The Marvels Star Confirms Monica Rambeau's Cut MCU Superhero Name
"The Marvels" does a lot to further cement Carol Danvers' (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau's (Teyonah Parris), and Kamala Khan's (Iman Vellani) respective places within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That said, one thing the film doesn't do is give Monica an official, in-universe superhero alias. Indeed, Kamala tries several times to come up with a moniker for her increasingly powerful teammate but never lands on one before Monica is tragically left stranded in an alternate universe at the end of "The Marvels."
It turns out that there was, however, a version of the MCU film that ends with Monica receiving the alias "Photon" just moments before their cosmic separation. Vellani confirmed as much in an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, revealing that the moment in question was cut because the creative team behind 'The Marvels" realized that it didn't organically fit. "It was a cool moment, but I think they took it out for a good reason," Vellani said. "It wouldn't make sense tonally if Monica is about to sacrifice herself and we're like, 'But your code name!'"
The fan-favorite actor added that she doesn't think "The Marvels" ultimately needs a scene where Kamala officially names her friend Photon because Monica basically becomes the superhero character before she sacrifices herself anyway. "You don't even need the words — she was Photon in that moment," Vellani argued. "And I don't think Captain Marvel was even called Captain Marvel in her own movie!"
The Marvels sets up an exciting future for Monica Rambeau
A lot of the discussions surrounding "The Marvels" have focused on why it bombed at the box office and what its various shortcomings may reveal about the current, unsteady state of the MCU. Consequently, there have been fewer conversations about what the film actually does for its franchise. For instance, it notably sets the stage for the long-awaited formation of the Young Avengers and introduces a live-action, albeit variant, version of the X-Men. It also sets up a bright future for Captain Rambeau.
It is, after all, only after Monica gets trapped in an alternate reality that she wakes up to find herself being cared for by Binary (Lashana Lynch) and Beast (Kelsey Grammer). These characters' brief appearances in "The Marvels" have been met with so much excitement that Monica's presence in their sequence has been somewhat overshadowed. If there's one thing the film's mid-credits scene does, though, it's set up the possibility that Monica will either create a new life for herself as a member of the X-Men or bring some of that team's members with her whenever she eventually returns to her home universe.
Either way, it seems safe to say that there's still plenty of time for Monica to assume an official superhero moniker within the MCU, and it may not even be Photon that she ends up going by. Notably, the character has taken on a few different aliases in the comics, including Pulsar, Photon, Spectrum, and even Captain Marvel. Unfortunately, fans will just have to wait to see which of those alternate identities Monica ultimately assumes in the MCU.