After it was announced in late 2014 that Captain Marvel would be one of Marvel's Phase Three movies, fans spent nearly two years speculating who would play the eponymous hero as waves of rumors and reports kept arriving. Finally, it was confirmed this past summer at San Diego Comic-Con that Room star Brie Larson was cast as Carol Danvers in the MCU. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said shortly after the announcement that Larson met the high bar the studio set to play the heroine, but now he's gone into more detail about why the actress was chosen for the job.
When asked by Brie Larson was the "right fit" to play Captain Marvel, Kevin Feige explained to Variety how the actress fits the bill for someone who can effectively portray a character both powerful and relatable to audiences. As he put it:
With Captain Marvel, who has powers that approach a level that we haven't seen before in our films, you need to counterbalance that by finding somebody who is also very human and very relatable and can get into a groove with the audience, where they're willing to see her fly through the sun and punch a moon away from a spacecraft. At the same time, we need her to land and have relatable flaws.
Kevin Feige added that Brie Larson is someone "you're going to want to go on this journey with," much like Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange) and Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), so that would indicate that the actress is being prepped as one of the main MCU representatives. Since the July announcement, Larson's casting has earned praise from both general fans and Marvel contributors, the latter including writer Kelly Sue DeConnick, who wrote the Captain Marvel comic book series for a few years. She described Larson as having the right "gravitas and power" for Carol, while also being being funny and playful. Larson recently impressed audiences with her performance in Room, for which she won an Academy Award, and she'll be seen next year as part of Kong: Skull Island's ensemble. Captain Marvel, however, will arguably be her biggest project yet, both in terms of its blockbuster status and her exposure to many kinds of moviegoers.
Although there's a chance moviegoers could see Carol Danvers as a non-powered participant in Avengers: Infinity War, Captain Marvel will serve as her official origin story, albeit altered from the original comic book version so as not to resemble Green Lantern's origin as closely. Guardians of the Galaxy's Nicole Perlman and Inside Out's Meg LeFauve are writing the script together. Beyond that, no other details have been provided, including who will direct the feature, although Kevin Feige believes that position will be filled before 2016 concludes.
Captain Marvel flies into theaters on March 8, 2019.
