Marvel’s ambitious movie plans in the early 2000s still haven’t fully come to fruition two decades after they were initially announced.

Marvel’s movie offerings stretch much further than the MCU alone and have been just as ambitious since 2004 with multiple plans that are still yet to come to fruition. Marvel has come a long way since selling off movie rights to studios in the 80s and 90s, with the MCU becoming the most successful cinematic franchise in history by a vast margin, nearly tripling the worldwide box office of Star Wars to date. In 2004, Iron Man was one of several projects that would eventually make it past the cutting room floor before it launched the MCU timeline in 2008.

A recently unearthed image of an event (via @AjepArts) that depicted Marvel’s projected slate of cinematic releases (similar to the MCU’s current tactics for announcing phases) showed that, in 2004, Marvel was gearing up for a hectic decade. The image shows many titles that would go on to be released through various studios that owned the respective movie rights before Marvel began reacquiring them. The image also shows, however, that many slated projects have yet to come to fruition – even this far into the MCU.

Man-Thing was intended as a cinematic release in 2004, but ended up premiering on the Sci-Fi Channel in 2005 because it was of such poor quality that it caused test audiences to walk out.

Marvel’s 2004 Movie Plans Included Several Projects That Still Haven’t Been Done

It is safe to say that the pre-MCU era of Marvel movies was a mixed bag, with several Fox and Sony-led projects falling flat upon their release. This ultimately led to the cancelation of the Silver Surfer solo movie, as Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was a critical and commercial failure. Daredevil 2 met a similar fate after Daredevil and the spin-off movie Elektra turned audiences – and main star Ben Affleck – away from the franchise. Fury, meanwhile, was set aside in favor of incorporating the character into the MCU as a supporting character.

The circumstances surrounding the other unreleased Marvel movies are less clear, with Deathlok being put on hiatus by Marvel Studios, and Namor languishing in development hell over several decades. Namor came the closest to release, with Chris Columbus being brought on to direct at one point, but in the end, the solo movie was scrapped in favor of having the Sub-Mariner join the MCU as a supporting character. Kevin Feige has repeatedly stated that the rights to Namor are “complicated,” with the scenario seemingly having parallels to Hulk’s movie rights.

In the early development stages of Deathlok , Robert Downey Jr. was intended to join the cast as a ” weird professor ” character (via Gizmodo ) before he would eventually be cast in his iconic MCU role.

How Marvel’s Unmade Movies Have Lived On In Other Projects

Despite missing out on solo movies, each one of the characters that were intended to star in unreleased Marvel movies still had some time in the spotlight. Nick Fury is the most prolific of these characters in the MCU, whose journey was punctuated by Secret Invasion, a series that unfortunately did not do his legacy justice. Namor, meanwhile, is extremely likely to return as an important part of future MCU installments, even if his solo movie is far less likely now than it was in 2004.

Daredevil was redeemed by Charlie Cox’s stint as the character, who has now begun making a big impression on the MCU before embarking on an MCU-specific solo series in Daredevil: Born Again. A version of Deathlok appeared with many other more obscure Marvel characters as part of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series, though his appearance as Mike Peterson was a stark departure from the script that was originally planned for the character.

Will Marvel’s Canceled Movies Ever Be Made?

It is highly unlikely that Marvel Studios intends to revive any canceled projects as they were originally envisaged, as the studio’s plans have changed inexorably since 2004. Out of them all, Daredevil 2 is the least likely to happen, with the likelihood of a rebooted Daredevil movie curtailed by the fact he is appearing in a solo series. The same can be said for Fury, whose suboptimal appearance in Secret Invasion appears to have dampened enthusiasm for a solo movie. With Universal reportedly still in possession of the distribution rights for Namor, meanwhile, his solo movie is as likely as Hulk’s.

With Marvel’s Fantastic Four on the horizon and sparking excitement, there is slightly more hope for a Silver Surfer solo movie, depending on whether the character is involved and if they strike a chord with fans. Deathlok is also still possible given the series in which he first appeared, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., is not part of the official MCU timeline, which offers a blank slate for the character. Either way, it is unlikely that either will receive a solo movie before the MCU‘s Multiverse Saga has come to an end.