'Captain Marvel': Original Avengers Naming Scene Was Longer

Despite flying into theaters just a week ago, Captain Marvel is one of the earliest films in the ever-expanding timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the exception of the first Captain America movie, the Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck-directed film is the earliest MCU movie in a time before Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) formed the Avengers. In fact, Captain Marvel shows the SHIELD agent laying the groundwork for the formation of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

Right before the movie wraps up, Fury sits at his desk thinking of a way to protect Earth when Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) was off fighting villains across the cosmos. He initially named the project "The Protector Initiative" before glancing over at Danvers' Air Force file and seeing her call sign was "Avenger." He then changed the name from Protector to Avenger and the credits began to roll. It was a fast moving scene that almost extended longer, according to Boden.

"The whole movie is about Captain Marvel inspiring Nick Fury to change his whole outlook and to, you know, make SHIELD into a place that can deal with an entirely different world he didn't know existed," Boden said on a recent episode of The Empire Film Podcast. "In a way, the whole movie is about how Captain Marvel inspires him to form the Avengers so we just wanted to make it very specific at the end. It was a very late decision to see it on the screen. We did shoot him writing 'The Avenger Initiative' on the screen and it just felt like we didn't need to see it."

The character that inspired the Avengers is set to meet her namesake group next month in Avengers: Endgame, arguably the biggest movie ever put out by Marvel Studios. While the character seemed invincible by the time Captain Marvel wrapped up, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently confirmed that the character, in fact, will have an Achilles' heel.

"If we're lucky enough to see future adventures with Captain Marvel, of course there will be limitations and there will be Achilles heels and there will be things that we learn and see that it's not as easy as a slicing through whatever she wants to at any point," Feige told SlashFilm. "But this wasn't the time to accentuate that."

Captain Marvel is in theaters now. Other upcoming Marvel Studios films include Avengers: Endgame on April 26th and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th.

What'd you think of the situation to led Fury to come up with the Avengers name? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or join the conversation online by hitting me (@AdamBarnhardt) up on Twitter!