The MCU has helped create some of the most beloved cinematic characters of all time. While Iron Man and Captain America have been icons for years, these movies have introduced them to new fans and their popularity has grown exponentially. But, as the much larger and relatively inconsistent Phase Four has shown, not every MCU project is beloved by all, and not all of the characters are as well-liked as the main heroes.
Some of the supporting characters in this universe can steal the show while others have only been an annoyance. Whether it’s the way the characters were written or the bad things they’ve done, they don’t get the same love from the fans as the big heroes do. Here are the most hated supporting characters in the MCU.
Hayward
When a government official is introduced in the MCU, fans can pretty much expect to hate them right away. However, SWORD Director Hayward initially didn’t seem like such a bad guy as he shared a bond with Monica Rambeau.
But as the situation in Westview in WandaVision grew, Hayward revealed himself to be an opportunistic jerk who was willing to kill in order to keep his own mess under wraps. Attempting to assassinate Wanda was bad enough, but seeing him try to shoot her children really solidified him as a scumbag.
Malekith
The villains in these types of stories are obviously meant to inspire some hatred, but villains like Killmonger and Thanos were hard to dislike in some ways. Malekith, on the other hand, is hated simply because he is such a disappointing MCU villain.
The leader of the Dark Elves in Thor: The Dark World feels like he has no personality or interesting motivations. He simply exists to be evil, popping up in a few scenes before being forgotten completely by fans.
Sprite
There were a lot of new heroes introduced into the MCU in Eternals, but few seemed to leave a lasting impact on fans. Sprite, however, is remembered simply for being such an unlikable member of the team.
Though she is centuries old, she appears as a young child and seems to have inherited the personality of a whiny youngster. To make her even more off-putting, she decides to join Ikaris in betraying the others, even stabbing Sersi in the back.
Agent Deever
Despite Damage Control being created by Tony Stark, the government department has quickly become a rather villainous organization in the MCU. This is really cemented in Ms. Marvel with Agent Deever going off the rails in her attempts to locate the mysterious super-powered person.
Her actions are quite despicable as she raids mosques and harasses the community in search of Kamala Kahn. However, she is also frustrating because her behavior seems totally erratic, ignoring orders from her superiors and staging dangerous operations for no reason only to be predictably fired without much of a fight. It makes her into a rather lame antagonist.
Zeus
While the introduction of Hercules has a lot of fans excited, Zeus gave the Greek gods in the MCU a bad name with his role in Thor: Love and Thunder. A rather accurate depiction based on mythology, Zeus is a god who is more interested in drinking and orgies than helping anyone.
His dismissal of Thor’s warnings about Gorr the God Butcher makes him seem very incompetent and cowardly. But when he nearly killed Thor’s beloved friend Korg, Zeus really crossed a line.
Harley Keener
Long before audiences were charmed by the friendship between Iron Man and Spider-Man in the MCU, Tony Stark had another young sidekick to mentor. Harley Keener was introduced in Iron Man 3 as a young kid who helps Tony when he became stranded without his armor to save him.
The kid sidekick is a trope that can be pretty hit-or-miss. The movie did a good job of playing into those clichés and the kid was actually quite fun. But fans were really not interested in seeing Tony babysit. However, many were touched to see Harley show up for Tony’s funeral in Avengers: Endgame.
Flash Thompson
Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is such a charming and lovable guy that it’s easy to immediately hate anyone who is mean to him. While some of the villains have tried to kill Spider-Man, Flash Thompson mercilessly targets Peter himself.
Flash is a reimagining of the classic high school bully, a rich kid who thinks he’s better than everyone else. He calls out Peter in front of everyone and insults him at every opportunity. While it makes for an entertaining foil for Peter in his everyday life, we wouldn’t mind seeing Spidey kick Flash’s butt some day.
Quicksilver
Quicksilver had the shortest run as one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes but still overstayed his welcome for some fans. Quicksilver and his sister Scarlet Witch are introduced in Avengers: Age of Ultron as villains before joining the heroes to defeat the titular antagonist.
Before the end of the movie, Quicksilver sacrifices himself to save both Hawkeye and a child, but even that wasn’t enough to win over fans. Perhaps due to the more memorable appearance of the character in the X-Men films, the MCU’s Quicksilver was underwhelming and few fans were sad to see him go.
Dottie Jones
Dottie was very much a character that was designed to be disliked. Within the sitcom throwback style of WandaVision, Dottie filled the role of the typical rude and stuck-up neighbor. And she filled that role very well, instantly becoming unlikeable.
It’s a bit unfair to Dottie to form such a harsh opinion of her as she was being forced to act this way. Like the other people in Westview, Dottie was a prisoner of Wanda’s creation. However, it was easy to forget that and just see her as an unpleasant person.
Hank Pym
Hank Pym is one of the smartest characters in the MCU and the original Ant-Man. Now in retirement, he helps the heroic duo Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne ensure that his technology is kept out of the wrong hands.
However, fans don’t dislike Hank because of his constant exposition — they dislike him because he’s a jerk. Hank is a cranky old man who seems unwilling to let anyone else explore the scientific breakthroughs he’s made. Perhaps now that his wife is saved from the Quantum Realm, he’ll lighten up a bit.
Ravonna Renslayer
Along with showing some new sides to the titular God of Mischief, some really fun and interesting new characters were introduced in Loki. However, Ravonna Renslayer was not met so kindly by fans as she was a constant stick in the mud when it came to Loki’s time-traveling shenanigans.
Ravonna was a blind follower of the rules which turned increasing more frustrating the more it became clear she was being lied to. However, her unwavering duty to the rules led her down a dark path and she even pruned Mobius which immediately made fans hate her.
Sharon Carter
For a while, Sharon Carter was actually one of the most underrated heroes in the MCU. She was constantly putting herself on the line to help the heroes and save the day. She also had the misfortune of entering an awkward love triangle as she had a brief fling with Steve Rogers before he traveled back in time to marry her aunt, Peggy Carter.
Given that turn of events, perhaps it’s not so strange that she turned to the dark side. In The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sharon was revealed to be the Power Broker and her villainous intentions are still unclear. However, it’s unlikely she’s going to gain many new fans now.
Pepper Potts
Pepper Potts has been with the MCU from the very beginning, but it took fans a long time to finally warm up to her. It’s not clear what it was about this character that fans didn’t take to. Perhaps the way she was written made her seem like the nagging female partner to the adventurous hero, which is an unfortunate trope in some movies.
As the franchise went on, fans seemed to warm to the idea of a romance between Tony and Pepper, especially considering the dynamic chemistry they had together. It’s just a shame they didn’t take to her charm sooner.
Jane Foster
Jane Foster is another character who was made unpopular thanks to the poorly-designed love story she was forced into. Though Natalie Portman gave a fun and energetic performance as the brilliant scientist, fans never bought into the relationship between Jane and Thor.
To make matters worse, the films wrote Jane as far too reliant on Thor’s love, without giving her enough of her own agency. Thankfully, she was given a second chance with her heroic and fun return in Thor: Love and Thunder.
Thunderbolt Ross
While many of the MCU villains are easy to hate, Thunderbolt Ross is an anatomist who is merely an inconvenience. Ross was introduced in The Incredible Hulk as a determined military man but has since become a constant thorn in the side of the Avengers.
Though he pokes his nose into their business frequently, he is never taken very seriously by the heroes. They seem to ignore his authority whenever it disagrees with them, which makes Ross a pretty easy character to dismiss.
Ralph Bohner
Even with all the theories surrounding WandaVision, few fans predicted that Evan Peters as Quicksilver would show up in the series. It seemed like the first confirmation of the multiverse in the MCU which would be bringing Marvel characters from other franchises into the fold.
As it turns out, the truth was much less fun than that. Peters’s character was not actually Quicksilver from the X-Men movies, but rather another brainwashed resident of Westview named Ralph Bohner. After all the promise of the character, the reveal that it was just a lazy joke was pretty disappointing.
John Walker
John Walker managed to anger just about every Marvel fan in the world the moment he stepped on screen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. To be fair, it was never going to be easy for anyone to step into the Captain America uniform and follow Steve Rogers.
Of course, the point of John Walker’s character was that he isn’t Steve and the fans are supposed to hate him. With Wyatt Russell’s excellent performance, Walker became the most interesting part of the show and he gradually loses control and turns into everything Steve Rogers was against.
Odin
Odin is one of the most powerful characters in the MCU as well as one of the most complicated. As the king of Asgard, Odin oversees the Nine Realms as its protector, making him a very heroic figure. However, he is also capable of great cruelty, rage, and violence.
Odin has banished Thor, stolen Loki from his homeworld, sent his army to capture Thor, taken over the Nine Realms by force, and imprisoned his daughter. While he’s done plenty of good as well, fans have a hard time deciding if they should cheer for Odin or not.
Darcy Lewis
Comedic sidekicks in the MCU can be a lot of fun, like Luis and Shuri. But Darcy Lewis is one comic relief character that fans did not embrace. Darcy is introduced in Thor as the intern working with Jane Foster. However, instead of helping, she just acts lazy and cracks one-liners.
Actor Kat Dennings does bring a lot of charm to the role, but it doesn’t work for everyone. Some of her jokes fall flat and the movies might have relied on the character for some humor a little too much. However, with her appearance in WandaVision, Darcy managed to win over a lot of her former haters.
Trevor Slattery
While fans were thrilled with Tony Leung’s turn as Wenwu in Shang-Chi, the history of his villain in the MCU is quite controversial. Fans first expected to see The Mandarin, Iron Man’s most iconic villain, in Iron Man 3 only for the supposed terrorist to turn out to be a drunken actor named Trevor Slattery.
Many fans enjoyed the unexpected twist, but others were bitterly disappointed to miss out on the real Mandarin. Perhaps Wenwu’s role in Shang-Chi and Trevor’s return has helped change some minds about the character.
