Captain Marvel took a long time to make her way to the MCU. Rumored to appear ever since Phase 1, Carol Danvers finally showed up in 2019’s Captain Marvel. But thanks to the recent release of the Infinity Saga box set, we know that she could’ve been introduced even earlier. Specifically, in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
At the end of the movie, there’s a scene where we see the ‘new’ Avengers assembling at their HQ, with War Machine, Falcon, Vision and Scarlet Witch all there. The special features for Age of Ultron, however, reveal that there was also supposed to be a stand-in in the shot for Captain Marvel.
The plan was to cast the role later and then seamlessly insert her into the scene. However, it was ultimately decided to remove the hero and save her introduction for her solo movie. Still, a test shot was filmed with a stand-in and you can see a glimpse of it down in the gallery below.
While it would’ve been cool to have Carol appear in the MCU as early as Age of Ultron, it was probably the smart move to leave her out in the end. After all, it seems like a pretty unexciting way to have Captain Marvel make her debut in the franchise. Without much context for why she’s there or where she came from, we would’ve known next to nothing about her at that point and it’s unlikely that audiences would’ve been too excited by her appearance. After getting over the initial surprise of it, that is.
In any case, the above photo still provides an interesting look behind the scenes of Avengers: Age of Ultron and is a fun little piece of MCU trivia to share with your friends.