80s | Movies | Pop Culture
11 Facts About The Movie Marvel Wants To Pretend Never Happened
These days it's hard to imagine a Marvel movie being one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time, but that's exactly what happened when Howard the Duck premiered in theaters in 1986. Spearheaded by George Lucas, the project lost millions of dollars and is still considered one of the worst movies of all time. However, it turns out there's some pretty interesting stuff about it behind the scenes!
It was Marvel's only theatrical film until Blade
Yup, it would be a full 12 years before Marvel would release another movie.
It was supposed to be animated, but wasn't because Universal had passed on Star Wars and Indiana Jones
Universal expected another George Lucas project to be a massive hit, and so they demanded it be a massive live-action summer blockbuster.
It led to the creation of Pixar
Lucas had to sell off many of his assets after the movie bombed to pay off his debts, and sold LucasFilm's CG division to Steve Jobs. This division would later become Pixar Animation Studios!
Lea Thompson actually sang all of her own songs
She and her "Cherry Bomb" bandmates did all of their performances themselves. She apparently still has the Gibson Les Paul guitar from the movie and occasionally plays it!
Howard's duck suit cost $2 Million to make
It took multiple people to work his facial expressions and movements, and pretty much always looked terrible.
Click to the next page for more things you didn't know about Howard the Duck!
George Lucas commented that given 20 years, people would realize the film is a masterpiece
Let's just say that even after over 30 years, most people still agree that it's a pretty terrible movie.
John Landis was asked to direct the movie
A close friend of Lucas, he declined because he thought the police car chase scene at the end was too similar to his last movie, The Blues Brothers.
The head of Universal Pictures resigned after its release
Frank Price left the studio after Howard the Duck bombed at the box office. Variety reported his departure with the headline " 'Duck' Cooks Price's Goose."
Jay Leno was supposed to appear in the movie
Paula Abdul, Kim Basinger, Jodi Benson, Sarah Jessica Parker and Lori Singer were all considered for it as well.
It was nominated for several "bad movie" awards
It was up for seven Razzies, and won Worst Picture at the Hastings Bad Cinema Society's 9th Stinkers Bad Movie Awards in 1986.
The character is slowly making a comeback
Director James Gunn included Howard in a post-credits scene from 2014's massive hit Guardians of the Galaxy, which has lead to more people rediscovering the character. He's even appeared in multiple recent Marvel comics, toy lines, and video games.