(Spoilers for Marvels’ Avengers: Infinity War below.)
During the post credits scene of Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War , we see Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Col. Nick Fury, pull out a beat-up, futuristic pager with an eight-pointed gold star on its small screen. Savvy Marvel fans immediately recognized the symbol as a reference to Captain Marvel, an as-yet-unseen cinematic superhero from the colorful pages of Marvel comics, and apparently she’s on her way to save the day (and, by extension, half the universe).
Brie Larson, who won an Academy Award for her role in the film Room , signed on to play the high profile character after some initial reluctance, she told Vanity Fair , but ultimately decided to take the role because it created an opportunity for her to model a strong female character for young women. But before she (presumably) transits the cosmos to answer Nick Fury’s summons, we get to learn about her character’s backstory in a new Marvel movie coming out next spring.
Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive on the character reveal, and they are doing it in a big way, with Larson as Captain Marvel on the cover of their September 14, 2018 issue, below. Entertainment Weekly also posted a short video to their YouTube channel, showing about ten still shots from the movie.
The future is female! Here’s your exclusive first look at @BrieLarson as @CaptainMarvel , the galaxy’s newest — and most powerful — star: https://t.co/EKfHhGIhUa pic.twitter.com/xhD00bdfF0
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) September 5, 2018
The Captain Marvel character has gone through several iterations in the pages of Marvel comics, originally appearing in 1967 as a male character named Mar-Vell. In recent years, the most popular version of the character has been Carol Danvers, and that’s the version we will see onscreen next year. Danvers is part human, part alien (thanks to mutation caused by a powerful alien device explosion), and as a result, has cosmic super powers like flight, superhuman strength, energy absorption, toxin resistance, and the ability to shoot energy bolts from her fingertips.
The movie coming out next spring appears to take place in the 1990s, and according to EW , it starts with Danvers already in possession of super powers , far away from Earth, as part of an alien military team known as the Starforce. She returns to Earth to deal with a threat posed by the Skrulls, a race of shape-shifting, infiltrating aliens. Since it’s the 90s, we also get to see a digitally youthful Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and according to iMDB , fan favorite Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) appearing as agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Captain Marvel hits the screen on March 9, 2019. It was directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. Boden is the first female director of a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie.