CAPTAIN MARVEL Toy Listing May Reveal A Surprise Appearance From [SPOILER] In The Movie
As the release of Captain Marvel nears, a new toy listing for the Marvel Studios movie may shed some light on an unexpected appearance from a character from the comic books that ties into a future film...
Well, this is (potentially) very interesting. We've known for a while now (thanks to various pieces of merchandise and toy packaging) that Jude Law is actually playing Yon-Rogg in Captain Marvel, but is another surprise character from the comics going to show up?
As you can see, the Shop Disney website has listed a Genis-Vell action figure which is part of Marvel Legends' Captain Marvel range and based on the character's comic book appearance. However, that listing notes that fans can "Recreate Genis-Vell's Captain Marvel scenes."
So, is this a mistake or have they inadvertently confirmed that he has a secret role in the movie?
As mentioned above, it's important to note that this Genis-Vell figure is based on his comic book counterpart but that listing has led to an awful lot of speculation online over the weekend and it would certainly make sense for this guy to make his big screen debut in Captain Marvel, particularly with Eternals on the horizon.
In the comics, Genis-Vell is the son of Captain Mar-Vell but was raised to think he was actually the son of Thanos' brother Starfox, a character we know will appear in Eternals.
We'll just have to wait and see, but we don't have long to go until we find out for sure either way.
For a recap of all the reveals from Empire's new
Captain Marvel issue, hit the "View List" button below!
How (And Why) Anna Boden And Ryan Fleck Landed The Job
Captain Marvel will be helmed by the team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and they reveal that it was during the intermission of Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat in 2017 that they learned they would be directing the Marvel Studios movie.
"We knew that they'd put character at the heart," says executive producer Jonathan Schwartz about why the filmmakers were chosen for this project. "What makes them smart, what makes them cool what makes them funny."
Carol Danvers Is A Flawed Superhero
"She's not the perfect superhero," Fleck reveals. "She gets punched in the faces a lot, she makes mistakes, but we love her for it."
"Brie was the first and only choice," Schwartz adds when asked about finding an actress who perfectly fits that description. Larson may have been Marvel's top choice, but she admits that "It took a little bit for me to come into the room."
Why Brie Larson Agreed To Play The Hero
Marvel Studios wooed Larson with a pitch that included a mockup of the costume she would be wearing. "I was really impressed with what direction they were going to take it in. For example, with the costume, it's functional, she's a fighter - everything on that costume has a purpose and a meaning."
Despite that, she didn't say yes right away.
"I really needed time to sit with myself and see if this was a choice I should make and a life I should live," Larson adds. "It wasn't about the piece itself - more about all that comes with it after the movie comes out. And whether, as an introvert and someone who really enjoys anonymity and being able to walk around and observe the world, that experience might be different and I might be more observed than being the observer."
"I didn't know mentally if that was something I could handle. And also, I felt that my art, things I want to create, my ability to tell stories of the human experience would suffer because my reality would be far too different what from most people's reality is."
Embracing The Role
Larson may have had her doubts but once she agreed to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there was no turning back and she knew that as well as researching the comic books, she had to get physically ready as well.
"I got super strong. It wasn't enough to just put the costume on and play pretend strength. I wanted to be actually strong. I wanted girls and women to know how much dedication and time I put in. And that I could deadlift 225lbs and do ten pull-ups at a time. That the strength that was in her, was in me, to the bone."
Marvel Studios Once Had A Ms. Marvel Script In The Works
As you may recall, Marvel Studios hired a lot of its writers through a writer programme. Schwartz confirms that a Ms. Marvel script was being developed once upon a time but the version Nicole Perlman and Meg LeFauve were hired to pen back in 2013 bears little resemblance to that as they reportedly started from scratch. It would be fun to read that original version, though, that's for sure.
"Carol is a tricky character with a fairly involved backstory," Schwartz explains. "So, finding the right take on her took a lot of time, a lot of care, to sift through the comics and stories to work out what the big screen version of her should be."
Kelly Sue DeConnick's Captain Marvel Run Is Key
Boden says that it was Kelly Sue DeConnick's Captain Marvel relaunch that "made us fall in love with Carol Danvers first. A female superhero who's allowed to be funny and bold and sometimes reckless and all the things that make her human and make her loveable."
"It's unabashedly a feminist run," Schwartz continues. "And I think a lot of the themes, the guiding spirit, we wanted to keep in the movie. We didn't want to run away from that - we wanted to run toward it."
There Won't Be A Huge Amount Of Greenscreen
A huge chunk of Captain Marvel will obviously be set in outer space but that doesn't mean the movie will be a special effects-palooza with endless green screen. Instead, the directors were anxious to keep things grounded just like in their past releases.
"One of the things that was very important to us, coming from an independent, more tactile world," explains Boden, "was to have some reality on our sets and for our actors to be able to interact with their environments in some way." That's a great approach.
The Lack Of Greenscreen Was Also Important To Larson
"One of the main pieces that we talked about was making sure the film didn't just rely on visual effects and explosions and chases," the actress explains.
"But instead has moments throughout of real emotion and heart. And that's what we'd fight for. That was exciting to me. The idea of doing real scene work in a movie that's large and in space felt like a challenge I wanted to take."
Where We Find Nick Fury In This Movie
"He's been out of the army for a while," Samuel L. Jackson reveals, "and he's not basically riding a desk in the newly created S.H.I.E.L.D., doing threat assessment, trying to figure out where the next war will jump off or where our next threat will come from, never even believing or knowing anything about extra-terrestrials."
Confirming that Fury rarely gets to head out into the field, the actor adds that this version of the character "hasn't yet developed the cynicism that propels Nick Fury in later films."
Heading Back To The 1990s
Schwartz compares Captain Marvel to Terminator 2: Judgement Day in the sense that the movie "did what we're trying to do - put character at the centre and let the characters drive the action and the spectacle."
As for the decision to head to this decade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's history, he says that "It felt like something we hadn't seen a great deal of in movies, or in movies like this. But it had a really specific and unique character to it. We were excited to see what the Marvel Cinematic version of that period was like."
Creating A Younger Nick Fury
It won't surprise you that Marvel Studios spent a lot of time de-ageing Jackson for Captain Marvel and Lola VFX (who also de-aged Michael Douglas, Robert Downey Jr., and Kurt Russell) were on hand to sort that.
Schwartz claims that it's "the most ambitious and robust de-ageing we've done in any Marvel film to date." So, why not just hire a younger actor? "Nick Fury was becoming such an important part of this movie. And I can't imagine ever asking another actor to fill Sam's shoes. I just can't wrap my head around it."
Fury's Relationship With S.H.I.E.L.D.
Jackson says that Fury's relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. is far less complex at this point in time as he has a "boring job where you send people out into the field to see if that government's doing this or that." He's also never considered the possibility that aliens are real and when he comes face to face with Carol Danvers, he struggles to accept that fact.
What this adventure does is make Fury realise that "he's got to find other people or beings that are willing to be our allies."
An Army Of Females Behind The Scenes
Captain Marvel may be the first female-led blockbuster from Marvel Studios but there's also a strong team of women behind the scenes.
Schwartz explains that this meant "hiring a female filmmaker in Anna Boden...hiring female writers and hiring as many female department heads as we could so that we could fill the room with the voices of the people who we knew we would need to infuse this character with truth."
It was important to Larson too as she notes that, "These are things that as time goes on, we look back and say, 'Oh, it's just normal,' but at the time that was an incredibly radical choice to make."
What The Filmmakers Hope To Deliver
"We appreciate how important this movie is," Boden says. "But in terms of managing the pressures day to day and carrying the weight of it, we try to focus on putting our everything into making this film as good and true to itself as it can be and doing justice to a character who is a complicated, fascinating human being and also an amazingly strong woman."
It's Just The Beginning
Early ticket sales for Captain Marvel have been very good but it's too soon to say whether or not it will strike a chord with moviegoers.
For what it's worth, Larson believes that this is just the start for Carol Danvers. "This film isn't the end, the answer to the question," she explains. "It's the beginning for many more stories..." Hell yeah.
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