Captain Marvel’s financial success means that the sequel wheels are already turning at Marvel Studios. Now that the hero has been introduced to the masses, the sequel will allow the director(s) to take Carol to new places and really develop the character. Below are three story lines that could take the character to bold new places in 2022-ish.
Captain Marvel: Legacy
When Captain Marvel ended, there were a few threads deliberately left hanging for the eventual sequel. Carol has a couple of different missions she’s keen to finish: find the Skrulls a new home and then come back to deal with the Kree Empire and the Supreme Intelligence.
In finding the Skrulls a new homeworld (Tarnax IV?) she is completing the work started by Mar-Vell, honoring her legacy by becoming a champion to oppressed people. However, if the MCU takes a few liberties with a few threads from the comics, that doesn’t have to be the way Mar-Vell’s legacy lives on.
If I’m the Supreme Intelligence, I’m very concerned about Carol coming back to finish what she started. Carol single-handedly took the piss out of your team of elite commandos, served as a surface-to-air missile and sent the Accusers on the run. The Kree don’t have a weapon to match what Carol has become and the Supreme Intelligence knows it. The Supreme Intelligence and the Kree people need their own champion, one powerful enough to defeat Carol protect the empire. Enter Genis-Vell and the Nega Bands.
By the time writers get to work on Captain Marvel: Legacy, Disney will have completed its purchase of 21st Century Fox and have the ability to begin rolling out characters and locations that had previously been unusable. Of those options, not many have the potential to change the MCU as much as the Negative Zone. In its effort to defend the Empire, the Supremor can create the Nega Bands (a pair of bracelets that imbue their wearer with great powers) as a weapon for its new champion: Genis-Vell. The son of Mar-Vell could be retooled to be one of the Kree’s great up and coming warriors and be lead to believe (via interfacing with the Supreme Intelligence) that it was the traitor Vers who was responsible for his mother’s death.
The introduction of Genis-Vell, who readers will know originally appeared under the name Legacy, would provide Carol with a worthy opponent while also giving her a chance to work at preventing the Kree from doing what they did to her to someone else. Assuming he survives, it also leaves another potential Thunderbolt out there somewhere just in case.
Finally, if we’re to introduce one of Mar-Vell’s children, we should also introduce the other. While she wouldn’t have a large role in this film, Captain Marvel: Legacy provides the perfect opportunity to bring Phyla-Vell to the MCU, setting her up for a big role down the road. Between Carol, Genis-Vell and Phyla-Vell, the MCU can still honor one of Marvel Comics great hero’s legacy despite Mar-Vell only having a limited role.
Captain Marvel: Infected
Captain Marvel paid homage to some great 90’s science fiction films such as RoboCop and Terminator 2. One idea I would love to see explored in a sequel would allow the creative team to pay homage to a film that is not only a sci-fi classic, but also features one of film’s most badass female leads: Alien.
In the search for a home for Talos and the other Skrulls, it’s totally possible that Carol might come into contact with one of Marvel’s most terrifying alien races: the Brood. If you’ve seen Alien, you basically understand what the Brood are: they’re insectoid aliens who reproduce by laying eggs inside host organisms. What fans may not know is that in comic book continuity, it was Mar-Vell who made first contact with them and Carol had a little run in with them herself during an adventure with the X-Men.
Given the fact that over twenty years pass between Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel: Infected could take place at any point in between and establish the Brood as a threat to the galaxy that could be revisited down the road in an X-Men film.
Captain Marvel: Galactic Storm
A comic book crossover that featured Carol Danvers as Ms. Marvel, Operation: Galactic Storm saw Earth once again at the center of an intergalactic conflict, this time between the Kree and Shi’ar Empires.
Captain Marvel: Galactic Storm would give Brie Larson’s Danvers the opportunity to step into the soon-to-be-vacated leadership role of the Avengers and the MCU at large by assembling both Earth-based and Cosmic heroes, diving up the teams and attempting to stop a major intergalactic conflict.
With the number of heroes that are set to be added to the MCU over the next several years, it’s easy to imagine them following the basic structure of the comic book arc (a team of heroes goes to negotiate with the Shi’ar while a second team goes to negotiate with the Kree) and having Carol oversee the operation. This type of movie would be another big, bold event like Captain America: Civil War, but one that would certainly showcase the new MCU.
What would like to see Carol getting up to in her next solo adventure? Let us know in the comments!
