Marvel Are Changing Captain Marvel's Origin Because They're Scared Of Green Lantern

No Mar-Vell? Thanks Ryan.

Captain Marvel Green Lantern
Marvel/Warner Bros. Pictures

In a nut-shell, Captain Marvel's origin is that she was infected by space magic when caught in the explosion of a Kree machine, only to be saved at the last minute by Mar-Vell. What do you think reading that? That it's pretty comic-book-y, but would be cool to see on screen? That it shows a nice mash-up of the Earth and space wings of the MCU?

Well, Marvel are worried that it's "Oh my God, that is kinda similar to what happened to Ryan Reynolds in the 2011 box office flop Green Lantern so I'm definitely not going to watch that." Speaking to Vin Forte, the movie's screenwriter Nicole Perlman had this to say about crafting the movie's origin story:

"But here’s the thing, if you were just going to do a straight adaptation of the comics, her origin story is very similar to Green Lantern. And obviously, that’s not what we want to do. There’s a lot of reinvention that needs to happen."

We've seen shifts in the origins of various Marvel heroes in the MCU and Carol Danvers is a bit of an odd one at that, so this is hardly shocking, but saying it's being motivated by Hal Jordan's similar backstory is a little odd. Obviously she's referring more to the comic books than the Ryan Reynolds movie, but Green Lantern just isn't that culturally significant a hero (outside of comic book circles at least) for Marvel to be worried about - even thought the movie in question isn't out until 2019, it'll be Green Lantern Corps.

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I'm sure it's just a part of having to provide a quick answer on the podcast, which leaves us with a big question; what will her origin be?

Captain Marvel is in cinemas on 9th May 2019.

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Film Editor (2014-2016). Loves The Usual Suspects. Hates Transformers 2. Everything else lies somewhere in the middle. Once met the Chuckle Brothers.