Keeping in mind small changes, I would've done what should've been done in Winter Soldier and had Steve and Natasha become a couple and remain in a committed relationship throughout the following films (AoU, CW, IW,A4). No only do they work as a couple in that they are "mundane" heroes that are living lives that they never though they would have, Evans and Johansson have real chemistry. And no more pistols for Nat, she should've got the Widow's Bites in AoU.
I wouldn't have killed Jeffrey Mace / Patriot in AoS. I would have used him to reintroduce SHIELD into the movies.
YES! A big mistake that the MCU can make is killing of Tony or Steve. Let a few movies come out with out them and re-cast.
At the end of Winter Soldier, Black Widow hands Cap a dossier about the Winter Soldier. Cap is planning on investigating, and Falcon agrees to go with him. So I would have liked to see a Captain America and Falcon movie about that.
Ramifications wouldn't have been a whole lot, just would have added more nuance and depth to the Civil War stuff with Bucky and Cap. And it probably would have been a killer film.
Every day is a gift, not a given right.
Another change I would have made is have Winter Soldier be the pseudo villain in Civil War. In that he raises Hell by himself, not being mind-controlled. He make things exploded which kills people. He become a full blown terrorist because he is after things related to his past. Cap has to stop him yet have to stop the other heroes of getting at him. The end is similar to what happened but Cap instead turns on Bucky and their friendship, realising there is a greater good than their friendship.
No Fury just showed up with the Helicarrier, I mean bringing the organization back. A scene in IW with Mace announcing that SHIELD is back and ready to help. Then scene with some quinjets around that ring over New York City and maybe a SHIELD combat team at the fight in London.
I was going to say “erase the Inhumans from continuity and make a movie sometime down the line” but I think a better answer is to stop pretending the TV shows are canon and allow all those characters in the movies. The Defenders could stay but the idea of having everything Marvel related in the same continuity is a bad one, especially if the movies refuse to acknowledge the TV shows.
If they put Deadpool into the universe after the Fox merger that’ll be the biggest mistake. Doesn’t fit in with the universe and the meta jokes would take you right out of any Avengers movie.
The MCU heroes before the MCU weren’t timeless. Iron Man before RDJ had no popular appeal, the Guardians of the Galaxy were irrelevant and most people had no idea who Doctor Strange and Ant-Man were.
If the MCU can make Guardians of the Galaxy a hit, why can’t it do the same for Falcon Cap? There’s no need to recast and play with the same characters when you can have a natural end to those characters and develop new ones without losing any money. Especially with the X-Men joining soon.
Stick Clint Barton into one of the Iron Man movies and introduce him as a classically douchey antagonist (before his inevitable reformation). At present, he's the weak link in the Avengers line up.
I mean, don't get me wrong; he'd probably make a good work colleague, a supportive friend in a romantic comedy, or a strait-laced disbelieving foil to the antics of an imbecilic comedy protagonist. But as a character he's definitely low wattage.
Anthony Mackie is a better lead than Sebastion Stan though.
Either way, the MCU doesn’t need Steve Rogers to survive and would be better off naturally retiring him after Avengers 4 than having him around forever with an ongoing series of actors playing him. Audiences aren’t going to buy the sliding timeline nonsense.
I agree that he needs to retire at some point, but I'd rather just not have someone take the costume and the shield. Maybe keep Evans around as an occasional player in other people's movies, but not have him replaced. Just let new superheroes step up and take over the leadership role.