The Big Picture
- Marvel Studios' youngest director, Nia DaCosta, discusses her experience leading the charge on The Marvels and staying true to her vision.
- The Marvels will shed light on Carol Danvers' absence from Earth and explore her entanglement with Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau.
- DaCosta reveals how advice from fellow MCU directors like Destin Daniel Cretton and collaborating with the cast helped shape the film.
Marvel Studios’ youngest director, Nia DaCosta, is as fearless as the subject of her next film, The Marvels. Not only is helming the Captain Marvel sequel a huge deal but this marks only her third feature as she joins the ranks of MCU filmmakers before her. With such a massive production under her belt, Collider’s Perri Nemiroff spoke with DaCosta about what it takes to lead the charge on a project like this and how she stayed true to her vision.
Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), a.k.a. Captain Marvel, has been M.I.A. from Earth since she discovered her true identity and became the very first Avenger. She returned to help defeat Thanos (Josh Brolin), but until Ms. Marvel, she’s been off handling business elsewhere, and The Marvels is going to shed some light on that absence. Since defeating the Kree’s former ruler, the Supreme Intelligence (Annette Bening), Carol has been busy keeping the universe in balance. When a mission leads her to a suspicious wormhole with connections to the Kree, Captain Marvel discovers her powers have mysteriously become entangled with her estranged niece, Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), a.k.a. Ms. Marvel. The trio find themselves facing off with a formidable foe, Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), the likes of which haven’t been seen since Thanos.
During their one-on-one discussion, DaCosta tells Perri how fellow MCU directors Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and Ryan Coogler (Black Panther) shared advice that helped her throughout the process, and about the wisdom she would pass on to future MCU directors. They also talk about how to preserve your own vision when everyone wants a say, nerding out with Vellani on set, how she kept her cool and remained calm under stress, and which MCU movie had a surprising influence on The Marvels.
Check out the full interview in the video above, or you can read the transcript below.
Marvels
P3-13
Carol Danvers gets her powers entangled with those of Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau, forcing them to work together to save the universe.
- Release Date
- November 10, 2023
- Director
- Nia DaCosta
- Cast
- Brie Larson , Samuel L. Jackson , Iman Vellani , Zawe Ashton , Teyonah Parris
- Runtime
- 105 minutes
- Main Genre
- Superhero
PERRI NEMIROFF: I was reading that you rewatched a bunch of MCU films to prep for this one. I know Captain Marvel must have helped, but what is an MCU movie that folks might not expect to have influenced this movie heavily?
NIA DACOSTA: Oh, Iron Man 3. [Laughs]
How so?
DACOSTA: I just love it so much, first of all. I think it's one of the best Marvel films. But also, in a really practical sense actually, the Extremis effect, which I really loved in the film influenced us on another thing we did in our film, which you'll see when you watch it.
Okay, fair enough. I look forward to that!
You’ve said that when you sign on for a Marvel movie, the first thing they tell you is to talk to other directors. Two questions about that! Who gave you the best advice, but then also, having gone through this experience, what advice would you give a future MCU director based on how it was making The Marvels?
DACOSTA: Wow. It's so hard to say the best advice because you just need different things at different times. They were all so great.
I’ll take multiple examples.
DACOSTA: Okay, the person I talked to the most was Destin Cretton. He was just great at knowing every step of the process, like, “Oh yeah, be stressed about that, but you don't have to be stressed about that. Oh, you should look at that, though.” You know? It was very like, “I've been through this. I get you.” Ryan Coogler’s really great. I've said this a lot, like, “Be yourself,” and that's probably what I would say to the next person. Just bring everything you have. They can take it or leave it, but as long as you bring everything that you have – and that's for everyone, the actors, the department heads – you know you've done everything you could.
Going back to what Destin said, what is one thing that you should be stressed about when making a Marvel movie, but then what is one thing that most filmmakers would be stressed about but you actually shouldn't?
DACOSTA: I mean, for me, in this movie, we had a lot of cats, and I was gonna be stressed about that. I was like, “Oh my god, what are we going to do?” But actually it was fine, so that was something I didn't need to be stressed about. Something that you do need to be stressed about? I don't know. You kind of have such a great crew that at the end of the day, when you figure out how to collaborate and work together, no problem really is too big.
Surrounding yourself with the right people makes all the difference on any film, and also having the best possible cast. I love talking about the different approaches to acting out there so can you name something unique about Brie, Teyonah, and Iman in terms of how they approach the work, maybe even something about them that calls for something different from you as their actor’s director?
DACOSTA: For sure. So I think everyone needs something different in order to get to where they want to get to, and there are so many levels to the performances for all of them in the movie. Something that Brie says a lot is, “What are the stakes?” You know? She wants to be sure that she's understanding exactly how I'm envisioning the end result of the scene in terms of the emotional tenor of it, and so that was something that I thought was really helpful and really cool and specific to her. You know, like, what are the stakes, and being clear about that was really helpful to her.
Then Teyonah was so specific and visual. So it's like, we're on a blue screen stage and she's like, “What is it? What does it look like?” Wanting all that detail so that, for her, she can internalize that. And then Iman and I would just geek on set. But also Iman’s the most prepared, knows all her lines, knows everything. I don't know anything specific to Iman besides us just nerding out.
That makes all the sense in the world. Every interview that I've watched with her, that's the vibe I get and I love it.
I want to jump to the tail end of the process now, specifically when it comes to test screenings. That part of the process fascinates me because I find it can be so difficult to figure out when to take notes and when to pass on them. Can you give us an example of each, a time when you got a note, you took it, applied it, it made the movie better, but then another note you got where you had to say, “This doesn't feel right for my movie, and I'm not gonna do that?”
DACOSTA: [Laughs] That's sort of every filmmaking process where, whether it's getting notes from your executives – because even if you're not doing test screenings in the way that Marvel does, I usually like to just get a group of people I trust and who have great taste together, and that's really helpful for me. I can't think of anything specific because it literally is, you get every kind of note you could possibly think about. Literally someone said, “I don't like that tank top.” What am I gonna do about that? Literally nothing. [Laughs] So I think it's really like, and I think about this when I give notes, “Am I giving a note because I'm asking them or wanting them to do it the way I would have done it, or am I giving a note that is improving what they actually wanted to do?” And so those are the two kinds of notes that you get usually, and I think the ones that you take are the ones that improve the movie that you're trying to make, and the ones that you leave behind are the ones that make a movie the way someone else would.
