It’s no secret that Marvel movies are always cut down from what was first shot. Editors on Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame described cutting the movies down from 900 hours of shot footage, and while that’s an extreme example, there will always be scenes that end up being scrapped.
But is that always a smart decision? Anyone who has seen a director’s cut that’s better than the theatrical will tell you sometimes crucial information gets lost in the shuffle, and Marvel isn’t exempt from that. The Marvels was lauded as one of the shortest MCU movies, but glimpses of unused footage hiding in plain sight reveal scenes that may have solved a big issue with the plot.
The Marvels had a lot to establish in its first act. Not only did it have to establish the main villain Dar-Benn and her fight for natural resources, but it also had to catch up with Carol Danvers and introduce viewers to Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan. Because of that, the pacing often became rushed and disjointed.
Redditor KleinBottle5D compared publicity materials like trailers and first-look images to what actually was included in the final cut of the movie and found some big differences. Most prominently, the trailer includes a shot of Monica fighting off the Kree during the transporting sequence, which would have helped explain how all three Marvels ended up on Earth.
But that’s not all. There was also a shot of just Carol and Monica appearing to have a heart-to-heart, much like they had on Carol’s ship. These may have just been reshot to be set elsewhere, but it appears there were once more character-based moments in this movie than we see on screen.
One image is especially interesting: a first-look image shows Kamala seemingly held hostage by Dar-Benn, but crucially, Kamala is in her super suit. Was there a different ending that would see Kamala separated from her teammates in the movie’s final sequences?
Unfortunately, how these scenes would have worked in the final product is pure speculation, but it’s interesting to see what a multiversal variant of The Marvels would have looked like. What would the fan reaction have been if this movie was two hours long instead of an hour 45 minutes? Who knows, we may just see these deleted scenes later when The Marvels gets a physical release.
