Marvel has released a new promo video and poster advertising the IMAX release of The Marvels on November 10. The promo consists of brief shots of Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau, and Kamala Khan using their powers and working together, against a countdown and the catch phrase “Higher, further, faster.”
The promo shows each of the three characters working together as a team, highlighting the dynamic I’m most excited about in this movie: three incredible women forming a complicated found family.
The Marvels is about three badass, complicated women
Last month, The Marvels director Nia DaCosta told Empire Magazine that even though Carol, Monica, and Kamala aren’t biologically related, a family dynamic was the perfect fit for the emotional heart of the film.
I thought it would be cool to map an estranged family history and sister story onto [Carol, Monica, and Kamala] … Carol’s the oldest, the prodigal, then there’s the middle sister Monica, who Carol knew as a kid and promised she’d come back [to] but then never did.
Like any superhero movie, The Marvels looks like it will put the trio’s superhuman feats front and center. Each of the Marvels has the ability to manipulate cosmic energy in order to fly, enhance their strength, and perform other amazing things, and those powers look like they’ll make for a rollicking, eye-popping movie. Putting three women (four, if you count Zawe Ashton’s Kree supervillain, Dar-Benn) front and center in a comic book movie is groundbreaking, important, and hopefully the first of many more to come.
However, the family dynamic is what will make the story really memorable—if the movie pulls it off.
The Marvels’ fraught history
What is that family dynamic, exactly? Let’s dive in.
Monica Rambeau first gains her powers in the Disney+ series WandaVision, but we first meet her as a child in Captain Marvel, the precursor to The Marvels. In Captain Marvel, Monica is the daughter of Carol’s best friend Maria.
When we catch up with Monica in WandaVision, she’s living a life without Carol in it. She deals with the grief of Maria’s death on her own, not knowing where in the galaxy Carol might be. That’s going to be a tough conversation for Carol and Monica to have in The Marvels.
As for Kamala, she’s a Captain Marvel superfan. In the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, she makes videos about Carol, decorates her room with Captain Marvel posters, and dresses up as her for AvengerCon.
What will it be like when Kamala doesn’t just meet her hero, but gets to work alongside her? It sounds like it won’t be all bad. “Kamala is the youngest, who hasn’t had the experience of living with this older sister but idolises her,” DaCosta told Empire. “Carol’s a bit jaded at the beginning of the film [but] Kamala reminds her how amazing she is.”
(featured image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
