12 Iconic Supervillains Who Were Cut At The Last Minute From Superhero Movies

When the Avengers assembled for the first time on the big screen, they squared off against Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) half-brother, the trickster god Loki (Tom Hiddleston). It was a showdown harkening back to the very first comics appearance of the team, where Loki also served as the main antagonist. Initially, though, writer-director Joss Whedon had some concerns about Loki serving as the film's sole main baddie. Speaking to Thrillist in 2018, Whedon said he worried that having all these heroes square off against just one villain would prove underwhelming. "I ... worried that one British character actor was not enough to take on Earth's mightiest heroes, and that we'd feel like we were rooting for the overdog," Whedon said.

This is where Ezekiel Stane came into the picture, with Whedon writing a draft of "The Avengers" with Ezekiel functioning as an equally intimidating villain next to Loki. Though not a well-known villain on par with the Green Goblin or Doctor Doom, Ezekiel Stane would've connected to the very first Marvel Cinematic Universe adversary, since he is the son of "Iron Man" villain Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges). However, this way of connecting to an earlier Marvel outing was eventually eschewed as "The Avengers" moved further into production. In the end, Loki was all the villainy this team needed anyway to produce a great summer blockbuster.