With Captain Marvel as the only movie standing between us and the epic follow-up to Infinity War, we’re running down everything we already know about the movie.
Alongside the official first look at Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, Entertainment Weekly also released a cover story, chock full of tons of new information about the movie.
While a full (or teaser) trailer might still be a little further away, we’ve dug through all the tid-bits we gleaned from the info drop, to tide us over until it hits the internet. Oh, and we also speculated on how some of those revelations might play out in the movie, and beyond.
10 new things we know about ‘Captain Marvel’
- Captain Marvel will avoid the typical origin story that we have come to expect from a first solo movie. Instead, Carol Danvers will already have her powers when we meet her. Carol will be operating as part of an elite Kree military team, called Starforce, headed up by Jude Law’s character, after leaving Earth behind. Bypassing Carol’s origin will allow more time to introduce and develop the complex war and conflict between the Kree and Skrulls, and how she will fit into it all.
- Law’s relationship with Larson’s Carol will be that of a mentor-mentee. “These extraordinary powers she has, he sees them as something of a blessing and something that she has to learn how to control,” Law said.
- The other members making up Starforce are Korath (Djimon Hounsou), and Minn-Erva (Gemma Chan). We first met Korath back in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, working alongside Ronan the Accuser. Like Ronan, he met his end there, but it’ll be interesting to explore his life before that point, particularly as part of Starforce. Depending on Carol’s relationship with Korath, his ultimate death at the hands of the Guardians could complicate her relationship with them, should they return from being… well. Dust. At least up until she discovers he was working with the Kree under Thanos’ orders, of course. As for Minn-Erva, her inclusion is interesting, due to her comic counterpart’s more antagonistic entanglements with Carol Danvers and Captain Marvel.
- Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) will also make a return in Captain Marvel, but he will be pre his extremist days in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1. In the movie, Ronan will still be part of Kree society, and a high-ranking one at that. It’s not certain how significant a role that Ronan will play, but it will be interesting to see if the kernels of his fanaticism will be sewn during the course of the movie.
- Carol will be a pretty impulsive person, when we meet her, according to Larson. “She can be aggressive, and she can have a temper, and she can be a little invasive and in your face. She’s also quick to jump to things, which makes her amazing in battle because she’s the first one out there and doesn’t always wait for orders. But the [not] waiting for orders is, to some, a character flaw.” We got little, to no information, about why Carol ultimately chooses to return to Earth, but we’ve got a gut feeling it might stem from that tendency to run in, guns blazing, so to speak. It could, after all, have some potentially fatal consequences, should the situation go FUBAR.
- The shape-shifting Skrulls will serve as the main antagonists of the movie. Ben Mendelsohn stars as their leader Talos, and will be leading an invasion of Earth. Depending on how successful Carol Danvers — and her team — is at weeding out and removing the Skrulls from Earth, it will raise the question of just how many were left? (And, also, are any of the heroes we’ve come to know, and love, over the last decade of Marvel been Skrulls all along? This was, after all, a major conflict in the comics themselves.)
- Talon will, in true Skrull fashion, have an alter ego while on Earth. He will be undercover as part of S.H.I.E.L.D. — which really does have an issue with being infiltrated, huh?
- Samuel L. Jackson will make his ninth appearance as Nick Fury, but significantly younger than we have ever seen him. He was digitally de-aged for the movie, and is a S.H.I.E.L.D. desk jockey. Oh, and he’ll still have both his eyes. As much as Captain Marvel will take its time introducing Carol Danvers to the MCU, it will equally expand on what we know about Fury. It’ll be interesting to see him outside of his more commanding presence as Director, and in his early days at S.H.I.E.L.D. and how Carol will influence his ultimate trajectory.
- Carol, who is also part of the Air Force on Earth, will have her own allies there as well. Most excitingly, we will meet Maria Rambeau, the mother of Monica Rambeau — another iteration of Captain Marvel. Maria’s call sign will be “Photon,” which is another superhero identity that Monica went by in the comics. It is likely that this will lay the seeds for having Monica play a bigger role, at some point in the near future of the MCU, and the possibility that she might take on the alter-ego of “Photon” as a tribute to her mother? Adds a whole other potential emotional layer for that potential eventuality.
- Captain Marvel takes place in the ’90s, long before Steve Rogers returned from the ice, and Iron Man suited up. It will be a very, very different world than the one we’ve become used to. At this point, HYDRA will still be a sleeper organization operating in the shadows of S.H.I.E.L.D., Howard and Maria Stark could, potentially, still be alive, and Natasha Romanov is given the code name Black Widow. There is a ton of potential for nods to concurrently running events, even if they’re not explicitly included. (We’re also looking forward to seeing all of period-perfect fashion too.)
With Captain Marvel less than a year away, this is the most information that we’ve received about Carol Danvers’ debut. So, Carol Corps, get your theories at the ready, and get excited — because it’s only a matter of time before we’ll get that eagerly anticipated trailer.