It's a very exciting time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Phase Three will come to an end next month with Avengers: Endgame, one year after audiences were left mouths agape at the horrifying twist ending of Infinity War. But before that we have Captain Marvel, the 90's set origin story which flew into theaters this weekend, making a ton of money in the process. In addition to introducing Carol Danvers, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's Marvel blockbuster included plenty of familiar faces including Nick Fury, Korath, Ronan, and Phil Coulson.
Clark Gregg is back on the silver screen playing a younger Phil Coulson, who is still a rookie at S.H.I.E.L.D.. Ahead of its release, Captain Marvel fell victim to online trolling, including the film's Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes pages. While measures were made to fix this issue, Gregg had some choice words for those trolls and haters. He recently spoke to the trolling situation, saying:
I don’t know if the expression is butthurt about seeing someone else get a hero that looks like them, but that’s because they’ve always had heroes that looked like them.
Just when you thought you'd heard it all, there's Agent Coulson using the expression "butthurt". But Captain Marvel haters do seem to have a certain axe to grind, with the anger directed at Brie Larson specifically, especially from white men who took umbrage with her previous comments about diversity in the press.
Early into the press tour for Captain Marvel, Brie Larson expressed her disappointment that reviewers and film journalists she'd run into were primary white males. While encouraging inclusion in all aspects of the film world, she majorly ticked off certain fans who felt like she was trying to exclude them from the upcoming blockbuster. Those naysayers took to the internet to explain their issues, and Captain Marvel's reviews and scores ahead of its release plummeted.
In his same conversation with Nerdist, Clark Gregg went on to explain how futile the resistance against Captain Marvel and other female-led properties ultimately is, As he describes it,
There are people that get very bent out of shape about the fact that she’s a woman, and that Brie’s a woman, and wants to see women moving into an equal place in humanity to men. It’s sad. It must be sad to be that kind of dinosaur wandering towards the tar pits.
Phil Coulson isn't here for Captain Marvel trolls, and he's making his feelings known. While some actors have been known to curb their language about haters, Clark Gregg went so far as to call the haters butthurt dinosaurs. So yeah, he's not exactly holding back much regarding the naysayers for the newest Marvel blockbuster.
You can see Clark Gregg's conversation about Captain Marvel below, dinosaurs and all.
Clark Gregg has spent a great number of years in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, on both the small and silver screen. As such, he's got a particular level of investment. So when trolling begins, he responded in an honest way.
The backlash for Captain Marvel started back in June of 2018, when Brie Larson was accepting an award at the Crystal + Lucy Awards. While discussing the call for inclusion both in front and behind the camera, Larson discussed how diversity also needed to be reflected in the press. Her original comments read:
[Audiences] are not allowed enough chances to read public discourse on these films by the people that the films were made for. I do not need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn’t work for him about [A] Wrinkle in Time. It wasn’t made for him. I want to know what it meant to women of color, to biracial women, to teen women of color, to teens that are biracial.
While uttered many months ago, Brie Larson's comments citing a 40-year-old white dude ended up being the catalyst for online Captain Marvel hatred. Websites like Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango saw a ton of negative comments about the Marvel blockbuster, weeks before it actually arrived in theaters this past weekend. The trolling specifically cited Larson's speech, with white men claiming to boycott the blockbusters in response.
Brie Larson eventually clarified her comments during the press junket for Captain Marvel. Reelblend co-host Kevin McCarthy discussed the controversy with Larson shortly before the movie arrived in in theaters. The Oscar winner had this to say:
What I’m looking for is to bring more seats up to the table. No one is getting their chair taken away. There’s not less seats at the table, there’s just more seats at the table.
While Brie Larson got the chance to expand her comment, there was still plenty of trolling heading to Captain Marvel in the days before it finally arrived. But that controversy doesn't seem to have negatively affected the blockbuster. Brie Larson's Marvel debut made a whopping $153 million domestically during its opening weekend, with pre-sales among the MCU's biggest. The movie has also made $303,285,175 internationally, so Marvel Studios is really raking in the dough with Captain Marvel.
It should be interesting to see if/when the Captain Marvel the trolling ceases, especially as the title character becomes a bigger presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She's expected to have a meaty role in Avengers: Endgame, as the surviving heroes will need all the help they can get in order to face off against Thanos and hopefully reverse the affects of The Snap. Carol Danvers is the strongest hero in the entire shared universe, so it should be especially exciting if she lays the smack down on Josh Brolin's big purple villain sometime during the upcoming blockbuster.
As for Phil Coulson, it's unclear if he'll get another silver screen appearance. While the character is the focus of the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers still believe him to have died at the hands of Loki. But with the future of the MCU after Endgame largely a mystery, it seems anything is possible.
You can see a digitally de-aged Phil Coulson in Captain Marvel, which is in theaters now. Carol Danvers will return to the MCU with Avengers: Endgame on April 26th. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.
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