Entertainment Weekly The Ultimate Guide to Captain Marvel

By The Editors of Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly Magazine presents Captain Marvel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Entertainment Weekly
• Release date: Feb 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9781547846450

Book preview

Representation.

Inside the Film

Captain Marvel

A Heroine’s Welcome

When Captain Marvel finally blasts into theaters, she’ll be the first female solo lead in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s about time. By Gina McIntyre

Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) tracks down a Skrull on Earth.

FOR BRIE LARSON, STEPPING INTO THE ROLE of the half-human, half-Kree, all-powerful Captain Marvel required months of research, an intense regimen of daily workouts, numerous costume fittings and, for some key scenes shot in the unforgiving rural reaches of Louisiana, braving 100º temperatures while waving off mosquitoes the size of her fist.

But the oddest moments by far were the scenes in which Larson was called upon to work opposite Ben Mendelsohn as shape-shifting Skrull antagonist Talos—a vicious-looking villain with a bald pate, pointed ears and a taste for cruelty. My scenes with him were the ones that felt the most surreal, Larson explains. I was like, ‘Where am I? What am I doing? I’m talking to an alien right now! What is my life? This is my coworker.’

When it comes to playing a superhero—even one as exceptional as Captain Marvel—battling interplanetary bad guys might as well be just another day at the office. But for Marvel Studios, its latest blockbuster is anything but business as usual. When the film, the 21st entry in its grand cinematic universe, soars into theaters this March, it will be the first fronted by a woman. And she’s not just any heroine: She’s the most powerful in the MCU.

Frankly, it’s about time. For years fans had lobbied for a solo vehicle for Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, and although Marvel never shied away from putting capable women onscreen (Scarlet Witch, Pepper Potts, Peggy Carter, Maria Hill), none ever had her name above the title. Then, in 2017, the massive success of Wonder Woman from studio rival Warner Bros. finally put an end to bogus notions that audiences weren’t interested/weren’t ready for/wouldn’t turn out for a comic-book movie with a woman in the lead.

Marvel’s own 2018 blockbuster Black Panther took things further with a diverse cast and a fiercely feminist approach—Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa might be king of Wakanda, but he can’t be the hero he needs to be without the support and skills of his scientist sister, their regal matriarch, the spy he loves or the fierce tribe of warrior women who guard the royal family, the Dora Milaje. The movie became a cultural phenomenon, a critically acclaimed $1.3 billion megahit that outperformed every expectation.

There’s no doubt Black Panther is a tough act to follow, but if anyone is up to the task, it’s Carol Danvers. The Air Force pilot is as tenacious as they come, unfailingly hard on herself, endlessly striving to be better. This is not someone content to finish second. Carol’s hard-charging resolve, determination and grit resonated with Larson, who signed on to the film back in July 2016 only months after winning the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as a young mother held captive in the searing drama Room.

The thing that really struck me was this idea of there being two sides of her, Larson says. One side of her is human and flawed, and the other part of her is striving for perfection. The inability for those two to really fully meet . . . I totally relate to that part of myself that’s striving for something beyond myself and also limited by the fact that I am a human being.

While Carol’s inner struggle gives the film its most emotional moments, there’s still plenty of screen time devoted to her straight-up kicking ass. When Captain Marvel opens, Carol is a member of Starforce, an elite Kree military squadron described as the Seal Team Six of space. The Kree are at war with the Skrulls, and that conflict sets the stage for Carol to discover hidden truths about her own identity as she seeks to protect Earth.

Along the way, Carol crash-lands on a Blockbuster Video, punches at least one old lady and blasts bad guys—and she has a great time doing it. Carol is so strong, she can move planets, Larson says. She’s really tough, and she’s certainly not someone you want to mess with, but she has a joy when it comes to getting things done. In the comics, when she’s fighting, she’s laughing and enjoying the game of it. To watch someone enjoy their ‘job’ is such a cool thing to see.

ANNOUNCED IN 2014, CAPTAIN MARVEL HAS been a labor of love for many women—both in front of and behind the camera. The original screenplay was written by Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out), and although they later moved off the project, Larson says that their script was critical in helping shape the version of Carol that made it to the screen.

For me, the aha moment was when I got the very first draft of the script, Larson says. "There were little nuances that I noticed were the touches of its being written by females. Suddenly, no matter where this story went—you can move the plot points and you can change the structure of the story, but what was embedded in it, between every letter of the script, was the female