16 Characters Who Should Get MCU Prequels

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has already dipped its toes into prequels with
Captain Marvel, Black Widow, and flashback-heavy shows like
Loki and Secret Invasion. But let’s be honest: there is still
a massive backlog of characters who deserve their own MCU prequels.
Between shady spy missions, lost loves, royal betrayals, and cosmic war crimes,
Marvel is sitting on enough origin material to power another Infinity Saga.

Fans, critics, and even some creators have been talking for years about which
heroes and villains deserve deeper backstories or standalone movies and series.
With the MCU heading toward a “soft reset” era and more selective releases, well-chosen
prequels could let Marvel mine the past without breaking the future.

Why MCU Prequels Still Matter

Done right, a prequel doesn’t just answer “how did we get here?” It can:

• Re-contextualize scenes we already love.
• Turn side characters into emotional heavy-hitters.
• Fix earlier missed opportunities or underused villains.
• Explore different genres and tones (spy thriller, heist, war drama, horror).

So let’s pitch some studios-in-our-head and walk through
16 characters who absolutely deserve MCU prequels and what
those stories could look like on screen.

16 MCU Characters Who Deserve Their Own Prequels

1. Nick Fury – The Prequel: “How I Met the Avengers”

Nick Fury has spent years hinting at “the things I’ve seen” and “the wars you
don’t know about.” We’ve gotten glimpses of his younger days in
Captain Marvel and deeper emotional fallout in Secret Invasion, but
there’s still a giant gap between “talented S.H.I.E.L.D. agent with two working eyes”
and “guy who casually summons space gods with a beeper.”

A Fury prequel could be a grounded spy thriller showing:

• His earliest years in S.H.I.E.L.D. and first contact with alien threats.
• The true story behind exactly how he lost his eye (no offense to Goose).
• His moral compromises while building the Avengers Initiative in secret.

Think The Winter Soldier-style paranoia, but centered on the guy pulling
strings from the shadows. It would deepen almost every Phase One movie retroactively.

2. Natasha Romanoff & Clint Barton – “Budapest” at Last

“Just like Budapest all over again” has lived rent-free in fans’ heads since
The Avengers. Black Widow gave us some Red Room history, but the
legendary Budapest mission with Hawkeye is still mostly a punchline and some bullet
holes.

A prequel focusing on Natasha and Clint would:

• Show the exact moment Hawkeye chose to recruit, not kill, Black Widow.
• Explore their deep, messy friendship before the Avengers era.
• Deliver a grounded spy-action movie with almost no capes just snipers,
  safe houses, and emotional trauma.

Plus, the chemistry between these two has always felt like it came with shared history.
A prequel would finally let us live that history instead of just hearing about it.

3. Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier – Decades of Ghost Missions

Bucky’s Winter Soldier brainwashing is one of the darkest threads in the MCU. We’ve seen
fragments of his Hydra past, but he spent decades as a ghost assassin, shaping world
events while barely existing as a person. Fans have long asked for a deeper dive into
those lost years.

A prequel series could show:

• Cold War missions where Bucky eliminates targets no one else could reach.
• Slow, painful glitches in his programming where he almost remembers Steve.
• Hydra’s internal politics around controlling such a powerful asset.

Done right, it would be a tragic character study and a political thriller in one:
Jason Bourne with a vibranium arm and a broken heart.

4. Rocket Raccoon – Life Before the Guardians

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 finally revealed Rocket’s horrifying origin
with the High Evolutionary, but there’s still a huge gap between traumatized test
subject and snarky, hyper-competent mercenary.

A Rocket prequel could focus on:

• His early years surviving alone in the galaxy after escaping the lab.
• The first time he picked up a blaster and realized he was very good with it.
• His messy, hilarious partnership with a younger Groot before they found the team.

Tone-wise, it could swing between heartbreak and dark comedy, exactly like Rocket does.
And if you give audiences another reason to cry over a CGI raccoon, they will show up.

5. Hela – The Forgotten Princess of Asgard

In Thor: Ragnarok, Hela shows up, wrecks Mjölnir, and casually reveals she was
Odin’s original heir and the goddess of death. That’s… a lot of lore to drop in one movie.
A prequel would finally let us see her rise and fall as Odin’s weapon of conquest.

The story could explore:

• Hela leading brutal campaigns across the Nine Realms.
• Her complicated, possibly affectionate relationship with a younger Odin.
• The moment she realized she wanted more than to be her father’s executioner.

Visually, it’d be peak mythic fantasy: giant wolf, undead army, and enough antler-helmet
shots to make cosplayers very, very happy.

6. Odin – The Prequel to the Prequels

On that note: Odin himself deserves a prequel. We’ve met him as the world-weary,
secret-keeping All-Father, but never as the ambitious young warrior who built Asgard’s
empire and made all those questionable choices in the first place.

An Odin-centered prequel could:

• Show his days side-by-side with Hela as conquerors.
• Reveal his first dealings with other cosmic powers like the Celestials or Eternals.
• Set up long-running grudges that echo into the era of Thor and Loki.

You’d basically get a tragic king story: the cost of peace after a lifetime of war.

7. Thanos – The Road to Genocide

Thanos is already one of cinema’s most fully realized villains, but his MCU backstory
still comes mostly in monologues and flashbacks. Fans have speculated for years about
what his rise to power looked like, especially on Titan before its fall.

A Thanos prequel could explore:

• His early days as a “doomsday prophet” no one believed.
• How he built his army and adopted Gamora and Nebula.
• His first encounters with the Infinity Stones and other cosmic factions.

The risk, of course, is over-humanizing him. The trick would be to make the audience
understand his logic without ever forgiving it.

8. Gamora & Nebula – Sisters Under Thanos

We know Thanos pitted Gamora and Nebula against each other, replacing Nebula’s body
parts every time she lost. That’s a horror story wrapped inside a family drama, and it
has only been lightly sketched so far.

A shared prequel could:

• Follow early missions where the two learn to be both rivals and reluctant allies.
• Show how Nebula’s resentment slowly calcified into hatred.
• Highlight moments of real sisterly affection that make their later reconciliation hit harder.

It would be the darkest “sibling road trip movie” Marvel has ever made, but it would
pay off nearly every emotional beat in the Guardians trilogy.

9. Hank Pym & Janet van Dyne – Retro Ant-Man & the Wasp

We’ve seen Hank and Janet in their prime for only a few quick flashbacks. Yet in MCU
lore, they were some of the earliest superheroes on the board, working covert missions
for S.H.I.E.L.D. long before Tony ever built a suit.

A 1970s/1980s-set prequel could be:

• A stylish period spy caper with shrinking tech and Cold War paranoia.
• A look at Janet as the heart of the operation instead of a tragic backstory.
• A chance to explore early Quantum Realm experiments and their consequences.

Think: Mad Men aesthetics, Mission: Impossible stakes, plus tiny people
punching full-size bad guys in the face.

10. Valkyrie – The Fall of the Valkyrior

Valkyrie’s brief flashback in Thor: Ragnarok her squadron of Valkyrior ambushed
by Hela is one of the most haunting sequences in the film. That’s clearly just one tragic
day in a much larger saga.

A Valkyrie prequel could:

• Show her selection and training as a Valkyrie, Asgard’s elite warrior class.
• Explore her deep bond with the fallen comrade we see in the flashback.
• End with the disastrous battle against Hela that breaks her and sends her spiraling to Sakaar.

It’s a war epic and a grief story, and it would make her later role as King of New Asgard
feel even more powerful.

11. Okoye & the Dora Milaje – “Wakanda Before the World Knew”

Okoye has been a fan favorite since Black Panther, and the Dora Milaje are one of the
MCU’s most visually iconic fighting forces. What we haven’t really seen is Wakanda before the
events of T’Challa becoming king, when its isolationist policies were still in full force.

A prequel could explore:

• Okoye’s rise through Dora Milaje ranks.
• Earlier missions to quietly protect Wakanda’s borders.
• Her loyalty being tested by political struggles that predate Killmonger.

The result would be a mix of palace drama, espionage, and intimate character work focused
on one of the MCU’s most disciplined warriors.

12. Wong – Sorcerer Supreme in Training

Somewhere along the line, Wong went from “stern librarian” to “Sorcerer Supreme who also
hangs out at underground fight clubs.” Fans love him, but we still know very little about
his early life and training at Kamar-Taj.

A Wong prequel series could:

• Show him as a young recruit learning magic from the Ancient One.
• Reveal the mission that cemented his sense of duty.
• Explore mystical threats that never made it to the Avengers’ radar.

It would be a great way to expand the magical side of the MCU without always centering
Strange himself.

13. Isaiah Bradley – The First Forgotten Captain America

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier introduced Isaiah Bradley as a secretly imprisoned
super-soldier whose story was buried by the U.S. government. His brief scenes were some of
the show’s most powerful, and fans immediately called for more.

A prequel could:

• Follow Isaiah’s covert missions during the Korean War.
• Confront how he was treated compared with Steve Rogers.
• Build toward the betrayal and imprisonment that shaped his later bitterness.

It would be a superhero story that directly tackles racism, systemic injustice, and the cost
of being erased from history.

14. Namor – The Birth of a King Underwater

In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, we get glimpses of Namor’s childhood, but his long
journey from child-god to ruthless protector of Talokan is still largely a mystery.

A Namor prequel could:

• Explore early Talokan politics and how he earned absolute loyalty.
• Detail his first encounters with the surface world and colonial violence.
• Plant seeds for future conflicts involving mutants and global powers.

With underwater visuals, cultural depth, and a morally complicated lead, it could easily
stand beside Aquaman while feeling completely different in tone and theme.

15. Agatha Harkness – From Salem to Scarlet Witch

WandaVision revealed Agatha as a centuries-old witch with a flair for theatrics and a
very catchy theme song. While her spin-off series digs into her present-day status, a full
prequel set across centuries of witchcraft could show how she survived persecution, magic
politics, and her own ambition.

Story beats could include:

• The Salem witch trials and what actually happened that night with her coven.
• Encounters with other magical factions long before Kamar-Taj existed.
• Her first hints that chaos magic like Wanda’s might someday appear.

A horror-tinged period piece with dark humor would fit her perfectly and expand the mystical
side of the MCU.

16. T’Chaka – The Black Panther Before T’Challa

We’ve mostly seen King T’Chaka as an older ruler and a hologram dad with wisdom (and a few
secrets). But he was once the Black Panther in the field, navigating both global politics
and Wakanda’s isolation. Fans have long speculated about his earlier choices, including
the decision that left N’Jadaka (Killmonger) fatherless in Oakland.

A T’Chaka prequel might:

• Show his early reign and his relationship with the US and UN during the Cold War.
• Explore the first time he questioned Wakanda’s isolationist doctrine.
• End with the tragic mission in Oakland, reframing the entire Black Panther film.

It would deepen the franchise’s central themes: tradition vs. change, secrecy vs. responsibility,
and the legacy passed down to T’Challa, Shuri, and the next generation.

What Makes a Great MCU Prequel Work?

Prequels are tricky. Lean too hard on nostalgia, and they feel unnecessary. Change too much,
and you break continuity. The best MCU prequels would:

• Add emotional weight to scenes we already know, instead of just filling in trivia.
• Stand on their own tonally spy thriller, war drama, horror, fantasy not just “more of the same.”
• Answer one big question about a character’s past that has been hanging over the franchise.
• Respect the timeline while still surprising the audience with new information.

With the MCU entering a new phase of fewer, more focused projects, choosing the right characters
for prequels could restore some of that early “you had to be there” excitement without needing
another multiverse-level crisis every time.

Fan & Viewer Experiences: Why These MCU Prequels Would Hit Hard

Part of the reason the idea of MCU prequels refuses to die on fan forums, Reddit threads, and
TikTok breakdowns is simple: audiences feel like they’ve grown up with these characters.
For over a decade, fans have watched heroes sacrifice themselves, villains get redeemed, and side
characters quietly steal scenes all while sensing there was more story lurking just out of frame.

Take Nick Fury, for example. Many viewers first met him in that iconic post-credits scene in
Iron Man, but only later learned bits of his history through cryptic one-liners and scattered
files on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s servers. When Secret Invasion hinted at “sins from his past” finally
catching up with him, fans immediately started speculating about unseen missions, abandoned allies,
and morally gray decisions he made long before the Avengers were a twinkle in his eyepatch.
A prequel wouldn’t just confirm theories; it would reward years of investment in a character who
has mostly existed on the edges.

The same emotional logic applies to characters like Bucky and Rocket. Viewers already know their
present pain: Bucky’s guilt over his time as the Winter Soldier and Rocket’s grief over the friends
he lost in the High Evolutionary’s lab. When fans imagine prequels for them, they’re not asking for
more suffering just for shock value they’re looking for context. They want to see the small moments
of kindness and resistance that made these characters worth saving in the first place, even when they
were being used as weapons or experiments. Those kinds of flashback episodes are often fan favorites
in existing shows, so expanding them into full stories feels like a natural next step.

Another big factor is representation and legacy. With Isaiah Bradley, Namor, Okoye, Valkyrie, and
T’Chaka, the prequel wish list isn’t only about cool action scenes. It’s about exploring cultures,
histories, and political struggles that the main films only had time to touch on. A full Isaiah Bradley
prequel, for instance, would resonate deeply with viewers who saw their own history reflected in his
story of being erased and silenced by the very government he risked his life to serve. Similarly, a
Talokan- or Wakanda-focused prequel could dive into questions of colonialism, isolationism, and what
it means to protect people who don’t even know you exist.

There’s also a fun, almost meta experience that comes with a good MCU prequel: the joy of rewatching.
Fans already love going back through earlier phases to catch foreshadowing and Easter eggs. When a
thoughtful prequel drops, it effectively rewires those older movies. Suddenly, that throwaway joke in
The Avengers or that side glance in Ragnarok feels loaded with new meaning. That’s
exactly what happened after projects like Black Widow, Loki, and WandaVision;
viewers returned to earlier titles and saw familiar scenes through a completely different emotional lens.

Finally, there’s a practical, almost strategic reason fans are still hungry for prequels: MCU fatigue isn’t
about “too much Marvel,” it’s about “too much that feels the same.” Prequels offer a way to shift genre,
scale, and focus while still using beloved characters. A grounded Budapest thriller, a Salem-era witch
horror story, or a Cold War-era Wakandan spy drama would feel fresh even to fans who think they’ve seen
every possible variation of “big battle in the sky.” In that sense, prequels aren’t just fan service
they’re one of the smartest ways the MCU could evolve without losing what made it special in the first place.

Whether Marvel actually greenlights any of these ideas is a different question. But judging from online
polls, ranking lists, and countless “dream project” threads, the appetite is absolutely there.
As the franchise moves toward soft resets, recasting, and a new generation of heroes, smartly chosen
prequels could act as both love letters to the past and carefully placed stepping stones to the future.

Conclusion: The Past Is Marvel’s Secret Weapon

The MCU has always been about interconnected storytelling but that doesn’t have to mean only moving
forward. By choosing the right characters for prequels, Marvel could deepen what’s already on screen,
fix long-standing gaps, and give fan-favorite side characters the spotlight they’ve earned.

From Nick Fury’s unseen missions to Isaiah Bradley’s hidden heroism and Hela’s rise as the original
heir to Asgard, these prequels wouldn’t just be bonus content. They’d be powerful, character-driven
stories that make the entire Marvel timeline richer, stranger, and more emotionally satisfying.