There Were No Plans for Comic-Accurate Mar-Vell to Appear in Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel was pretty successful and is probably in line for a sequel, which will hopefully be better than the first movie. While not bad, the movie was pretty flawed and a second film could iron those out for a much better story featuring Carol Danvers. Of all the complaints fans have for the film, one of them does have some legitimacy to it; why did they have to make Mar-Vell a woman?

Speaking with ComicBookMovie, Executive Producer Jonathan Schwartz revealed that there really were no plans for Mar-Vell, the original Marvel Captain Marvel, to appear in the film. As for why they decided to make Mar-Vell a woman, it had to do with making the movie accessible for people not familiar with the lore and making it Carol's story.

Here is what Schwartz had to say:

"Well, it wasn't always the idea to go with Annette as both the Mar-Vell character and the Supreme Intelligence. That was something Anna Boden brought to the table relatively early in the process and it seemed to really graft to the structure in a great way. As for whether we considered the male Captain Marvel fulfilling a more comic accurate role, the answer is really no!"

"Typically, when we develop these movies we tend to go down every road and have folders full of every possible version. One of the real North Stars of this film was that we didn't want to do that retro Captain Marvel thing where Carol Danvers wishes on the Psyche-Magnitron that she has the powers of Mar-Vell. It didn't feel quite like it was going to fly in 2019 so having a fresher take on that, that Kelly Sue [DeConnick] helped us with a lot, was really important to us."

It probably would have been better if they decided not to add the character at all, though it did end up being a solid element to the film. Having Mar-Vell protect the Skrulls was in-character for the hero, even if they turned him into a woman. Mar-Vell is pretty outdated though and we should probably just read his older comics instead of wanting him to appear in movies.

Captain Marvel is now available on digital and Blu-Ray.

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