This article contains spoilers from Captain Marvel.
We all knew that Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) would show up one way or another in Avengers: Endgame. The question on a lot of our minds was where was she all these years? Was she in hiding? Was she captured? How would the Captain Marvel screenwriters write off the character so that her absence makes sense?
Well, the film does provide us with some solid answers. The superpowered Captain Marvel zooms off into space with the Skrull Talos and his family to help them find a new home, but not before leaving a pager behind for Nick Fury, to be used “for emergency purposes only.”
Believe it or not, the film initially had a slightly different, less impactful ending. In a sit down with ET, Captain Marvel editor Debbie Berman discussed the film’s original ending, before she suggested some tweaks. When asked if she offered input on any scenes as she previously did with Black Panther, Berman had this to say:
I did actually suggest some tweaks to the ending of this film. It used to end with Carol flying off into space alone, and I found that a bit jarring. Like, where exactly was she going? And what was she doing? It felt like we needed a stronger visual to assert a more specific justification for her leaving and disappearing for so many years.
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So we added Talos and his family in their spaceship waiting for her, and they all fly off together. It gave her more of a sense of purpose and made it easier to believe that she left her newfound life on Earth because she was with a friend we knew she cared about, and for a more specific mission. It gave more resonance and closure to her final moment in the film.
This was definitely a great suggestion from Berman. It’s an ending that’s coherent from a narrative perspective while also reinforcing the selfless nature of the titular character. Captain Marvel didn’t show up during the Battle of New York and Sokovia because she was busy helping people across the galaxy. Imagine if Carol Danvers would’ve just left her best friend Maria behind and just jetted off into outer space just for the fun of it. That would’ve been puzzling indeed.
