Joss Whedon Originally Had Big Plans for Wasp in THE AVENGERS and He Wanted Zooey Deschanel to Play Her

We already knew that Joss Whedon was looking to introduce Wasp in The Avengers, and he was planning she was going to have a major role in the story. When Whedon previously talked about it, he said:

There was a little bit of time where we thought we might not actually get Scarlett [Johansson]. There was a very Waspy draft that I wrote. But it was way too Waspy. I was like, 'She's adorable! I'm just going to watch her!'

Well, it turns out that he wanted to cast Zooey Deschanel in the role, which is actually great casting. While I like Evangeline Lilly’s version of the character, I think that Deschanel would’ve been a great choice. I can see her bringing a lot of lighthearted fun to the character.

In an upcoming book, The Story of Marvel Studios (Via /film), which is filled with behind the scenes details about the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, producer Jeremy Latcham said:

"It was all about The Wasp. He wanted to cast Zooey Deschanel. [Wasp] was the funniest character in the whole movie, and well-written."

According to Whedon, who is also quoted in the book:

"The Wasp happened because there was a short period where it looked like we weren't going to be able to get Scarlett [due to scheduling conflicts], so I was panicking. I thought, 'Hold on, we could do The Wasp.' Then I fell in love with that. But we did get Scarlett, and then I realized I had written this entire movie about The Wasp. Oops. I overcompensated there."

Then Wasp ended up being cut completely from the story. I would love to read that original script that featured Wasp as a main character.