With the release of Avengers: Endgame fast approaching, Captain Marvel star Brie Larson has expressed an interest in seeing the next phase of the MCU bring further diversity to the Marvel franchise.
In an interview with Inquirer.net, the Oscar-winner was asked what she’d like to say to the next generation of Avengers, to which she replied:
“My hope would be that for whoever is up and coming next, that Marvel continues to explore representation and diversity in the way that they have done now, which has been really successful. With that, I would say, own your truth and who you are, because the thing that I love about this family is that we’re all very different.”
While Captain Marvel served as the first female-led entry in the Marvel franchise, the second is just around the corner with the release of a Black Widow solo movie next year. And after Carol Danvers’ standalone debut managed to cross the $1 billion mark at the box office, we can safely assume that Captain Marvel 2 will be arriving somewhere down the line.
Meanwhile, the team at Marvel Studios has continued to stress the importance of representation in their films. Executive vice president of production Victoria Alonso, for example, has argued that Black Panther cannot be the sole example in the MCU of a film led by a black superhero, and sure enough, Black Panther 2 is expected to hit theaters in 2021. What’s more, the upcoming Shang-Chi movie is set to introduce the franchise’s first Asian lead when it comes out a couple of years from now.
At the same time, it’s been heavily rumored in recent months that Chloé Zhao’s The Eternals will feature the MCU’s first gay lead. And while Marvel has been reluctant to confirm that either way, they’ve at least made it clear that the franchise will deliver to us some LGBTQ representation sooner or later. But before any of these plans come to fruition, Marvel will first bring the current era to a close with the release of Avengers: Endgame on April 26th.