If you walked out of Avengers: Infinity War wondering why the blue-skinned, horn-headed warrior with the glowing spear sounded so strangely familiar, you aren't alone. You’ve probably seen the actress dozens of times. She's everywhere. But under all that CGI and those jagged alien features, she's completely unrecognizable.
Carrie Coon is the voice and the face behind Proxima Midnight.
Yeah, that Carrie Coon. The one from The Leftovers. The one from Fargo and The Gilded Age. It’s a bit of a shocker because we usually see her in high-brow, prestige TV dramas where she’s crying or being incredibly intense in a very human way. Suddenly, she’s a genocidal alien general. Life is weird.
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Most fans just assume these secondary villains are stunt people or random voice actors. Not this time. The Russo brothers specifically wanted "prestige" talent for the Black Order to make them feel like a legitimate threat rather than just "disposable CGI fodder."
Carrie Coon provided the voice and the facial performance capture for the character in Infinity War. Honestly, it's a testament to her acting that she can make a character who looks like a heavy metal album cover feel genuinely menacing. She brings this icy, aristocratic cruelty to the role.
But here is the twist. She wasn't actually on set for most of the physical brawls.
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While Coon did the facial work and the voice, the actual "on-set" physical performance and the brutal stunts were handled by Monique Ganderton. Monique is a legend in the stunt world—she’s doubled for everyone from Famke Janssen to Karen Gillan. So, Proxima Midnight is basically a hybrid of two incredibly talented women.
Why Carrie Coon Almost Said No
You’d think every actor would jump at a Marvel paycheck. Not necessarily. Coon has admitted in interviews that she did some "soul searching" before signing on. She was coming from this very "auteur" television world—shows like The Leftovers are about as far from a superhero punch-up as you can get.
She eventually decided to do it because:
- She had done motion capture for video games in grad school and actually liked the tech.
- She was pregnant during filming (making a massive action role as a human pretty difficult).
- It was a chance to be part of the "biggest commercial project ever."
The pregnancy part is actually pretty cool. She was able to go to a studio, put on the mo-cap suit, and perform the character's facial expressions and dialogue without having to do the heavy-duty backflips and spear-swinging that Ganderton handled in Atlanta.
Proxima Midnight Beyond Infinity War
Wait, didn't she die? Yeah, Scarlet Witch basically turned her into blue mush during the Battle of Wakanda. But this is comic books. Nobody stays dead, or at least, versions of them don't.
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If you’re a completionist, you’ve heard her voice again. Coon returned to voice an alternate-reality version of Proxima Midnight in the Disney+ animated series What If...? specifically the episode where T'Challa becomes Star-Lord. It was a smaller role, but it kept the continuity alive.
Then there is the Endgame situation.
Proxima Midnight appears in the massive final battle of Avengers: Endgame because of the whole time-travel plot. However, things got a bit messy behind the scenes. According to reports and interviews with her husband, actor Tracy Letts, Coon didn't actually return to record new lines for Endgame. The production used existing footage and CGI data from Infinity War to bring her back.
It’s one of those Hollywood "pay dispute" stories that reminds us that even the MCU is just a business at the end of the day.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Character
People often confuse the Black Order (the "Children of Thanos") with the Gamora/Nebula "Children of Thanos" dynamic. Proxima isn't Thanos' biological daughter. She’s a general. In the comics, she’s actually married to Corvus Glaive, the creepy guy with the glaive who gets shanked by Vision.
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The movie hints at this bond. When Corvus gets hurt, Proxima is visibly pissed. It’s a tiny bit of humanity in a character that is otherwise a total monster.
- Height Difference: In the comics, Proxima is nearly 7 feet tall. Monique Ganderton is tall (around 5'11"), but CGI had to do the heavy lifting to make her look like a giant next to Black Widow.
- The Spear: That weapon isn't just a glowing stick. In the lore, it was forged from a star trapped in a space-time anomaly. It literally carries the weight of a star. No wonder Cap had a hard time blocking it.
Why This Casting Matters for the Future
The coolest part about Carrie Coon playing a CGI alien is the "Gemma Chan Clause."
Since we never saw Coon’s actual human face, she’s technically eligible to come back as a completely different character in the MCU. Gemma Chan did this—she was Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel and then Sersi in Eternals.
Fans have been clamoring to see Coon in a live-action, non-CGI role. She’s mentioned that her agents made sure her contract didn't "rule out" a future appearance as a human. Given that the MCU is currently obsessed with the Multiverse and bringing back heavy hitters, it wouldn’t be surprising to see her pop up as a hero or a different villain in Avengers: Secret Wars.
Actionable Insights for Fans:
- Watch the VFX Breakdowns: If you want to see how much of Proxima is actually Carrie, look up the DNEG (Double Negative) VFX breakdowns for Infinity War. You can see the side-by-side of Coon’s face in the mo-cap rig vs. the final render.
- Re-watch The Leftovers: If you only know her as the alien, go watch her as Nora Durst. It’s arguably one of the best TV performances of the last decade.
- Check the What If...? Credits: Listen closely to her voice in the "T'Challa Star-Lord" episode. She plays the character with a slightly different, more "employee of the month" energy since Thanos is a "good guy" in that universe.
Ultimately, Proxima Midnight is one of the best-designed villains in the MCU, and having an actress of Carrie Coon's caliber behind the eyes is exactly why that character felt so much more intimidating than a standard computer-generated baddie.
If you're tracking the cast of the upcoming Avengers films, keep an eye on Coon's press tours. She’s notoriously tight-lipped, but she’s also one of the few actors who can jump between a Broadway stage and a cosmic battlefield without breaking a sweat.