Though this year’s Captain Marvel served as the MCU debut for one Carol Danvers, Brie Larson shot her first ever scenes as the heroine on the set of Avengers: Endgame. And while set photos from the Infinity War sequel show the Oscar-winner wearing the same red, blue, and yellow costume from Carol’s solo debut, her suit was eventually CGI’d over with some fresh designs in the final film.
In the new book The Art of Avengers: Endgame, director of visual development Andy Park sheds light on the situation, explaining that Larson’s Captain Marvel costume was originally designed for Endgame:
“The way it worked was I designed her look first for the Russo brothers for Endgame, because she initially filmed her Endgame appearances before her solo film. It was a very odd situation I haven’t had in all my years that I’ve been here, to design a character for one director knowing right away she’s going to have her own solo film with a different director.”
Once Larson’s Endgame scenes were shot, however, Marvel Studios had a change of heart, deciding that it didn’t make sense for Carol to wear the exact same outfit decades after the events of Captain Marvel:
“So she acted in Endgame with her solo-film costume, and then it was decided later that they wanted a new costume for Endgame, because why would she wear this exact same costume decades later? That’s when they approached me about exploring new looks. They ranged from weathering her current look as if she’s gone through many years of adventures, but she kept the same costume – maybe with little additions like the sash – and then I started doing the range of pushing that design further, breaking up the colors, changing the colors a little bit, introducing a little bit more blue.”
In the final film, Carol can be seen wearing a new costume in the movie’s opening minutes, before changing clothes again after the five-year time jump. And while you could certainly argue that the costume changes were in part an excuse to sell more merchandise, it still makes a lot of sense that Carol would feel like switching up her style at some point in the decades between Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame.
In any case, though the billion-dollar box office success of Captain Marvel ensures that we haven’t seen the last of the MCU’s most powerful heroine, even Larson herself recently claimed that she’s not sure what’s next for her character.
At this rate, we can expect a solo sequel to reach theaters no sooner than 2022, but in the meantime, don’t be surprised if Carol shows up at some point during Marvel’s Phase 4, which kicks off with the release of Black Widow on May 1st, 2020.