For the past 14 years, the Marvel film brand has been known for its interconnectivity, character crossovers, and sweeping multi-film story arcs. After the introduction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which proved to be a game-changer in many ways, it has become commonplace for viewers to expect the occasional cameo or two in whatever Marvel film or show they watch. In fact, some major MCU films are even reliant on the idea that every piece of Marvel media is connected in some way. Of course, this hasn’t always been the case.
Before 2008, a crossover of any kind seemed little more than a pipe dream. This was, in large part, because the film rights to Marvel’s cast of characters were licensed out to different movie studios, a decision made in the ’90s as a means of keeping the Marvel company afloat. As a result, many of Marvel’s biggest names, like Spider-Man and the X-Men, were developed as self-contained franchises. Such a practice had been the norm for several years, but this didn’t mean there weren’t earlier hints of some type of shared universe. In fact, a beloved X-Men character nearly appeared in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man.
Marvel’s pre-MCU films were full of references and nods to other Marvel characters. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, for example, hinted at characters like Doctor Strange existing in Spider-Man’s universe, even if the viewer didn’t see them. Such Easter eggs generally didn’t go beyond a nod or reference, though, and didn’t officially confirm the presence of a cinematic universe. However, according to one noteworthy X-Men actor, his scrapped cameo in the first Spider-Man film could have had the possibility of doing just that.
As revealed by Hugh Jackman in a 2013 interview with the HuffPost, Kevin Feige, the now-president of Marvel Studios, had attempted to get the actor to appear as Wolverine in the 2002 film. According to Jackman, the cameo would have involved either “a gag” or a simple walkthrough shot. This intended cameo, however, never came to fruition for a rather unusual reason. “The problem was, we couldn’t find the suit,” Jackman had stated. “The suit was stuck in some thing. And so when they were in New York when I was there, we couldn’t get it together.” Jackman also cited that, in addition to this, money could have been another obstacle to the scene not moving forward, as he goes on to point out that “the amount of money Fox paid compared to the amount of money Disney paid is very different. So how you split that pie up? God knows.”
Whatever the reason behind the scene’s ultimate removal, the knowledge that a crossover between Spider-Man and X-Men almost happened 20 years ago goes to show just how different Marvel’s trajectory could have been. While one can never truly know exactly how such a cameo would have panned out, the idea that it could have happened in any capacity years before the MCU makes it a fascinating thing to think about.
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