Brie Larson Isn’t The Star Of Her Own Movie
Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige says Kamala Khan is the real breakout star of The Marvels.
Captain Marvel has proven to be one of the more divisive superheroes introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is partially due to controversial statements made about white film critics by star Brie Larson and partially due to the general misogyny of weirdos on the internet. Nonetheless, many fans are hyped to see this hero return in The Marvels, but Kevin Feige gave a shocking statement to Entertainment Weekly: instead of Brie Larson, newer character Kamala Khan “essentially steals The Marvels,” meaning that the older actor isn’t even the star of her own movie.
If you don’t already know, Kamala Khan (played by relative newcomer Iman Vellani) was introduced back in the Ms. Marvel TV show on Disney+. Kevin Feige and other MCU movers and shakers are very interested in these TV shows playing a bigger part in the larger movies (a course correction from the older days of Marvel TV shows having little or no impact on the films). And with Brie Larson popping in during a post-credits scene of the Ms. Marvel finale, it was a given that the future adventures of the younger hero and the veteran she idolizes were going to be intertwined in The Marvels.
How, though, would a mostly new-to-the-MCU character steal the show from Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel in The Marvels? According to Feige, it comes down to the youthful energy and enthusiasm that her character brings to the film. He explicitly compared her to Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War, where a young Peter Parker suddenly found himself both working with and slugging it out with some of his greatest idols. Feige says that Kamala, like Peter, “can’t believe she’s with these other heroes, and can’t believe that she finds herself in these places.”
Of course, whether or not she is really with the heroes she loves or not will play a major role in the storyline of The Marvels. According to Feige, the movie is going to play up many of the more cosmic elements in the Marvel universe, and that means getting more facetime with the Skrulls (a shapeshifting alien race introduced back in Brie Larson’s first Captain Marvel film). Comics readers will have fun picking up on the many references to the Kree-Skrull war, while everyone else gets to enjoy the onscreen paranoia that happens when Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel and characters can’t be sure whether or not their friends, allies, and even family members are secretly aliens or not in most scenes of The Marvels.
What is not yet clear is how the MCU will pivot the Skrulls into being fearsome bad guys. They have always been dangerous villains in the comics, but one of the unexpected twists in Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel is that the Skrulls she encounters are just refugees looking for a place to settle down, something that The Marvels will surely change. Since future MCU content like Secret Invasion will prominently feature these aliens invading earth, it seems likely we’ll be introduced to either new groups of Skrulls or something will happen in The Marvels to turn them against humanity.
Relatively speaking, we won’t have to wait long to find out. The movie releases in theaters on July 28, so we’ll see firsthand whether Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel really does get upstaged by her biggest fan and what various movie critics have to say about The Marvels. Unless those critics are secretly Skulls, of course, we’re pretty confident that Larson doesn’t want to hear what a green man has to say about her latest movie.
