Captain Marvel almost had a completely different ending, and it would have been much less satisfying

Warning: MAJOR Captain Marvel spoilers ahead.

It’s already clear that Captain Marvel is a huge success. The movie had one of the biggest box office openings ever for a female-led film. And, more importantly, it’s straight-up badass. But it turns out that the movie’s ending could have been radically different.

If you saw the movie in theaters, you know that it ends with Captain Marvel leaving Earth along with Talos and his family. It’s a powerful scene; Carol is giving up the chance to reconnect with her closest friends so that she can save a group of refugees she just met. But that almost didn’t happen. In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, editor Debbie Berman revealed that in the film’s original cut, the Skrull family wasn’t even in the final scene.

"It used to end with Carol flying off into space alone, and I found that a bit jarring," Berman told ET. "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."

As a solution, the team added the Skrulls to the scene, giving us the ending we know and love.

"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 explained. "It gave more resonance and closure to her final moment in the film."

That makes sense to us.

We can’t imagine an ending where Carol abandons Talos and his family—especially not after she renounces the Kree Starforce to help them.

We’ll be thinking about how Captain Marvel could have ended when we watch it for a second (or third) time.

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