The Marvels Director Says MCU Flop Isn’t the Movie She Pitched

by

In an interview prior to its release in August 2023, director Nia DaCosta characterized the Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels, as both quirky and playful. This film, featuring Carol Danvers (played by Brie Larson), Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani), and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), did not perform well at the global box office in November. Despite earning over $200 million, it fell short against its reported budget of $307 million, making it the lowest-grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which now spans 35 movies and surpassed 2008’s The Incredible Hulk.

The film in question is not one that DaCosta, famously recognized for her work on the indie crime drama “Little Woods” and the recent “Candyman” remake, originally intended to create.

DaCosta expressed that “The Marvels” was intriguing because at some stage, he found himself thinking, ‘This isn’t going to be the movie I proposed or even the initial version I filmed.’ In essence, he acknowledged that this transition transformed the project into a unique experience, and it served as a learning journey that strengthened him as a director by improving his adaptability skills.

In April 2020, Disney announced that Captain Marvel 2 (then without a title) would be released on July 8, 2022, with DaCosta set to direct in August. The film was later titled The Marvels and its release date was moved to November 11, 2022, then July 28, 2023, before being switched with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and settling on a November 10, 2023 release instead.

As a dedicated movie enthusiast, I found myself embarking on a unique experience. We had scheduled a rendezvous, and in preparation, we were meticulously arranging certain aspects. The approach they took to craft this film was unlike any method I would personally choose. So, I immersed myself fully into the process, trusting it would lead to a favorable outcome.

She added, “The best didn’t happen this time, but you kind of have to trust in the machine.”

Previously, DaCosta mentioned during a 2023 interview that one of her initial ideas, which she proposed “way back when”, included Adam Warlock, a cosmic character who later appeared in James Gunn’s directed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. She also suggested time travel. However, since there is already enough time travel depicted in the series Loki, they decided against incorporating it.

In simpler terms, “The Marvels,” initially budgeted at around 12 times the $25 million cost of “Candyman,” is said to have increased to approximately $374 million. However, after a $66.7 million rebate was applied, the final estimated production cost is believed to be about $307 million.

Prior to “The Marvels” earning $46 million during its debut weekend, which was a record low for the franchise, Disney CEO Bob Iger expressed on a November earnings call that the pandemic had presented numerous creative difficulties for everyone, including Disney itself. Moreover, at the time when the pandemic emerged, we were aggressively increasing our content output, and I’ve often believed that an increase in quantity can sometimes negatively impact quality. It seems to me that this is precisely what happened. We may have lost some focus.

At a New York Times DealBook Summit some weeks after the release of The Marvels, Iger provided a straightforward reason for its underperformance at the box office. He stated that since The Marvels was filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, there wasn’t enough executive oversight on set.

Read More

2025-04-07 06:09