Although it faces stiff competition at the box office this weekend the first 10 days of “Captain America” saw the film soak up a tasty $760M at the global box office. A great start for Brie Larson in the lead role. When she signed on to play Captain Marvel, Brie Larson signed a seven picture deal with Marvel Studios. With “Captain Marvel” and “Avengers: Endgame” her first two, the question becomes what films will be next?
Building on the box office success, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige, wants to build up a new series of movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe around Captain Marvel, just like most of the Avengers plot arc centered around Captain America.
If you pick up the official Captain Marvel movie special magazine, you’ll find this quote from Feige.
“When we found out that Brie Larson might be interested in joining our world, we had a number of meetings,” said Feige. “She was a huge fan of the character in the comics. One of the highlights of my career at Marvel was introducing her at Comic-Con and having her come out on stage and stand there with literally almost everybody else from our movies. There she was at the forefront, and it was a great foreshadowing – not just for how audiences are going to embrace Brie as this character, but also for how Captain Marvel is about to take the lead and be at the forefront of the entire [Marvel] Cinematic Universe.”
One unique aspect of Captain Marvel’s story is that while her background is on Earth, she is so powerful that she belongs very much to the cosmos. Indeed quite a bit of “Captain Marvel” fits in the category of Space Opera and I would not be surprised to see future movies with Carol Danvers set in a Space Opera like movie.
This will work out well for Disney who found success with the most well-known Space Opera of all – Star Wars. The original Skywalker focused trilogy of trilogies is coming to a natural end and Disney may be a bit worried about whether audiences, especially international audiences that are already growing a bit soft on Star Wars, will be interested in watching more Star Wars Space Opera movies with the new set of characters and their stories. Having Captain Marvel ready to fill that gap is likely a winning move for Disney and Marvel Studios.
“Captain Marvel” is a movie with a female super hero lead, told by women. That’s new territory for Disney and with $800 million at the box office and growing (it should close somewhere north of $1 billion), it is a move that’s already paying off. I’m excited about at least five more movies featuring Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel and a number of more movies about other Marvel Studios characters. We’ve already had some great success stories with strong women super heros in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s clear that they can carry a film and should have many more opportunities going forward.
After Endgame we already know Dr. Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy sequels are on the horizon and “Spider-Man: Far from Home” is right around the corner. We don’t know what will become of characters like Tony Stark and Steve Rogers whose actors (Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans) have both stated they’re probably done with the super hero thing for a while.
Are you looking forward to a new series from Marvel Studios built around the Captain Marvel character? Who else do you expect to see continue in the new Marvel Cinematic Universe?
(Hat Tip FlickeringMyth for the Kevin Feige quote)