Carol Danvers has been Captain Marvel in the comics for years now, but that wasn’t always the case. As many people know, that title originally belonged to a Kree named Mar-Vell, which is where the name Captain Marvel actually comes from. Mar-Vell has a long history all his own and was instrumental in Carol’s origin in the comics, being the source of Kree DNA that she gets bonded with during an explosion. This raises the question about why Marvel Studios is being so tight-lipped about who’s playing of the original Captain Marvel in the upcoming film.
Initially, it was reported that Jude Law would be taking the role of Mar-Vell, but every official press release and character breakdown so far goes out of its way to refer to him as “Starforce Commander”, which has raised fan suspicion that he might be playing a sort of amalgamation of Mar-Vell and Yon-Rogg, or that he’s a villainous take on the character and they don’t want to get fans’ hopes up regarding Mar-Vell’s appearance in the film since it differs so drastically from the comics. Whatever the case, it’s clear that in the MCU, Carol Danvers is going to be our main version of Captain Marvel. With that in mind, I think I know who is actually playing Mar-Vell in the film...
Brie Larson.
If I’m right, this could prove a controversial decision, but it’s one that is economical in terms of storytelling. Assuming that Jude Law’s character is an antagonist, I don’t believe he’s also Mar-Vell. Mostly because it wouldn’t make sense for Carol to take up her enemy’s name as her alias. Instead, I think that “Mar-Vell” is the name Carol is given when she is taken to Hala and joins the Starforce. It already appears from the trailers that she has lost her memory of her life on Earth, so it would stand to reason that she has no idea who “Carol Danvers” is. That, combined with the Kree’s need to call her something and the out-of-story fact that “Carol” obviously doesn’t sound like a Kree name (which Danvers would likely question at some point), makes me speculate that maybe Mar-Vell was the name the Kree gave her when she showed up on Hala with no memory and lots of impressive powers. This would tidily square away a couple of other things too — namely letting Carol stand on her own as a hero without any baggage from a character Marvel Studios seems to have no intention of exploring and offering the inevitable, slightly cheesy, but also endearing moment where Fury or Coulson asks Carol her name and they mishear her, leading to the first use of her Captain Marvel alias.
So what of Mar-Vell? The comic version, I mean. The original. It would be a strange move excising him from Carol’s origin entirely, no matter how much sense it makes from a strictly plot-necessary standpoint. With all I’ve speculated above, I still think the original Mar-Vell will be in the film, I just don’t think he’ll last very long. My best guess? He comes to Earth and encounters a human Carol Danvers, tries to warn her of the impending Kree-Skrull war that’s about to be knocking at Earth’s door, then dies in the explosion that gives Carol her powers and wipes her memory. He lives on inside Carol. Maybe that’s literal and part of his consciousness is still in there, but maybe it’s just metaphorical and the only bits of him that stuck around were the DNA shrapnel that empowered Carol and a little sliver of a memory — the only word she can recall when the Kree ask her her name: Mar-Vell.
What do you think? Wild speculation on my part or reasonable conclusion? Would it be a dealbreaker if the original Captain Marvel only makes a brief appearance in a flashback or two?
Excelsior!