The Marvels, the forthcoming sequel to Captain Marvel and the third film to hit in this topsy-turvey year for the MCU, is doubling down on the old adage that sequels must go bigger. Instead of being a 90s-set adventure between Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), The Marvels, which just released its first trailer today, expands to include Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) for a new round of intergalactic adventures.
Directed by Nia DaCosta (the rising director who helmed the 2021 Candyman requel), The Marvels seemingly picks up right after the post-credits events of Kamala’s Ms. Marvel Disney+ series from last summer. To refresh: Kamala inexplicably disappeared from her Jersey City home, only to be replaced by Carol—a scene replicated in the trailer. Now we know the why behind it: While performing a spacewalk to get readings on cosmic energy, Monica touches it. The resulting radiating pulse interferes with the power balance between her, Kamala, and Carol. Now when one of the three uses their abilities, they Freaky Friday body swap thanks to the entanglement. This leads to each of the three ending up in places where they shouldn’t be, especially for the young and fledgling Kamala, who experiences tremendous excitement (seeing Fury) and fear (seeing Goose swallow Kree soldiers whole). The only way forward is for Carol, Monica, and Kamala to team up together—much to the delight of the latter and the displeasure of the former.
Speaking of the Kree, the trio will face the remnants of that empire, led by Zawe Ashton, who’s wielding a hammer similar to the one Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) had in both Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel. Considering Carol exploded a large portion of the Kree fleet in the last movie, the alien race likely has some major beef with her. Another complication? The new Kree leader is wearing a bangle similar to Kamala’s, further pulling the rookie hero into the messy knot all three now find themselves a part of. And somewhere amid it all is a sword-brandishing character played by Parasite’s Park Seo-joon.
In the comics, Carol is one of a few different heroes to use “Marvel” as part of their moniker, so it’s fitting The Marvels would look to expand the scope of what it means to use the Marvel name—especially if the titular person behind it is known for wielding a power strong enough to make Thanos sweat. The Marvels also features the distinction of finally bringing together some disparate elements of Phase 4 (the last time we saw Monica was back in 2020’s WandaVision and Carol made a fleeting appearance in post-credits for 2021’s Shang-Chi) and Phase 5 (Ms. Marvel and Secret Invasion) together. For a while now, the MCU has felt a bit scattered in its approach. Having some cohesion is better later than never—but we’ll find out when it releases on November 10.