Annette Benning’s Character In ‘Captain Marvel’ Was Originally A Male
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Captain Marvel.
It’s always interesting for fans to find out how a movie transforms and finds its direction behind the scenes and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige is giving some insight into casting and writing for Captain Marvel. It turns out that Mar-Vell/Wendy Lawson, who is portrayed by Annette Benning, was originally going to be played by a male for obvious reasons.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Feige noted that casting and writing were taking place at the same time and they always had been searching for a male to play Mar-Vell.
“It was late in the development of the movie. Frankly, as we were approaching shooting, we were casting male — We were looking for a male Mar-Vell and developing the script at the same time, as we often do. We spoke to a few people, but as you’ve now seen in the movie, it’s a limited role, because of the nature of the structure of the story.”
Mar-Vell is a male in the comics and was the original Captain Marvel. Through a battle with Yon-Rogg, Mar-Vell’s genetic code becomes imprinted on Carol Danvers, giving her her god-like powers. In the film, Carol’s powers come indirectly from the Tesseract itself, meaning the whole Mar-Vell situation in the new film differs greatly from the comics.
‘CAPTAIN MARVEL': MAR-VELL'S Identity Revealed – https://t.co/3O1egTmZ6W pic.twitter.com/dOeYtkrtuo
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In the comics, Mar-Vell’s alias on Earth is Doctor Walter Lawson which is tweaked slightly for the movie’s female-version. Interestingly enough, Walter and Carol have a romantic relationship in the comics but this was left out of the script when all the changes came about. While other characters slightly differ between Captain Marvel comics and the new film, it’s been said that the biggest difference lied within Mar-Vell’s character.
Feige then noted that writer and director Anna Boden suggested a female play Mar-Vell, and that person be the vision Carol sees in the Supreme Intelligence. Everyone loved the idea, Feige said, and shortly after Benning was cast.
As The Inquisitr previously reported, Keanu Reeves had been attached to Captain Marvel at one time but things didn’t work out due to scheduling conflicts with John Wick 3. Reeves was suspected to either play Yon-Rogg or Mar-Vell, but there hasn’t been clarification on this at this time. With Jude Law eventually being revealed as Yon-Rogg, after his role being kept secret, some are now suggesting Reeves was the original pick to play Mar-Vell.
Captain Marvel is now in theaters everywhere.
