Why Captain Marvel Is Going To Be A Very Different MCU Movie

7. We're Finally Getting A Women-Led Project

Captain Marvel Carol Danvers
Marvel Comics

Since 2008, Marvel have been no strangers to criticism of their approach to establishing their universe. Five of the initial six Avengers were all white dudes, and Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow - one of the most popular characters of the franchise - not only went missing in merchandise for the film, but is still yet to anchor a production of her own.

Given how often Marvel has been ahead of the curve when it's come to representation on and off the page, it was a big surprise to see DC beat them to the punch and release their own women-led film this year, barely three years into their own cinematic universe, and a further nine since Marvel started theirs.

It's safe to say that the company have fallen behind in this instance, and, while we're still waiting on that Black Widow movie (or an Agent 13 film, for that matter), it's great to see that the studio are moving ahead with a film that, not only has a woman in the lead role, but also has one co-directing and writing it.

If it wasn't made obvious by the resounding success of projects like Wonder Woman, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage that representation matters, then Captain Marvel should surely hit home that fact even harder, especially when Black Panther inevitably owns the box office when it releases next year.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.