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Captain Marvel movie: Everything you need to know

Photo credit: @brielarson - Twitter
Photo credit: @brielarson - Twitter

From Digital Spy

When Captain Marvel finally arrives in cinemas it will mark a hallmark moment for Marvel Studios – its first solo female superhero film since the MCU kicked off with 2008's Iron Man.

Captain Marvel has a long and complicated history at Marvel (and beyond). So who is the latest incarnation of the hero, and how will she finally be coming to the big screen?

Captain Marvel release date: About time

Photo credit: Marvel Comics
Photo credit: Marvel Comics

Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel is currently scheduled to break out into her own solo film on March 8, 2019 in both the UK and US. And since we already know that production has wrapped (director Ryan Fleck confirmed it too), it will definitely hit that release date.

And she'll hardly be entering a market saturated by female superhero films. Warner Bros and DC beat Marvel to the punch with Wonder Woman, but other than some un-notable exceptions like Elektra and Catwoman, Captain Marvel will be a rare entry in the sausage-fest of the modern superhero movie genre.

Captain Marvel cast: In search of an actress

Photo credit: Marvel Comics
Photo credit: Marvel Comics

Emily Blunt was a long-time fan favourite casting, as was Game of Thrones (and Captain America: The First Avenger, remember?) star Natalie Dormer.

But finally, after months of rumours, Room's Brie Larson was confirmed for the role.

She's already doing her homework, so we should be in safe hands – though she kind of thinks the whole thing is going to ruin her life...

Larson has been learning to fly a plane for the movie, and her costume was finally revealed in January 2017. It's very green...

Photo credit: BACKGRID
Photo credit: BACKGRID

However, in the first official look at the movie, the green uniform was Danvers' Starforce outfit, the Kree military team that she is a part of when the movie starts.

Larson also revealed why she was hesistant to take the role because she likes "being anonymous". "I like disappearing into characters, and I always felt like if I was out in the public eye too much, it potentially limits you in the future," she explained.

Jude Law will join Larson as the male lead in the film. Law will apparently play Carol Danvers' (Larson) mentor D Walter Lawson - the civilian alter-ego of the Kree warrior Mar-Vell, the comics' original Captain Marvel, but we haven't had any official confirmation.

All we really know is that Law is playing the enigmatic commander of Starforce, which also includes Gemma Chan's sniper Minn-Erva.

Lee Pace is returning as everyone's least favourite MCU villain, Ronan the Accuser, with Djimon Hounsou reprising his role as Ronan's lieutenant, Korath the Pursuer. They have yet to become villains as Ronan is a respected figure on Hala and Korath is a member of Starforce.

Photo credit: Disney
Photo credit: Disney

As Hounsou has also been cast in DC's Shazam!, and as the character Shazam used to go by the name Captain Marvel in 1940, he's technically been on screen with Captain Marvels from two competing comic-book companies!

Samuel L Jackson will also be returning as Nick Fury – with both of his eyes intact, as the film is set long before Avengers: Infinity War.

In more exciting news, Clark Gregg will make his cinematic return as fan favourite Agent Phil Coulson. As with Fury's eye, that's also possible because Captain Marvel is set in the past, so the fact that Gregg has all but confirmed that Coulson died at the end of season five of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ("My understanding is that Phil Coulson is no longer alive") doesn't play here.

Setting the film in the past will see Samuel L Jackson and Clark Gregg de-aged using computer technology (much like Michael Douglas' Hank Pym was in the first Ant-Man movie for the scenes set in 1989).

Marvel's Kevin Feige has confirmed this will be "for the whole movie": "Without spoiling anything, Sam Jackson is shooting a movie for us right now where he's entirely 25 years younger the whole movie. And Coulson. So that'll be the first one where it's a character for the whole movie, as opposed to a glimpse at a certain period of time."

Feige later teased that the reason why the movie had to be set in the 1990s is "in the storytelling of the movie" – and it also allowed Captain Marvel to be influenced by '90s blockbusters including Terminator 2.

DeWanda Wise had signed on for the movie, but was forced to drop out over a scheduling conflict with her Netflix series She's Gotta Have It. British actress Lashana Lynch has stepped in to replace her. And the brilliant Annette Bening is also believed to be joining the cast in her first superhero role.

Photo credit: Disney
Photo credit: Disney

Female directors Elizabeth Wood (White Girl), Jennifer Kent (The Babadook), Niki Caro (Whale Rider), Lesli Linka Glatter (Homeland, Mad Men), Lorene Scafaria (Seeking a Friend for the End of the World) and Rebecca Thomas (The Little Mermaid) were all rumoured for the movie. Marvel finally announced It's Kind of a Funny Story and Mississippi Grind directing duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck would helm the film. So that's half an MCU movie directed by a woman then...

Inside Out's Meg LeFauve and Guardians of the Galaxy's Nicole Perlman wrote the first draft of the script, with the Tomb Raider reboot's Geneva Robertson-Dworet coming on board in August 2017 for a rewrite.

Captain Marvel plot: Who is Captain Marvel?

Photo credit: Marvel Studios
Photo credit: Marvel Studios

Captain Marvel will be the MCU's first flashback film, set before the rise of the Avengers, but it won't be an origin story as she'll already have her powers.

Here's the official synopsis:

"The story follows Carol Danvers as she becomes one of the universe's most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races. Set in the 1990s, Captain Marvel is an all-new adventure from a previously unseen period in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe."

Fury (before the loss of his eye) will be on hand to help Carol get to grips with her powers - apparently she'll be more powerful than any MCU character we've seen so far - and the pair will be going up against Marvel's classic shapeshifting aliens, the Skrulls.

"We wanted to explore a period before Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury had any idea about any of the other heroes and crazy stuff going on in the world," Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told EW.

"You know, we first met Nick when he told Tony, 'You're part of a big universe. You just don't know yet'. Well, we want to go back to a time when he didn't know it yet, and really showcase and announce that Carol Danvers was that first hero that Nick came across. That meant she could be the singular hero, but place it within timing of the MCU.

"It also got us talking about different genres, exploring this notion of sort of the '90s action film. We hadn't necessarily done anything like that before either, so there are definitely homages to our favourite '90s action films within Captain Marvel."

Producer Nate Moore has also promised that this will be a more subversive origin story, revealing that the team has stumbled upon a non-traditional structure to tell Carol Danvers' story. So don't expect the standard gain powers, harness powers, fight villain structure most origin stories follow.

"As we introduce new characters moving forward, we want to find ways to subvert that structure, so at least the experience of the film feels new to audiences," he explained.

Jude Law is on board, probably as the first Captain Marvel, Mar-Vell (Carol is the latest, and technically seventh hero to hold the title). He is expected to play the mentor to his successor. With Ronan and Korath back, we're expecting a big focus on the Kree, who have already played a major role in Agents of SHIELD.

Perhaps we'll even see one of the children of Thanos, Cull Obsidian in Captain Marvel as an eagle-eyed fan has spotted Obsidian sporting a cloth that appears to bear Danvers' colours in Avengers: Infinity War. Could the two have a history?

Photo credit: Marvel Studios
Photo credit: Marvel Studios

Captain Marvel's history is very complicated, so here's a quick rundown:

Marvel's original Captain Marvel (not to be confused with DC's older Captain Marvel, now known as Shazam) was created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan in 1967. He was an officer in the alien Kree military pun-tastically called Mar-Vell. He was assigned to monitor Earth but eventually sided with humanity against his own race and proceeded to join the Avengers and fly around the universe with the power of his Nega-Bands.

Photo credit: Marvel Comics
Photo credit: Marvel Comics

You'll never guess what happened in the 1982 graphic novel The Death of Captain Marvel – but it is considered a landmark for its portrayal of his death not by supervillain but by cancer. Mar-Vell has (for the most part) remained dead ever since.

He was followed by African American harbour patrol lieutenant turned superpowered Avengers leader Monica Rambeau, then his artificially created children Genis-Vell and Phyla-Vell, both of whom had a hard time of it before ending up very dead.

And so we get to Carol Danvers, our newest Captain Marvel. The former US Air Force pilot had a long connection to Mar-Vell, and it was in his comic that she received superpowers when an accident fused his Kree DNA with her human genetic material. She adopted the codename Ms Marvel – which she would keep for many years between short-lived experiments with names like 'Binary' and 'Warbird' – and has been a long-time member of the Avengers.

Photo credit: Marvel Comics
Photo credit: Marvel Comics

This original will apparently tweaked – to stop it clashing with Green Lantern, of all things.

"I don't think I've ever had a project where I've been more mindful about the impact that it could have and the importance of it," writer Nicole Perlman told Any Time with Vin Forte. "She's such an incredibly kick-ass character and Kelly Sue DeConnick did a great run with her story arc recently.

"But here's the thing, if you were just going to do a straight adaptation of the comics, her origin story is very similar to Green Lantern. And obviously, that's not what we want to do. There's a lot of reinvention that needs to happen. And also, she's her own person and she's a great character. We have to be aware of what's happened in other Marvel film and makes sure that her particular storyline is unique and fun and also fits in within this world that's going on at the same time."

Photo credit: Marvel Comics
Photo credit: Marvel Comics

Carol has had her share of knocks too, including losing her powers, a fight with alcoholism, and the infamous storyline in which a man controlled Carol mind to impregnate her with... himself.

Still, as a character she survived and thrived. In 2012, Marvel decided that 'Ms Marvel' was a bit regressive as far as superhero names go (not to mention THAT costume), and gave her the classic title, although they proved to be a bit nervy about committing to a short hairstyle for Carol's new look.

Photo credit: Marvel Comics
Photo credit: Marvel Comics

With her Superman-style strength, flight and invulnerability, she was also a recent member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Under writer DeConnick, the new Captain Marvel built a committed internet following called the Carol Corps.

There's no doubt that the choice of Captain Marvel as Marvel's first solo superhero movie gives the studio a lot of scope for stories. Carol has a big playground, with space for an Avengers-centric tale, a space epic, a military thriller or some light-hearted Top Gun-style flying japes. They couldn't ask for a better opportunity to help us forget that Catwoman ever happened.

Captain Marvel will somehow tie into Ant-Man and the Quantum Realm, although don't ask us how just yet. Coincidentally, sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp will be the first MCU film to name a female character in its title, even if she doesn't get to fly solo.

Captain Marvel soundtrack: Who is composing?

Marvel's first female superhero movie has added another milestone: Pinar Toprak will be the MCU's first female composer.

"It's an incredible honour to be a part of the Marvel Universe," Toprak wrote. "So many thoughts racing through my head. And the main one is gratitude."

Captain Marvel trailer: When will we get our first full look?

There was hope that we'd see our first full trailer for Captain Marvel at San Diego Comic-Con but with Avengers: Infinity War putting everything on hold for the time being in the MCU, that's not going to happen. Maybe by New York Comic-Con in October 2018?

In the meantime, a short Captain Marvel featurette did air at CinemaCon in June 2018. According to sources who saw it, it shows that Captain Marvel is about to take the lead in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. Where that leaves Iron Man and Captain America is anyone's guess.


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