Nicole Perlman, graduate of the Marvel Writers Program and contributor on the first
Guradians of the Galaxy and
Thor films, also makes up one-half of the duo that the studio tasked with bringing Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel to the big screen. A recent
guest on The Great Big Beautiful Podcast, Perlman commented on how she and co-writer Meg LeFauve are progressing.
Perlman first touched on the film's need to balance the fact that this will be Marvel's first standalone female superhero feature, but that social aspect of the film doesn't need to completely define it.
"I think theres a tendency to have that back and forth conversation of “Should it affect the story at all?” or “Should it affect the writing?” I think that making sure that Captain Marvel is not somebody who is a hero in SPITE of her femininity is important. She’s a very strong character and her being a woman is part of that strength. I will say that there are certain tropes you can get away without having to examine too much if you’re not writing the first female Marvel Studios lead; that could be read into a lot or that could diminish hero own proactivity, strength, and independence. There are things you wouldn’t think twice about Iron Man but you would think twice about for Captain Marvel."
The Tribeca Film Festival's Sloan Grant winner also noted that Captain Marvel is a little bit more connected to what's happening with the larger story of the MCU (namely Thanos and the Infinity Gems) than the first Guardians movie.
"It’s a different kind of pressure in a sense. Meg [LeFauve] and I were hired a long time ago but we didn’t have our marching orders until recently. Marvel is a little bit of a house of cards in a sense that everything influences everything around it even if its very modular. Figuring out where the story fits in the MCU influences things as well. She’s an incredible character, but I will also say that since Marvel has done so many movies already, you really have to go out of your way to make sure her story is fresh and doesn’t borrow too heavily from the other films. She’s an incredibly strong and wonderful hero, but all the Marvel characters are. So you just need to figure out how to bring her to life in a way thats unique to her story but in a way that honors the canon and also gearing out the roles that she needs to play with everything that’s going on in the MCU. It’s a little bit of a twister game whereas “Guardians” is very free– where it’s like the sky is the limit. With Captain Marvel, it’s been trying to really figure out who Carol Danvers is and how to just tell a story that fulfills all the structural needs of who she is but also really channels the spirit of who this incredibly powerful and inspiring person is."
Perlman goes on to add that she wasn't bothered one bit by Captain Marvel getting bumped to make room for Spider-Man: Homecoming, and that she's consulting with the Air Force for Carol's military background, specifically on whether someone as young as Brie Larson (27) could be a Major or Colonel, to which they assured Perlman that it was feasible.
ABOUT MARVEL STUDIOS' CAPTAIN MARVEL
Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel film was first announced in October 2014. Nicole Perlman and Meg LeFauve were hired to write the script in April 2015 with Brie Larson was revealed to be playing the titular role at SDCC 2016.
Before Carol Danvers was given a feature film, the character was slated to appear in Marvel and Netflix's Jessica Jones TV drama before a switch was made to Trish Walker.
The film has been postponed three times, first slated to be released on July 6, 2018, then November 2, 2018 and currently, March 9, 2019.