Captain Marvel will begin with the heroine already in space and fully powered up. That’s the word from EW, who are showcasing their first look at the next movie on the MCU slate, giving us a good glimpse at Brie Larson in her red, blue and gold costume and a tease of the skeleton of the plot. According to the outlet’s article, the in media res opening will find Carol already with her powers and having abandoned life on Earth to join an elite Kree military squad called Starforce, led by Jude Law’s Mar-Vell.
We won’t be spending the entire film exploring the MCU’s cosmology though, as Earth is being invaded by Skrulls and Captain Marvel will need to team up with S.H.I.E.L.D. to stop them. Along the way, she’ll be assisted by a young, binocular desk jockey named Nicholas Fury, who’s apparently been waiting for the opportunity to prove his worth to the top brass.
I reckon skipping the origin story is a smart move here. It’s 2018 and we’ve already seen endless superhero origin stories (with Venom being criticized in some corners for retreading overly familiar narrative ground), so I’m sure we can pick up Danvers’ past as we go. It’s the same tactic Marvel Studios used in Spider-Man: Homecoming, trusting that by now audiences knew how Peter Parker got his superpowers. Still, Captain Marvel is just a fraction as well known as Spidey is, so expect some exposition or flashbacks along the way to flesh things out a bit.
It’ll also be interesting to see how they handle her stopping an alien invasion of Earth. As far as the MCU Earth goes, the Battle of New York in The Avengers was the first time the planet had to come to terms with not being the only life in the galaxy, so presumably, this invasion will be a subtle and secretive one (which at least fits well with Skrull tactics).
In any case, let’s just hope they can slot the events of Captain Marvel in neatly without having to retcon too much of what we’ve seen in earlier MCU movies.