The Marvel cinematic universe has been providing many of us with an unbridled joy for the last 11 years. With the recent release of Avengers: Infinity War, now is the perfect time to look back at what makes the MCU so special.

The California Double

Like great many TV shows and movies over the years, Marvel has made extensive use of California’s vast and varied landscapes. The Agent Carter TV series used backdrops in California to serve as stand-ins for New York. After season two, when the location shifted to Los Angeles, much more of the series was filmed on location.

Similarly, Cleveland, Ohio has served as a double for New York City in the first Avengers film, and Washington D.C in the second Captain America film, The Winter Soldier.

The MCU is a Goldmine

Four of the films in the MCU have grossed over a billion dollars in ticket sales alone. Usually, if a franchise can produce one film that generates a billion, it is considered to be a phenomenal success. To have four films in a single franchise smash through this barrier is definitely a remarkable achievement!

Complete Revival

The success of the Marvel films is in itself something of a surprise. It seems strange to say now, given the overwhelming success of the franchise, but prior to the MCU defying all expectations, Iron Man and Captain America weren’t characters that anyone cared about. In the case of Captain America, his character was regarded as being little more than a relic of World War II propaganda efforts. Similarly, Iron Man was regarded as one of the more obscure Marvel characters until Robert Downey Jr. made the role his own.

Lucky Break

We are lucky to have a Marvel Cinematic Universe at all. That’s because, prior to Marvel getting involved in the production of film adaptations with Iron Man, the only Marvel characters that had been brought to the big screen were Spider-Man and the X-Men. These were by far the most popular Marvel characters at the time, closely followed by Blade, still riding high on the popularity of its own movie franchise.

What makes this all the stranger to look back on is that when the rights to Spider-Man were sold to Sony, they were also offered the rights to all of Marvel’s other characters as well, for a little over double the price they had just paid for the rights to a single character. Sony believed that audiences would only be interested in Spider-Man and the X-Men (which had already been sold to Fox).

Disappearing Characters

There have been a few actors who have turned up in the MCU, only to then vanish again. Notably, Terrence Howard played James Rhodes in the first Iron Man film but was dropped from subsequent films in the series for being too expensive.

Natalie Portman played Thor’s love interest in the first two Thor films. She tried to drop out of the second film, The Dark World, and gave a number of interviews in which she was critical of Marvel. However, she has since expressed an interest in returning.

Enjoy Them Digitally

If you want to enjoy the Marvel films in all their glory, anywhere and anytime, you should consider obtaining 1080p digital copies. These are Blu-ray quality films that you can store on your computer. Check out Hdd Mag to find a hard drive to store these large files on.

The Marvel Universe is full of trivia and Easter eggs for those who want to find them.