‘Captain Marvel’ Editor Reveals Alternate Ending That Needed More ‘Closure’

“It gave more resonance and closure to her final moment in the film,” editor Debbie Berman says of final cut

captain marvel doesn't have anything to do with avengers endgame and that's weird carol danvers
Marvel Studios

Spoilers ahead for “Captain Marvel”

“Captain Marvel” editor Debbie Berman said in a new interview that the original ending to “Captain Marvel” didn’t have the same emotional “closure” or “resonance” that the film ultimately did in its final cut.

In an early iteration of “Captain Marvel,” Berman said that the film ended with Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) flying off into space alone. But, she suggested some tweaks to directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, saying that moment didn’t feel quite right.

“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,” Berman said in an interview with ET. “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.”

The addition helps explain what Carol was actually doing in between the events of “Captain Marvel” and her return to Earth in “Avengers: Endgame,” with Carol helping to rescue the colony of Skrulls from the Kree. Berman said it also gave the film a stronger emotional pull as well.

“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,” Berman said. “It gave more resonance and closure to her final moment in the film.”

Berman also edited “Black Panther” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” and by working with Marvel’s first female director, Berman said she found opportunities to give the story a woman’s touch where another editor might’ve approached it differently, like during Carol’s reunion with her best friend, Maria.

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Berman said she was given the luxury to hold a wide shot of the two of them for longer than is typical in a fast-moving action film. She also chose an emotional take of Carol shedding a tear as she said the line, “My name is Carol.”

“I had a lot of other takes of that line where she just said it in a stoic, kick-ass fashion. And I was drawn to those other takes because that’s what I am used to seeing — and in a way, I’ve been programmed to feel that someone being strong and emotionless is the right play,” Berman said. “But then I thought, I have never seen a superhero cry while saying her most kick-ass of lines, and honestly, if I had gone through everything she had just gone through, no matter how strong I was feeling at that moment, I think I would be having a multitude of emotional experiences simultaneously.”

Read the full interview with Berman via ET Online.

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