DC may be beating Marvel to the punch by making the first female-led superhero film with Wonder Woman, but that doesn't mean there isn't a lot to be excited about for Captain Marvel. Academy Award winner Brie Larson will be playing the female Avenger, and though it's still a long wait before we see her in costume, Larson is already pumping herself up. There's been tons of fan art in support of her casting, but what Larson finds most exciting is the impact she'll have on young girls.
...Like, on social media, I get sent a lot of pictures of young girls wearing the Captain Marvel costume, and I'm excited to see more of that. She's such a great symbol for young girls, and I'm realizing what a deficit we have, that we don't have more of those. I think it's really cool to see a girl in a Batman costume or Spider-Man costume, but I'm really excited that there's a symbol for women. I think that that's really important.
While doing press for her upcoming film Free Fire, Larson was asked by Morgan Hoffman of Space Channel what she finds most exciting about getting to play Carol Danvers. Larson revealed that it was getting the opportunity to give young girls another hero on the big screen. While it's usually pretty awesome to see girls with heroes that used to be "boys only" like Batman, you can't beat having a role model that speaks directly to you. Even if the eventual film doesn't meet expectations, it could still end up being a big deal for a lot of people, which Larson recognizes.
While it's arguably more fitting that Wonder Woman is the first female-led superhero movie, Captain Marvel is a close runner up. While the character has been around since 1968, first adopting the name Miss Marvel and going on to serve on the Avengers, she really only started gaining serious steam when she took the name of Captain Marvel in her own solo book in 2012. Written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, the book gained an intensely loyal fanbase that called themselves the Carol Corps, pretty much cementing her as Marvel's most iconic female hero (despite dwindling sales of the book).
You don't need to look farther than the legion of fans dressed as the heroine at conventions to know that she means a lot to her fans, and with the Captain Marvel movie coming out she's about to reach a much broader audience. There aren't nearly as many female-skewing role models in film as there are male ones, though that trend has been slowly changing as fan outcry has become louder. Still, where's that Black Widow movie, Marvel?
Captain Marvel doesn't have a director yet but the film is scheduled to hit theaters on March 8, 2019.
