By the time we were introduced to him in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Ronan The Accuser was already a radicalized zealot. Operating as a servant of Thanos, he very clearly demonstrated a belief in Kree supremacy, and was willing to go to great lengths to prove it to the rest of the universe. Obviously we saw his story come to an end when he was vaporized by the titular team, but soon we will get to see a fresh version of the character, re-introduced in Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s upcoming Captain Marvel.
The new Marvel Studios blockbuster is set in the mid-1990s – about 20 years prior to the adventures in Guardians Of The Galaxy – and therefore will give us a glimpse of what Ronan was like before he totally went off the deep end. As of right now we don’t have a full picture of what’s going to go down, as the character has only had a limited presence in the marketing materials, but the role in the film was a subject discussed by producer Jonathan Schwartz on the set of Captain Marvel last year. He explained,
Just like it’s an earlier version of Nick Fury, it’s an earlier version of Ronan, who has not become the radical zealot that we saw in Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume One. So he has his own station in Kree society, on Hala, and has his own role to play in the Kree military that intersects with Starforce in an interesting way.
Captain Marvel will be diving into Kree society in a way not previously seen on the big screen, including our first look at the alien species’ home planet, Hala. This will be a time before Ronan (once again played by Lee Pace) was cast out for his extremist views, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see them simmering under the surface as he engages in Kree politics. It’s hard to imagine that the new film will entirely transform Ronan into the maniac we first met in 2014, but there is a good chance that we will see him set down that path.
What will certainly help jump start things is the fact that we will find Ronan in the midst of centuries-long war in Captain Marvel – which will certainly feed into all of his aggression. While it was the Xandarians who he was trying to decimate in Guardians of the Galaxy, this time around his enemy will be the shapeshifting aliens known as the Skrulls. This means that he will be fighting on the same side as Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) for at least the start of the story, which explains the “intersection with Starforce” mentioned above (Starforce being the elite military unit of which Carol is a part). Of course, we can’t say for certain if their views will line up perfectly as the movie plays out.
It should be noted that fans probably shouldn’t have extreme expectations for Ronan The Accuser’s role in Captain Marvel, as he is part of an expansive supporting cast that includes a few other key Marvel Cinematic Universe veterans – including Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury. In this discussion, it was the future Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. that Jonathan Schwartz once again compared Ronan to later in the interview, explaining how much we will learn about the Kree zealot in the new film:
I think the seed… just like there’s a Nick Fury origin story buried in this movie, buried a little bit deeper is the Ronan origin story.
Set to be the 21st film released by Marvel Studios, Captain Marvel features an outstanding cast even beyond all of the stars mentioned above – with an ensemble that also includes Ben Mendelsohn, Gemma Chan, Lashana Lynch, Djimon Hounsou, Jude Law, Clark Gregg, and Annette Bening. The blockbuster will be heading to a theater near you on March 8th, and we’ll have plenty more coverage coming your way between now and then,
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