Somehow, after earning the lowest opening weekend of any MCU movie, and then suffering the sharpest drop-off of any superhero film ever made in its second weekend, The Marvels is still finding fresh ways to disappoint people. Although this one might just cut the deepest.
Tessa Thompson’s cameo as Valkyrie in the Captain Marvel sequel was the fulfillment of years of fans shipping Carol Danvers and the king of New Asgard, something only fueled by Brie Larson and Thompson themselves on social media. Sadly, the duo only shared a brief scene together in the film, before Val vanished back into whatever cosmic toybox Kevin Feige puts his action figures in when he’s not playing with them.
That’s why it hurts so much, then, that new intel is alleging that Carol and Val were originally depicted as not just good friends in The Marvels but a former couple. According to scooper CanWeGetSomeToast, cut dialogue would’ve clarified that the pair had embarked on a romance since meeting in Avengers: Endgame, although they had split up amicably at some point. It’s unclear who was supposed to have said it, but one line removed was apparently, “We work better as friends.” As the scooper put it, “Disney are cowards.”
It’s important to stress that this is just a rumor for now, but it certainly does line up with the very affectionate way the two greet each other in their scene, as fans have naturally noticed.
And we did get a Valcarol kiss… Sorta.
Who knows what happened here, but if this dialogue was indeed cut, then it’s a fair assumption to make that Disney vetoed the moment. And given the fact that we know director Nia DaCosta had to walk away from the project during post-production because Marvel kept delaying the movie (to work on her next film, which coincidentally stars Tessa Thompson), this is only compounding those conspiracies that the theatrical release isn’t her preferred version of the film.
You know what’s coming. Yes, it seems the #ReleaseTheDaCostaCut movement has begun.
Writer Barbie might have thrown shade on the Snyder Cut, but something tells me she would support this similar fan campaign. Whether it could actually lead to something seems unlikely, but at the very least letting Marvel know how much it hurts that we were denied Carol being confirmed to be LGBTQ+ could maybe lead to some more positive developments in the future. Assuming, that is, the character has a future after The Marvels‘ box office burnout.