Joss Whedon Planned Captain Marvel’s Appearance In Avengers: Age Of Ultron; Scarlet Witch Teased For Captain America: Civil War

Yesterday we brought you news of Captain Marvel’s erasure from Avengers: Age Of Ultron. The history of the character’s supposed appearance is steadily becoming equally as prolific as the superhero’s actual history. Rumors swirled concerning a potential end credits cameo that bolstered another tidbit suggesting Marvel had already cast an actress in the role. Whether either of those bore fruit, we know for certain that fan favorite Carol Danvers will make her fully-fledged Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in 2018 for her dedicated standalone movie.

However, now we know that Captain Marvel definitely won’t be in Age Of Ultron. According to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, the decision to excise her from early drafts was a matter of audience familiarity. In a follow-up interview with Badass Digest, he goes on to reiterate which factors brought about the change.

Beware, there is a MAJOR SPOILER for the Age Of Ultron ending in the final paragraph of this quote!

There were drafts that maybe people somehow got their hands on and read early on that included some characters – maybe others, but certainly one, which is why it’s dangerous to read scripts early on, and talk about them early on…

[Captain Marvel] was in a draft. 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.

Thanos is the good ‘Who’s that,’ because he’s clearly a bad guy, for comic fans he represents a specific storyline, you can get the buzz started from fans to non-fans with that cameo – as opposed to a title character, who deserves their own story. Even Black Widow you don’t meet in the last two seconds of Iron Man 2 wearing her costume – you evolve that going forward.

The way we reveal Scarlet Witch [in costume] at the end of the movie? Those were Captain Marvel plate shots. Joss said, ‘We’ll cast her later!’ And I said, ‘Yeah Joss, we’ll cast her later.’ [Whispers to an invisible associate who isn’t Joss] ‘We’re not putting her in there!’

The fact that Whedon had gone so far as to create plate shots for Captain Marvel’s entrance just goes to show how committed he was to bringing her into the Avengers fold this early on. While it would have been a major win for fans to see Danvers this soon, it sounds like they made the right call in the end.

And in terms of the Thanos comparison, I’ve got to agree with Feige. Audiences who aren’t comic fans can wonder about the purple-skinned ogre with the sinister grin who appears in the post-credits Avengers scene. The intended impact isn’t affected by pre-existing comic knowledge.