While the Marvel Cinematic Universe has so far done an incredible job of adapting Marvel characters onto the big screen, it is still far from a comprehensive representation of the wider Marvel Universe of the comics. To date, the movies of the MCU have introduced many powerful and interesting heroes into the franchise, establishing not just an ever-shifting core of Avengers but also numerous other figures that flesh out the ranks of its heroes. However, just because a hero has been established as existing within the MCU, it doesn’t mean that they’ve been given the opportunity to star in their own big-budget Marvel movie.
There are actually many great Marvel heroes that, somehow, still haven’t starred in their own movies. Some have been given opportunities to appear within the MCU, while others have been notably absent from its projects to date. Each of these underrated Marvel heroes deserves a solo movie, as their respective stories and characterization are easily compelling enough to warrant a big-budget movie adaptation.
While Hawkeye has undoubtedly had a chance to shine in the MCU, one thing the franchise hasn’t given him is a solo movie. He was introduced via a cameo in 2011’s Thor, played a supporting role as one of the MCU’s original Avengers in The Avengers, and was featured in several other Avengers movies before appearing in the solo Disney+ show Hawkeye. While the show bore his name, it shared its focus between the aging Clint Barton and his young protege, Kate Bishop. It leaned slightly more heavily toward telling Bishop’s story than Barton’s, and that just highlights the fact that Hawkeye needs his own movie.
Considering he’s been a major MCU character since its earliest days, and that he’s one of the franchise’s few surviving founding Avengers, it seems strange that he’s never headed up his own movie. A big blockbuster following Clint’s work with SHIELD or him battling against a Marvel villain solo seems more than overdue. However, with his MCU story seemingly winding down, it’s possible we might never see Jeremy Renner lead a solo movie as Hawkeye, no matter how much the character deserves it.
When it comes to criminally underrated Marvel characters, we need look no further than Squirrel Girl for a classic example of a hero that deserves a solo movie. With her quirky power set and deceptively high power level, Squirrel Girl is precisely the sort of hero that younger Marvel fans can get behind, and her stories serve as a great entry point for fans seeking to get to grips with the lighter side of the Marvel Universe. She might be a relatively new hero in comparison to some of Marvel’s other big names, but she certainly deserves a solo movie.
Squirrel Girl would likely work best as a big-budget animated release in the style of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. A colorful, action-packed spectacle that doesn’t necessarily have to tie into the wider MCU would be perfect, and it would let Squirrel Girl shine in a way that would undoubtedly draw a considerable audience. She might not be the most popular Marvel character, but it’s hard to deny that her squirrel-related powers would be amazing to see on the big screen.
The Silver Surfer is another character to have been briefly featured in the MCU, but not in a particularly noteworthy way. Serving as a supporting character in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, a female version of the Silver Surfer was introduced as the herald of Galactus, later turning on her master and stranding them both on the far side of the universe. However, upon the Silver Surfer’s return to the MCU, the character deserves a solo movie.
Of course, the MCU has several options on how to handle this, but that only makes the promise of a Silver Surfer solo movie all the more obvious. Whether it reuses the Shalla-Bal iteration or introduces the more comic-accurate Norrin Radd version, the cosmic adventures of the Silver Surfer could make for an exceptional movie. Looking back, it’s hard to see exactly why the character has never had a solo movie, but hopefully that’s something the MCU will fix at some point soon.
Attempts to make a Nova movie have repeatedly run into problems, leaving fans of the character unsure if they’ll ever see the hero on the big screen. While the MCU has teased Nova’s existence and projects focused on the hero have been announced, they have yet to come to fruition. Originally planned as a TV show, the MCU’s Nova has now been reworked into a movie, though updates on the project have been few and far between.
As an Avenger still not in the MCU, it’s clear that Nova deserves to be a part of the franchise. Nova is one of Marvel’s most powerful cosmic heroes, and stories featuring the character fit the many superhero tropes that have become standard for the genre. When you take all that under consideration, it seems absolutely baffling that a Nova movie has never hit the big screen, though hopefully the MCU is well on its way toward righting that wrong.
Gambit made a brief appearance in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, where he was played by Taylor Kitsch, but subsequent attempts to give the character a solo movie repeatedly stalled in the years that followed. Eventually, that movie evolved into a Channing Tatum star vehicle, but it languished in development hell for years before it was ultimately scrapped. Channing Tatum has since played Gambit in Deadpool & Wolverine, where his short appearance stole the show, and is now set to reprise his role in Avengers: Doomsday.
Gambit’s canceled Marvel movie was the closest we have so far come to seeing him shine alone on the big screen. While Deadpool & Wolverine‘s Gambit scenes were great, they were nothing close to the solo story he deserves, and it’s unclear whether we’ll ever actually see it happen. Considering Gambit is predominantly a member of the X-Men, it’s far more likely we’ll continue to see him as part of a larger ensemble, but his charisma and the visual potential of his powers mean that we will continue to hope for a solo movie somewhere down the track.
