Anticipation for Captain Marvel reached a fever pitch when the film’s star Brie Larson devilishly tweeted:
View full post on XThe 21st instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) marks a turning point for the studio: this is the company’s first female-fronted movie, and the first with a female director. Kevin Feige – who has served as the president of Marvel Studios for the past 11 years – admits that there used to be a lot of pushback against greenlighting projects focused on women superheroes. “I’m anxious for the time where it’s not a novelty that there is a female-led superhero movie, but it is a norm,” he told EW. “And I think we can get there... The success of Wonder Woman [a DC production] made me very happy.” To this end, the producer is developing a solo outing for Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow and has plans to expand Marvel’s roster of characters so that over half of them are women.
Selecting the Academy Award winner Brie Larson to suit up for the title role is another savvy move. An outspoken feminist, the actress is a champion of the #MeToo movement who recently dedicated an awards-acceptance speech to announcing film-festival diversity quotas and famously refused to applaud Casey Affleck on his Oscar win. “She’s already an inspiration to many in her real-world work, and now we get to put her in an iconic costume and give her these powers on the big screen,” adds Feige.
Judging by her comic-book persona, Captain Marvel is set to be brash, impulsive and flawed – in other words, a well-rounded person. “Just seeing a character who says how she feels and says what’s on her mind and doesn’t let people stand in her way is incredibly empowering,” Larson says.
View full post on XHere, we round up everything we know about the movie so far.
The plot
Carol Danvers is an Air Force pilot and CIA agent who works at Nasa. Following an explosion, her DNA intermingles with an alien’s, which changes her genetic make-up. She then becomes Captain Marvel, the most powerful superhero in the MCU, whose special skills include absorbing energy and expelling it through her fists; flying six times faster than the speed of sound; and a seventh sense that allows her to anticipate her opponents’ movements in battle. These strengths are sure to make for some out-of-this-world action sequences.
Set in the Nineties, Captain Marvel charts Danvers’ origin story and culminates in a galactic war between the Krees and the Skrulls, two extraterrestrial races who invade Earth.
The cast
Aside from Brie Larson, the latest Marvel movie features Jude Law as Mar-Vell, the commander of Starforce, a military unit stationed on the Kree planet of Hala.
Among his team members are Gemma Chan, and Lee Pace and Djimon Hounsou (both reprising their Guardians of the Galaxy roles).
Ben Mendelson plays Talos, the leader of the Skrulls, and a digitally de-aged Samuel L Jackson will return to the MCU as Nick Fury.
Annette Bening will also feature in Captain Marvel in an as-of-yet undisclosed part (rumoured to be the superhero's mother).
The directors
The husband-and-wife team Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck will be helming the movie together. The pair met on a student-film shoot and have since directed small-scale indie fare including It's Kind of a Funny Story and Mississippi Grind. Fans were surprised by this hire, due to Boden and Fleck's lack of genre-specific experience (Captain Marvel being their first foray into action-adventure). Marvel's Kevin Feige, who is known for spearheading the careers of up-and-coming film-makers, had this to say on the matter: "When we're filling a director chair or chairs, we want people who are focused on [...] the surprising twists and turns of a singular character journey. And when you look at the work that Ryan and Anna have done in the past, they are all amazing and very diverse character studies, and that impressed us."
The release date
The movie is slated for release in the UK on 8 March 2019. After Captain Marvel’s MCU debut, the character will appear in the series’ fourth Avengers film, which arrives on screens on 26 April 2019.
