Marvel has proven through its cinematic universe that the popularity of a character doesn’t matter. If the story and concept are sound, and if the creative team behind it is talented enough, a good film can turn C-listers into household names. Transcendent filmmakers have lifted characters like Iron Man, Hawkeye, Thanos and the Guardians of the Galaxy to immortality. The MCU is still creating new headliners such as Shang-Chi and Ironheart, but this movement was nearly led by a much stranger pick. In the late 90s, there were talks to produce a film based on the Marvel Comics character Mort the Dead Teenager. The filmmakers interested in bringing this project to life were none other than legends of the medium Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino.

The pair of auteurs spent the end of the 90s and start of the 2000s working to bring this surprising choice to movie theaters across the globe. At one point, Mort the Dead Teenager could have even beat the ever-popular Spider-Man to the cinemas. A script for the film was supposedly completed, with both a director and public casting announcements popping up in the news across several years. Despite all of this, however, Mort the Dead Teenager would never end up making his big screen debut. Even after 20 years filled with unexpectedly interested parties, the character hasn’t headlined a project, making it one of the most interesting what-ifs in Marvel history.

Meet Marvel's Mort The Dead Teenager

Mort the Dead Teenager is far from the most prolific story or starring character in the history of Marvel Comics. The short series began publication in December 1993, spearheaded by writer Larry Hanna and underground cartoonish Gary Hallgren, running to completion over a paltry four issues. Hanna conceived the story as a purposefully non-superhero Marvel tale, one that could feature less familiar tropes and a more teen-oriented focus.

Mort the Dead Teenager's grounded nature lent itself to lower production costs were someone to create or adapt works based around on it. Hanna admitted that the idea was initially a quick elevator pitch, meant to hit those benchmarks, but that the company’s executives ultimately seemed enthused. In fact, even Marvel godfather Stan Lee himself seemed to appreciate the concept; Hanna admitted that Mort the Dead Teenager was one of only two Marvel projects Lee had praised him for.

The comic’s short story stars Mort, a recently deceased teenager who can’t move on from Earth because Hell is full and Heaven is closed for repairs. Because of this, Mort is forced to haunt the living world, watching those around him react to his death and eventually return through the machinations of Teen Death. It’s more Archie than Avengers, to be sure, but there was an undeniable charm to the story of Mort the Dead Teenager.

Within its short run time was a complete story as well, allowing for a simple lift from comic page to film reel, should any interested party end up feeling so inclined. As it turned out, there were a number of parties, important, big-name parties, that quickly became interested in adapting the comic. The most prolific, and most progressive of these parties, were the generation-defining duo of Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino.

Mort The Dead Teenager Had a Short Production Life

Legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg teamed up with equally storied creator Robert Zemeckis to purchase the film rights from Marvel in the late 90s. The duo quickly assembled a star-studded team behind the camera to bring Mort the Dead Teenager to the silver screen. Quickly, Quentin Tarantino (fresh off the success of Kill Bill) joined with Lawrence Bender as Executive Producers through A Band Apart Productions. Immortal pop culture icon Madonna would also be involved, with her Maverick Films production company co-producing. Staff roles would even be filled, with Too Smooth’s Dean Paraskevopoulos filling the director’s chair and Jim Cooper reportedly completing a script for the film.

Somehow, Marvel’s non-superhero story had assembled a superstar-filled crew of Hollywood A-listers that seemed excited to bring it to life. This wouldn’t be a shocking turn of events by today’s standards, but looking back, Mort the Dead Teenager's production seems like the furthest thing from a likely story.

The surprise timing and short development of Mort the Dead Teenager is an outlier, in retrospect. Marvel was a decade away from launching the Marvel Cinematic Universe and still had a few years before their runaway early 2000s success with licensed films like X-Men and Spider-Man. Mort the Dead Teenager felt like a move from left field for someone as prestigious as Spielberg to be interested in the comic’s rights.

Spielberg gave theatergoers Jurassic Park and Saving Private Ryan; meanwhile, all Marvel had brought to the silver screen at that point was Blade and Howard the Duck. While the former is admittedly a cult classic, and the latter a bit more notorious, neither found mass success critically or financially. Unfortunately, in spite of the promise Mort the Dead Teenager’s creative team brought to its film adaptation, their unimpeachable pedigree didn’t result in an unimpeachable production. In fact, it’s hard to say the project saw any active production at all.

Mort the Dead Teenager Film Fell Into Decay

Mort the Dead Teenager was a project quite alive through the late 90s and early 00s. Rumor sites at the time speculated that Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood and actress Dominique Swain would take main roles in the film, likely as Mort and his crush Kimberly Dimenmein. However, the film’s only official casting seemingly came in September 2003, when pop star Jessica Simpson signed on as an unnamed female lead. But beyond that, nothing further would be officially revealed for the film, no more rumors would float through the press, and the project would quietly come to a close. For one reason or another, the A-list adaptation of a surprising D-list Marvel star would never come to be. Shortly after its last bit of official news, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films would take off, and the X-Men series would prove itself a hit. The criteria of what made for a good Marvel film was quickly redefined, and Mort no longer fit the bill.

There was never a clear reason given for the failure of Spielberg’s Mort the Dead Teenager film. The script was complete and the director was in place, but it’s unknown if filming started or casting was even completed. In 2000, Artisan Entertainment partnered with Marvel to create as many as 15 adaptations of its various characters. Mort the Dead Teenager was one of the deal’s headlining acquisitions, among Deadpool, Captain America, even Morbius. However, this deal likely didn’t affect Spielberg’s project. If anything, the reverse is likely true, with Spielberg’s film rights forcing any Artisan adaptation of Mort the Dead Teenager to be restricted to television or direct-to-video. It’s possible the script simply didn’t meet the standards of the film, or its intended aesthetic would be too costly to achieve. Whatever it was, it kept what would still be the most offbeat Marvel adaptation in its grave.

The loss of Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino’s Mort the Dead Teenager film feels like a tragedy, but not for the most likely reasons. Oftentimes, the loss of a potential film is so shameful because of the potential of what’s being put on the screen. In this case, the appeal stemmed more from who would working behind the camera. The talents that came together to try and make Mort the Dead Teenager happen feel too bombastic to be true, and that was ultimately the case. Spielberg and Tarantino still haven’t collaborated in a meaningful capacity, and Madonna certainly isn’t a powerhouse of film in the 2020s.

Mort the Dead Teenager similarly feels like a character that won’t get a chance like that again. While the character persists with a small, loyal fanbase, and is still considered part of the larger Marvel Universe, he lacks any meaningful presence or compatibility with it. This likely rules Mort out of future Marvel Cinematic Universe adaptations. And unless Marvel begins licensing their smaller characters to extremely dedicated directors, there’s no chance of that changing. For better or worse, Mort the Dead Teenager is a name that will probably stay buried in the graveyard of unproduced Marvel films for a long, long time.