Captain Marvel blasts on to DVD and Blu-ray today, and to mark the home entertainment release of the Marvel Studios movie, I recently had the opportunity to sit down and talk to executive producer Jonathan Schwartz. We touched on a number of topics (the full interview will be on CBM later today), including why some characters underwent rather drastic overhauls.
For example, we learned that a comic accurate version of the Supreme Intelligence was supposed to appear in
Captain Marvel and when I asked Schwartz about why Marvel Studios decided not to include that "big green head in a jar," he explained that it boiled down to what was right for the story.
"[Laughs] Man, I love that big green head! When you have an actor the calibre of Annette Bening, it's tough to take the camera off her and I think that at the end of the day, we all responded more emotionally to the Supreme Intelligence when it was Annette and not this more alien creature. We did see it in various forms and iterations in concept art and it just didn't quite have the same heft as when it was a more human face."
Talking of Bening, she pulls double duty in Captain Marvel as both the villainous SI and the heroic Mar-Vell. I asked the executive producer whether the studio ever considered a male, comic accurate version of the character, and it turns out it wasn't something that was ever actually on the table.
"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."
While some fans were disappointed with the changes made to both the Supreme Intelligence and Mar-Vell, it's easy enough to see why they weren't brought from the page to the big screen in a way that was 100% accurate. Ultimately, it simply didn't suit the story that was being told, but in the case of the Kree leader, you have to believe that its true form could be revealed in the sequel.
We'll have to wait and see, For now, let us know your thoughts on this in the comments section!