A deleted scene from the first Iron Man movie proves Marvel always had big plans for the X-Men and Spider-Man long before their partnership with Sony and Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox.
While being presented with the first-ever Stan Lee World Builder Award at the 45th Annual Saturn Awards, Kevin Feige revealed a deleted post-credits scene from Iron Man showing Nick Fury referencing both Spider-Man and the X-Men without actually naming them – as they weren’t Marvel properties at the time.
Feige told the audience, “We pulled some things out of that vault that we said, ‘We’ll never show this to anybody, put it away.'”
“We’re bringing them out, we’re putting them on this disc, and I’m about to show you a deleted scene that has never been seen by anyone before right now.”
The clip shows Fury approaching Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) at the end of Iron Man, about the Avenger Initiative – similar to the actual post-credit scene that ended up in the film.
But in this version, Fury talks about “gamma accidents, radioactive bug bits and assorted mutants” and complains about how he has to “deal with a spoiled brat who doesn’t play well with others and wants to keep all his toys to himself”, referencing Tony.
Watch the scene here:
It’s a short scene, but it’s pretty clear from that one line that Marvel had big plans for those characters to exist in the MCU.
It’s been more than a decade since the first Iron Man movie was released and Marvel has yet to include the X-Men, while Spider-Man appeared in five movies during the Sony/Marvel partnership, only for the agreement to breakdown following the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home.
We still have no word on exactly when the X-Men will appear in the MCU, but rumour has it Marvel will wait until Phase 6 before including them. And given how poorly Dark Phoenix was received by fans, it’s probably a good thing we’ll have to wait a while for the reboot.
Feige revealed that the Iron Man scene will be released in the upcoming Infinity Saga box set. No doubt there’ll be plenty more secret deleted scenes to come!