Unexpected Twists That Could Leave Marvel Fans Speechless

While they're a lot of fun, the Marvel movies aren't really all that shocking. The good guys win, nobody important dies, and everything returns mostly to normal. They'll eventually have to shake things up to keep the audiences interested. Luckily, there's plenty of opportunity to do just that! Based on either possible clues from the movies, or stories from the comics, here are a couple of twists that could happen that no one would see coming, leaving fans completely speechless...

Despite never being the star of any particular movie, Nick Fury is still one of Marvel Studios' most popular characters. He's a cool super spy who's played by Samuel L. Jackson, so there's a lot to love about him. Unfortunately, he's also super mysterious and a bit of a liar. When it comes down to it, we don't really know that much about Nick Fury at all. Well, what if he isn't even a real person? He could just be an elaborate life model decoy (a human-looking robot). It's been done a bunch of times in the comics. That would explain how he was able to fake his death so easily, and also survive getting shot by Hawkeye, a master assassin who never misses. Maybe there was a real Nick Fury at one point, and he was so good at his job that SHIELD built a bunch of robots of him to keep around. Then they gave them all eyepatches, just so no one would suspect the truth.

It's never actually been explained how Steve Rogers survived being frozen in ice for over half a century. Everyone just assumes that it has something to do with the super soldier serum in his blood, but there could be a darker, more horrific possibility. Perhaps Captain Rogers actually did die in the ice, and the serum just kept him preserved. When he was thawed, his body woke up...as a walking corpse! Marvel has a popular line of comics called Marvel Zombies, which features a world where all of their heroes have been turned into, well, zombies. Maybe they've secretly been planning on bringing this popular series to the big screen this whole time. Of course, Chris Evans' Cap doesn't seem much like a zombie. Maybe he just doesn't know that he's a member of the walking dead. Just because we've never seen him eat people doesn't mean that he wouldn't want to if given the chance...

When Marvel announced the cast of The Avengers, fans were shocked to find out that Edward Norton, star of 2008's The Incredible Hulk, wasn't returning as Bruce Banner. Instead, he had been replaced by Mark Ruffalo. Since then, Norton's Hulk flick has been the odd duck in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Robert Downey Jr's cameo at the end makes it a part of the official continuity though. Maybe Bruce Banner looks different between Incredible Hulk and The Avengers because...there's two Bruce Banners! Knowing that he was being tracked, the real Bruce Banner could have duplicated the gamma experiment on someone who had better control over their emotions. That person pretended to be Bruce Banner while the real one avoided SHIELD's monitoring. That's why Ruffalo's Banner seems to be in better control of his Hulk transformations. Norton's Banner had to constantly focus on his breathing, while Ruffalo just shrugs and turns into the Hulk when needed. Perhaps the real Bruce Banner is still out there, perfecting his Yoga techniques.

Out of all of Marvel's upcoming movies, the most hype seems to be centered around Captain Marvel. She's a popular character in the comics, and almost nothing has been revealed about the upcoming cinematic version. Dr. Strange and Black Panther have both been cast, and setting up The Inhumans has been the focus of Agents of SHIELD. Meanwhile, there are several different versions of Captain Marvel to choose from, but it's possible that the movies are going to create a brand new one. That brings us to Darcy Lewis, a recurring character in the Thor movies who's a college student, and who's been present for several superhuman events. She's played by Kat Dennings, who stars in the successful TV show 2 Broke Girls. Marvel might decide to take advantage of her rising fame and decide that Darcy's continued exposure to extraterrestrial phenomenon could grant her super powers. Sure, Darcy's a comic relief character, but no one ever said Captain Marvel couldn't be an Ant-Man-like comedy...

Just think about this one: we've never seen Thanos do anything evil himself. People who work for him do awful things, but they they also usually end up betraying Thanos. All we know about the mad titan is that he's after the Infinity Stones. Sure, he sent an army to collect the Tesseract on Earth, but it's a powerful weapon! Humans had utilized its energies for warfare, so maybe Thanos was just being careful. Remember, Iron Man starts shooting at the Chitauri before they shoot at him in The Avengers. Loki makes it seem like they were going to invade Earth, but he's also the god of tricks. Even in Guardians of the Galaxy, Ronan the Accuser is the one who wants to use the Infinity Stone to wipe out an entire planet. As it turns out, Thanos could really be a good guy. Perhaps he's just trying to collect the universe's most powerful weapons so he can keep them safe. That would explain the ending from Age of Ultron. After seeing how close the Earth came to being wiped out by one of the stones, Thanos decides he'd go collect it himself. Maybe he's just a misunderstood guy who keeps accidentally allying himself with mass murderers. It's...possible.

Towards the end of Guardians of the Galaxy, several hints are dropped about Star Lord's dad. We know that he hired a band of space pirates to kidnap his son from Earth, and that he's something ancient. He's obviously visited Earth at least once when he conceived with Peter's mom. Why didn't he just pick Quill up himself? Probably because he couldn't travel there without being caught by Heimdall. Thor fits the description of Quill's father perfectly. Asgardians are ancient, alien, and Thor has shown a taste for human women. It's believable that he could have visited the planet at one point and hooked up with mama Quill. In The Dark World's end credit scene, the Collector treats meeting Asgardians as a rare event. That implies that most of the universe isn't in regular contact with the ancient race, which could explain why the Nova Corps doesn't recognize their DNA in Star Lord. Marvel has stated that Quill's father's identity won't be the same as it is in the comics. And that's because Thor could be Quill's dad, and he's got a baby Star Lord to take care of. And then there's that nickname: Star Lord seems like a fitting label for the son of a Thunder God.

Robert Downey Jr won't be able to play Iron Man forever. At some point, he'll have to step down and the role will either be dropped from the stories or recast. Downey Jr is so perfect as Iron Man that recasting seems crazy, but Marvel could take a cue from the comics. During the late 1990s, Marvel revealed that Tony Stark had been brainwashed by the villain Kang, and Iron Man subsequently turns evil. Unable to defeat him, the Avengers travel back in time and bring a teenaged Tony Stark back to the present day. Teen Tony defeats Evil Tony, and then takes his place in the modern world. Marvel could use this trick in the movies to keep the Stark character around after RDJ leaves. That way, the character gets to stick around and Marvel gets to make him hip and cool again! They could get one of the kids from One Direction to take the role!