Heading into
Captain Marvel, the thing fans really wanted to know was how Nick Fury lost his eye. It was obvious that this 90s set adventure would shed some light on that, and the prevailing theory was that a battle with a Skrull would be what led to the future S.H.I.E.L.D. Director donning that eyepatch.
After all, he did previoulsy state that someone he trusted was responsible for the nasty looking wound on his face, but the movie ultimately revealed that it was Goose who scratched Fury.
When I recently had the opportunity to talk to
Captain Marvel directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck about the Marvel Studios movie before its DVD and Blu-ray release, I asked if they ever considered any other ways for Fury to lose his eye. As it turns out, a battle with a Skrull was indeed a very strong contender for a while before they settled on the Flerken being responsible.
Fleck: "There were definitely a lot of discussions and that was not the first idea on the table. You're probably going to ask me what some of the other ideas were and I don't know if I can tell you that, not because I'm hiding anything, but because there were just so many absurd ideas we had. There was a strong contender for a while that a fight with the Skrulls seemed like the most obvious choice but then the more we thought about it, it just became too obvious.
"Since this is just as much Nick Fury's origin story as Captain Marvel's, we thought that it would be a fun piece of his backstory that moving forward, he was creative a new narrative for himself that he didn't really talk about but he was fine with people wanting to muse about a potentially more serious way he could have lost his eye."
Boden, meanwhile, added: "Yeah, he didn't go around flaunting that he basically got a cat scratch!" That's understandable, of course. Fury's conversation with Agent Coulson at the end of the movie is hilarious, and the start of him creating a myth around the loss of his eye.
Check back here tomorrow for our full interview with the Captain Marvel directors.
For a previously released Captain Marvel spoiler-breakdown
via Empire Magazine, hit the "View List" button below.
The Russo Brothers Directed The Mid-Credits Scene
This probably won't come as too much of a shock but it was actually
Avengers: Infinity War directors Joe and Anthony Russo who directed that mid-credits scene featuring Carol Danvers' return to Earth and first meeting with The Avengers.
"It’s really a direct lead-in to their movie," says Boden.
"They came up with the concept for it, and we said, ‘That sounds awesome.’" What we don't know is whether or not a longer version of the scene will play out during
Avengers: Endgame similar to that
Captain America: Civil War stinger at the end of
Ant-Man back in 2015.
That Big Twist With The Skrulls
The big twist in
Captain Marvel comes when we learn that the Skrulls are actually sympathetic characters and not the villains we're used to seeing in the comic books.
"This was so much a movie about Carol's journey towards finding her own humanity," says Boden.
"Part of that is also seeing the humanity in other people, even people who you don't expect to. The idea of having Carol […] realising that she's been wrong and having to face that was really powerful for us."
"And if we could make an audience member also have that same experience of assuming that they were one thing and then having their expectations subverted, we thought that would be just all the more powerful," she concludes.
A Linear Approach To Captain Marvel's Origin Story
Carol Danvers' origin story plays out in a very unexpected fashion but earlier versions of the movie had a far more linear structure. As a result, the action would have kicked off with the hero on Earth and we would have explored her friendship with Maria Rambeau.
"The original opening to the script was a simulated combat situation in her fighter jets," Fleck reveals.
"There was a whole Top Gun-style sequence that we were even planning to shoot for a while. Even though it was an awesome introduction to Carol and Maria Rambeau – and I think it would have been fun for the audience to meet them on Earth as humans – the problem with that is the audience would be so far ahead of the story."
The movie would have then jumped forward in time but Fleck argues that what we ended up getting was a better approach to the story.
"But you would have already known, and viscerally felt, her as a human. When she is uncovering her past and feeling a bit freaked out by it, I think it's much more effective."
Goose Was Always Going To Be In The Movie
Goose is a breakout character in
Captain Marvel but the Flerken wasn't a last-minute addition to proceedings; instead, the alien was part of proceedings from the very beginning.
"I mean, a cat, who's a Flerken, who has pocket dimensions?" says Fleck. "There was no way that wasn't going to end up in this movie!" Goose was always intended to be the reason Nick Fury lost his eye: "Something about that belly being rubbed, Goose did not appreciate."
An Alternate After-Credits Scene
Captain Marvel's after-credits scene features Goose throwing up the Tesseract on Nick Fury's desk but Marvel Studios originally had a much different idea for where to take things.
"There was an idea on the table about having Jude Law […] emerge from his pod on Sakaar," Fleck explains, referring to the setting of
Thor: Ragnarok,
"and then have him look around and see the Devil's Anus behind him and wonder, 'Where the hell am I?'"
That would have been fun to see but also closed the door on Yon-Rogg being able to return.
Why Talos Has An Australian Accent
Ben Mendohlson plays both S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Keller and Talos but the latter has the actor's natural Australian accent. So, why did Marvel Studios decide to take things down that route?
"Everybody is just facile with their natural accent, they can show more emotion," explains Boden.
"I think it was important for him to kind of be as wild as Ben Mendelsohn wants to be."
That certainly appears to have paid off as the actor has been praised for his performance.
Captain Marvel's Name
Just like Wanda Maximoff has never been called "Scarlet Witch" and Clint Barton has never been directly referred to as "Hawkeye," Carol Danvers isn't known as "Captain Marvel" in the movie.
However, the seeds are planted throughout both by Nick Fury saying "Marvel" has a better ring to it than "Mar-Vell" and the fact he discovers that she was a Captain in the movie's final scene.
"You see that she was ‘Captain Carol Danvers’ when [Fury] has her file at the very end, so Captain is there if you want it," Boden explains.
The Avenger Initiative
Captain Marvel wraps up with Fury renaming his "Protector Initiative" after learning that Carol Danvers' call sign in the Air Force was "Avenger." As you might expect, that was a very deliberate decision.
"Kevin Feige and the Marvel team said, 'We want her to be inspiring Nick Fury to create the Avengers by the end of this movie,’" says Fleck before revealing that there was once an alternate take on the scene. "We did shoot him actually writing the Avengers Initiative on the screen, and it just felt like we didn't need to see it."
The Tesseract
During the course of this movie, we learn that Carol Danvers receives her powers courtesy of the Tesseract, a.k.a.the Space Stone.
Rather than creating a new energy source, the filmmakers chose to bring back a familiar MacGuffin and Boden has explained that it's been in the hands of the American government ever since the events of
Captain America: The First Avenger.
"Our thought was that they had gotten this thing, but they didn't know anything about it.
"They just kind of had it lying around somewhere at S.H.I.E.L.D., and [Mar-Vell] was able to use it to create her lightspeed engine at Pegasus. Only her as an alien would even know it had all this power, and figure out how to harness it."
Annette Bening Wasn't Always Playing The Supreme Intelligence
Annette Bening ends up playing both Mar-Vell/Dr. Wendy Lawson and the Supreme Intelligence in
Captain Marvel but that wasn't always the plan.
"We initially had a separate figure being the Supreme Intelligence," Boden confirms.
"To have it be connected to her origin and her hero felt like an obvious idea that should have been in there from the very beginning. All of a sudden I woke up from a nap, and I was like 'What the hell are we doing? Why are these two separate people?’"
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