Captain Marvel: all the updates, trailers and commentary for the next big Marvel movie

It’s rare that the stars of the year’s biggest movie reunite for an entirely separate feature film a month later, but that’s not exactly what happened with Unicorn Store, a new movie hitting Netflix on Friday. It’s the second 2019 film starring Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson; the first, Captain Marvel, will likely remain the highest-grossing movie of the year until Avengers: Endgame (definitely co-starring Larson, possibly co-starring Jackson) comes out on April 26th. Technically, though, Captain Marvel is a Unicorn Store reunion. Larson directed the film a few years ago, after she won an Oscar for Room but before she suited up as a Marvel superhero. The film debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017, and now Netflix has picked it up for wider distribution.

At first glance, Larson’s feature directorial debut bears no resemblance to the space-faring Captain Marvel, entry number 21 in the world’s biggest franchise. But for fans of Larson’s Marvel Cinematic Universe film who reacted to more than just its place in the ongoing Marvel narrative, Unicorn Store works decently well as a companion piece.

Marvel’s latest superhero flick, Captain Marvel, just crossed a big milestone: it’s earned more than $1 billion at the global box office, according to Variety. The film is the seventh in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to hit that mark, joining the likes of Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War.

After being teased in last year’s Infinity War, fans were eagerly anticipating the film and its titular character to arrive in a standalone spot, given Captain Marvel’s expected role in the forthcoming Avengers: Endgame. The milestone comes as the buildup to Endgame has begun. Marvel released a new teaser yesterday in conjunction with advance tickets going on sale, which broke the record set by Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015. The question isn’t will Endgame hit the billion-dollar mark, but how fast?

There are so many streaming options available these days, and so many conflicting recommendations, that it’s hard to see through all the crap you could be watching. Each Friday, The Verge’s Cut the Crap column simplifies the choice by sorting through the overwhelming multitude of movies and TV shows on subscription services, and recommending a single perfect thing to watch this weekend.

Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors, a 2018 Disney XD animated film, featuring the origin story of a new Marvel super-team. Actor / comedian Milana Vayntrub voices Doreen Green, aka “Squirrel Girl,” an ebullient young woman with a furry prehensile tail and the ability to talk to squirrels. Kathreen Khavari plays Doreen’s best friend Kamala Khan, aka “Ms. Marvel,” one of a group of previously ordinary humans who developed “Inhuman” superpowers after being exposed to “Terrigen mist.” Throughout the course of Secret Warriors, Squirrel Girl and Ms. Marvel have a falling out, divided by a clandestine clash between three factions: the newly created Inhumans, a cadre of recruiters for the militaristic alien race known as the Kree, and agents from S.H.I.E.L.D. Along the way, Doreen and Kamala join forces with other fledgling heroes, including a flamethrower codenamed “Inferno,” the super-strong alien “Miss America,” and a former Captain America sidekick, “Patriot.”

Spoilers ahead for Captain Marvel’s mid-credits and post-credits scenes, for Avengers: Infinity War, and for one big gag in Captain Marvel itself.

Back in 2008, when Nick Fury arrived at Tony Stark’s house to invite him to join the Avengers Initiative after the credits rolled, the sequence felt like most post-credit scenes did back then — a little in-joke for dedicated viewers who cared enough to sit all the way through the credits, instead of bolting for the doors the moment the action stopped. But over the past decade, Marvel’s post-credits scenes have become an institution. Occasionally, they’re just visual gags and callbacks to previous story elements, like Ant-Man and the Wasp’s 20-second view of Ant-Man’s abandoned house, with a super-sized ant playing his drum set. Usually, though, they’re a way of building anticipation for an upcoming film in the series, like when Avengers: Infinity War ended with Nick Fury summoning off-world hero Captain Marvel with a dated-looking pager, just before he dissolved in the wake of Thanos’ universe-changing finger-snap.

As the first female-led Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Captain Marvel is arriving in theaters under a heavy burden of expectations. Even after years of fans clamoring for a Black Widow standalone movie, it took a full decade and 20 MCU films for the franchise to produce a single movie with a woman protagonist. And it took the example of rival studio DC Entertainment releasing Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman to both critical and monetary success. That gives Captain Marvel the triple challenge of living up to past MCU films, proving a female-led movie can make the company money, and squaring off against one of DC’s biggest hits.

But even without the challenge of breaking new representational ground for the MCU, Captain Marvel is facing sky-high expectations because of the MCU films immediately preceding it. Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi brought a new irreverence to the MCU, while also lining up Thor, Hulk, and Doctor Strange for Avengers: Infinity War. Then came Black Panther, in which director Ryan Coogler took Marvel fans deep into the story and culture of the African nation of Wakanda, breaking box office records and giving Marvel its first Oscar-winner. That film dovetailed neatly into Avengers: Infinity War, which linked together 18 previous films, made $2 billion worldwide, and eradicated half the universe’s population. Even Ant-Man and the Wasp, the first Marvel film with a female character in its title, felt like it was queuing up expectations for Captain Marvel, and for the fast-approaching Infinity War sequel Avengers: Endgame.

Marvel’s next big superhero movie is Captain Marvel, and unlike most of the franchise’s films, this one’s set in the 1990s. Accordingly, Marvel has launched a website that fits the timeframe, a throwback to web design of the era, complete with awkward animations, fonts, and colors.

The result is absolutely delightful. The website taps into the nostalgia for the 1990s that we’ve seen in the film’s trailers, and features a ton of components that were mainstays of the web almost a quarter of a century ago: random animations, zany photo editing, HTML frames, brightly-colored fonts, and of course, a guestbook and hit counter. There’s even a Skrull you can punch when it pops up. All that’s missing is a front page that you have to click through. It’s a far cry from the bland, modern movie websites.

Disney is looking to invest heavily in exclusives for its upcoming streaming service, Disney+, and that means having movies like Captain Marvel stream exclusively on the service.

In an investors call on February 5th, Disney CEO Bob Iger told investors that Disney plans to forgo its current rate of $140 million year over year in licensing revenue, in favor of moving its currently licensed content to Disney+. He noted that Captain Marvel will be the first Disney movie that the company will completely withhold from its licensee partners. The news follows Disney’s decision in 2017 to stop licensing its films to services like Netflix.

A new teaser for Captain Marvel, the next installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, finds Carol Danvers showing the boys who’s boss — including Samuel L. Jackson’s Nicky Fury and Jude Law’s villain, Yon-Rogg.

The teaser debuted at the 2019 Super Bowl, which saw the Los Angeles Rams take on the New England Patriots. There isn’t a ton of new information or scenes in the trailer, but it’s a fun 30-second clip. It shouldn’t be too surprising that there isn’t too much new information, though — the movie comes out in just over a month.

A new sneak peek at Captain Marvel that aired during the College Football Playoff National Championship game between Alabama and Clemson brought back one of Marvel’s most beloved characters within the Marvel Cinematic Universe — Agent Coulson.

Coulson appeared to die in the first Avengers film in 2012, but continued to live on in ABC’s Agents of SHIELD. Although, like Agent Nick Fury, played by Samuel L. Jackson, Coulson (Clark Gregg) is much younger than we remember in Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel takes place before the majority of the current MCU films — with the exception of Captain America: The First Avenger, which took place during the Second World War.

There are fewer than 100 days until Captain Marvel hits theaters, and Disney is already in full advertising blitz mode, debuting a new trailer for the movie tonight.

This marks the second trailer Marvel Studios has released for the movie, which is set to be released only a couple of months before Avengers 4. The first trailer teased Carol Danvers’ (Brie Larson) powers as Captain Marvel, a superhero who returns to Earth after years away. Unlike other films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain Marvel is a prequel of sorts. It’s not an origin story, but it does take place years before the events of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and Thor.

The first trailer for the next installment of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe is here. The first look at Captain Marvel arrived this morning on Good Morning America.

Spoilers ahead for Avengers: Infinity War

Ever since Nick Fury first showed up at Tony Stark’s house to plug the Avengers Initiative at the end of 2008’s Iron Man, post-credit scenes have been a staple of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Sometimes they’re just a little gag, a bonus for sitting through the credits, like the sequence of the Avengers silently eating shawarma together in a partially wrecked New York City takeout after the catastrophic fight in The Avengers, or the Howard the Duck cameo after Guardians of the Galaxy. Much more often, though, they’re specific teases for a Marvel movie that’s coming up on the release docket, from the initial visit to Wakanda at the end of Captain America: Civil War to tease events in Black Panther to the various scenes introducing the villain Thanos long before he turns up in Avengers: Infinity War.

The Avengers: Infinity War post-credits scene is no exception. Anyone sticking around through the film’s credits, hoping for some bright spot to leaven the film’s grim ending, instead got an oblique reference to a Marvel movie headed to theaters in 2019. The tease will also certainly be relevant to the still-untitled Infinity War sequel, but that’s still more than a year and a couple other Marvel movies away. But for those who didn’t immediately recognize the significance of what they saw onscreen, here’s a rundown. Significant spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War ahead, obviously.

Captain Marvel isn’t due out in theaters until March 2019, but Marvel was quick to give the film its due during the studio’s Hall H panel at Comic-Con last night. One of the key details revealed during the presentation was that the movie will be a period piece set in the 1990s, a timeframe that will set it apart from most of the other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

It’s something of a strange move on its face, especially since one would expect to see Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) joining up with a new class of Avengers. But if the aim is to establish her as a powerful force to be reckoned with in her own right, it might just make sense.

Last summer, Marvel Studios announced that it cast Brie Larson (Room, Kong: Skull Island) to lead its upcoming superhero film Captain Marvel. Since then, the company has been working to find the right person to helm the film. Today, Variety reports that it finally made its decision: co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.

According to Variety, Marvel came to the decision after it was satisfied that the script was “in the right shape before tapping who would direct it.” The studios met with a number of contenders. Boden and Fleck have noteworthy experience working on television, directing episodes of the series Billions and The Affair, and helming critically acclaimed films like Sugar, Half Nelson, and Mississippi Grind.

Marvel’s Cinematic Universe has become a template for the entire entertainment industry, with nearly every studio trying to duplicate Marvel’s ability to weave film after film into one serialized, interconnected, long-form narrative. For most other companies, imitating Marvel has been nearly impossible, in large part due to the development and creative process that Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige architects out of the company’s offices on the Disney lot in Burbank, California.

Having originally sprung to life in a small office in West Los Angeles, Marvel Studios now takes up the entire second floor of the sprawling Frank G. Wells building on Disney’s backlot, plus the screening rooms and post-production facilities sprouting up all around the studio to accommodate Marvel’s massive slate. On April 18th, the studio invited a group of journalists into its headquarters for a look behind the scenes at how Marvel movies are designed and brought to life — and we learned a few secrets about upcoming Marvel projects along the way.

Marvel finally has its Captain Marvel. The House of Ideas announced at Comic-Con today that Brie Larson, who just won an Academy Award for her turn in Room, will star as Carol Danvers, the company's first leading female superhero.

With Larson in the role, Marvel Studios can finally start making moves to correct its deeply white and deeply male Avengers roster. Captain Marvel is currently one of the most powerful and respected superheroes in the Marvel Universe. Since graduating from the Ms. Marvel codename in 2012 (that role eventually went to Kamala Khan), she's become an incredibly important figure, becoming a key member of the Avengers and later the Ultimates. And because of her long history, she's certainly one of Marvel's highest-profile female characters.

Brie Larson is Marvel's first choice to play Captain Marvel in the upcoming superhero movie of the same name, and is leaning toward playing the role, Variety reports. Sources told the publication that Larson — who won the Oscar for Best Actress earlier this year for her work in Room — is apparently the comic company's preferred choice to play the Captain (real name Carol Danvers), but specified that she's still in early talks, and that it's "unknown where things stand in negotiations."

Captain Marvel — the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to feature a woman in the lead role — is set to hit screens on July 6th, 2018. Marvel CEO Kevin Feige previously promised that his company would reveal the movie's director this summer, closely followed by cast information, but we're still in the dark on who will end up behind the camera after rumors linked Angelina Jolie with the directing job last year. Marvel has not commented on any of the reports so far, but the company still has plenty of time to lock in Larson — or whoever they choose — and still deliver the details before the end of summer.