Kevin Feige Explains Why Captain Marvel’s Bringing Back So Many Old Faces

Next year, Marvel will deliver the MCU’s first ever female-led movie in the shape of Captain Marvel, starring Brie Larson. As if that wasn’t enough reason to be excited, the film will also act as something of a prequel to the MCU as we know it, as it’s set in the 1990s and will see the return of several familiar faces as we revisit these characters twenty years before we first met them.

The two big names are Samuel L. Jackson, back as S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury, and Clark Gregg, finally making his long-awaited return to the movies as Agent Phil Coulson. Also appearing are Guardians of the Galaxy villains Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser and Djimon Hounsou as Korath the Pursuer.

Every MCU movie by this point is heavily tied into the wider story of the franchise, but why will Captain Marvel feature so many connections to the past? Kevin Feige was asked this in an interview with io9 and explained that it came out of the story the film was telling as well as from the appeal of seeing familiar characters in “different environments.”

“It was the backstory of those characters crossing over into Kree mythology, and Kree lore, that just made it made it work. And I always think it’s fun to see, most obviously with Fury in Captain Marvel, but also to a certain extent you’ll see with Ronan and Korath, characters the way they were before they became the icons that you have seen in other films. And it’s just fun to see people in different environments.”

As the Marvel Studios President points out, Ronan and Korath have direct ties to the story of Captain Marvel as they’re both Kree fanatics. We know that the backdrop of this film will be Carol Danvers getting involved in the Kree-Skrull War, so it makes sense that the two most prominent Kree we’ve met in the MCU thus far will make a comeback.

As for Fury, Feige has previously revealed that Captain Marvel will explore how Jackson’s future mentor to the Avengers encounters a superhero for the first time, which starts him on the path to creating a team of heroes. Huh, good idea. Wonder if it works out for him?

Captain Marvel soars into cinemas on March 8th, 2019.