Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are never lacking for exciting action sequences, and Captain Marvel was certainly no exception. Whether she's kicking the crap out of an old lady on a train or taking down Kree to the sound of No Doubt, there are a number of great fights in the movie. However, one might that we never really get in the movie is the one we most expected, pitting Brie Larson's Carol Danvers against Jude Law's Yon-Rogg.
Instead of an epic throwdown, the movie sees Danvers blast Yon-Rogg across the desert without breaking a sweat. As it turns out, the original plan for the movie's big finale was actually to have the two characters go one on one in a big physical battle, but as the story took shape, the directors realized that such a fight didn't actually make any sense. According to co-director Anna Boden...
The reality is, when we initially wrote this scene we wrote that they got together and they had their final mano-a-mano fight. And it kind of reminded us, harkened back to, the sparing scene in the beginning and, they kind of duke it out and this time Captain Marvel wins. But then, as we were writing, and discovering this character and discovering what her journey is we thought ‘why should she be playing by Yon-Rogg’s rules at this point in the movie?’ That’s the last thing we want to see. What we want to see is her blast him. Just kick his butt.
In the scene, Yon-Rogg challenges Captain Marvel to fight him on an equal footing, without her powers. While one might expect the hero to accept the challenge and beat the villain at his own game, instead, the hero simply blasts him, explaining that she has nothing to prove to him.
While, on the one hand, it would have been great to see these two go at in a great fight scene, it's difficult to argue with Anna Boden's comments from the directors' commentary track of the new Captain Marvel Blu-ray. The movie is about Carol Danvers discovering that the power she has is hers, and that the Kree have been convincing her to keep her emotions in check as a way of keeping her under control. Once she has discovered that the Kree have been subjugating her, she's lets her power loose and we see how strong she truly is.
Having her then listen to Yon-Rogg and hold her power back is the exact opposite of what she should be doing at the end of the story, and if she's using her power, then Yon-Rogg isn't really much of a threat. He knows this, which is why he's trying to convince her to hold back in the first place.
Between the end of Captain Marvel and her scenes in Avengers: Endgame, Carol Danvers is pretty close to unstoppable. While it makes some sense within context, it also means that the stakes will have to be raised quite high for anything to be seen as a danger to her in any future sequel, something that seems fairly certain will be on the way before too long.
