Lately, there has been a lot of speculation going on about Brie Larson and her career, now that fans know the Captain Marvel sequel will not focus on the adventures of Carol Danvers alone. The sequel is titled The Marvels, and has already confirmed the return of Larson, as well as Teyonah Parris, who played Monica Rambeau in WandaVision. Other female leads are expected to join the Lason-Parris duo, making The Marvels film all about a diverse group of women. Some fans, however, are saying it’s a bad thing.
In the past, Brie Larson has been very vocal about her stance on feminism, calling out those who expressed their dislike of movies geared towards female and minority audiences during her acceptance speech for the Crystal Awards in 2018. She explained how there is a huge lack of diversity in the film critic industry and as a result, not all films were performing successfully because the majority group gave them bad reviews.
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Some people were upset by this and found Larson’s speech to be an attack on white men, which is when her popularity began to decrease amongst the more toxic side of the Marvel fanbase. There are thousands of comments all over the internet claiming that Brie Larson is unlikeable because she’s forcing her feminist agenda down the throats of people who don’t care enough to listen to what she has to say, or that she's being obnoxious by using her fame to raise awareness about important social issues.
Larson even starred in a Nissan car commercial earlier this year, which was met by a lot of backlash from people that don’t like her, claiming that they would no longer be supporting the brand because of Larson’s involvement with the company. Those who condemned Larson for her outspoken views on how more women and people of color deserve representation in popular media are the same people claiming that she’s getting a “demotion” in the MCU.
It’s no surprise, really, that these angry Marvel “fans” began spreading rumors about Larson in hopes that her career would fail. Recently, there has been some speculation that Larson will eventually play Mara Jade in a future Star Wars project, which led her haters to believe that her supposed affiliation with another big-name Disney franchise is what resulted in the Captain Marvel sequel becoming a team-focused production.
Assuming that Larson received a demotion because The Marvels features other characters doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. For starters, the Star Wars rumors only began to gain attention within the last few days and the Captain Marvel sequel has been in development much longer. Not to mention, some of the MCU’s greatest hits have been ensemble films that were entirely based on heroes coming together to join forces, so having others fight alongside Carol Danvers shouldn’t be seen as something meant to punish Brie Larson.
In fact, featuring multiple women in the Captain Marvel sequel is the perfect move for the series. As fans know, Captain Marvel was the first female-centered movie Marvel has ever created, paving the way for other female fan-favorites to have their time to shine, like Black Widow in her upcoming 2021 solo film. The original Captain Marvel film is all about empowering women and proving that they’re capable of being strong, brave and selfless, just like the male heroes already kicking butt within the MCU.
Captain Marvel isn’t the kind of hero who wants to be praised like a god, and neither does Larson. Instead, Larson and her superhero alter-ego show that an all-female team is valuable in a male-dominated franchise. Working closely with other women and giving more females the screen time they deserve aligns perfectly with Larson’s personal beliefs, which she never hesitates to share with the public.
Captain Marvel is just getting started within the MCU and there’s plenty of time in the future for her to go out on more solo adventures, so making room for additional characters isn't really an issue. The Marvels will take place after the events of WandaVision and Avengers: Endgame, which fans have pieced together since Monica Rambeau will be back as a fully grown adult, rather than the ambitious young girl viewers met in the original Captain Marvel.
Monica was also given some sort of superhuman abilities at the end of WandaVision, so showing her development in The Marvels and giving an explanation as to why Carol Danvers has become such a sensitive subject for her will undoubtedly be important for Captain Marvel’s development, as well. This just goes to show that even though Larson will be stepping aside to make room for others, she’s not going to be left hiding in the background. Plenty of heroes in the past have been willing to work with others to save the world, and Carol Danvers is no exception.
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