Following the release of Captain Marvel, Marvel made the bold choice to not hold the heroine back and feature Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers in the trailer and recent footage for Avengers: Endgame. While it's been exciting to see her interact with the more established Avengers, many couldn’t help but notice that Carol looked a lot different than she did in Captain Marvel, with more makeup and straighter hair. Avengers: Endgame co-director Joe Russo explained why Captain Marvel looks so different, saying:
She did [Avengers: Endgame] before she filmed Captain Marvel, and I think she was experimenting with what the character was. And those were the choices that she and her hair and makeup team had made. And I think as she started to gain a deeper understanding of the character, especially as she approached her own movie. She started to make different choices and as an artist she should be afforded that right to make whatever choice that she wants to make.
Brie Larson’s first time playing Captain Marvel was in Avengers: Endgame, not Captain Marvel, and the way that shooting schedule worked out impacted the way in which she developed her character’s look over time. As Joe Russo said at the Avengers: Endgame press junket, reported by Slashfilm, Brie Larson was still getting into her character in her Endgame scenes, discovering who Carol was and how she wanted to play her.
As Endgame was her first time in the shoes of the character, Brie Larson experimented and made the choices that seemed right to her at the time. Those choices resulted in her wearing more makeup and having a different hairstyle than what we saw in Captain Marvel. The actress’ understanding of Carol Danvers changed the more time she spent with her and that impacted how she wanted her to look.
Therefore, going in to Captain Marvel Brie Larson’s changed how she looked to match her evolved image of the character and that’s why she looks different in the two films. The Russo Brothers set parameters for how the character should look, but Joe Russo made it clear that the actors, including Brie Larson, have ownership over how they do their hair and makeup. So in both Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers’ hair and makeup were decisions made by Brie Larson and her hair and makeup team.
Apparently some people were up in arms that Carol Danvers appeared done up in Avengers: Endgame, and that such a look didn’t fit with her feminist character. But contrary to the belief that the film was trying to make her prettier, this was ultimately just the result of shooting schedules and an actor taking time to discover what works best for the character and her portrayal.
While this isn’t an in-universe story reason, it does make sense that Carol Danvers would look different. We are used to MCU characters having different looks from film to film, and technically Avengers: Endgame takes place over two decades after Captain Marvel, so naturally she would have changed her look at least a bit.
It will be interesting to see after Avengers: Endgame, whenever we next see Carol Danvers, be it in Captain Marvel 2 or elsewhere, if she reverts back to the Captain Marvel look or finds a happy medium between the two.
See Captain Marvel’s new look when Avengers: Endgame opens in theaters on April 26. Check out our 2019 release schedule to keep track of all the biggest movies coming this year, and for all your movie news, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.
