The Marvels director Nia DaCosta has in contrast her expertise engaged on the massive price range Captain Marvel flop to her time helming the upcoming 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. The large distinction, she stated, was really having a “strong script” to work with.
DaCosta lead improvement on The Marvels from an early stage, and has spoken previously about her preliminary concepts for the movie. However regardless of in the end being credited, alongside others, with penning the movie’s script, DaCosta has now stated her time on the venture suffered because of its writing.
“Making the 28 Years Later sequel was the most effective filmmaking experiences I’ve had,” DaCosta advised The Hollywood Reporter. “One of many points I had with Candyman and Marvels was the shortage of a very strong script, which is all the time gonna simply wreak havoc on the entire course of.”
Launched to combined opinions in November 2023, The Marvels is notable for being the lowest-performing movie within the entirety of the MCU. Its theatrical run completed on simply $206.1 million, nicely underneath the manufacturing’s $374 million price range. A sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel, it earned only a fraction of that movie’s $1.13 billion haul.
At simply 105 minutes, The Marvels can also be one of many shortest movies within the MCU, one thing followers have blamed on last-minute adjustments to the film’s story in post-production and whole sequences being reduce. Noticably, one part of the movie set on a planet whose inhabitants talk by means of music was closely trimmed, with Captain Marvel herself spending only a few minutes there earlier than the plot pushes on.
DaCosta initially had some very completely different concepts for the movie, together with a time journey narrative and the introduction of common Marvel Comics character Adam Warlock. However the director has beforehand stated that each concepts had been nixxed by Marvel as time journey was already a spotlight in Disney+ sequence Loki, whereas Adam Warlock was set to debut in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
The ultimate model of the movie credit DaCosta as one in every of a number of writers, alongside Megan McDonnell and Elissa Karasik, who beforehand labored on episodes of Wandavision and Loki, respectively. Extra materials was additionally supplied by Zeb Wells, a author on Robotic Hen and She-Hulk: Legal professional at Regulation.
Marvel boss Kevin Feige lately mentioned the studios’ behavior of adjusting movie scripts throughout manufacturing, a follow referred to as “plus-ing” that’s at the moment underway as soon as extra through the ongoing filming of Avengers: Doomsday. “I’ve by no means been happy with a film we’ve launched,” Feige advised The Hollywood Reporter final month, in an interview that mentioned the combined fortunes of Marvel Studios over the previous few years.
“There’s plus-ing taking place each day on the Avengers: Doomsday set proper now,” Feige added, “and it’s superb to observe as a result of what these filmmakers, these actors, each those which might be enjoying these characters for the primary or second time and the one enjoying them for the tenth or twelfth time, are the very best on this planet at it, and know these characters so nicely. So if they’ve an thought, you wish to take heed to it and also you wish to regulate to it and also you wish to enhance it. I wouldn’t wish to change that.”
It is a completely different strategy to the one now practiced by Superman director James Gunn, who has stated that DCU films will shoot with a ultimate model of the script already in place, and seemingly 28 Years Later director Alex Garland as nicely.
“Alex Garland palms you a script, and you are like, ‘That is superb,'” DaCosta stated, persevering with her comparability between her previous and future initiatives. “You do not actually have to alter it, though I did, I mainly requested for extra contaminated. [Laughs] That was, like, my large contribution.”
As for Captain Marvel herself, after the Marvels’ poor efficiency, followers have been left with questions over what the longer term may maintain. The character is predicted to seem in Avengers: Doomsday, although Marvel itself is but to announce actress Brie Larson’s involvement, and there are seemingly no plans for a 3rd Captain Marvel film. In the meantime, DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple launches January 16, 2026.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You’ll be able to attain Tom at [email protected] or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
