Avengers: Endgame skipped a Captain Marvel story that could have both added to the impact of Thanos’ snap and made Endgame better overall.
The MCU skipped a potential Captain Marvel story that would have made Avengers: Endgame better. While Captain Marvel has technically been around since the ‘90s in the MCU’s timeline, Carol Danvers’ origin story was only told after Avengers: Infinity War. The arrival of Captain Marvel changed the franchise’s power scale, and it offered the Avengers a better chance of defeating Thanos and his army. Still, one of the most interesting things about Captain Marvel’s role in the Infinity Saga happened offscreen.
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Most of Carol Danvers’ pivotal MCU moments have, in fact, happened offscreen. As a result of Captain Marvel’s origins being retroactively added in the ‘90s in the MCU’s timeline despite the character only debuting after Infinity War, the vast majority of Danvers’ journey up until Endgame was never portrayed onscreen. One of these missing moments is Carol’s cosmic Endgame mission.
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Endgame Revealed That Captain Marvel Helped The Universe After The Snap
After its five-year time jump, Avengers: Endgame revealed that the Avengers still existed. Now under the leadership of Black Widow, the Avengers who had survived the snap combined with new heroes from Infinity War were working together to keep the peace on a planet whose half of the population had been killed. One of the heroes who joined the Avengers after Endgame’s time jump was Captain Marvel, who at that point had never fought side by side with the Earth’s Avengers. The difference, however, is that while War Machine or Okoye were operating on Earth, Captain Marvel was protecting the cosmos.
Carol Danvers pointed out that Earth was not the only planet affected by Thanos’ snap and that the entire universe needed help. While Thanos’ plan in Infinity War was of a universal scale, both Infinity War and Endgame are told mostly from the Earth Avengers’ perspective, making it easier to forget that the snap affected the entire universe. Still, Captain Marvel’s space journey in Endgame is referenced but never shown. After reporting to Natasha and the other Avengers, Captain Marvel disappears from the film and only returns during Avengers: Endgame’s final battle, which happened on Earth. In other words, Endgame didn’t actually show its most promising Captain Marvel story.
Endgame’s Time Jump Made Thanos’ Snap Less Impactful
Captain Marvel’s cosmic journey was not the only Thanos’ snap-related story that Avengers: Endgame skipped. In fact, Endgame skipped most of the snap’s aftermath by jumping five years into the future after Thor killed Thanos. Apart from Infinity War’s ending sequence and other “snap/blip montages” across Marvel’s Phase 4, the MCU never really explored the immediate aftermath of Thanos’ victory in Infinity War on an extended scale. Between Infinity War and Endgame, audiences only get to see the surviving Avengers reassembling at their headquarters a few minutes before Thanos’ death and the five-year time jump. While that worked for Endgame’s pacing, it skipped over many potential stories.
For example, it would have been interesting to see on the big screen the moment Captain Marvel received Nick Fury’s beep calling for help. Danvers would have realized that whatever she was experiencing was happening on other planets, which creates a dilemma over where should Captain Marvel go and which planets must she help first. Almost four years after Avengers: Endgame, most of the effects of both “The Snap” and “The Blip” were either just referenced or briefly recalled through flashback sequences like in WandaVision and Hawkeye. There was never an actual Avengers-related story set in those five years for movie or television, which is a missed opportunity.
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The MCU Should’ve Shown How Thanos’ Snap Affected Other Planets
Another trick the MCU could have used to highlight the scale of Infinity War’s ending is to show how Thanos’ snap affected other planets. This could have been done in Endgame, with Captain Marvel as the center of this particular segment of the story. Granted, Avengers: Endgame was and still is the longest-running Marvel movie ever, yet adjustments could have been made to fit in a Captain Marvel arc. For example, a lot of screen time was dedicated to the Avengers’ time heist in Endgame, which worked mostly as a plot device that could have been streamlined. That way, Endgame could have gone to space in the present-day timeline.
From an in-universe perspective, Thanos erased half of the entire universe. However, from the MCU’s perspective, including the several Infinity War and Endgame references throughout Marvel’s Phase 4, Thanos only really affected Earth. Endgame could have shown the impact of Thanos’ actions across the universe rather than just mentioning it, which would have added not only to the long-awaited Infinity Saga conclusion but also to Captain Marvel’s story. Given that Captain Marvel was an origin story and that The Marvels will be a team-up movie, Avengers: Endgame was the perfect opportunity to show Captain Marvel on a solo cosmic superhero mission, even if briefly.
