Another piece of the puzzle that is Marvel Studios’ super secretive Phase 4 and 5 plans just fell into place. Deadline has reported (confirmed by Variety) that Nia DaCosta, the up and coming young filmmaker helming Jordan Peele’s Candyman reboot, will direct Captain Marvel 2.
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck had co-directed the original 2019 film which introduced star Brie Larson as cosmic-powered superhero Carol Danvers. Despite some rumblings from a comparatively small portion of the internet regarding Larson’s outspoken progressive politics, Captain Marvel was a smash hit for Marvel Studios, earning $1.13 billion worldwide and launching a very fervent fandom. So no pressure!
DaCosta has shown a habit of rising to the occasion though. The now 30-year old filmmaker kicked off her career in showbiz working as a TV production assistant, and eventually also directing some episodes of British TV series Top Boy. Her big break came when her script for the indie crime thriller Little Woods was chosen as one of the twelve projects for the 2015 Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Labs. Funding the film through Kickstarter, DaCosta directed Little Woods with none other than Marvel alum Tessa Thompson in the lead role. The film was a critical darling when it debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival, winning her an award and leading her to be tapped by Jordan Peele to helm the reboot of iconic horror Candyman that he was producing.
Candyman has since been gaining a HUGE amount of positive buzz, particularly with how DaCosta is infusing the film with a massively strong voice in terms of black history and culture. She is definitely a filmmaker with something to say and continues Marvel Studios’ streak of hiring indie auteurs (like James Gunn, Taika Waititi, Ryan Coogler, etc.) with strong personal visions. DaCosta also will be making history here as the first black woman director for Marvel Studios – the studio has been on a mission to recruit more diverse talent both in front of and behind the camera after taking heavy flak in its early days. Even more prestigiously, given the relative budgets of the comic book studios’ blockbusters, Captain Marvel 2 will probably give DaCosta the honour of helming the most expensive movie ever made by a black woman. That title is currently held by Ava DuVernay who directed Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time for $115 million. I’m sure that the bean counters are hoping that Captain Marvel 2 doesn’t repeat that film’s disastrous box office run.
As for the superhero sequel, it is being written by Megan McDonnell, who also worked as a story editor on Marvel Studios’ upcoming Disney Plus series WandaVision. Besides that, we know next to nothing about Captain Marvel 2, not even its full title. The first film was set in 1995 (complete with a soundtrack straight out of my teenage years!) and ended with Larson’s Captain Marvel departing Earth to help the peaceful Skrulls find a new homeworld. The next time we saw the superhero was in Avengers: Endgame which was set five years into our future. So what happened in that nearly three-decade span and how does she still look she hadn’t aged a day in that time? It’s believed the sequel will be going back and filling in those gaps.
Captain Marvel 2 is currently scheduled for release on 8 July 2022 which is luckily far enough down the line that all COVID-19 delays have not affected it yet.
Last Updated: August 6, 2020
For the Emperor!
August 6, 2020 at 10:35
I actually liked the movie and a lot of the trailer flak was totally unwarranted…
But did not like some of the stuff Larson said…and since when is hating men “outspoken progressive politics”…only far leftists think that regressive attitude is “progressive”
Son of Potassium
August 6, 2020 at 10:54
All the best to Nia. I’m sure the movie will thrill all the Brie fans. But if it flops it doesn’t matter. Hollywood is one of those places where you can fail and still get more work.
For the Emperor!
August 6, 2020 at 10:35
I actually liked the movie and a lot of the trailer flak was totally unwarranted…
But did not like some of the stuff Larson said…and since when is hating men “outspoken progressive politics”…only far leftists think that regressive attitude is “progressive”
Son of Potassium
August 6, 2020 at 10:54
Captain Marvel felt like required reading for Endgame. It’s a pity she brings politics into her movie whereas with say Spider-Man you can just enjoy a movie to have fun. CM had me roll my eyes everytime she stuck it to the man.
Son of Banana Jim
August 6, 2020 at 16:13
It was marketed as required reading for Endgame, and then it turned out that you could have skipped it all together. It was the slimiest form of disney marketing, and it was extremely effective and profitable for the Haus der Maus.
I wonder if I would have appreciated Captain Marvel more if Brie wasn’t so annoying in her politics and if it came after Endgame – thus FORMALLY starting a new arc/chapter – a bit like how the first Iron Man was used to start the MCU.
Son of Potassium
August 7, 2020 at 07:15
It’s funny how RDJ got 500 000 for the first Iron man but Brie got 5 million for the first CM. Because equal pay and all that apparently.
Kervyn Cloete
August 6, 2020 at 11:28
Because she didn’t hate men. She literally said that she doesn’t hate white guys (multiple times) but just wants to see more diverse opinions when it comes to movie reviews. Becuse stories that are about females or persons of colour get experienced differently by somebody of the same group, and yet they almost never get the opportunities to do early coverage,
And as a person of colour who reviews movies, I can tell you she’s 100% correct. The VAST majority of film reviewers – especially the prominent ones – are white males. And I’m talking by a huge margin. And they are mostly the ones who get set visits and interviews and the like in Hollywood. Ironically though, the bulk of the white male film reviewers from major publications publicly agreed with Larson’s statement. And they also still got to interview her and review her movie. They weren’t turned away. Just others were also given the opportunity to do the same.
You can read the actual Marie Claire article or see her follow-up speech for yourself below. Nowhere does she say she doesn’t want white men to watch Captain Marvel, which was the quote that somehow got passed around without people actually reading what she said. She literally just asked for MORE diversity to give minority reviewers more opportunities.
https://variety.com/video/brie-larson-crystal-lucy-awards-critics/
https://www.marieclaire.co.uk/entertainment/tv-and-film/brie-larson-641750
Son of Banana Jim
August 6, 2020 at 14:39
I think the biggest issue has been social media. A few years back, you suspected that most actors were nutty, but we didn’t really care because you’d read about it in the Huis Genoot. It didn’t impact your life at all. However, the minute, they started appearing on Twitter, it became clear that the vast majority of them aren’t just nutty, they’re also incredibly dumb. We’re constantly bombarded with their hot takes on all sorts of things, from their views on politics, their views on life, their views on underwater basket weaving. They lecture us about how we should be more progressive and caring etc.
All it’s done is made it incredibly difficult to separate the artist from the art. Brie Larson is a good actress, but she’s also a horrible human being with regressive views about men. So instead of just appreciating her as Captain Karen, you struggle to separate her from that character.
Son of Potassium
August 7, 2020 at 07:15
But Brie is a YouTuber now. She’s just like every normal Joe that uploads……?
Son of Banana Jim
August 7, 2020 at 11:27
And she’s just a normal Jozie who really likes Nintendo Switch 😛
(Insert “Hello, fellow kids” meme)
Son of Banana Jim
August 6, 2020 at 13:57
I have no idea who she is. I hope this isn’t going to end up like the director of the last Harley Quinn movie, where she literally came from nowhere, was given a triple-A movie to direct and it then turned out to be a bit of a pile of poo.
I’m all for giving people opportunities, but it has to be incremental. You have to build someone up, let them create a library of recognisable work.
Just throwing people into the ocean like that, just because no one else wants to touch certain properties, basically kneecaps them. I guess Nia has candyman behind her… so she’s not a complete neophyte… but even that movie hasn’t been tested yet. We don’t even know if it has legs. We don’t even know whether it’s a decent adaptation of the 1992 classic or just another reimagining of a classic tale with modern-day nonsense thrown in – to instantly date it as a product of the crazy Woke years. Where women aren’t women, but “individuals with a cervix“, and “your opinion matters the most the higher you are on the intersectional ladder”.
You know how we groan at some of the movies from the 90s with their “it’s extreme” nonsense, I will bet you 100 000 000 Zimbabwean pesos, that in 10 to 15 years, we’re going to groan at the nonsense that was created during this age. It’s already cringeworthy…
The G
August 6, 2020 at 16:04
I was chatting to a friend yesterday and we were talking about this very same topic. There are movies from years ago that are iconic and timeless. We were trying to figure out which movies from the last 5 years would fit the bill in the next few decades.
Son of Banana Jim
August 6, 2020 at 16:05
Not everything released in the past few years has been trash, but if you had to ask me which five movies from the last 5 years would become cult classics, my money would be on:
a) Alita
b) Ready Player One
c) 1917
d) Joker
e) Jojo Rabbit.
Kervyn Cloete
August 6, 2020 at 16:43
Way more than five, but these are my contenders of future classics:
Mad Max Fury Road
Arrival
Blade Runner 2049
The Big Short
Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse
Hell or High Water
Inception
Searching
Dunkirk
1917
Joker
Ex Machina
Thor: Ragnarok
Wind River
Sicario
Green Room
The Handmaiden
There are a few more that sit just outside the five year cut off.
Son of Banana Jim
August 6, 2020 at 17:27
I just realised Inception came out 10 years ago. Can you believe it? It feels like yesterday when I first saw it in the cinema. It was such a wild ride.
Wind RIver is the cool murder mystery with Renner and Elizabeth Olsen, right? Yeah, I’ll definitely put that in my top 10 of the last 5 years list.
Son of Banana Jim
August 6, 2020 at 17:27
Thor Ragnarok is still my favourite MCU movie (apart from Infinity War). I know not a lot of people liked it, but it was so different from the previous two movies, and it made you care about Thor in a way that The Dark World just didn’t.
So, whatever people say about Taka, and the potential of the next one being a rom com, I’m still excited.
Kervyn Cloete
August 7, 2020 at 08:12
Who didn’t like Ragnarok? WHO?!
Kervyn Cloete
August 6, 2020 at 16:44
Searching, Wind River, Green Room, Hell or High Water, and The Handmaiden are criminally underwatched.
Son of Banana Jim
August 6, 2020 at 17:27
I don’t think I’ve seen Hell or High Water yet… I’ll see if it’s on either netflix or amazon. Pity, my local Mr Video no longer exists, otherwise I would have gone there to check for the bluray disk.
Son of Potassium
August 7, 2020 at 07:15
She certainly wasn’t handed the opportunity because they’re trying to be more diverse, stunning and brave with their director recruitment… That would just be silly.