale for "Iron Man" was conjured up during principal photography for the 2008 blockbuster. According to the book, the abrupt change in the movies ending meant that Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger (Jeff Bridges), once planned to become a multi-movie villain, would need to be killed off during the "Iron Man" climax instead. This tweak apparently benefited "Iron Man" as a movie, but ensured Jeff Bridges wouldn't return for subsequent MCU outings. Since "Iron Man," Stane's only been referenced through archival footage in "Spider-Man: Far from Home" and via the true identity of Alden Ehrenreich's "Ironheart" character.

However, there were apparently plans at one point for Obadiah Stane to appear in a most unexpected Phase Four MCU movie. Among the many Marvel Comics characters suggested to appear among the Illuminati's ranks in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" was none other than Obadiah Stane, an idea that only got realized through storyboards. Not only would it have been surreal to see Jeff Bridges reappear as Obadiah Stane, but having Stane, rather than Tony Stark, show up on this council of powerful super-powered beings could've reaffirmed to audiences that Doctor Strange had wound up in an extremely bizarre alternate universe.

However, this idea for an Obadiah Stane return never went anywhere, further reinforcing the character's one-and-done nature in the MCU.

It's staggering that John C. Reilly, a fixture of many of the best Will Ferrell movies, has played a Marvel Cinematic Universe character via the "Guardians of the Galaxy" Nova Corps. He's Corpsman Rhomann Dey, and he's never reappeared in the franchise. That's despite there being two further "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies, a third "Avengers" movie that referred to Dey's home planet of Xandar, and countless other MCU properties that have explored the deepest reaches of space. Surely, if dangling "Incredible Hulk" plot threads can dominate a "Captain America" sequel, then Rhomann Dey can get a comeback.

It turns out, though, that there were once plans for Dey to reappear in a Phase Three MCU feature. "Thor: Ragnarok" director Taika Waititi confirmed before that movies release that he had worked hard to find space for John C. Reilly to appear. Given Reilly's gift for comedic performances, it's no surprise Waititi would want to work with him. However, these plans never came to fruition, presumably because "Ragnarok" taking place almost exclusively on Asgard and Sakaar left little room for Xandar denizen Dey to appear.

With that, there's been no whisper of Rhomann Dey reappearing in the MCU since, not even alternate universe cartoons like "What If...?" However, perhaps if Marvel Studios does finally get that solo movie going about Nova (a character Dey mentored in the comics), then John C. Reilly could finally have his long-overdue MCU comeback.