A triple threat of the MCU’s most powerful women unite in The Marvels. Total Film meets the filmmakers to find out how Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau, and Kamala Khan will contend with a formidable new foe, unexpected power-swaps and flerkens galore.
The sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel is poised to photon-blast onto screens imminently. Except it’s not called Captain Marvel 2. Or Captain Marvel: Saviour of the Universe [insert punchy subtitle of your choosing], come to that, unlike fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe heroes Iron Man, Thor, Spider-Man and Captain America whose multiple sequels have titles that all begin with their very singular names.
Instead of giving Captain Marvel solo billing in the follow-up to the 1995-set sojourn into Carol Danvers’ history, three characters take centre-stage under the banner The Marvels – Danvers herself, aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson); Danvers superfan Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), and Danvers’ estranged honorary niece and goddaughter, Monica Rambeau, aka Photon (Teyonah Parris). Is this a case of attempting to strengthen the film’s chances out of concern that audiences won’t go and see, or like, a second solo Captain Marvel movie? Indeed, the first was negatively review-bombed by misogynistic haters three weeks before it was even released and star Larson became the target of online trolling.
The answer is a resounding no. Captain Marvel went on to gross more than $1.1bn worldwide – the first woman-led superhero movie to top the billion-dollar mark. But the film’s composer, Laura Karpman, whose work on Disney+ MCU series Ms. Marvel has also just been nominated for a gong, perhaps says it best when describing her work on the score.
‘What I can say is that, for me, the real forward motion of the score is about their team,’ says Karpman, chatting via Zoom to Total Film from her home. ‘And about this idea of [the film’s tagline], “Higher. Further. Faster. Together.” This idea about being able to do something as a collaborative – women really working together to help each other – I think that’s a hugely important thing socially.’
THE FUTURE IS NOW
The Marvels is set in MCU present, 30 years after the events of Captain Marvel. Danvers has cropped up in various adventures since 1995 and the revelations surrounding her origin story – including playing a key role in the Battle of Earth, the culmination of the franchise’s Infinity Saga in which the Avengers collectively whooped the Mad Titan’s big purple butt. She also materialised in that Ms. Marvel post-credits scene, swapping places with Kamala Khan and directly setting up the events of The Marvels. The movie was never going to be a straight sequel – and it makes perfect sense to bring together these connected characters we’ve seen elsewhere. Monica Rambeau was explored as an adult
