The Big Picture
- The Marvels director, Nia DaCosta, reveals that the character Dar-Benn in the film is quite different from her comic book counterpart, with changes made to the story as the screenplay evolved.
- Mary Livanos, the executive producer, describes movie Dar-Benn as a “deep-cut” from the comics, representing a new era of the Kree empire after a significant encounter with Captain Marvel.
- The Marvels faces several challenges, including superhero fatigue, criticism of Marvel’s declining quality, unionizing VFX professionals, and potential actor promotion issues due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
The good thing about following a franchise based on a long-running series of comic books is that you can often search through the source material to have some idea of what a certain character or storyline means for the overall story. In the case of The Marvels, though, it seems that knowing information about new villain Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) won’t help much: In an interview with Total Film Magazine, director Nia DaCosta (Candyman) revealed that the character is pretty different from her comics counterpart – and that isn’t limited to gender.
The director stated that, although there are similarities to both versions, The Marvels’ Dar-Benn story started to change as the screenplay evolved. The comic books indeed served as inspiration and, according to the director, Dar-Benn’s world vision matches on paper and on the screen. But, other than that, is the villain anything like her original comics version?
“I would just smoothly say not very, minus their viewpoint on the Kree and the Kree’s positioning in the universe. We were inspired by the [comic-book] period of two emperors and there was some more of that story in the first versions of the script. But as we took over and moved into our own space and what this story was, more of that shed away. But in terms of energetically being a Kree imperialist, she’s similar.”
The Marvels’ Executive Producer Mary Livanos also expanded on the differences, and told Total Film that movie Dar-Benn is a “deep-cut” from the comics. Livanos also mentioned they decided to go with what the villain represents, which is “a new era of the Kree empire after a cataclysmic encounter with Captain Marvel in the past.” The producer capped it off by suggesting that Dar-Benn will be the kind of villain whose motivations are easy to comprehend, and it’ll be pretty easy to see why she thinks she’s right in doing what she does.
The Marvels Gears Up to Face A Tough World — And Crowd
As the next installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Marvels has a lot to accomplish: Marvel Studios certainly hopes for a decent follow-up to Captain Marvel’s $1 billion box office draw in 2019, but audiences have been dealing with superhero fatigue and fans have repeatedly called out Marvel for the decline in quality of their movies and TV shows.
On top of all that, VFX professionals are unionizing so that the Avengers house takes accountability for their poor working conditions. Last but not least, depending on how long the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike lasts, The Marvels might premiere with no actor promotion whatsoever. On the other hand, Marvel fans are indeed excited to see Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) on the big screen once again, so there’s a chance that the movie wins big at the box office.
The Marvels premieres in theaters on November 10. You can watch the latest trailer below:
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
