The MCU’s first female-fronted superhero movie has just released its second trailer, which shows that it’s going to be as spunky as it is galactic. Here’s what we can divine from the three minutes of footage we’ve seen so far
The second trailer for Captain Marvel, the first female-led Marvel movie, just came out. A lot of the footage matches up with what we saw of the first trailer – de-aged reappearances of S.H.I.E.L.D characters such as Nick Fury and Agent Coulson, galactic wars, Brie Larson kicking ass – but we also get a bit more of a sense of the tone: this time round, Brie is less of a confused-but-strong alien Amazon and gets a bit more sassy with Nick Fury. Marvel knows that its great strength is that it knows how to be funny as well as epic, and guess what? It’s at it again! Now we know that there’s going to be even more sardonic wit thrown around when she makes her inevitable Avengers debut.
Beyond some quick repartee, we don’t see all that much more. But, let’s break down a few of the things we now know will be there and what they mean:
Who is Captain Marvel?
As with any Marvel film, we are torn between the sheer font of information which is the source material and the sheer number of NDAs people involved in the film are working under. Which means we can make a lot of educated guesses about what the film version of Captain Marvel will be like, but we can confirm next to nothing outside of the footage we’ve seen.
Captain Marvel, we know, is going to be Carol Danvers: a member of the US Air Force who ends up developing supernatural powers. In the comic, an explosion causes her genetic structure to meld with that of the Kree superhero Mar-Vell, who often went by the moniker Captain Marvel.
Following this, Danvers went on to become known as Ms Marvel and fought with the Avengers, a mantle now taken on by Kamala Khan. Later, when Mar-Vell died, Danvers took on his mantle of Captain Marvel, as Captain America told her it was only fitting.
What we do seem to know about Danvers is that the film version of her is also an air force pilot, that something happens to her (we do see an explosion) and she becomes a part of an elite force of fighters under the Kree race. We also see her, in this trailer, training under Mar-Vell himself (Jude Law) and, later, crashlanding back down to earth in her Starforce uniform. From that point we know very little: that she earns the interest of the early S.H.I.E.L.D and is very aware of an alien invasion from the Skrulls.
What are ‘Skrulls’?
Skrulls are an alien race that can shapeshift to look like people. A Skrull masquerades as an old woman in one section, which is why Brie Larson is seen punching the elderly in every trailer so far. At one point Nick Fury asks if she too is a Skrull, which… I mean, that’s the fun with shapeshifting enemies: anyone could be one. So far, it seems that Nick Fury’s own boss is going to be one. But what we do know is that the Skrulls and the Kree are at war and earth has now joined the arena.
And the Kree are?
As we know by now, Marvel loves taking us into space and the Kree are one of the many species that exist out there in the comic book galaxy. They are a technologically and militaristically advanced nation that fight with the Skrull over earth. The conflict involves the Avengers in the comics, which seems to be less true here, as it takes place long before the movie Avengers are formed.
So when does the film take place?
Not entirely clear, but we know it’s a period piece because Brie Larson’s descent to earth means she crashes into a Blockbuster (RIP). On top of that, Nick Fury and Agent Coulson, both played by the actors who played their 21st-century ages, both appear, but with digitally smoothed-out faces. So this is… I dunno. Eighties? Nineties? There’s a cat in the film that’s been named Goose for the Top Gun character, so let’s say late-Eighties as a wild stab.
Who are the people wearing the same outfits as her in space?
These are Starforce, an elite team of Krees that Carol Danvers belongs to during her tenure as a weird Kree-human hybrid who can’t remember her previous life on earth. Djimon Hounsou, Gemma Chan, Algenis Perez Soto and Rune Temte all play her fellow members of the group. They are led by Mar-Vell, played by Jude Law.
Her outfits also seem to place a timeline on the film: first she’s in her air force uniform, then she’s in her Starforce bodysuit, then she’s in a series of normal human outfits, and then there’s a Captain Marvel suit that appears in most advertising material, which, presumably, she adopts towards the end.
