The Marvels director Nia DaCosta shared the best part of her Marvel experience so far. Recently, Vanity Fair caught up with the filmmaker to discuss her MCU debut. One thing she’s really enjoyed so far is the respect from other industry professionals over the course of this process. The Marvels captain says that there were moments on the Candyman set where people said, “things that are super inappropriate, that you would just never say to anyone else because they were so specific to my gender, my race, my age.”
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DaCosta has made a name for herself on the indie circuit and then burst into the mainstream with Candyman. However, just because she has that “indie cred” doesn’t mean that everyone she comes into contact with believes in her abilities. The director talked about how much respect from industry veterans means to her during that profile. While she has some clear stress about making The Marvels, there have been some definite perks as well.
“I realized it wasn’t ever gonna be about how much power I amassed or how many great movies I made, or if I won awards, it was always just going to be the people that I surrounded myself with,” she says. “The thing that I’ve been most surprised by lately is how much respect I’m getting from these middle-aged white dudes that I work with.”
The Marvels Director Is A Devoted Comics Fan
One thing that’s absolutely come through in all of Nia DaCosta’s comments to the press is that she’s a Marvel Comics die-hard. In a previous conversation with EW, the director reflected on getting to shape Ms. Marvel’s MCU journey. It feels like Kamala Khan is near and dear to DaCosta’s heart. She’s from New York and the Jersey City hero always holds an allure for comics readers who love adventures closer to the ground. Navigating this team-up and trip to the stars is not something The Marvels‘ director is taking lightly.
“I’m a big nerd from New York City, and here was this hero who was a big nerd from Jersey City, writing fan fiction the way I used to when I was that age,” DaCosta told the outlet about her fandom.. “It was really fun to feel close to that character in that really specific way, in a way you don’t often feel when it’s Iron Man or Thor. That was so exciting to me, knowing that I could be a part of bringing this character who I’ve loved for a decade to the big screen.”
Changes From The Comics to The MCU
The Marvels director had to get used to the fact that the MCU isn’t the comics universe and vice versa. She talked to EW about how things on-screen deviate from on the page. Her comments about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness drew a lot of eyeballs from MCU fans who had been expecting incursions to be similar to Jonathan Hickman’s Secret Wars run in the comics. While the MCU is forging its own path, its going to take some viewers a second to adjust. Kevin Feige told DaCosta to just breathe and let got of some of that frustration.
“The biggest challenge was finding the balance between my point of view as a director and as a comic book nerd,” DaCosta reflected. “Obviously, there are changes between the comics and the movies, and sometimes I’m like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa!’ Sometimes Kevin [Feige] would be like, ‘You’re being too much of a nerd. Please stop.’”
What’s On Tap For Carol and Company In The Marvels?
In The Marvels, which arrives in theaters on November 10th, Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel (Brie Larson ) has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani ) aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol’s estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris ). Together, this unlikely trio must team-up and learn to work in concert to save the universe as “The Marvels.”
The Marvels will also see the franchise returns of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury , Saagar Shaikh as Aamir Khan, Zenobia Shroff as Muneeba Khan, and Mohan Kapur as Yusuf Khan. New cast members include Zawe Ashton , Park Seo-joon, and Shamier Anderson . Produced by Marvel Studios , The Marvels is directed by Nia DaCosta with a script from DaCosta, Megan McDonnell, and Elissa Karasik.
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