In March 2019, Captain Marvel turned into a billion-dollar success for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The sequel was purely a formality. However, the franchise didn’t make it that easy. Instead of Captain Marvel 2, The Marvels is now hitting theaters – a crossover film that brings together three different MCU projects in one space adventure. I spoke about this remarkable feat of strength in an interview with director Nia DaCosta.
The Marvels brings together three powerful superheroines: director Nia DaCosta has brought them together
Brie Larson returns as Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel, while characters from the MCU series become important on Disney+. On the one hand: Kamala Kahn, who makes New Jersey unsafe as Ms. Marvel and is played by young star Iman Vellani. On the other side is Monica Rambeau, played by Teyonah Parris, who transformed into a superhero in WandaVision.
The superheroines are brought together by director discovery Nia DaCosta, the youngest filmmaker in the MCU. After the indie success Little Woods, she recently brought an iconic horror character back to life with Candyman. At 33, she’s now bringing a $250 million blockbuster to the screen – complete with an ever-hungry monster tentacle cat.
Moviepilot: I saw 20 minutes of the film and they looked pretty crazy. What interested you most about The Marvels?
Nia DaCosta: It’s a good idea when it’s crazy. That was one of the main reasons why I really wanted to do the film. Marvel had something incredibly ambitious going on and that piqued my curiosity. I also loved the relationship between the three women [Carol Danvers, Kamala Khan und Monica Rambeau] very touching on a personal level. I liked the idea that they have to come together before becoming a team at the end of the film.
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Brie Larson as Carol Danvers in The Marvels
At what point did you come on board as director and co-writer?
There was already a very detailed outline of what the story should look like. However, the script had not yet been finalized at this point.
The Marvels is closely linked to Ms. Marvel and WandaVision. How does screenwriting work when there are so many different ones Projects – films and series – interact with one another?
This wouldn’t be possible without the help of the people on the other projects. There are a lot of conversations between everyone involved because something is always changing, especially in post-production. We are in a system of constant feedback. There really are so many feedback loops. If something changes with the others, we have to adapt it. And when something changes for us, the others follow suit. You can really think of it as a long, big conversation.
What did your pitch for the film look like back then? And how were you able to convince Kevin Feige to hire you as a director?
With a lot of reverence. [Lacht] Basically, I just picked up what appealed to me most from the draft of the film. It was a lot about how, as a filmmaker, I wanted to empathize with the world of the characters, especially with regard to the three main characters. For me, Carol, Kamala and Monica were like three sisters who were estranged and reunited after a long time. I wanted to expand the story around this idea. Otherwise, I have [Kevin Feige] told me how I would implement certain scenes and set pieces and that convinced him.
The Marvels is your first Hollywood blockbuster with a budget in the three-digit million range. What changed during production compared to your previous films?
Filming takes significantly longer. Basically, every process takes longer than an indie film or a film made with a moderate budget at a studio. You work in a completely different system.
Can you describe this system? The big question I always ask myself is: Can you keep your creative voice in a system like this?
I think in some ways that’s totally possible. But in the end, you use your creative voice to tell something bigger than yourself. That’s how I approached The Marvels.
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Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau in The Marvels
As a filmmaker, what did you really want to bring to the MCU?
[The Marvels] is the first film where I was able to do big fight scenes. That’s what I was really looking forward to – finally being able to expand the canon of fight scenes with my own ideas. I was able to immerse myself in working with effects and thought a lot about how I would implement the action in the cinematic space. With The Marvels I was able to do things I’ve never had the opportunity to do before. I felt like I could spread my wings here.
The first thing that comes to mind is the action sequence in which Carol, Kamala and Monica fight in three different locations and keep swapping places.
Yes, exactly! It was very complicated to shoot, but I had a great team that supported me in every way. We thought for a long time about exactly how this fight works, broke it down into its individual components and then thought about how we would implement it. At the end of the day, every department knew exactly what they had to do.
Did you draw inspiration from other action films?
I immersed myself in comic history and looked at a lot of comics that I had already read, but was also able to discover a lot of new things. From there I borrowed what made the most sense to me in terms of the characters. For example, Kelly Thompson’s Captain Marvel run really inspired me. It’s really fantastic. This is how I found Carol’s story – and it is much darker than in the previous films in which she appeared. With Ms. Marvel, I particularly liked the first issues of the comics. For Monica, in addition to the comics, I also took a close look at WandaVision.
An important name that cannot be forgotten is Goose. The cat or the Flerken appeared in the first part, but had to be recast for the sequel, if I understood that correctly?
Yes, that was because we were watching the film in the UK [und nicht in den USA] have turned. You can’t easily travel internationally with cats all the time, it’s logistically very difficult. So we found two new cats to portray Goose in the film. They’re called Tango and Nemo and they’re wonderful!
How exactly do you film a Marvel blockbuster with two cats?
The most important thing is to make sure that the cats are comfortable, that they feel safe and that they don’t get hurt. But we don’t do everything with cats. In many scenes in which Goose appears, he devours entire people with his tentacles. Since cats can’t do that in our world yet, we often had to resort to digital doubles. In the finished film you see a mixture of the real animals and their digital counterparts.
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Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan in The Marvels
For a current superhero blockbuster, The Marvels has a surprisingly short runtime. Was that a conscious decision or did it just happen in the editing room?
Personally, I wanted the film to stay under two hours. Because I think it’s nice when a film is exactly as long as it needs to be. Too many films are stretched out unnecessarily. Of course there are stories that offer more. Lawrence of Arabia completely captivates me with its four hours. With The Marvels, we came up with our running time naturally at the end. I think it’s now an hour and 45 minutes. And it’s not that short, actually a very average running time.
Earlier this year there were reports that you were doing reshoots on The Marvels. What exactly can I imagine by that and how has the film changed as a result?
Reshoots are a natural part of the process. They are planned into the production plan from the start. They told me that directly when I started my work. Marvel films have been made this way for 15 years. I trusted the process. When you take on a project this big, you have to do that. It’s simply another part in the development and refinement of the film, so that in the end the film comes out that you then see on the screen in the cinema.
Can you try this out using a concrete example? At what point do you know that you need to reshoot a certain scene or add a completely new scene?
This is different for every project. When we talk about reshoots, it’s often about individual things. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we had that attitude? Oh, and I’d like to add this detail here.” So it’s more like supplementary filming. We’re not remaking the entire film. It’s just part of it. When you put the individual parts of the film together in post-production, you look closely at the shots and at some point you notice that something is still missing here and there. And then you make those decisions.
After working on The Marvels for the past three years, what are you most proud of?
I am most proud of my crew, the cast and especially the three women who carry the film on their shoulders. What [Brie Larson, Iman Vellani und Teyonah Parris] have been through! Every day they put their bodies on the line, being thrown against mats and hung from wires. They played their hearts out – in front of all those green screens. I am incredibly proud of them and everyone who made this film possible.
The Marvels opens in German cinemas tomorrow, November 8th, 2023.
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