When Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel was paged by Nick Fury as his last act before he turned to dust during the end credits of Avengers: Infinity War, fans knew something massive was being set up for the all-powerful hero. However, when it came time for Carol Danvers to strut her stuff in Endgame, some may have felt underwhelmed with her role.
There’s a good reason why. Just check out screenwriter Christopher Markus’ explanation as to why Captain Marvel’s Endgame role may have felt minor:
Well, she was always going to be in it but we didn't have much to go on. They had cast her and that was it. It is a tough balance to strike when you have a character that powerful who you're going to bring in, and you don't want it to seem like, well we just brought in this person who can clean the house that we couldn't clean in the previous movie. So, we had to decide on a balance between not making it feel like a cameo, but not having her around so much that she solved all of the problems for everybody.
Looks like the addition of Carol Danvers posed somewhat of a unique challenge for the Endgame writers. They were writing her role in Endgame before her role in Captain Marvel had been written – even though the latter would come to theaters a few months before their ensemble epic.
The pair of writers previously said they gathered input from Captain Marvel writer/directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck regarding how she’d act and sound in situations. They did have the benefit of Carol Danvers being shown 20 years after the events of her origin story. It allowed for cool costume and hair changes but they could only utilize her to an extent. Here’s why, in the words of Markus’ other writer half, Stephen McFeely:
It also wasn’t the point of the movie. The point of the second movie was saying goodbye to the original six Avengers. So their stories were gonna be way up here. We had the same issue a little bit with Black Panther in Infinity War… It was not fair to the other six Avengers to have Captain Marvel come in and solve their problems.
So although Captain Marvel is just about the most powerful Avenger and super important to the future of the MCU, Endgame had the job of closing out the stories of the original six Avengers. Spending screen time on their story arcs was top priority, and even so it took over three hours to culminate the franchise that had spanned 10 years and 22 films.
To learn more about Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely process with writing in the MCU, check out their full segment with Vanity Fair:
As the MCU continues, Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel will certainly play a large role. Kevin Feige has teased her character will lead the new set of heroes. Although fans will have to wait for her return, considering Captain Marvel 2 is not a part of Phase Four, she has been training hard again at the gym. Perhaps to return to the role?
Considering her friends Monica Rambeau and Ms. Marvel are showing up in Disney+ upcoming shows, we expect a massive return for the character in the future.
