Fun Fact: One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's most powerful Phase 3 heroes nearly popped
up in Avengers: Age of Ultron…well, sort of!
According to a proud owner of the pricey Infinity Saga box set, a deleted scene illustrates
an interesting tidbit disclosed by Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige back in 2015:
that Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel, was almost introduced at the conclusion of that
film.
You may recall that Age of Ultron ended with Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff, aka Captain
America and Black Widow, assembling a new Avengers team; Tony Stark was taking a breather,
Bruce Banner was M.I.A., and Thor was off-planet investigating the Infinity Stones.
Gathered at the Avengers HQ was James Rhodes in his War Machine armor, Sam Wilson, aka
the Falcon, and new allies Vision and Wanda Maximoff, also known as Scarlet Witch.
The latter made her entrance by flying into the facility, and eagle-eyed viewers noticed
that something about Maximoff looked just a little bit...off in that scene.
That's because the special effects shot wasn't designed for her, but for Danvers, who had
yet to be cast, and the subsequent shot of the new team assembled before Rogers and Romanoff
was filmed with a stand-in for Captain Marvel front and center, one who was subsequently
digitally removed from the scene, as pointed out by a Reddit user who owns the box set.
The unaltered shot is finally available for fans to "oooh" and "aaah" over on the recently-released
box set, but Feige went public with its existence shortly after Age of Ultron's release.
Speaking with Birth.Movies.Death in 2015, Feige explained that while the good Captain's
inclusion was actually part of an early draft of the screenplay, he was never exactly on
board with it.
Feige explained:
"[Captain Marvel] was in a draft [of Age of Ultron].
But to me, it would have done that character a disservice, to meet her fully formed, in
a costume and part of the Avengers already, when 99% of the audience would go, 'Who is
that?'
It's just not the way we've done it before."
"You have no idea who I am.
I don't even know who I am!"
Feige went on to recall how he essentially humored director Joss Whedon, who had gotten
it into his head that introducing an iconic, never-before-seen character during Age of
Ultron's final seconds somehow wouldn't have confused the hell out of the audience.
Feige went on:
"The way we reveal Scarlet Witch [in costume] at the end of the movie?
Those were Captain Marvel plate shots.
[Whedon] said, 'We'll cast her later!'
And I said, 'Yeah Joss, we'll cast her later.'"
Feige then pantomimed whispering to someone else, adding, quote, "We're not putting her
in there!"
Fortunately, Whedon eventually saw it Feige's way, and the King Geek explained that it was
actually the director's idea to reuse those plate shots for Maximoff's entrance.
Feige dished:
"Finally, Joss was like, 'Let's use those plates to let Scarlet Witch fly into frame,
give her a big entrance.'
And that makes sense, she's come to their side, and she deserves the cool intro, which
will feed into another movie we start shooting in a few weeks."
The movie to which he was referring, of course, was Captain America: Civil War.
That flick's first act hinged on a terrible accident involving Maximoff that prompted
the world's government to fast-track the adoption of the Sokovia Accords, which required all
superheroes to essentially be registered government agents.
Whether or not to fall in line caused a serious rift among the Avengers, leading to the titular
conflict, a conflict which, it's safe to say, would have gone a heck of a lot differently
had Captain Marvel been involved.
Whedon may have eventually remembered that giving out-of-left-field, unheralded introductions
to iconic heroes isn't exactly how the MCU has historically gotten down, but before he
did, he had designs on introducing another Marvel hero in that final scene, as well.
He may even have actually done it, had the deal between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures
to share custody of Spider-Man been reached just a little bit sooner.
Shortly after Age of Ultron's release, Whedon visited the Empire Film podcast to talk about
the picture, and he casually disclosed that if he had gotten his way, ol' web-head would
have also inexplicably appeared alongside the Avengers in that final scene.
According to Slashfilm, Whedon explained:
"I said, it would be great if we could just add a few more, if we could have a Captain
Marvel there...And they talked about it.
I was like, 'And Spider-Man, we could do that too,' because Sony had approached us during
[the production of the first Avengers movie] about a little integration.
So I would have put both of them in, but neither of the deals were made.
And then they were like, 'We're making a Captain Marvel movie and we've got Spider-Man as a
property,' and I'm like, 'I've already locked my film, you f---ers!
Thanks for nothing.'"
Personally, we're glad the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man swung into the MCU when he did,
but it's hard not to wonder how things would have panned out had Peter Parker leapt into
the fray just a little bit sooner!
"Hi, I'm Peter Parker."
"Hey, Peter Parker."
The Infinity Saga box set has been released, but good luck getting your hands on one at
the suggested retail price of $549.99; the first shipment sold out almost immediately,
and they're currently going on eBay for close to twice that.
Hopefully, Marvel and Disney will get more on retailers' shelves in plenty of time for
the holidays.
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