For all the anxious fans who waited for a first official trailer of Captain Marvel, the champagne may have been left on the ice. Yet, as promised, Entertainment Weekly released several ‘Marvel-ous’ images that are stills from the upcoming MCU roll-out, giving us plenty of cues to ponder over.
Set in the 1990s – when the current crop of Avengers were either toddlers or frolicking in their salad days – Captain Marvel is a standalone film that probes into the adventures of Marvel’s strongest ever hero, before she joins the rest of the gang following the Thanos fiasco. So basically, it’s an origin story, though it has been revealed that the movie won’t get into the brass tacks of how Carol Danvers, the alter ego, gained her superpowers, which means we’d be introduced to Brie Larson’s character already exhibiting some of those when we hit to the movies next year.
That’s pretty much like what we witnessed with Spider-Man, who was introduced in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, before his stand alone Homecoming too refused give two hoots about the origins of the web-spinning ability. Also, the movie is set in outer space as MCU honcho Kevin Feige recently revealed that a majority of the happenings of the film is set to take place many moons away from the Earth.
Anyways, let’s dissect the stills from Captain Marvel:
Carol Danvers to don the Captain Marvel gear from comics
Leaked images from the set showed actress Brie Larson in a teal, blue and silver costume leading people to speculate whether she’s going to don the traditional gear of red, blue and gold from the comics. The colours were also teased in the post-credit scenes of Infinity War when Nick Fury sent the distress signal through an antique beeper. But now with official stills released and Captain Marvel might as well hogging the cover page of Entertainment Weekly magazine, we’re assured of the watching the super-heroine in the traditional colours at some stage in the movie, even if she’s seen wearing the original colors in other snaps.
Ronan the Accuser returns!
Remember this guy? Back in 2014 when Marvel debuted the ragtag group of Guardians of the Galaxy, Ronan the Accuser was the primary villain. He was a stooge to the Mad Titan who sent him to procure the power stone, but eventually turned against him after realising the might of the purple infinity gem. Even though he was eventually defeated by the Guardians, this movie traces the Kree judicial officer’s early days. And to go by the stills, he seems to play the good guy here.
So does his pal Korath the Pursuer. He too was an antagonist in the aforementioned movie, but here, both could be presumed to side with the Starforce. We may get to see the good side of these infamous characters in the film, as well as the trigger to their villainy that we witnessed in the James Gunn flick.
Behold the Starforce!
In the same image featuring Ronan the Accuser and Korath the Pursuer, we can see Captain Marvel leading a team of cosmic crusaders wearing identical costumes. Reason? They all belong to an anti-evil faction called the ‘Starforce’. Debuting in 1992, Starforce was originally a group of villains consisting of Kree soldiers who were brought together by someone called Supreme Intelligence. But here, they look more like the heroes, described as a Seal Team 6 in space.
Whilst it’s difficult to identify all the visible members of the group, we can see Crazy Rich Asians star Gemma Chan playing Doctor Minerva whereas the shady, bulky character at the back sporting a beard, played by Robert Kazinski, could be the Ultimus, an enemy of Thor in the comics.
Mar-Vell or Yon-Rogg?
Whilst Jude Law is going to play an important role in the film, his exact portrayal remains a mystery. In one of the visions, he’s seen siding with Danvers, perhaps acting as a mentor Mar-Vell, the original Captain Marvel. In another snap, wherein he’s tucked away in the Starforce costume, Law’s character could be seen besides Ronan the Accuser.
If it weren’t for a surprise twist in the tale, there’s no reason for the makers to keep his character a secret. But the very fact that his actual role in the film is still unbeknownst to the fandom perhaps points to something fishy about his character arc. What if he isn’t Mar-Vell afterall, but instead a secretive villain? Some theories suggest he could also be Yon-Rogg, another Kree commander who despised Danvers and later tried to kill her in the comics as well as Mar-Vell. He also sides with Ronan in an effort to overthrow the Supreme Intelligence and instate the Kree radical as the new supremo.
We’ll have to wait until the release to find out what exactly is cooking here, but no matter which way you slice it, there’s something interesting brewing around Law’s character. Hold your horses for now!
Meet the Skrulls
Another important character to be revealed through the stills is Captain Marvel‘s central antagonist group, the Skrulls. These extraterrestrial shapeshifting aliens, in comics, were always at the loggerheads with the Kree and engaged in relentless invasion of the Earth. And the central theme of this movie is nothing but the Kree-Skrull war.
Whilst we can spot only four of them in the photos, more can be expected in the film as the Skrulls is an expansive army of greenish, elf-like creatures. If rumors are to be believed, we may also see them in Avengers 4 as Captain Marvel is joining forces with the rest of the Earth’s mightiest heroes. So it makes absolute sense to expect more of Skrull in that movie, but we’ll get the glimpse into the alien race in this one first.
A young Nick Fury
And finally, let’s talk about the man himself, Nick Fury. The S.H.I.E.L.D agent is obviously younger than in his appearances in the MCU so far, as some expert VFX juxtaposition shows Samuel L. Jackson as a young Fury with both eyes intact. Captain Marvel would definitely trace Fury’s early days at the counter-terrorism agency where he was merely just another member, and also how exactly did he lose his left eye. Whilst he has spoke of it a little in Age of Ultron, we might get to see a visual depiction of Fury’s permanent impairment of the eye that led to him sporting the now famous eye patch.
This is just a standalone film, moreover a debut film of a superhero, but there’s too many plotlines crammed in to leave us smacking our lips! Stay tuned for the first official trailer now; it’s lurking just around the corner.