Despite being the ninth biggest earner in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s history, as well as the second highest-grossing origin story behind Black Panther, fans seemed to sour almost instantly on Captain Marvel once it raced to over $1.1 billion at the box office. Of course, the backlash to Brie Larson had started long before then as a trolling campaign was launched in an effort to sabotage the movie, but the reception has hardly improved over the last two years.
Co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck did a decent job with what was a functional and formulaic superhero blockbuster, one that ticked all of the boxes required of it but failed to bring any sense of verve or originality to the proceedings, but hopes are higher for the upcoming sequel now that rising star Nia DaCosta has been tapped to take the reins.
Unfortunately, there’s still no sign of any official plot details – although there’s been a ton of rumors and speculation doing the rounds – but the latest fan theory claims that the X-Men’s Rogue could end up being introduced as the villain of the pic. After all, the power-absorbing mutant has comic book history with Carol Danvers dating back almost 40 years, and in their first battle, Rogue ended up retaining Danvers’ abilities for a very long time.
As ScreenRant explains:
Rogue’s inclusion in Captain Marvel 2 could help the movie deliver a powerful and emotional arc for the MCU’s Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) in the sequel. It could be that the movie’s take on Rogue is a secondary antagonist. This feels more likely than Rogue being the main villain, especially since it’s hard to imagine Marvel making a fan-favorite hero an evil character, not to mention Carol’s biggest threat. It would make more sense for Rogue to be someone who was manipulated by the main antagonist into fighting Carol. Or, she could be working for them out of loyalty, which isn’t unlike the circumstances behind Rogue’s debut in Avengers Annual #10. Instead of this mastermind behind Rogue’s battle with Captain Marvel being Mystique, it stands to reason that Marvel will pick a more powerful villain who betters fits into Carol’s corner of the MCU. It could even be a character of cosmic origins.
Not only would Rogue add another major female character into the MCU, but having her steal Captain Marvel‘s powers would create the opportunity to give her a more emotional and relatable story arc where she becomes affected by the loss, something that many found the first installment to be sorely lacking when it came to Larson’s relatively one-dimensional and stoic performance. Not to mention it would lay more foundations for the impending debut of the X-Men.