The Marvel Cinematic Universe has grown to incredible size ever since it began in 2008. It now has four phases, with the most recent installment bringing in new characters like Shang-Chi and the Eternals to go along with well-established players such as Spider-Man, Black Widow, and Hawkeye.
With so much going on, it’s easy to forget about characters that have been seen but left behind along the way. Most of these are the villains who failed to connect with audiences, along with supporting characters that didn't make an impact or haven’t appeared in a long time. It’s interesting to uncover the few times the MCU has failed, since these characters weren’t successful enough to make a comeback.
The franchise looks to have moved on completely from The Incredible Hulk, which was made before Disney began the current MCU. Betty’s role as Bruce Banner’s main love interest was taken over by Natasha Romanoff, with the character again left unaddressed after Bruce and Natasha’s romance ended.
The MCU has changed so much and expanded into such a larger-than-life setting that Betty’s gotten lost in the mix. She’s never brought up by Thaddeus Ross, who at least managed to return to the series and has been relevant thanks to his involvement with the Avengers.
Sterns’ teased evolution into the Leader is a scene that MCU fans don’t really talk about, even though it was meant to indicate the future presence of the Hulk’s archenemy. Sterns has more or less been overlooked by the fanbase over the last decade and a half, as his supporting role in The Incredible Hulk just didn’t have much of an impact.
At the time, there were rumblings over what he might do in later movies, but the MCU now has powerful villains like Thanos, so Sterns just doesn't quite measure up.
The Other was used as a way to indicate Thanos’ villainy, with the character acting as Thanos’ underling who threatened Loki. The Other was unceremoniously killed by Ronan in Guardians of the Galaxy with such ease that many fans have forgotten he ever existed.
Thanos gave no indication of caring about The Other’s death and future appearances omitted any mention of Thanos using a right-hand man. Thanos’ attitude was also much different in Avengers: Infinity War compared to his original, so The Other’s role has become even easier to forget.
On this occasion, Marvel would very much prefer if fans continue to forget that Gemma Chan was in a movie prior to Eternals. As it is, she played Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel, who was a rival of the titular protagonist and got killed off rather meekly.
The character didn’t have much of a purpose in the story itself, while Chan’s blue appearance also contributes to confusion for fans regarding whether or not she’s the same actress who later played the main protagonist Sersi in Eternals. With Yon-Rogg taking over the role of the primary antagonist, Minn-Erva ultimately became an afterthought.
Fans haven’t forgotten the Yellowjacket character because he showed up in What If…? during Phase Four of the MCU. However, the original wielder of the suit was Darren Cross, who’s largely lost from memory due to the presence of other big-time MCU Phase Two villains like Ultron that were introduced around the same time.
Cross was also far too comedic to be seen as a true threat, which isn’t helped by the fact that the Ant-Man series’ primary point of interest is the Quantum Realm aspect rather than the villains. With the movie also having released seven years ago, Cross just didn’t have a big enough impact to be memorable.
There’s been a significant buzz over the possibility of Miles Morales’ entry in the MCU, but it’s interesting how most fans overlook the fact that a straight-up connection was made all the way back in Spider-Man: Homecoming through Aaron Davis.
Davis is Miles’ uncle in the comics and confirmed he had a nephew in his live-action appearance. However, MCU viewers have mainly forgotten about the character due to Spider-Man’s adventures becoming much grander in scale. Homecoming was more about Peter’s street-level antics, which have been sidelined after his multiversal conflicts, and Davis is one of the characters left behind as a result.
Odin is generally one of the most hated MCU supporting characters because most fans see him as a poor parent to Loki. What’s strange is that fans forget the fact that Laufey was Loki’s biological father and had abandoned Loki as a baby to die before he was adopted by Odin.
To be fair, the MCU has also left out any outright mentions of Laufey since Thor, with Loki only acknowledging his Frost Giant status rather than being Laufey’s son. With Loki also considering Odin to be his real father, fans have largely left Laufey out of their minds since he has no bearing on the series overall.
Maya Hansen had great potential to be a memorable villain had Iron Man 3 chosen to expand upon her contempt toward Tony Stark. However, she was killed off without much fanfare in the movie, which also seemed to have forgotten about her by the climax.
Maya’s death was immaterial since Aldrich Killian had no use for her, with Tony then also overlooking her demise a few minutes later. Fans don’t look back on Iron Man 3 with much fondness in any case, so Maya is only remembered by the most ardent of fans who are aware of more than the casual viewer.
The only times Malekith is brought up is when fans rank the MCU villains from best to worst, with the character generally falling in the latter. Malekith is perhaps the most ignored MCU antagonist overall, with not even the Thor series making any more mention of him.
He was a big change from the norm of charismatic villains, as Malekith was dark and brooding, with the side effect of being boring as well. While he did kill Thor’s mother, Thor has had so many losses over the years that fans tend to forget the ones who dealt him with the biggest blows apart from the likes of Thanos, Hela, and Loki.
Those who didn’t stick around until the post-credits scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier had no idea who Baron Wolfgang von Strucker was in Avengers: Age of Ultron. He was killed off tamely in the latter movie, which made his presence pointless to an extent, since the threat of HYDRA had largely been eradicated by then.
Strucker was responsible for capturing Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, so it’s incredible how such relevant characters’ backstories are connected to someone who fans likely can’t recall ever being in the series. It doesn’t help his case that both the Avengers and Ultron made short work of him, meaning Strucker was perhaps always doomed to fail as a villain.
