When Brie Larson and Entertainment Weekly had a little back and forth on Twitter yesterday, hinting at something big about Captain Marvel dropping at noon today, people thought we were getting a trailer of some kind. After all, Black Panther had a teaser trailer this far away from its release.
But the surprise was not a trailer but news that this week’s issue will feature a cover story on the film.
That issue hits stores this Friday, but ten images from the article are up online, and they tell us a lot about the film and how it ties into the Marvel Cinematic Universe Here are the images (click to make bigger). what EW says about them, and what we have to say about them.
EW says: “Captain Marvel is on the cover of Entertainment Weekly’s latest issue, and we’ve got the first look at Brie Larson’s part-Kree, part-human hero. Audiences briefly saw Carol’s symbol in the end-credits scene of Avengers: Infinity War, but come March 2019, the Air Force pilot with alien powers will be getting her own origin story.
Not only is Captain Marvel the first solo, female-led movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it’s an introduction to the most powerful hero the MCU has ever seen. (Another Marvel first: It’s set in the 1990s!)”
We say: This is a fairly nondescript shot of Carol Danvers (Larson) in a field somewhere, wearing something close to her comic book blue and red costume. This is a different costume than the black and green costume we saw in leaked set photos we saw back in January. Don’t worry, we’ll see that costume soon enough.
The “part-Kree, part human” thing is interesting. In the comics, she gained her powers when an experimental Kree device explodes, melding her DNA with that of Kree Captain Mar-Vell.
EW says: “The film sidesteps the traditional origin-story template, and when it begins, Carol already has her powers. She’s left her earthly life behind to join the elite military team Starforce on the Kree planet of Hala. (Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck describe Starforce as the SEAL Team Six of space.) Its members include Carol, Korath (Djimon Hounsou, returning from Guardians of the Galaxy), and Minn-Erva (Crazy Rich Asians’ Gemma Chan).”
We say: Here is that green and black costume! And if you thought that Djimon Hounsou was too big of a star for his tiny part in Guardians of the Galaxy, then you thought right. He’s back in this one. And if you look closely, you’ll see Ronan (Lee Pace) in a green costume that is more similar to his comic book incarnation.
EW says: “Jude Law plays the commander of Starforce, who views Carol as a mentee and pet project. “These extraordinary powers she has, he sees them as something of a blessing and something that she has to learn how to control,” Law says. “That’s a motif throughout the piece, the element of learning to control one’s emotions and to use your powers wisely.”
We say: The article seems to go out of its way to not call Law’s character Mar-Vell, even though rumor has it that will be the character he is playing. In the comics, Kree captain Mar-Vell was the first person to protect Earth using the weaponized bracelets called Nega-Bands.
EW says: “The film also introduces one of Marvel comics’ nastiest and most notorious baddies: the Skrulls. Ben Mendelsohn plays their leader, Talos, seen here in all his bright-green glory. But he’s got another face, too…”
We say: The first effect of the Fox/Disney merger arrives! The Skrulls first appeared in the pages of Fantastic Four, which would make them licensed exclusively to Fox. When the characters were first announced as the villains in Captain Marvel, you had to wonder if a potential lawsuit was in the making. Now, there isn’t That straightened itself out, didn’t it?
This is our first look at the Skrulls and Ben Mendelsohn as their leader, Talos. Talos. seen to the right, first appeared in The Incredible Hulk as a villain for him. The quirk about the characters was that he, unlike others of his race, could not shape shift. That little foible seems to be ignored for the film because…
EW says: “As any Marvel comics fan knows, the Skrulls are especially dangerous because of their unparalleled ability to shape-shift. On Earth, Mendelsohn’s Talos goes undercover as a human working within S.H.I.E.L.D. (seen here with directors Fleck and Boden). “It’s not easy being green,” Mendelsohn quips.”
We say: So, Talos in the MCU can shapeshift. Makes sense in a way. You’re introducing the Skrulls in from out of nowhere. Having one with a different power set would be needlessly confusing.
However, having the Skrulls infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. at the same time Hydra is infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D. (don’t forget, this film takes place in the 1990s, so the Hydra incursions we saw revealed in Captain America: The Winter Soldier is well under way). I wonder if one undercover group of villains will interact with the other?
EW says:“MCU fans have met the Kree race before in Guardians of the Galaxy, and two familiar faces — Hounsou’s Korath and Lee Pace’s Ronan the Accuser (pictured here) — will appear in Captain Marvel. In Guardians, Ronan is an outcast with extremist views, but here, he’s still a high-ranking member of Kree society.”
We say: Ronan is an interesting character in the comics, shifting from a villain to an anti-hero to a hero and back and forth again. Which Ronan will we be getting here?
EW says: “Back on Earth, the 1990s are in full swing. Expect plenty of era-appropriate references — and fashion, judging by Carol’s Nine Inch Nails T-shirt.”
We say: Interesting choice for a shirt. A bit away from what would have been an obvious selection (Nirvana, Pearl Jam) but still not as esoteric as it could be (Like, say, a Local H T-shirt). But considering how impulsive the character is being described as in the main article, I’d expect that White Zombie might have been more her taste.
EW says: “Captain Marvel marks Samuel L. Jackson’s ninth appearance as Nick Fury, but this Nick is a lowly S.H.I.E.L.D. desk jockey (who hasn’t yet met any superheroes). He’s younger than we’ve ever seen him (Jackson was digitally de-aged for the role), and perhaps most shocking of all, he’s missing his signature eyepatch.”
We say: And he has hair too! Maybe that is a bit insulting to mention, but there he is, with his Jungle Fever-era hair.
Marvel Studios certainly like to de-age their actors, but usually for a scene or two. I wonder if they will feature more of it here? If Jackson’s role in this film is akin to the screen time he gets in other MCU films, this might be the most extensive use of the technology to date.
And this description seems like this might be part of an ipso-facto Nick Fury origin story. Anybody else pick up on that?
EW says: “Even before she became Captain Marvel, Carol was an accomplished Air Force pilot, and Larson spent time with actual pilots for research.”
We say: Indeed. Our sources tell us that she researched at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada.
EW says: The film also introduces Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau, one of Carol’s oldest friends. She’s a top-notch Air Force pilot with the call sign “Photon,” and she’s also a single mother to a young daughter.
We say: We bet a dime to a doughnut that her daughter’s name is Monica. Monica Rambeau was a character who briefly was called Captain Marvel in the 1980s, when both Mar-Vell and Carol Danvers were out of commission. She has the ability to turn herself into just about any form of energy. Remember when Kevin Feige said the MCU was setting up the next generation of heroes? Here is another one to add to that list.
