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Captain Marvel is too far away. While I want Marvel to take its time and make sure they get it right, the film’s March 8, 2019 release date feels like an eternity away, especially when you consider how many films they’ve made without a female lead character.
Thankfully, at the very least, they have a terrific actress in the lead role with Oscar-winner Brie Larson. While details on the film are still scarce (they haven’t even named a director yet), they at least have someone smart and capable in the title role.
Steve Weintraub recently spoke to Larson during the press day for Free Fire and asked why she personally found the role appealing:
“Aside from the fact that it’s iconic to be part of this, to be playing the first female [lead] in a solo [Marvel] movie, I think for me personally one of the things I’m excited about is the idea of female complexity. That’s what I’ve wanted to bring to every genre and every film that I’ve done. How can we come to understand the mystique of being female? And I think with Free Fire, for example, what excites me is to say, ‘It’s not so easy as just saying, oh, that’s a girl in an action movie; that’s a superhero and she’s tough and she’s just like a dude.’ That’s too easy. That’s not where we’re at actually. I think women are far more complicated and more interesting than just saying, ‘They’re like a dude, and that’s what makes them tough and that’s what makes them cool.’
That’s just not how it works, so to me it’s this idea of doing this film on this larger scale with really incredible, smart people behind it, with women behind it, that gives you an hour and a half, two hours to sit and see how different a woman can be. That seems cool to me, right?”
I wholeheartedly agree with Larson’s thoughts on female characters. Too often, “tough woman” is basically just a dude, and there’s no thought on how a woman’s personal experience differs from those of a man’s. It’s a well-intentioned oversight that ends up shortchanging the character. Thankfully, it sounds like Larson’s Captain Marvel will be a fully-formed superhero in her own right and I can’t wait to see her hit the big screen.
Watch the video above and stay tuned for the full interview with Larson. Free Fire opens April 21st.
