Know Before You Go: A Captain Marvel Primer

Captain Marvel may become the saving grace of the universe, but she’s been hidden in the shadows keeping her magnificence to herself. With spectacular trailers and awe-inspiring images of the Kree soldier in action, we are already obsessed with the photon blasting hero. Still, there are a lot of question marks about the character, especially considering she doesn’t remember her own past. Collider has the dish on what to expect and what you should know before heading to the theater. They sat down with directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck with executive producer Jonathan Schwartz.

1. Where do we pick up in the Carol Danvers story? “The movie starts with the Captain Marvel character already in outer space, already having superpowers and already fighting on the side of the Kree in the Kree-Skrull war.” She doesn’t remember her human past and has been inducted into the Kree army. In fact, she loves being a Kree. Early in the movie, Captain Marvel and Starforce are “dispatched on a mission to an alien planet to fight the Skrulls, and over the course of that mission, Brie Larson’s character gets captured by the Skrulls.” Ultimately, Captain Marvel winds up on Earth, crashing through the roof of a Blockbuster video store, and that’s when we get a “younger, two-eyed version of Agent Fury and the two of them together kind of have to stop the Skrull plot on Earth, and at the same time, get to the root of Carol’s past.”
2. What will we see Captain Marvel do in the film? Apparently, everything she can. “By the end of this movie, we’ll have seen the full run of powers out of Carol.” Schwartz highlighted flight, strength and photon blasts, and also noted, “You know, I think part of what made us excited about the character was that she was such a powerful character in the comic books and one of the most, if not the most powerful character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and seeing all that brought to bear is one of the big pleasures of the movie.”
3. If Captain Marvel is so great, why didn’t Nick Fury call her sooner? “I think it’s a combination of things,” Schwartz said. “I think we will understand over the course of these movies why Fury makes the decisions that he does. He’s always a mysterious guy and he always has his own reasons, but hopefully, we can clarify some of that for the audience.”
4. What is the beef between the Krees and the Skrulls? “The Kree and the Skrulls are constantly in conflict, so both communities are living really at high alert and both obviously live with a huge wariness of each other.” Jude Law dished, “… my character is somewhat judgmental and full of hatred of the Skrulls. The Skrulls to the Krees really represent despicable maneuvering and manipulation. The Skrulls have this way – they can simulate other people, they can turn into other things, and so it’s this idea of subterfuge that you’re not who you really are, whereas the Kree have a kind of purity about them and an honesty, as far I see it.”
5. Carol DOES have a cat. Or is it a cat? Schwartz said that, yes, the cat’s name is a Top Gun reference and also that he’s a take on the cat named Chewie from the comics. Four cats play Goose in the film – Reggie, Archie, Rizzo and Gonzo – and each one of them has a specific specialty. One of them is the “holding cat,” one is the “face cat,” another is the “nuzzling cat,” and finally, one is the “jerk cat.” Lynch teased that the cat “does things that we didn’t expect for it to do, and it’s very surprising, and it could happen at random times.”

Captain Marvel blasts into theaters March 8.

Featured Image: Marvel Studios’ CAPTAIN MARVEL..L to R: Leader of Starforce (Jude Law) and Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson)..Photo: Chuck Zlotnick..©Marvel Studios 2019