Film fans know Carol Danvers only as the mysterious person paged by Nick Fury in the last scene of Avengers: Infinity War, and she’ll appear in the still-untitled Avengers 4, presumably to help beat up on Thanos. But before that, she’s got her own story to tell in her own Captain Marvel film coming early next year.
While Marvel‘s next movie will be the first time we are introduced to a major character, it turns out we won’t get a traditional origin story. While we would expect that the first act of the Captain Marvel movie would deal with how Carol Danvers received her superpowers, we now know that when the new movie opens, Danvers will not only already have her powers, but she’ll already have left Earth and have joined a Kree military organization called Starforce. To check out all of Captain Marvel’s powers read our article here.
Captain Marvel takes place in the mid-’90s, long before Steve Rogers was defrosted or Tony Stark built his first suit. That allows the film to introduce younger version of familiar Marvel faces — like Nick Fury, who’s still a two-eyed S.H.I.E.L.D. desk jockey — as well as let Carol carve out her own, unique space in the MCU.
A new story, which includes our first look at Brie Larson as the title character Captain Marvel, also revealed this new information. An image posted by Entertainment Weekly shows the team of operatives also includes two familiar faces, Ronan the Accuser and Korath the Pursuer, both of whom MCU fans met previously in Guardians of the Galaxy. The team will also include Gemma Chan‘s Minn-Erva and it is led by Jude Law‘s character, Mar-Vell.
Marvel has made noises about moving away from traditional origin stories with the MCU movies before, so it’s not a complete shock that the studio would do this. However, it seemingly flies directly in the face of what we were previously told, as Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige had said that the movie would be an origin story. Although, Marvel producer Nate Moore had implied that there would be some changes to the traditional origin story structure in this movie.
Instead, it seems that the “origin story” here will not be about the transition from “normal” Carol Danvers to super-powered human, but instead, about the super-powered human finding answers to questions about her past and becoming Captain Marvel. While the story will start in outer space, it will eventually end up back on Earth, where Carol Danvers will battle an invasion of shapeshifting Skrulls and meet a young S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Nick Fury.
The good news about Captain Marvel not being an origin story is that the movie won’t need to spend time setting up the character and her powers and can jump right into a larger story. The film will be sure to give us all the backstory that we actually need. Ultimately, how Carol Danvers gained her powers may simply not be relevant to the story this movie is telling.
When Captain Marvel hits theatres March 8, 2019, it’ll be the 21st entry in the MCU — and the first to star a solo female superhero. Check out our list of other kickass Marvel women that we want to see on screen.
