For a long time, it was rumored that Captain Marvel would make an appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron. And then those rumors dried up, replaced by official word that Carol Danvers would not be making her big screen debut in the film. Now, we have confirmation that those early rumors were on point at the very least. Captain Marvel was this close to showing up in the Avengers sequel, so much so that special effects footage was shot for her appearance.

The folks over at Badass Digest spoke with Marvel president and mastermind Kevin Feige, who went ahead and confirmed those rumors before explaining why they changed things around, seemingly at the last minute. It seems that Feige decided that a major character like Captain Marvel deserved a bigger introduction than a tiny cameo at the end of an already-packed film:

[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.

And he’s right. As much as diehard superhero fans would have enjoyed catching a glimpse of Danvers in her movie costume, her relevance would be lost on the normal people who make up the bulk of the moviegoing audience. Why throw her into a crowded movie when you can introduce her at a better place and time?

However, Captain Marvel’s cameo, which would have involved her flying into Avengers HQ, ended up inspiring another scene. They had already shot the background shots where Captain Marvel would have been digitally added, so they just replaced her with another character. If you want to know who replaced her (and this is a SPOILER, albeit, a spoiler anyone could guess), read on:

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!’

For additional details, make sure you check out the link above. Avengers: Age of Ultron will arrive on May 1, 2015 and Captain Marvel is scheduled for a November 2, 2018 release date.

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