Prior to WandaVision's release on Disney+, demand for Mephisto to make his presence felt in the MCU was relatively muted. The character has a lot of potential, yes, but it wasn't until all those devilish teases courtesy of Agatha Harkness in Westview that fans really started getting excited over the prospect of the villain showing up.
It never happened, of course, and it doesn't sound like there were ever any real plans for the MCU's devil in the first of Marvel Studios' Disney+ TV shows.
Russell Crowe plays Zeus in Thor: Love and Thunder, but we recently learned that one early idea called for him to play Satan. We don't know why that changed, though many believe it could be because Kevin Feige and company now have slightly more serious plans for Mephisto given how vocal fans have been about wanting to see the powerful ruler of the MCU's Hell in action.
Of course, with this blockbuster being produced by Disney, we also can't discount the possibilty that introducing a comedic take on the Biblical Satan (as it doesn't appear Crowe was going to play Mephisto) would not have gone down well in America.
Regardless, concept artist Ken Barthelmey has now shared his awesome take on this scrapped character. "The task was to design a Satan close to Tim Curry's Devil from ''Legend,'" he explains. "Big horns, sleazy and evil. Because it was going to be a prosthetic make-up, I was asked to give him hairy human legs and feet. This is what I came up with."
Valhalla is mentioned a lot in Thor: Love and Thunder, so exploring the MCU's version of Hell/Hel could have played nicely into that idea. Plus, we can't help but think Crowe would have had a lot of fun with this role.
We'd have also loved to see this happen because Zeus, well, he was a little too ridiculous. Hopefully, there are serious plans being cooked up for Mephisto, but only time will tell on that front.
Thor: Love and Thunder is now playing in theaters.