The Marvels villain actor reveals Captain Marvel "combusted" with Dar-Benn in alternate ending
"They kind of combust together"
Zawe Ashton, who played The Marvels villain Dar-Benn, has revealed that the MCU movie had an alternate ending – in which Captain Marvel seemingly died.
"There was another ending that we did film where Brie and myself are kind of in space, still having it out, and they kind of combust together," Ashton told ComicBook.com's Phase Zero podcast.
Of course, this isn't quite how things go down in the movie's final cut. Dar-Benn, a Kree warrior on a vengeful mission to restore her home planet and get her hands on the powerful Quantum Bands, clashes in a final battle with Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) as the movie begins to wrap up.
Dar-Benn's plan involves using the Bands to steal the energy from the Earth's sun in order to restore the extinguished sun of her own planet, and Carol, Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), AKA Ms. Marvel, are doing their best to stop her. When Dar-Benn attempts to use both Bands, however, they prove too powerful, and she combusts – but Captain Marvel remains unharmed.
Ashton acknowledges that filming alternate endings is common practice with comic book tentpole movies, in part due to the ever-changing nature of Marvel's vast interconnected universe(s). "I'm happy to be a kind of moveable, jelly-like actor," she added, laughing. "It keeps it exciting."
The Marvels is streaming now on Disney Plus. For more on the movie, check out the rest of our coverage below.
- The comics that influenced The Marvels, according to Nia DaCosta
- Nia DaCosta explaining The Marvels' "lighter, softer" Fury
- The Marvels director weighing in on whether or not you need to have watched the TV shows beforehand
- The MCU movies and shows to watch before The Marvels
- How many Captain Marvels are there in Marvel Comics?
- Ms. Marvel: The powers and comic book origins of Kamala Khan
- The comic book history of Monica Rambeau
- When does The Marvels take place on the Marvel timeline?
- The Marvels ending explained
- All of The Marvels Easter eggs and MCU references
- All of The Marvels cameos, listed and explained
- The Marvels post-credits scenes explained
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I’m an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering everything film and TV-related across the Total Film and SFX sections. I help bring you all the latest news and also the occasional feature too. I’ve previously written for publications like HuffPost and i-D after getting my NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism.