Since kicking things off with Iron Man in 2008, Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been nothing if not consistent. However, Phase 4 has been wildly inconsistent, and 2022 was an undeniably rocky year for this franchise.
Werewolf by Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special were hard to find fault with, but the films and TV shows we got throughout the year were more hit-and-miss than what we've grown used to over the past 15 years. Now, its time to look back at the biggest, hardest-to-forgive blunders made by Marvel Studios in 2022!
These epic fails range from the misuse of characters to subplots and creative decisions we're still struggling to wrap our heads around. We're not on the attack here either; we're just calling out some rare MCU missteps.
To check out our ranking, you simply need to tap on the NEXT button below.
7. Thor: Love And Thunder Ditches Eitri And The Grandmaster
In an interview released prior to Thor: Love and Thunder's arrival in theaters, Christian Bale shared his disappointment that at least a couple of his biggest Gorr the God Butcher scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. He'd add that those were with Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster and Peter Dinklage's Eitri.
However, not only were those scenes gone from the poorly received movie, but everything they shot was M.I.A.! Director Taika Waititi later dismissed their respective roles as not being good enough for a blockbuster that, you'll recall, was less than 2 hours and stunk the joint out!
This is a creative decision we don't understand at all, and the fact they weren't even included on the Blu-ray is another major fail on Marvel Studios' part.
6. Val And Everett Ross Were...Married?!
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever took us on an emotional rollercoaster and did a great job of laying the groundwork for future stories. Shuri is now Black Panther, M'Baku is King of Wakanda, and Namor is an ever-present threat to the surface world.
Oh, and Everett Ross used to be married to Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Wait, what?! In the sequel's most tiresome subplot, we learned that these two used to be an item, though their scenes lacked any real chemistry. By the time all was said and done, all we'd learned was that she was now C.I.A. Director and Ross is a fugitive heading into Secret Invasion.
This felt shoehorned into the film, but director Ryan Coogler has since denied that was the case. It still didn't work, though!
5. No Rama-Tut In Moon Knight
Moon Knight was far from perfect, with a lack of costume action and a messy final couple of episodes stopping the Disney+ series from going down as an instant classic.
Saving Jake Lockley for a post-credits scene without season 2 being confirmed was a bold move, but it's what we didn't see that really irritated us in 2022. With the show, Marvel Studios had the perfect opportunity to include Kang the Conqueror Variant Rama-Tut, whether it be with another Jonathan Majors cameo or even a simple mention.
Instead, there was nothing, and this really drives home the frustrating lack of connectivity in Phase 4. Like, you couldn't have thrown in so much as a single Easter Egg?
4. Ms. Marvel's Green Lantern-Style Powers
Prior to our first look at Ms. Marvel, promo art suggested Kamala Khan's powers in the MCU would differ greatly from her comic book counterpart. While the series was entertaining and memorable, we were never able to get used to her Green Lantern-style abilities.
Lacking the imagination of what the hero can do on the page, this felt like a cop-out and quite possibly little more than a way of saving money on VFX. The "Embiggen" moment was cool, but c'mon, it would be a lie to say that these magic light powers were anything more than a disappointment.
With Kamala Khan a confirmed mutant, we can only hope her true powers make themselves known in a future story.
3. K.E.V.I.N.
We're not going to hate on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law for the same, quite frankly, disturbing reasons as some "fans," but we need to take a closer look at the finale and K.E.V.I.N.'s introduction.
Similar to her comic book counterpart, Jennifer Walters broke the fourth wall and made her way to Marvel headquarters. From there, she rewrote the last episode after interacting with a robot called K.E.V.I.N. that's supposedly responsible for the MCU. It was self-indulgent, not overly funny, and a surefire way to make the finale near-meaningless.
Todd, The Hulk, and Abomination's respective roles in the series became pretty much pointless, and the stakes vanished. It was fun in some ways, but not as clever as Marvel Studios thought and a poor way to wrap this story up.
2. Russell Crowe's Comedic Take On Zeus
This entire feature could be devoted to Thor: Love and Thunder, but it's Russell Crowe's Zeus that stands tall as one of Marvel Studios and Taika Waititi's biggest 2022 fails.
Rather than establish the antagonist as a credible threat, he was little more than a bad comedy character. Between the silly accent and him prancing around while bickering with the God of Thunder, Zeus wasn't redeemed until a post-credits scene that featured the introduction of his son, Hercules.
Crowe reportedly shot all his scenes twice, also using an English accent. We don't think that would have helped, unfortunately, and we no longer want to see Zeus on screen if this is what we can expect from Crowe.
1. What A Waste Of John Krasinski
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness didn't quite manage to live up to expectations, but we don't blame Marvel Studios for that. Instead, we went in with unrealistically high hopes, and when you put those to one side, how can you really complain about the cameos we did get?
A comic-accurate Black Bolt and John Krasinski as Mister Fantastic were pretty epic additions to this sequel, but the latter was sorely wasted. It sounds like this was a one-and-done role for the actor, and to not even give this Reed Variant a proper action scene before he came spaghetti...we're struggling to see what the point was of even enlisting him for the movie.
The only way Marvel Studios can make up for its biggest mistake in 2022 is by casting the actor in 2025's Fantastic Four reboot.