Captain Marvel (2019)

[Guy Gardener]

That's nine years later.

Carol was originally invented to be Dr Bellows/Gladys Kravitz/Raquel Ochmonek, the busy body human suspicious of the dodgy less than human NASA scientist Walter Lawson, who always seemed to be in the middle of, and up to his neck in weird crappy threats to national security... But no one ever believed her because, y'know, sexism.

Shades of early Sesame Street too, although that came later, obviously, ditto for Alf, but it's really Lois/Lana trying to prove that Clark Kent is too Superman. A foil for Marvel, rather than a love interest or ally.

 

[JD]

Hum, I'm a bit worried by this. Carol as an airforce pilot is more important to her character then the similar stuff is to Hal (although Hal is usually just a test pilot, not a military one). Take away the career in the military and the flying stuff, she's not really Carol Danvers.

Now, if they just mean they're changing how she gets her powers, and not so much her pre-superhero history, that's fine. I figured that Mar-Vell wasn't going to be involved with the origin of the MCU Carol Danvers, and its not a huge loss (although I'd like to see him show up somewhere, or see one of his kids like Genis or Phyla in GotG).

I doubt very much that they will get rid of her military career, I think it probably means she'll get her powers on her own rather than from an Mar-Vell.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Honestly, tae parallels to Green Lantern are probably the best parts of her origin.

Her origin is she was kidnapped to be a damsel in distress for Mar-Vell to rescue. Mar-Vell does rescue her and there's an explosion that seemingly kills the badguy. Months later, she realizes she has powers.

The parallels are pretty slim. She's a pilot and got powers from an alien source. The pilot thing is a retcon. IIRC she was the head of security at a facility involved in aerospace. Possibly a military base. Though I don't remember seeing her in uniform or being addressed by rank. From that it was extrapolated she was in the Air Force. And from that she's a pilot, because everyone in the Air Force is a pilot. Of course they did something similar Jordan recently. He had been a civilian test pilot since his introduction. But when he returned from the dead he was suddenly an ex-Air Force pilot who returned to active duty. Not that it lasted long. He's pretty much a full time GL.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

That's nine years later.

I said "months" because I was thinking in universe, not real world.

Carol was originally invented to be Dr Bellows/Gladys Kravitz/Raquel Ochmonek, the busy body human suspicious of the dodgy less than human NASA scientist Walter Lawson, who always seemed to be in the middle of, and up to his neck in weird crappy threats to national security... But no one ever believed her because, y'know, sexism.

Shades of early Sesame Street too, although that came later, obviously, ditto for Alf, but it's really Lois/Lana trying to prove that Clark Kent is too Superman. A foil for Marvel, rather than a love interest or ally.

Yeah, early Lois Lane was the parallel I thought of as the Carol parallel in the original Captain Marvel.

 

[Reverend]

There certainly are some parallels to Hal Jordan's origin if you cast Mar-Vell in the Abin Sur role, though the Kree as they've been portrayed in the MCU so far are hardly the GL Corps and it's not like Carol is recruited, she just gets zapped and left to figure it out on her own. Indeed, in that sense her origin is more akin to Spider-Man's or the Fantastic Four's.

As for the USAF thing; I can see why there may be some concerns of skirting too close to Jordan or even repeating themselves considering they already have three serving or retired US military persons as Avengers (including an USAF Colonel.) Perhaps if they make her an astronaut instead, it'll preserve the spirit of her origin without feeling too similar to the above.
That might work quite well considering she's supposed to be the cosmic focused superhero, or it could feel a bit too on the nose. I could see it argued either way.

 

[Skywalker]

Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck will direct Captain Marvel.

I'm not familiar with their work but yay, forward momentum! The MCU's had pretty good luck with dual directors so far, let's hope these two can keep it going.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I hadn't heard of them either until this news. Nice to see Marvel continuing the trend with selecting low-key directors.

 

[kirk55555]

I've never heard of them, and looking at wikipedia none of their movies really sem to have prepared them for the MCU. But, marvel tends to do a good job with directors with one or two exceptions, so they'll probably be decent at the very least.

 

[Starbreaker]

Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck directed Sugar, which is an incredibly well-made movie about a minor league baseball player. Very emotional. This could be a great movie.

 

[Hugo Rune]

I've never heard of them, and looking at wikipedia none of their movies really sem to have prepared them for the MCU. But, marvel tends to do a good job with directors with one or two exceptions, so they'll probably be decent at the very least.

Most of their directors have never had much, if any, big-scale tentpole work prior to working with the MCU:

Scott Derrickson - small budget horror films
Kenneth Branagh - mostly Shakespeare/Period Dramas
Jon Favreau - some larger scale work on Zathura, but nothing else
Anthony & Joe Russo - mostly just TV work before The Winter Soldier
Peyton Reed - Rom Coms and Comedy Dramas
Shane Black - small noir comedy
James Gunn - no-budget SF/F fair.

Only Joe Johnston had any true, significant back-history with large scale projects (Jumanji, Jurassic Park 3)

The big thing that separates those larger films from what they have worked on before is the Production scale, which in the case of the MCU is not only massive, but with a massive crew behind it also. MCU have a highly oiled machine working behind all of the directors, so I guess what they look for isn't necessarily "experience" but rather a personality and goal-structure that fits with the title they are producing.

You can see when that fails, where the two visions don't meet - Favreau on IM2, Taylor with Thor 2, somewhat with Whedon and Avengers 2. But most of the time, the sensibilities, personalities and goals of the directors match the needs ans style of the film that the MCU want made.

I've loved all three films of these directors. Yes they are low key, but they are all visually and emotionally very distinct from each other, showing a good range. I have no idea what their pitch for Captain Marvel was but, clearly it was either very in line with what Kevin Feige wanted, or was so fresh he was happy to throw away the pan and start with new ingredients. Either way sounds fine to me, because, at their worst his team have produced passable entertainment and at their best, they left me thoroughly entertained.

By picking the likes of James Gunn, Taika Waititi and now this pair shows (to me at least) that Feige wants these upcoming films to have as much unique personality and character as possible. I hope they all are able to add their best sensibilities into GotG2, T:R and Captain Marvel and given some freedom to explore what can be done inside a monolith like these event flicks. I don't expect anything profound in the journey (Fiege controls the map here) but some nice detours to go along with the 'splosions, banter and green screen.

Hugo - encourages everyone watch Mississippi Grind. Great road movie.

 

[kirk55555]

Yeah, they'll probably be fine. The only MCU Director I don't like is James Gunn, and I don't see Marvel hiring a director like him for Captain Marvel. Plus I think, as the first solo female MCU film, they're going to hold the reigns more with these two then with someone like Gunn, so overall I think Captain Marvel will be fine. Hopefully it will be amazing, but no matter what happens I doubt CM will be the next Thor 2.

 

[Reverend]

I've also seen a description of some Captain Marvel concept art that apparently the LA press were shown the other day.
From what it sounds like, it seems like they're going a similar, more utilitarian look as Cap's post 'Avengers' uniforms.
Indeed if you look at what he wears in the first half of Winter Solder, it's not a million miles away from a Captain Marvel design just as-is. Change the silver to gold, make the collar & shoulder section red and replace the five pointed star with an eight and you're practically there.

I've been wondering for a while if given that this movie is likely to fall between the two Infinity Wars movies if part of the plot is the US government (or SHIELD/SWORD?) pushing Danvers as replacement for Cap who has (and I'm just speculating here) gone missing along with the other Avengers? Hence the "Captain" title and the similar logo. I can certainly see there being a desire to reassure the public if both Cap & Stark are gone.

 

[JD]

Interesting idea, I could definitely see something like that happening. It will be interesting to see how big of a role she ends up taking on in the MCU, she seems to have become one of - if not the - most prominent heroines in the comics, and I'm curious if they'll give her the same kind of role in the MCU.

As for the directors, I've never heard of them, but I trust Feige and co to have made the right choice.

 

[Reverend]

I think how prominent she'll be going forwards would depend on several factors; How well this first movie does. How many movies Brie Larson has signed on for. And of course how the contract renewal negotiations go between Marvel & the current principles.
It interesting that with her background as an officer in the military (and thus natural leadership ability) and her heavy hitting/flying power set (with a link to the cosmic side of things no less), she could potentially be a replacement for either Cap or Thor or both.

Logically I think the general plan might be to move her into "the" prominent action role while sliding RDJ into more of a supporting role as we've seen him inhabit in Civil War and the upcoming Spider-Man movie. But it's hard to predict exactly as it would also be affected by the rest of the line-up.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Filming to begin January 8 in Atlanta. Samuel L. Jackson said to be co-starring.

 

[Skywalker]

Filming to begin January 8 in Atlanta. Samuel L. Jackson said to be co-starring.

Finally!

And I'm happy to hear that Jackson will be involved. I get why Fury wasn't there in Civil War, but he was sorely missed.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I think Jackson will play a group of battle mutilated life model decoys, trying to pick up where Ultron put down.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Good to see that Fury is returning, although it's a bit misleading to say he's "co-starring" when even the article stresses they don't know the extent of his role. The rest is supposition. That being said, I guess it's safe to say it's probably not a cameo.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Good to see that Fury is returning, although it's a bit misleading to say he's "co-starring" when even the article stresses they don't know the extent of his role. The rest is supposition. That being said, I guess it's safe to say it's probably not a cameo.

Well, I guess it wouldn't be likely, but in the absence of any other information, it could still be just a cameo. It wouldn't be the first time they used him that way, and he's not the only one, either (remember Chris Evans in Thor 2 or Mark Ruffalo in Iron Man 3).

 

[Thestral]

I'm happy with Fury making some appearance and even being a full supporting character, but this must be very clearly Carol's movie as the solo star.