‘Captain Marvel’: Ronan Arrives in New Photo

The countdown to Captain Marvel continues to tick down, and fans are ready for their first adventure with the most powerful hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But the ’90s set film will also feature the returns of many familiar faces, including the intimidating Guardians of the Galaxy villain Ronan, Accuser of the Kree Empire. Now Disney has released a new photo of the character, showing a more comic book-accurate version of the Marvel villain.

Take a look below:

In the new image, we can clearly see Ronan’s armor incorporates the classic teal colors of the Kree Empire’s Starforce, matching more closely with what Carol Danvers and her allies wear in the film. We also see his face is unmarred by the markings of blood he puts on himself in Guardians of the Galaxy, showing that this is a less intense version of the character at a different stage in life.

Captain Marvel producer Jonathan Schwartz addressed this version of Ronan, played by Lee Pace, during ComicBook.com’s set visit, explaining how the character changes between the events of this film and Guardians of the Galaxy.

“It’s an earlier version of Ronan, who has not become the radical zealot that we saw in Guardians of the Galaxy,” said Schwartz. “So he has his own station in Kree society, on Hala, and has his own role to play in the Kree military that intersects with Starforce in an interesting way.”

And while the movie does not directly to the events of Marvel Studios‘ first cosmic film, there will be a through line that fans can follow and see how Ronanbecomes the Xandar-hating terrorist on at war with the Nova Corps.

“Just like there’s a Nick Fury origin story buried in this movie, buried a little bit deeper is the Ronan origin story,” Schwartz added.

Carol Danvers will also have difficulty navigating her path with the Kree, which will be a major point of the film.

“I mean, a lot of the movie is about Carol not remembering her human past,” Schwartz said. “When we meet her at the beginning of the movie, she believes that she is a Kree, and kind of has been inducted into their army. She’s proud as a person, she loves being a Kree. And then over the course of her adventure, realized there’s more to her story than that. So the movie kind of becomes her unraveling the root of her own origin, the root of her own mystery.”

Captain Marvel premieres in theaters on March 8th.

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