Get A Look At Brie Larson's First-Ever Day As Captain Marvel
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of Avengers: Endgame hitting theaters, co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo hosted an Instagram Live stream as well as a Twitter live-tweeting session for fans to get some behind-the-scenes content, ask questions, and even enjoy a quick guest appearance on video. The Twitter half of the big to-do involved uploading some reminiscent personal media from the directors and their time on set. This included a short video of a momentous event: Brie Larson's first-ever day in her history-making role as Carol Danvers, otherwise known as Captain Marvel. (Because of the way the Marvel movies were shot, Larson filmed scenes for Avengers: Endgame before she shot her Captain Marvel standalone film, even though the latter debuted in theaters before the former.)
As simple as the video is, it's sweet to see. Larson walks into frame on the Quinjet cockpit set as Black Widow actress Scarlett Johansson greets her. They share a hug while Captain America actor Chris Evans looks on with a little smile.
This was @brielarson’s first day ever as Captain Marvel… And here’s a quick video of her greeting the cast for the first time. #AvengersAssemble pic.twitter.com/ewMLDqgVGk
— Russo Brothers (@Russo_Brothers) April 27, 2020
This tidbit illustrates more than it immediately seems about the work culture of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — and what a challenge Larson had on her hands walking into a franchise as massive as this one.
A little more out-of-continuity than normal
It's a surprise to learn that such a critical scene — Captain Marvel mixing with the other Avengers on a ship that holds a ton of significance within the MCU — was Larson's first as the superhero. No doubt it had to feel a bit like jumping into a miles-deep vat of ice water. Everyone around her had been working together for years, playing characters they'd had an equal amount of time to live in and understand profoundly, while she was putting her first foot into an enormous, years-long commitment. That the cast and crew around Larson recognized that and put in the effort to welcome her specifically isn't just kind — it's key to maintaining morale on what was doubtlessly a grueling production process.
During a 2019 press conference for Avengers: Endgame (via io9), Larson opened up about what she was feeling that day: "[Endgame] will always be personally dear to me because it was my first time playing Captain Marvel. We shot this first, so I had to stumble and figure out who this character was with no script for this and no script for Captain Marvel, and perform for the first time in front of legends."
Larson's post-credit scene in Infinity War was also at the very beginning of her time in front of an MCU camera. Most individual movies all across Hollywood aren't shot in sequence, but it's a little bit more than that to ask an actor to show up for filming that's out of an entire movie franchise's sequence. As Larson explained during the presser, she hadn't put down a moment of dailies for her title film yet; though she'd likely had script pages for months before that, it's just not the same. No time had been spent in character yet, making her moments in Endgame all the more impressive.