Karen Gillan has revealed which scene was completely improvised by her in Avengers: Endgame.
While in discussion with The Wrap over Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Gillan spoke at length about the increased chances for improvisation in the threequel and harkened back to her experiences filming Endgame. She disclosed that she and Robert Downey Jr. almost entirely improvised the film’s opening where we saw Nebula and Tony Stark bonding in the face of certain death.
“I will say, I’ve improvised a fair bit of Nebula. Because I don’t know if you saw Endgame, which seems like [laughs]. That’s a ridiculous question. But basically, all of the stuff with Robert Downey Jr. [who portrays Tony Stark/Iron Man] at the beginning was like, that whole montage was improvised. Because all that was written was oh, they play football. They eat, they do this. And then we kind of ended up getting to improvise because he’s an amazing improviser. And so there was all this stuff about them playing the game and how much it meant to Nebula that she actually got to win something. And so she’s been slowly getting more improv-y.”
The flick-football game is the first heartwarming moment in the three-hour blockbuster, as the two descend closer to their deaths aboard the Benetar ship. While they’re saved by Captain Marvel, it’s unknown just for how long Iron Man and Nebula were stuck floating in the void of space.
Nebula’s arc since her appearance in the first Guardians film has seen her change from a ruthless assassin obsessed with one-upmanship to a saviour of the universe. What the future holds for her character in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy 3 is unknown, but with the promise of more improv, it’ll likely that there will be more authentic scenes from the Scottish actress.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is set to release this May 5.