In late 2023, Brie Larson, along with Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani will bring The Marvels, the sequel to the more than $1 billion grossing Captain Marvel. The first female-led MCU film shattered box-office records and furthered the conversation about having female-led superhero films.
While Larson’s Captain Marvel empowered many, the actress herself found herself crying after watching another female-led superhero action film that changed the course and conversation around female superheroes altogether. This was the DC film Wonder Woman, led by Gal Gadot.
MCU’s Brie Larson Shed Tears In Theater While Watching DC’s Wonder Woman
Before Captain Marvel stormed theaters, Brie Larson sat down to watch Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince/ Wonder Woman in a theater. The 2017 film grossed $817 million and changed the trajectory of female-led superhero movies. Larson felt that change and said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that she was emotional while watching the film.
The actress said:
“As a kid, I wanted to be an adventurer. I wanted to be a smart-ass. I wanted to get my hands dirty. But it wasn’t until being in the theater seeing Wonder Woman … I was like, ‘Why is this making me cry so much?’ I realized ’cause I hadn’t had that, and there was a kid in me that was like, ‘Oh, my God. I can do that?'”
Back then, Larson had been cast as Carol Danvers, but shooting on Captain Marvel hadn’t begun yet. But even after shooting was over on the film and it was getting prepared for release, the actress felt an enormous weight on her shoulders. However, she didn’t think that her one film should have to shoulder the entire burden of proving that female-led films could work.
Brie Larson Refused To Let Captain Marvel Shoulder The Responsibility Of Female-led Films
In the lead-up to the release of Captain Marvel, there were conversations about how much the future of female-led action or superhero films depended on the success of this one. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Brie Larson explained that to her, it felt like everyone was setting up the film to fail.
The actress believed that there was no reason to have unrealistic expectations from her film. After all, women have been successfully opening films at the box office since the olden and golden days.
She said:
“There’s this sense of setting this thing up. I know it’s exciting and fun to be like, ‘Will it sink or will it float?’ ‘What’s going to happen?’ ‘Can women exist in the world?’ ‘We’re not sure yet!’ But women have been opening movies since the silent era. We have been part of every major art movement. People just push us away once the movement gains momentum and act like we were never really there.”
While it’s understandable where Larson was coming from, the film did have at least a tiny bit of responsibility in proving that female-led movies could work on a huge scale and with a big budget. Thankfully, the movie grossed more than a billion and proved its doubters wrong. Now, it remains to be seen if it can repeat history with The Marvels.
Captain Marvel is on Disney+ and The Marvels will be released on 10 November 2023.
Source: THR
