The eight-month-long wait for Captain Marvel was made all the more tolerable the other week when EW debuted the first official look at the eponymous heroine, and while we’ve still got roughly half a year to go before we get to see Carol Danvers on the big screen, evidently, the future is indeed female.
Throughout your Wednesday at work last week, EW was busy breaking the internet alongside Academy Award winner Brie Larson (Room). After the entertainment magazine announced their Captain Marvel issue, it was confirmed that Ben Mendelsohn is officially on board the project as the Skrull leader Talos, which was subsequently followed up by an exclusive first look at Jude Law as Mar-Vell, but the intel didn’t stop there.
Having officially shattered the silence surrounding the twenty-first entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Brie Larson has now spoken about suiting up as the flawed but empowering hero in Captain Marvel. Although initially, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion she would accept the role.
“I never saw myself doing something like this, mostly because I like being anonymous. I like disappearing into characters, and I always felt like if I was out in the public eye too much, it potentially limits you in the future.”
Ultimately, portraying the “most powerful superhero” ever introduced into the MCU – who just happened to be a woman – was the turning point.
“Just seeing a character who says how she feels and says what’s on her mind and doesn’t let people stand in her way is incredibly empowering.”
Unfortunately, being a “character at Disneyland” wasn’t as convincing a perk as it may sound, and Larson was admittedly a tad wary of joining an action movie, but soon found out there was a little Canadian dwelling inside her all along.
“I was an introvert with asthma before this movie. I really thought when they hired me, ‘I am the worst choice for an action movie.’ And I didn’t know that I had a little Keanu Reeves in me! Who knew?”
Now that Larson’s unlocked newfound potential, there’s no telling how far she’ll go, with the actress saying:
“I’ve been joking that I’m going to go to the 2020 Olympics [for judo]. What’s funny is I’ve been saying it the last couple of weeks, and people are like, ‘Ahhhh,’ like they can’t tell if I’m serious or not. And honestly, I can’t tell if I’m serious or not! I’m really not. But now when I’m getting scripts of what to do next, I’m like, this has to be better than the Olympics. My bar is the Olympics. It’s a pretty high bar.”
Circling back to her role as Captain Marvel, though; Larson’s ecstatic she was able to showcase her range as Carol Danvers.
“That is something that is really exciting to me about this film: We did not cut corners on that stuff. Like, when it’s funny, it is funny, but also when there’s deep emotional things happening, it’s real. So I was able to bring some of those same things that I’ve brought to full dramatic roles into this, which I’m really proud of because I think it will really set this film apart.”
Scheduled for release on March 8th, 2019, Captain Marvel – starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn and Lee Pace – is the next Marvel IP in line for a theatrical run, and as soon as that first trailer lands on Tuesday, we’ll be sure to let you know.