Marvel Studios originally wanted Captain Marvel to be more "militaristic" in The Marvels
Marvel doesn't quite know what to do about that sash, do they?
When you’ve been in comics for as long as Captain Marvel has, you end up with lots of different variations of costumes to choose from. Andy Park, the visual development supervisor at Marvel Studios, recently shared several iterations of Carol Danvers’ designs from 2023’s The Marvels, revealing that Captain Marvel nearly had a much more militaristic design for the film.
On Facebook, Park explained that early designs for the character were closer to the “militaristic armored look” we saw in Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame. The more relaxed look she sports in The Marvels was a deliberate move to “relax her look” without completely abandoning her iconic look. Though the film didn’t quite live up to box office expectations, it is interesting to get a kind of behind-the-scenes look at the design process of a major movie project like The Marvels.
Two of the three images Park shared on the social media site show Carol with a sash around her waist, something that the MCU version of the character hasn’t sported before but is very much part of her comic book look through the years. Previously, Park has said that because the MCU’s Captain Marvel has been a soldier for so long, the sash didn’t make sense, but it is interesting that Marvel keeps trying to reintroduce it even if they eventually dropped it before deciding on the design you see in her latest outing.
The militaristic, armored design apparently made it pretty far into pre-production before the switch to the more relaxed version was made. Andy Park shared a 3D render that he made of the armored look, complete with sash, to Instagram, showing how the completed design would have looked. This look is much closer to what we’d seen from Captain Marvel in previous films, though we have grown to enjoy the more casual look she initially sports in her latest film.
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