Captain Marvel Editor Reveals Change Made to the Ending

This post contains SPOILERS for Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel had a different ending planned until editor Debbie Berman suggested some changes that ultimately made the film's theatrical cut. The latest MCU film starring Brie Larson as Carol Danvers is doing exceptionally well at the worldwide box office, already nabbing more than half a billion dollars in just a week of release. By now, most have seen how it sets up the titular hero for future adventures but it turns out, what fans saw in the cinema wasn't how her journey in the movie was supposed to end.

Marvel Studios took fans back in time to 1995 for the hero's origin story. Featuring fan-favorite MCU characters Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) back when they were still S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives, the two get entangled with a brain-washed Danvers, who crashed onto Earth. Trained to be a member of the Kree elite team, Starforce, she doesn't have any recollection of her life in the planet. After a series of twist and turns that involved Yon Rogg's (Jude Law) manipulations, Captain Marvel ended with Carol going back to space to accompany the Skrulls find a new home - but not before handing Fury his upgraded beeper that would let him call her back if there's any serious problem.

This ending effectively explained why Captain Marvel had been out of the loop in the last 10 years of the MCU. But according to Berman, this wasn't how they initially planned to cap off the film. In an interview with ET, she revealed that she suggested some changes on how to tie Captain Marvel better which directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck actually used in the film:

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. 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.

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Berman was also part of the team who reworked the final scene of Black Panther. The Ryan Coogler-directed Academy Award-winning film starring Chadwick Boseman originally ended with the U.N. tag scene, but Berman expressed her dissatisfaction to it when the filmmaker asked the crew for any input. The movie capped off instead with T'Challa surprising Shuri (Letitia Wright) by placing the new Wakandan outreach building in the same place that N'Jobu (Sterling K. Brown) and a young Killmonger lived - something that's inspired by the ending of Francis Ford Coppola classic The Godfather.

Having Carol go with Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) was a much stronger way to end Captain Marvel than just having her jet set in space and Berman was right to point it out. Aside from being further proof of Carol's humanity by deciding to help the refugees find a new home, it also provides future narrative opportunities with the Skrulls. With them already in the MCU, there's no doubt that they'll factor in the franchise's lore moving forward.