When Captain Marvel hits theaters in 2019, it will be the first film from Marvel Studios and the MCU to feature a female lead. Academy Award winner Brie Larson will portray the film’s titular character, Carol Danvers. In a recent interview with Collider, Larson gave some insight about taking on the role, stating that
“Aside from the fact that it’s iconic to be part of this, to be playing the first female [lead] in a solo [Marvel] movie, I think for me personally one of the things I’m excited about is the idea of female complexity. That’s what I’ve wanted to bring to every genre and every film that I’ve done. How can we come to understand the mystique of being female? It’s not so easy as just saying ‘Oh, that’s a girl in an action movie; that’s a superhero and she’s tough and she’s just like a dude.’ That’s too easy. That’s not where we’re at actually. I think women are far more complicated and more interesting than just saying, ‘They’re like a dude, and that’s what makes them tough and that’s what makes them cool.”
Larson reflected, “That’s just not how it works, so to me it’s this idea of doing this film on this larger scale with really incredible, smart people behind it, with women behind it, that gives you an hour and a half, two hours to sit and see how different a woman can be. That seems cool to me, right?”