Avengers: Endgame Writers Reveal Why Captain Marvel and Black Panther Didn't Have Bigger Roles

Avengers: Endgame featured just about every character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first [...]

By Matthew Aguilar

Avengers: Endgame featured just about every character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first ten years, even pulling in ones who had previously departed their respective franchise. That's a lot of characters to feature and spotlight, even in a 3-hour movie, and so some characters were bound to get more screentime and attention than others. Two characters that ended up being the case for are also two of the most popular newcomers to the MCU in Black Panther and Captain Marvel, and the Avengers: Endgame writers recently explained why they weren't featured in the movie more.

Spoilers incoming for Endgame, so if you haven't watched the film yet you've been warned. Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely recently explained the reason for Black Panther and Captain Marvel's limited screentime to The New York Times, and it just came down to timing.

"There wasn't a lot of time to adjust," McFeely said. "It's not like we could say, 'Hurry, put Shuri in there.' We started [filming 'Infinity War' and 'Endgame'], and then 'Black Panther' started, we're still going. They finish. We're still going".

Marvel knew Black Panther and Wakanda were going to be important going forward, but they weren't aware of just how big it would be, and it wasn't possible to shift the story or spotlight for Infinity War or Endgame.

"When we're doing the tests [before Black Panther opened], and Cap goes, 'I know somewhere,' and then you cut to Wakanda, the audience goes, 'Oh, that's interesting.' But when you do those tests after the movie comes out, all you have to do is [makes drumming noises] and people freak out," McFeely said.

The same issue came with Captain Marvel, which was done after Infinity War and Endgame were already well into production, though in that case her origin story hadn't even been written yet.

"Same issue with Captain Marvel," McFeely said. "We shot [Brie Larson] before she shot her movie. She's saying lines for a character 20 years after her origin story, which no one's written yet. It's just nuts. Certainly, Captain Marvel is in [Endgame] a little less than you would have thought. But that's not the story we're trying to tell — it's the original Avengers dealing with loss and coming to a conclusion, and she's the new, fresh blood."

Those two characters had their moments to shine in Endgame, though we would've loved to see more of them utilized through the movie's full runtime. In any case, we'll have plenty of time to see them going forward.

You can find the official description below.

"After the devastating events of Avengers: Infinity War (2018), the universe is in ruins due to the efforts of the Mad Titan, Thanos. With the help of remaining allies, the Avengers must assemble once more in order to undo Thanos' actions and restore order to the universe once and for all, no matter what consequences may be in store."

Avengers: Endgame is in theaters now.

H/T LRM

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