Captain Marvel Writer Reveals Movie Origin That Didn’t Make The Cut

Captain Marvel’s origins drew inspiration from the comics, but they also definitely changed some things up in the characters transition to the big screen. That’s especially true of the role Mar-Vell plays in the film, which is changed in a big way. In a new interview with Captain Marvel writer Kelly Sue DeConnick and Captain Marvel producer Mary Livanos they were asked about Carol’s movie origin, and it turns out there was another take on it presented that the team ended up deciding not to go with.

“I’m not complaining okay, I don’t own these characters and I understand why it was a no,” DeConnick told iO9. “In Pursuit of Flight. It was actually supposed to be that she goes back to the moment of the explosion and it’s a time paradox where she’s witnessing her own origin story right? So her origin story in the comics is the machine blows up and she’s there. She’s being held hostage, and Mar-Vell, he picks up her body and is trying to take her out of the cave when the machine explodes, and the power of the explosion transfers his DNA into hers and (claps) she’s superpowered.”

“What I wanted to do is have Carol time travel, so she’s in the scene where she’s getting her powers,” DeConnick continued. “She’s there with Helen Cobb who’s another pilot hero of hers, and she and Helen are watching the moment. Helen wants those powers, so she intentionally runs into the scene to be caught in the explosion. I wanted Mar-Vell to grab Helen, which would leave Carol needing to go in and rescue her younger self so that when the machine exploded it would transfer Carol’s powers from Carol to Carol, so that she would become the source of her own power. So it was an intentionally feminist reboot.”

That origin is directly pulled from DeConnick’s run, though with some obvious changes, but as Livanos explained, it was important to not have a man be the reason she ends up with powers, but instead a choice she makes on her own.

“And you see the broad strokes of that storyline in Captain Marvel,” Livanos said. “Helen Cobb, huge inspiration for Wendy Lawson, our update of Walter Lawson who was the male Captain Mar-Vell, but we wanted Carol…that had to be a moment where she made a heroic decision that resulted in her powers. We couldn’t have a male Captain Marvel swoop in, save her. We wanted the source of her power to come from her own decision making.”

It is certainly an interesting take on her origin story, but ultimately we like where the movie ended up.

Captain Marvel is available on digital platforms now.