Captain Marvel's introduction in Avengers: Endgame was almost different. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had many female heroes throughout the last decade, but it was Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel who was the first to lead her own film. With Brie Larson playing the part, Captain Marvel rocketed up the box office charts earlier this year, earning over $1 billion worldwide.

Her movie debut came several months after Marvel Studios properly teased her arrival. The post-credits scene for Avengers: Infinity War showed Nick Fury page someone when the snap happened, and audiences realized he was contacting Carol when her logo appeared. The reverse of this scene came in the mid-credits scene of Captain Marvel, as she arrived on Earth looking for Fury, but met the Avengers. She's quickly put to work by them to rescue Iron Man and Nebula in space, but the reveal of this was almost different.

Related: Captain Marvel's Post-Credit Scenes Make No Sense After Avengers: Endgame

During the audio commentary track on Avengers: Endgame's home release, which is now available digitally, directors Anthony and Joe Russo and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely talked about a different idea. As the rescue scene is happening, an alternate early cut of the film was discussed where they would hide the fact it was Captain Marvel arriving at the Benatar. Joe Russo said, "We felt like it was not a successful reveal," but McFeely then revealed a brief explanation of what the idea was, "The idea would be that there'd be orange light on Tony's face, he'd see something, the audience wouldn't see it."

In the movie, Tony Stark is nearly dead aboard the Benatar when the orange light starts to shine on his face. This forces him to open his eyes and have a look of disbelief as he sees Captain Marvel outsideAvengers: Endgame then cuts to Captain America right after he's shaved his beard and shows Avengers HQ starting to shake. It then shows Steve, Natasha, Bruce, and Rhodes run outside to see what's going on. This is where they see Captain Marvel carrying the Benatar and placing it on the ground.

The alternate version of this scene could've built up more anxiety from audiences over what was happening. It would've shown Tony's reaction to whatever was outside the Benatar, and then immediately cut to Avengers HQ shaking. This might've been able to momentarily trick audiences into thinking another threat, or even Thanos, had arrived to take Tony, and was now ready to take on the Avengers. But, it would only be once Carol is seen carrying the Benatar that all would be revealed.

While they did consider this editing choice for Avengers: Endgame, it was never terribly close to being in the theatrical cut. Joe states that they never shot a closeup of Carol carrying the Benatar, which they would've wanted to make it clear who it was. So, this is instead one of the ideas they thought about in the editing bay that didn't materialize. It's tough to say whether or not this other version of the opening would work, but they believe it didn't. The result is Captain Marvel's introduction in Avengers: Endgame being hopeful instead of mysterious.

MORE: Watch Every Avengers: Endgame Deleted Scene Released Here

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