Carrie Coon reveals why she turned down offer to reprise Marvel role in Avengers: Endgame

This Marvel star has revealed the reason why she rejected an offer to reprise her villain role in one of the most successful films ever made.

Carrie Coon has revealed why she rejected an offer to reprise her Marvel role in the blockbuster Avengers finale, Endgame.

The US actress, 44, portrayed Thanos’ adoptive daughter Proxima Midnight in 2018’s Infinity War, the penultimate film in the behemoth Avengers franchise.

While her character was killed by Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff in the final battle scene, Coon has claimed she was offered an opportunity to reprise her role for 2019’s Endgame, which went on to make a staggering $US2.8 billion at the global box office.

However, after Infinity War’s financial success, with the movie grossing more than $US2 billion worldwide, Coon was unhappy with the pay cheque on offer to return, according to her husband, playwright Tracy Letts.

Carrie Coon starred as villain 'Proxima' in Avengers: Infinity War.

Coon’s character almost killed Scarlett Johansson’s ‘Black Widow’ in the final battle scene, before being thwarted by Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen).

“I believe [Marvel] went to her for the second one, and they asked her to be in the second one,” Letts said on The Big Picture podcast.

“And she said, ‘Well, the first one is the most successful movie ever made. Are you going to pay me any more money?’ And they said, ‘No. We’re not going to pay you any more money.’

“She said, ‘Wow, you’re not going to pay me any more money, then I don’t think I’m going to do it.’ And they said, ‘Well, you should feel yourself fortunate to be part of the Marvel Universe.’ So she declined.”

Letts, 59, added one final dig at the studio, suggesting the couple hadn’t seen any Marvel movies.

“We would’ve made a bigger deal out of this, but it would have involved us watching the movies and we weren’t going to do that,” he finished.

Coon’s husband Tracy Letts revealed his wife turned down an opportunity to star in Endgame. Picture: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

Coon, who stars on the most recent season of The White Lotus, previously opened up about her brief stint in the MCU, telling Entertainment Weekly in 2018 her character had significantly evolved over the course of filming, from being a voice role to requiring more filming work.

“It started as a voiceover audition. They were just looking for the voice of Proxima Midnight, and [they reached out] perhaps because they were interested in my voice or maybe because I’ve actually done motion-capture work previously,” Coon said at the time.

“I used to do motion-capture work for video games, back in Madison, Wisconsin. I was an athlete in college, and so it was very physical work that I enjoyed tremendously, and I had such a ball working on it.

“I’m much older now than I was then, so it was a very different experience. I was also pregnant when I did it. I flew down to Atlanta and did some mo-cap, mostly the facial capture.

“Of course, I can’t take credit for all of it — it’s a gifted team of animators that are taking on the bulk of that performance. But it morphed from a voiceover job into a mo-cap job, and then suddenly I realised I was in the highest-grossing movie of the year.”

Proxima was a member of Thanos’ army in Avengers: Infinity War.

Meanwhile, Marvel Studios is in the first stages of launching its next Avengers era.

Production has begun on the long-awaited Avengers: Doomsday, the next team-up of MCU superheroes following Endgame, which is slated to hit cinemas May 2026.

In an ambitious, five-hour live stream shared on social media last week, Disney revealed its star-studded line-up of new and familiar cast members as part of the company’s bid to reach the dizzying highs of the gangbusters ‘Infinity Saga’ era, which saw the studio rake in more than $US30 billion.

Over the past few years, Marvel has been pumping out endless, largely forgettable, superhero content, leading to doubts the genre would ever reach the same success.

That was, until Robert Downey Jr. hit the stage at Comic-Con last year, announcing he’d be returning to the franchise as a new character, villain Doctor Doom, after Iron Man was killed off in Endgame.

Australian actor Chris Hemsworth was the most notable reveal, poised to make his comeback as Thor, a role he debuted in 2011.

The rest of the Avengers: Doomsday cast included newcomer Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/Invisible Woman), Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson/Captain America), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier), Letitia Wright (Shuri/the new Black Panther), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man), Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki), among a host of others.

While Marvel could very well have further cast announcements up its sleeve, among the notable omissions during the unveiling included Olsen, Tom Holland as Spider-Man and Brie Larson, who plays Captain Marvel.

Russo brothers Joe and Anthony – who directed Infinity War and Endgame – have been tapped to direct the next two Avengers films, including Avengers: Doomsday and its follow-up, Avengers: Secret Wars, set to be released in May 2027.

Originally published as Carrie Coon reveals why she turned down offer to reprise Marvel role in Avengers: Endgame