Despite the character’s solo movie earning over a billion dollars at the box office and delivering a solid origin story for one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s major additions, one that looks set to be a focal point of the franchise throughout Phase Four and beyond, the casting of Brie Larson as Captain Marvel has never been a universally-popular decision.
Larson may be an Academy Award-winning actress and one of Hollywood’s pre-eminent young stars, but a vocal section of fans have never been completely onboard with having her as one of the MCU’s featured players. In the build-up to the release of Captain Marvel, some people were even actively trying to sabotage the movie’s critical consensus, while more than one petition has been launched in an attempt to remove Larson from the role.
Obviously, a studio as powerful as Marvel are never going to cave into pressure from a small group of disgruntled fans, but sources close to We Got This Covered have told us that the company are aware of the backlash against the 30 year-old actress and are actively looking to give Larson more support in the upcoming sequel.
Our sources – the same ones who told us about the live-action remake of Bambi being in development last year, and that John Cena is playing Vin Diesel’s brother in Fast and Furious 9, months before the first trailer made it official – have informed us that while Kevin Feige is a fan of Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, some execs over at Marvel Studios agree with the fans and feel that she’s been a little weak and wooden in the role and are now looking to draft in additional support to boost the ensemble cast for Captain Marvel 2.
From what we understand, this is one of the reasons why Marvel are adapting the Secret Invasion storyline in the follow-up, and why the film will feature so many other prominent characters, both new and established. This is all in an effort to offset any backlash towards Larson, and if you’ve been keeping up with the news, you’ll know that everyone from Nova to Spider-Man and even Jessica Jones have been rumored for a role in the sequel. While we doubt that all the names that’ve been put forth will ultimately wind up making an appearance, our sources say that right now, Captain Marvel 2 is being pitched as a mini-Avengers movie, kind of like Civil War. And again, that’s to give Larson some support so that she doesn’t need to carry the film by herself.
This makes sense, too, as the MCU has always been about fan service and trying to stop the negative reaction to arguably their biggest standalone heroine would certainly mark another concerted effort by the studio to try and keep everyone onside.