13 comic book movie and TV show characters with wasted potential

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine

Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is probably the Crown Jewel of the 20th Century Fox’s Marvel run. He was in nine of their movies and starred in seven. All of the projects he starred in performed well – even if some of them weren’t all that well-received. The funny thing is Hugh Jackman was never the problem. He was consistently good throughout the run. The issue was 20th Century Fox not pulling the trigger on an R-rated movie.

One of the reasons that the X-Men movies did so well was because anyone could see them. But when Deadpool came out, it changed the game. It proved that R-rated comic book movies could be profitable. It didn’t seem possible at first, but it worked. Then, Logan came out and showed yet again that the formula worked. It’s sad that it took 20th Century Fox 17 years to give fans the solo R-rated Wolverine we’ve wanted since X-Men Origins: Wolverine debuted in 2009.

Could you imagine if we had gotten two more R-rated Wolverine movies? Maybe Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds would have actually done a movie together – after all, everyone wanted a Wolverine and Deadpool project. The Wolverine might not have been subpar if it had been given the rating that it needed.

So many things could have been different. We’ll just have to hope that the same mistake isn’t made with Marvel Studios.

What do you think? What are some other missed opportunities with comic book movies? Which comic book characters could have done so much more on film or TV? Let us know in the comments below.