For Captain Marvel fans, we’re all still riding the high of learning Brie Larson will be the woman who will bring Carol Danvers to life on the big screen in 2019. While we’ve got a bit of a long wait to see Captain Marvel shake things up in the MCU—even if she does appear in Infinity War, that movie doesn’t release till 2018—talk is already starting about what we can expect to see in her standalone film. According to Captain Marvel screenwriter Nicole Perlman, fans of the source comics might be a bit surprised when they meet her on the big screen.
Perlman recently appeared on the podcast Any Time with Vin Forte to talk more about the film, and she explained the story of how Carol Danvers becomes Captain Marvel will veer away from the origin story in the comics. The reasoning behind this is simple: there are a lot of superhero movies out there, y’all, and by 2019, there will be even more. Whether you prefer Marvel or DC, there’s no denying that a lot of the superheroes out there mirror each other pretty well. Captain Marvel has an origin story that involves having received her powers thanks to radiation from the Kree Psyche-Magnitron machine mixing her genes with those of a Kree alien named Mar-Vell, who physically shielded Carol from the Psyche-Magnitron’s blast. Kree genes plus radiation blast made our beloved Carol Danvers a superhero. That story, while awesome, is strikingly similar to the origin story of the DC Comics hero, The Green Lantern, and Perlman wanted to be sure Carol’s story didn’t get shrugged off by movie audiences as too much of a Green Lantern copy.
So not only will Perlman and the team behind Captain Marvel have to change up Carol’s origin enough to separate it from Green Lantern’s story, but they’ll also have to keep it unique enough to not feel like a recycled Marvel plot line. (And we’ve already got super-soldiers, a Norse god, an archer, a rich genius, an assassin, a science experiment gone wrong… so a lot of ground has been covered already). And while they’re doing all of that, the MCU needs to stay true to Carol herself. Ultimately, if Captain Marvel of the movies doesn’t feel like Captain Marvel of the comics, they’ll lose a solid chunk of fans.
Of course, Marvel has proved time and again that they are more than capable to do great work bringing our favorite comic book heroes to life. Nicole Perlman herself was a writer for Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor, so we definitely know she’s got the writing chops to keep Carol Danvers amazing while also making her story unique. Still, it’s always a bit nerve-wracking to hear a major story change will happen right out of the gate.
What do you think of the Captain Marvel film changing Carol’s origin story? Do you think it will make the film stronger, or hurt the character? Let’s talk about it in the comments!
Featured Image: Marvel Comics
Everything you need to know about Captain Marvel’s comic book origins
