Captain Marvel 2: All We Know About The Marvels
Captain Marvel 2 will be The Marvels with Brie Larson and company, set to hit theaters on July 28, 2023.
To fans who followed the milestones reached by the first Captain Marvel movie, it will likely come as no surprise that a sequel, Captain Marvel 2, has been confirmed. After all, the first female-led movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe earned $1 billion worldwide. With a companion series just airing on Disney+, this world is set up to be a big one around the character.
When it was first announced, not much was known but much was teased, especially by producers and Brie Larson. And of course, there’s been plenty of fan speculation. Let’s take a closer look at what we know about Captain Marvel 2, what those involved are hoping to see happen, and when we might see her next Marvel adventure hit theaters.
BRIE LARSON REVEALS A NEW LOGO FOR CAPTAIN MARVEL 2, THE MARVELS
In December 2021, after a long drought of any solid information about the story for Captain Marvel 2, Brie Larson posted a delicious little tease to her Instagram.
Captioning it with nothing more than the release date for The Marvels, the actress posted a picture of a medal of what will presumably be the logo for the trio of heroes she’ll be a part of in the sequel. The new logo appears to be a mash-up of her own logo as Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel’s logo, and the logo Teynonah Parris’s Monica Rambeau wears in the comics.
BRIE LARSON HAD SPECIFIC DEMANDS IN ORDER TO RETURN TO CAPTAIN MARVEL 2
Rumors have been swirling for awhile now that Brie Larson was taking a hard line with Marvel and refusing to return as Captain Marvel unless the studio met a series of extreme demands. Now, word is that Marvel agreed, and those demands are being met. Here’s a list of what Brie Larson reportedly wanted…
- Equal pay to Marvel’s male stars, even the ones who might be in bigger franchises with a longer history.
- Top billing in Avengers 5 (making her the de facto new Robert Downey Jr.) and any crossover projects.
- More creative control over her character and the Captain Marvel solo franchise.
It’s not quite the same level of deal that Robert Downey Jr. had with Marvel, but it’s close. Expect Captain Marvel to become Iron Man’s replacement as Marvel’s marquee character now.
CAPTAIN MARVEL 2 WILL BE THE MARVELS
As part of a Marvel Celebrates the Movies video released by the studio, they announced the official new title for the sequel. Captain Marvel 2 will be released as The Marvels.
That may sound surprising. Most titles in Marvel series include the title character’s name. Spider-Man: No Way Home, for example. However, the new title reveals a lot about the upcoming story! It indicates equal billing. The Marvels is going to star three characters with Marvel in their name: Carol Danvers, Kamala Khan, and Monica Rambeau.
We’ve of course seen Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel, Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel, and while we have yet to see it on screen, Monica Rambeau has gone by Captain Marvel in the comics (as well as names like Photon, Pulsar, and Spectrum). This likely means that Monica Rambeau, who we first met as a child and saw as an adult in WandaVision, will be blooming into her superhero role in The Marvels.
IMAN VELLANI IS MS. MARVEL AND WAS INTRODUCED IN THE DISNEY+ SERIES
Ms. Marvel will appear in Captain Marvel 2 alongside Captain Marvel. The character will be played by Iman Vellani who will also play Ms. Marvel on the upcoming Ms. Marvel TV series.
It was a fantastic debut for the actress who took on the role in the hit series. The character is fully aware of Carol Danvers in this universe, even idolizing her before realizing she has powers of her own. The character is a mutant, something revealed near the end of the season, setting up the introduction of the X-Men in this universe.
Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan was exactly what fans would hope for in this character and she’s set to have a much bigger role in the MCU going forward. The character is extremely powerful, able to wrangle cosmic energy to her needs.
TEYONNAH PARRIS IS MONICA RAMBEAU
Monica Rambeau will also be in the movie, played by Teyonah Parris. Before that though, Teyonah Parris will show up playing Monica Rambeau in the upcoming Disney+ series WandaVision.
She has powers of her own, something that was already briefly explored. And since this is The Marvels after all, she is likely to be able to operate on the same level as the other two.
ZAWE ASHTON WILL PLAY A VILLAIN IN CAPTAIN MARVEL 2
Zawe Ashton has been confirmed to be playing the villain in Captain Marvel 2. Exactly what character she is playing is still being kept under wraps. Some rumors say it could be Rogue from the X-Men, but nothing has been confirmed as of now.
SAMUEL L. JACKSON IS BACK AS NICK FURY
Samuel L. Jackson will be reprising his Nick Fury role in this movie. He was most recently seen in Spider-Man: Far From Home. As fans of the Marvel movies know, the post-credits scenes often give us hints about what else is currently happening in the universe that we may see carry forward into future films. The post-credits scene for Far From Home showed Nick Fury working on a spaceship somewhere that wasn’t Earth. During this time, Talos impersonated Nick Fury back home on Earth.
If Nick Fury was working on a defense mechanism to fight against an upcoming Kree invasion, his actions may bring him into a Captain Marvel 2 storyline involving defending Earth against a Kree invasion.
Plus, we know we will see him in Secret Invasion as well.
NIA DE COSTA IS DIRECTING WITH A SCRIPT FROM MEGAN MCDONNELL
Work officially began on Captain Marvel 2 on January 22, 2020 when Disney announced they’d hired Megan McDonnell to write the sequel script. McDonnell previously worked on writing the Disney+ series WandaVision, and clearly Disney was happy with her work.
Megan McDonnell did not, however, work on the first Captain Marvel. The first Captain Marvel movie was written by the movie’s directors, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, along with Geneve Robertson-Dworet. None of that original creative team will be involved in Captain Marvel 2.
Candyman reboot director Nia DaCosta has been tapped to fill the directing duties for the upcoming Captain Marvel 2. The first film, Captain Marvel, was directed by the pair of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and saw the movie pull in a worldwide box office of $1.13 billion. Those are some pretty big shoes for DaCosta to fill, but from all accounts, she can fill them.
DaCosta wrote and directed the highly regarded indie Little Woods, which caught producer/director/writer Jordan Peele’s (Get Out, Us) eye. She was then chosen to co-write, along with Peele, the Candyman reboot, and then was put high on the list to helm Captain Marvel 2, where she eventually got the gig.
DaCosta becomes the fourth woman, and first Black woman, to direct a Marvel Studios production as she follows Boden as well as Chloé Zhao (Eternals) and Cate Shortland (Black Widow) in Marvel Studios’ continued drive towards broader inclusion at the top of their ranks. DaCosta’s announcement as the director didn’t come without competition, as Jamie Babbit (But I’m A Cheerleader) and Olivia Wilde (Booksmart) were also in the running.
CAPTAIN MARVEL 2 WILL ADDRESS CAROL DANVERS’ SEXUALITY
None of Captain Marvel’s movies have really addressed her sexuality. Activists had hoped that the lingering looks she gave her best friend Maria meant they were an item, but so far Marvel really hasn’t addressed it one way or another.
Word is that will soon change in Captain Marvel 2. Rumor has it that she’ll be involved in a love triangle in the sequel, competing for the affection of Jessica Jones with superhero Luke Cage as Carol Danvers’ rival for the super-powered woman’s romantic interest.
For now, it’s just a rumor but Marvel has been pretty eager to start representing the LGBTQ community in more of their movies. The Eternals, which gets released before Captain Marvel 2, is confirmed to feature a number of different LGBTQ characters. By the time Captain Marvel 2 gets released, that glass ceiling will already have been broken, making it easy for Marvel to confirm that Carol Danvers is a lesbian.
MARVEL WANTS TO HIGHLIGHT ITS FEMALE HEROES
Captain Marvel was a bit of a gamble for Disney. In the past, female-led superhero movies like Elektra or Catwoman, hadn’t done well at the box office. So it makes sense that they might have been nervous. And according to Avengers star Mark Ruffalo, they were so nervous that Kevin Feige nearly got fired over it.
Ruffalo explains to The Independent, “When we did the first Avengers, Kevin Feige told me, ‘Listen, I might not be here tomorrow.’ [He was going to talk to Disney about the issue of why there were no female superhero movies.] And he’s like, ‘Ike [Isaac Perlmutter, Disney’s largest shareholder at the time] does not believe that anyone will go to a female-starring superhero movie. So if I am still here tomorrow, you will know that I won that battle.’“
Ruffalo goes on to give credit to Feige for even more than that one achievement. He says, “Because Kevin wanted black superheroes, women superheroes, LGBT superheroes. He changed the whole Marvel universe. We now have a gay superhero on the way, we have black superheroes, we have female superheroes – Scarlett Johansson has her movie coming out, we have Captain Marvel, they are doing She-Hulk next. No other studio is being that inclusive on that level. [Smiles] They have to, though. This is the fucking world.“
The problem with Ruffalo’s second statement is that he’s conveniently ignoring the three Blade movies which did huge numbers at the box office long before Kevin Feige got on the scene. (Though we have Marvel’s Blade on the way to look forward to with a reboot.)
He’s also ignoring the popularity of the Avengers, as a huge factor in making it so we have a Black Widow movie. If what he’s saying is true, though, we definitely do have to give Kevin Feige a lot of credit for Captain Marvel.
CAPTAIN MARVEL 2 WILL FOLLOW THE EVENTS OF MS. MARVEL
The plot details around Captain Marvel 2 had been under wraps for quite awhile but there are new pieces out there which help to lend some clarity around the story.
Essentially, things will pick up after the events of Ms. Marvel and we will have the three leads in Carol Danvers, Kamala Khan, and Monica Rambeau dovetailing because of their powers specifically. Essentially, the three begin swapping places in the universe every time they use their powers.
This link will be at the heart of the story and they will be trying to determine why their connection is making their characters overlap.
CAPTAIN MARVEL 2 RUMORS INCLUDE X-MEN AND NOVA CORPS
Rogue
Now that Marvel owns the X-Men again, they’re keen to start integrating them into their movie universe. Word is they may start with Rogue and she’ll make her first appearance in Captain Marvel 2.
Regular scooper Mike Sutton says Rogue will show up in the movie as a villain, as part of a mutant terrorist group. Fans familiar with Rogue’s history know that at some point she was a villain, and they also know that the most famous mutant terrorist group in X-Men lore is the Brotherhood of Mutants, led by Magneto. But this will not be the Brotherhood, it’ll be some other group, since Marvel doesn’t want to use Magneto right away.
Reportedly, not only will Rogue be in the movie as a villain but according to this scooper she’ll be Captain Marvel 2‘s main villain. Odds are she won’t be played by Anna Paquin and it’ll be Marvel’s version of Rogue, which is totally different from the one we all know and love. Still, I’m not sure who I’ll be rooting for.
Starting to connect Rogue to Captain Marvel is a great idea. Captain Marvel plays heavily into how Rogue finally gets her full set of powers in the Marvel universe. That full set of powers is something we never actually saw from Rogue in the Fox X-Men movies. Finally taking her there in the Marvel Universe would be a great way for Marvel Studios to differentiate their X-Men from the ones we’re already familiar with.
Wolverine
At this point it is all but confirmed that at least some X-Men characters will be involved in Captain Marvel 2. So while this rumor may seem pretty wild, it’s not as wild as it might have been before.
Scoopers The Quartering claim to have a source inside Marvel who tells them that Wolverine will show up in Captain Marvel 2, and what’s more he’ll be played by former Superman turned Witcher star, Henry Cavill.
Would he look the part? Here’s a piece of fan art which answers that question…
You should take this whole rumor with a grain of salt and even if it’s true, they don’t really offer much in the way of detail on exactly how much he’ll be in Captain Marvel 2. Wolverine is the X-Men’s flagship character, so however he’s used would be carefully considered by Marvel and probably used to set up another movie focused on Wolverine later.
As for Cavill, aside from being way too tall to play the character (that didn’t stop Hugh Jackman) he definitely has the physique and the gruff sensibilities to pull it off. It could work.
Nova
Marvel fans have long clamored for Marvel to finally introduce Nova. Nova’s real name is Richard Rider and after the destruction of the Nova Corps, he becomes the one and only Nova.
The Nova Corps has been a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for awhile, most notably showing up prominently in the first Guardians of the Galaxy. But we haven’t actually seen Richard Rider yet.
Now rumor has it that Captain Marvel 2 may be the place Nova finally gets introduced. Except, the rumor claims Marvel will gender-swap the character. Instead of Richard Rider we’ll get his daughter, Beth Rider. This is part of a plan to set up A-Force, a team of all-female superheroes that Marvel plans to push forward in the future.
This particular rumor is pretty shaky, so don’t bank on seeing Nova until we get more confirmation.
CAPTAIN MARVEL WILL HAVE A NEW LOOK
Captain Marvel showed up in Avengers: Endgame looking different than she did in the Captain Marvel movie. Her uniform was basically the same but she’d gone with a dramatically different haircut. They almost went in a totally different direction, though.
Costume designer Andy Park posted this image showing off the other hairstyles they considered for Carol Danvers…
While not everyone agrees, most fans seem happy with the short hair. Comic fans in particular were pleased since that haircut is closer to the one worn by Captain Marvel in the current comics.
Expect Carol Danvers to stick with her Avengers: Endgame look when Captain Marvel 2 rolls around.
THE MARVELS WILL RELEASE IN THEATERS ON JULY 28, 2023
The original release date for the Captain Marvel sequel was July 8, 2022. This was later changed to November 11, 2022. However, once Disney announced Marvel’s entire post-2021 film schedule — with the sole exception of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 — was being pushed back, The Marvels was once more delayed to its current release schedule, July 28, 2023.
For the most part, when one film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is delayed, it looks like they all get pushed back. This may be helpful in keeping the Marvel movie order in line for dedicated fans.
