10 Last Minute Changes That Hurt Superhero Movies And 10 That Saved Them

If you ever listened to your school teachers, you’d know that leaving something to the last minute is a huge no-no. After all, will it truly be your best effort if you haven’t thought about it and planned far in advance?

As it turns out, the real world doesn’t always afford you the luxury of time. You have to think and act on your feet, as a host of things CAN impact how and when you do something.

The world of filmmaking is no different, with directors having to adapt to a multitude of external forces, such as studio interference, real-life crises, scheduling conflicts, or the simple fact that something just isn’t working.

Last-minute changes aren’t unusual and are the norm in Hollywood. As Peter Rabbit’s director, Will Gluck, revealed to Collider, the movie changed countless times from the original plan.

“I must have written it a hundred times. Rob Lieber, who’s a great writer, did the first couple of drafts, and then I worked with him and I rewrote it millions of times. And then, on set, we changed it millions of times,” he said, probably not exaggerating the number of times it was altered.

When it comes to big blockbusters like superhero movies, the projects are in a constant state of chaos, suffering from last-ditch changes all the time. While some of them work out for the better, others end up being dumpster fires because of the tinkering.

With that said, here are the 10 Last-Minute Changes That Hurt Superhero Movies (And 10 That Saved Them).

Hurt: Batman V Superman’s Theatrical Cut

The story of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is one that could fill an entire novel. After reportedly receiving a standing ovation from Warner Bros. when it was first screened, it didn’t exactly go over as well with many fans and critics.

So, what happened? The simple answer is corporate meddling.

The studio wanted the movie to be shorter so it could receive more screenings in theaters and forced about 30 minutes of Zack Snyder’s movie to be cut.

Warner ended up with egg on its face when the Ultimate Edition, i.e. Snyder’s cut, was released on home video and proved to be a superior offering.

The cut addressed many inconsistencies in the theatrical version and expanded on several plot and character developments.

Saved: Quicksilver’s Fate In Avengers: Age Of Ultron

Quicksilver and his sister, Scarlet Witch, were part of a dispute between Marvel and Fox for many years. Of course, the former preferred for all of its characters’ rights to reside at home, while Fox argued that it had paid for them, fair and square.

What ended up happening was that Quicksilver was scheduled to appear in both 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past and 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron.

However, the character was portrayed by two different actors, with two different characterizations. Fans were confused, naturally.

Marvel eventually let this battle go by allowing its version of Quicksilver to meet his maker in the movie after several script changes.

It caused less confusion for everyone and allowed the character a heroic sendoff in the MCU.

Hurt: James Marsden In Superman Returns & X-Men: The Last Stand

When James Marsden was cast in Superman Returns, the immediate thought would be that his character, Richard White, would play a vital role in the movie - especially since he had to be practically written out of X-Men: The Last Stand as a result of his scheduling conflicts.

As it turns out, Marsden’s character was pointless in Superman Returns and he gave up the gig of being the X-Men’s leader for this.

Neither of his appearances did anything for the respective franchises and he would’ve been better off if he’d stuck with Cyclops.

Eventually, everything was resolved for Scott Summers when the effects of X-Men: The Last Stand were reversed, thanks to X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Saved: Ant-Man’s Original Ending Being Changed

Ant-Man experienced production woes, especially after Edgar Wright departed and Peyton Reed came in as the director.

Considering how the movie turned out, though, everything worked out just fine.

However, the original ending could’ve changed the future of this franchise in one foul swoop.

Reed explained to CinemaBlend the original plan.

“At the end of the movie [Carson] gets away and has these Cross particles, and there was a sequence where Ant-Man has an encounter with him. But then for a couple reasons, it felt like maybe we should leave those particles out there. In that original thing, he took Martin Donovan out and got the particles,” he said.

Reed made the right call, since the final ending opened up the possibility for future stories to be told.

Hurt: Richard Donner’s Departure From Superman II

Sometimes things don’t make sense in Hollywood. After Richard Donner rewrote cinematic history with the release of Superman in 1978, you’d expect him to helm the sequel, but Richard Lester ended up on the director’s chair.

Back in 1977, producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind decided it would be a good idea to film two Man of Steel movies back to back, with Donner involved in both.

When the budget soared, they decided to let Donner focus on getting the first part done.

After Superman became a hit, the producers decided to replace Donner with Lester due to some flare-ups on set. The sequel wasn’t as critically acclaimed, but Donner did have the last laugh when his superior cut was released decades later.

Saved: Hugh Jackman’s Casting As Wolverine

As comic-book fans, we normally discuss what-if scenarios and whether certain actors would’ve been better for parts than the person chosen.

In the case of Wolverine, however, there can be no complaints. Hugh Jackman is the Ol’ Canucklehead, through and through.

He almost wasn’t, though. Back when Bryan Singer was prepping X-Men, Dougray Scott had been earmarked as Logan.

His substantial role in Mission: Impossible 2 caused a few complications. However, Singer worked around it and tried to move the Wolverine scenes to the next month.

When Paramount couldn’t guarantee that Scott would be available to join the X-Men production by the required date, the role was recast.

Jackman signed on and the rest is cinematic history.

Hurt: Morbius’ No-Show In Blade

Back when Blade was released, New Line Cinema owned the rights to Marvel’s vampire characters. Blade was (and still is) one heck of a movie, and its franchise could’ve been much stronger had the alternate ending been utilized.

In this version, a distant figure is seen on the rooftop, wearing a coat and cloth over his face. David S. Goyer confirmed in the DVD commentary that it was Morbius.

When Blade director, Stephen Norrington, left the franchise, a different direction was taken - without Morbius.

Fans will finally get to see Morbius in a live-action movie, as he’s set to be portrayed by Jared Leto. (Let’s hope that Leto doesn’t send crucifixes or vials of blood to his castmates this time.)

Saved: Sylvester Stallone Not Being Superman

Look, don’t get us wrong here: Sylvester Stallone is an icon and we love him as much as the next person. As Superman, though? Nah, who are we fooling here?

Donner revealed to The Hollywood Reporter the events that almost resulted in Stallone’s casting as the Man of Steel.

“The Salkinds wanted a name. I met with Sylvester Stallone because of them. I tried to be nice and say, ‘This is wrong.’ I liked Stallone; he turned out to be a nice guy. He wanted to do it. I remember meeting him in his manager’s office and I was as cordial as I could be. He was a big star and I’m some punk kid,” he said.

Hurt: Suicide Squad’s Final Cut

After the Batman v Superman backlash, Warner Bros. panicked. Suicide Squad was a few months from release and the execs were worried it would be as dark and grim as the previous movie. As such, reshoots were ordered and the trailer editors were responsible for the final cut.

David Ayer has diplomatically stood by the film’s final cut, but it’s evident that it’s a tale of two movies. Even Leto confirmed that there was a lot more Joker material shot than what made it into the theatrical version.

Not many people, including those involved with the movie, are proud of the effort, as there’s a lingering feeling of what could’ve been.

Unfortunately, studio interference won the day here.

Saved: Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Ending

Guardians of the Galaxy delivered few emotional moments, preferring to focus more on the fun and lightheartedness of its characters. The dance-off finale severed as a reminder of how it took nothing seriously.

The ending, though, was set to be a lot more emotional and a bit of a bummer.

“[Peter’s grandfather] has this photograph of Meredith and Peter as a little boy and he looks up at the stars and we go up to the stars and it was really sweet. It means that he must have seen Quill getting abducted at the end of that day and is still waiting for him to return but it was freaking sad so we took it out,” James Gunn told reporters at the Blu-ray launch.

Hurt: The Absence Of Superman’s Black Suit

After all of the teases and hype about seeing Superman’s black suit in Justice League, we got nothing.

Fine, we received a deleted scene on the Blu-ray release that showed the costume in the background, but of all that build-up left us disappointed.

Cinematographer Fabian Wagner revealed to CinemaBlend that he shot the scene involving the suit.

“Yeah, you know actually, to be totally honest I just can’t remember if we were shooting it as a test or if we were actually shooting it as a full scene with the suit. I definitely shot it, but I just can’t remember if it was more of a test or a full scene. But definitely seeing the black costume was great,” he said.

Saved: Ant-Man Joining Team Cap

The appearance of Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War wasn’t always a sure thing. In fact, the original plan was for Tony Stark to recruit Scott Lang for his team.

“[Tony] actually went to San Francisco [where Lang was],” co-screenwriter Christopher Markus told ComicBook.com. “It would not have been as cool.”

Later, Kevin Feige approached Markus and his writing partner, Stephen McFeely, and told them they had to change something. He reportedly made Spidey’s “thwip” sound and everyone in the room lost their minds over the exciting news.

Truth be told, if Lang had joined Iron Man’s team in Captain America: Civil War, we wouldn’t have received the story we did for Ant-Man and the Wasp.

Hurt: Maya Hansen Not Being The Main Villain

According to Rebecca Hall, who portrayed Maya Hansen in Iron Man 3, her role was meant to be bigger. In fact, she was meant to be the main villain.

The movie’s director, Shane Black, confirmed that it was true and would’ve happened if it hadn’t been for Marvel’s meddling.

“There was an early draft of Iron Man 3 where we had an inkling of a problem. Which is that we had a female character who was the villain in the draft. We had finished the script and we were given a no-holds-barred memo saying that cannot stand and we’ve changed our minds because, after consulting, we’ve decided that toys won’t sell as well if it’s a female,” Black told Uproxx.

Saved: Mark Ruffalo’s Casting As The Hulk

Before The Avengers, no one envied Marvel’s predicament. Two actors had portrayed the Hulk in two movies, which weren’t received as positively as they could’ve been.

Edward Norton was praised for his performance in The Incredible Hulk, though, and seemed a shoe-in to continue as Bruce Banner in The Avengers.

Norton didn’t make many friends on The Incredible Hulk’s set, however, as he took over and tried to mold the movie into what he wanted.

So, when the negotiations for The Avengers came up, he played hardball and Marvel didn’t flinch.

Mark Ruffalo was cast as the big green and we haven’t looked back ever since. In fact, can you imagine anyone else as the Hulk now?

Hurt: Wolverine’s Classic Costume Being Cut

We get it. Wolverine’s classic costume might look great in the comic books and animated series, but there’s no guarantee it’ll translate well on the big screen. Director James Mangold had the chance to delight every fan, though, with the appearance of the classic costume in The Wolverine.

The original scene would’ve seen Logan open up a case and see the legendary costume inside. The scene has since made its way online, but it was cut from the theatrical version of the film.

Chances are if the costume had appeared, The Wolverine would’ve been more fondly remembered today. Instead everyone just talks about the follow-up, Logan, and forgot what this movie was about in the first place.

Saved: Tobey Maguire Returning For Spider-Man 2

After the success of Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire wanted a more lucrative contract to continue playing the Wall-Crawler on the big screen.

He kept dancing around the notion of getting back into the Spidey suit and claimed that he’d hurt his back in a previous movie so he couldn’t do the stunts required.

Sam Raimi, Laura Ziskin, and Avi Arad knew something was up, so they called his bluff. They met up with Jake Gyllenhaal and offered him the big gig in Spider-Man 2.

When Maguire found out about it, he came running back and apologized, availing himself for the part.

The studio took him back and he delivered one of the best Spider-Man performances of all time.

Hurt: Joss Whedon’s Justice League Reshoots

Justice League is arguably one of the most controversial movies of all time. After Zack Snyder left the film due to a personal tragedy, Joss Whedon took over to finish the project.

The reality is that he didn’t just finish it - he practically overhauled it.

With mere months until the movie’s release, it was a rush job of epic proportions – and it showed in the final product, too. From the tacky graphics, recycled jokes, and the shoddy CGI removal of Henry Cavill’s mustache, Justice League didn’t look like a $300 million movie.

While Warner Bros. initially viewed Whedon as the savior of the movie, the fans and critics didn’t think so. The calls for the Snyder cut have only grown louder since.

Saved: Removal Of Sabretooth From Logan

When Logan was announced as the final outing of Jackman as Wolverine, many fans called for Liev Schreiber to return as Sabretooth as well.

Schreiber revealed that it almost happened, but he had scheduling conflicts.

Jackman explained to Collider how Sabretooth would’ve figured in the movie.

“There was a story point where they go to Vegas – you know how they go to the Oklahoma casino? They go there and at this point, Sabretooth is running like a major casino and really, really wealthy, and really kind of runs a town, and sort of respectable in a way but is still himself,” he said.

The truth is that the movie was always about Logan, and it was better off because of it. A Sabretooth cameo might’ve only been fan service.

Hurt: Changing Whiplash’s Ending

Mickey Rourke is no fan of Iron Man 2. He claims that his role was cut from what it initially was and turned into a mockery in the editing room.

He might have a point if you consider the alternate endings for the character, which featured him attacking Pepper Potts at the Stark Expo, only to be finished off by War Machine.

Not only would this ending have had higher stakes for Stark, but it also would’ve assisted in creating more heat for Whiplash and more praise for War Machine’s involvement in the franchise as a whole.

At the end of the day, it’s probably fair to say that Whiplash could’ve been treated better here.

Saved: Cutting Mary Jane From The Amazing Spider-Man 2

You have to feel for Marc Webb. After his success on The Amazing Spider-Man, you’d think that Sony would’ve allowed him to build the Spiderverse at a steady pace.

It didn’t happen, though, as Webb was forced to cram in as many characters as possible in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

In fact, Mary Jane Watson, as portrayed by Shailene Woodley, was even filmed, too.

Fortunately, her scenes were cut. Otherwise, we could’ve seen Peter Parker picking up his heart a little too fast here.

The loss of Gwen Stacy was arguably one thing that this movie did incredibly well. It was important to show that Peter was affected by it and that it would take time for him to move on with his life.

Which other last-minute changes do you think hurt or saved superhero movies? Let us know in the comments!