The Brie Larson Twist Kevin Feige Wouldn't Allow in Age of Ultron

Marvel almost introduced Captain Marvel the loudest, quickest way possible: by dropping her into the last seconds of Avengers: Age of Ultron with zero setup. Joss Whedon shot it. Kevin Feige vetoed it. The result? A cool behind-the-scenes near-miss that resurfaced again after a fan post on Nov 19, 2025 reminded everyone it was real.

The Age of Ultron cameo that almost launched Captain Marvel

Whedon and Feige had different instincts on this one. Whedon loved the idea of a mic-drop tease. Feige thought it would confuse more than excite. Their biggest creative push-pull on the movie ended up being over Carol Danvers.

Quick refresher on where the rumor bubbled up again: a fan account, @spectrumarvel, flagged the tidbit on Nov 19, 2025. But this has been an open secret for years among people who track Marvel development stories.

What Whedon wanted to do

Whedon had already used Age of Ultron to bring in Vision, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver. His plan was to add Captain Marvel to the lineup in the movie’s final beat: when Captain America turns to the fresh recruits at the Avengers compound and starts that cut-off 'Avengers...' rallying call, Carol Danvers would be standing there with the newbies.

There was one snag: they hadn’t cast the role yet. So Whedon went ahead and shot the moment with a stand-in just to see how it played.

Why Feige killed it

Feige’s take was that introducing one of Marvel’s most powerful heroes as a 10-second mystery face, no context, no name, would spark more head-scratching than hype. He wanted her debut to feel earned, not random. So the cameo footage got shelved.

Instead, Age of Ultron ends with Cap and Black Widow prepping the new lineup, Hulk vanishing into the wind, and Thor heading off to chase Infinity Stone answers. A clean handoff to what was coming next, even if it wasn’t the version Whedon originally pictured. And when Captain Marvel finally arrived years later (after Brie Larson was cast), it was with the full runway Feige clearly wanted.

The other fork in the road: Quicksilver lives?

Captain Marvel wasn’t the only alternate path Whedon shot. The film famously kills Quicksilver in Sokovia when he leaps in front of a hail of bullets to save Hawkeye. But Whedon filmed a version where he survives, too.

In one take, Quicksilver is very much alive in the final Avengers facility scene, fully suited and standing with Wanda like nothing happened. In another, he pops back up after, as Whedon put it, basically tanking a few dozen bullets. Whedon has joked about the studio calculus behind choices like that (via IndieWire):

'The only thing that would keep you alive is if the Disney executives say, 'Idiot, it’s a franchise and we need all these people and you’re not allowed to kill them.''

'We did actually shoot him in the last scene, in an outfit with his sister. And we did shoot him waking up from his, 'Ahh! I didn’t really die from these 47 bullet wounds!' but the intent was always that we were going to earn this and then you have to stand by it.'

In the end, Marvel stuck with the death to give the movie some real stakes. Two different what-ifs from the same film: one cut for clarity, one kept for emotional weight.

• Movie: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
• Director: Joss Whedon
• Production: Marvel Studios
• IMDb: 7.3
• Rotten Tomatoes: 75%
• Streaming: Disney+

Would that Carol cameo have worked, or just muddied the waters? Drop your take in the comments.