In a film already packed to the brim with odd script choices and narrative misfires, Valkyrie’s cameo in The Marvels may have been one of the most surprising.
[Spoiler Warning: Brief spoilers for The Marvels follow below]
Taking place just after the opening set piece of the film’s second act, the scene in questions sees Asgard’s current ‘King’, as once again portrayed by actress Tessa Thompson, for a brief stop upon Carol Danvers’ personal spaceship, The Hooty.
Responding to the Kree superheroine’s request for assistance in relocating a handful of Skrulls whose temporary homeworld had recently been destroyed by Dar-Been, Valkyrie beams onto The Hooty in order to personally receive and shepherd said refugees to shelter in her domain of New Asgard.
Upon arriving on the ship, Valkyrie is embraced by Captain Marvel, prompting the Asgardian leader to ask the Kree-infused warrior, “Is everything okay?”
However, rather than offer any verbal reply, Captain Marvel instead longingly holds Valkyrie’s in her arms for a brief few seconds before composing herself and thanking her ally for her help.
“Always,” responds Valkyrie, before noting “I see you’ve finally found yourself a team.”
Met with Danvers’ protestations that the team was “unintentional,” Valkyrie attempts to calm her the Avenger by assuring her, “I’ve been on some unintentional teams myself. You can stand tall without standing alone. Take it from me, Marv.”
Informed that the Skrulls are finally ready to travel, Valkyrie then proceeds to close out her time in The Marvels by planting on a kiss on Captain Marvel’s cheek and wishing her “May our next meeting be joyful” before flashing back to Earth on the Rainbow Bridge.
And while inter-MCU cameos in the MCU are nothing new, this one caused specific confusion among fans due to the fact that Valkyrie’s only connection to any of the film’s three leads was her having fought alongside Captain Marvel against Thanos during Endgame‘s Battle of Earth.
However, according to noted scooper CanWeGetSomeToast, it seems the true explanation for Valkyrie’s appearance in The Marvels was actually left on the cutting room floor.
Taking to Twitter on November 19th, CanWeGetSomeToast alleged that per their sources, three major plot elements had ultimately been dropped from the final cut of Marvel’s latest film (though the scooper lists a fourth plot point involving Prince Yan’s gifting of a new comic accurate suit to Monica as also having been cut from the film, they would later remember that this scene had in fact been included in The Marvels‘ theatrical release).
These included Kamala being unable to take off her bangle and subsequently being “imprisoned/tortured” by Dar-Benn, her new costume turning into “a space suit, which would’ve been used to join Carol and Monica to close the rip in space-time TOGETHER,” and outright confirmation that “Captain Marvel and Valkyrie were explicitly together in the past”.
To this last point, CanWeGetSomeToast detailed, “[The] cut quote [was] “We work better as friends’ but Disney are cowards”.
Curiously, should Marvel have gone through with canonizing a relationship between Valkyrie and Captain Marvel, one would have to wonder where it would fit within the MCU’s timeline.
After all, right after their first meeting in Endgame, Carol – as per a flashback in her latest outing – spent the next few years until The Marvels traversing the deep recesses of space and raining hell down on Hala.
With a schedule that packed, one wonders where she’d find the time to enjoy being a part of Disney’s ever-desperate attempts at rainbow marketing.
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