Brie Larson preps for 'Captain Marvel,' studio's first solo-lead superhero lady

Larson will star in 'Captain Marvel,' which will be released in 2019. It will be the first film released by ultra-successful Marvel Studios that will feature a female protagonist without a male co-star getting equal billing.

Actress Brie Larson continues to keep Marvel fans updated on news about her superhero movie “Captain Marvel,” which will be the first Marvel production to feature a female character front and center by herself. 

It was announced at this summer’s Comic-Con that Ms. Larson, who won a Best Actress Oscar earlier this year for her work in the film “Room,” will be playing the superhero Captain Marvel, also known as Carol Danvers. 

The film about Captain Marvel is set to be released in the spring of 2019. 

Recently, Larson posted a photo on her Twitter account of herself wearing a Captain Marvel shirt and reading a comic book about the hero, saying that she was doing research. 

Larson has also starred in such films as “Trainwreck” and “21 Jump Street.” 

“Marvel” will be the first movie released by ultra-successful Marvel Studios in which a female character takes top billing without a male character alongside her. Evangeline Lilly’s Wasp character will also star in an upcoming superhero film, coming out in 2018, but as indicated by the title, “Ant-Man and the Wasp” will feature the Wasp alongside Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man.

Previous Marvel movies have included characters like Black Widow, who is portrayed by Scarlett Johansson. Black Widow, however, is often a member of the Avengers team. In the 2014 film “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” she shared adventures with Cap. 

There have already been female-led Marvel TV projects, as seen with the now-canceled ABC series “Agent Carter” and the Netflix show “Jessica Jones.” 

Marvel Studios first appeared on the scene with the 2008 movie “Iron Man,” which was the first film to be self-produced by the comic book company. (Characters created by Marvel, such as Spider-Man. had previously been adapted by other movie studios.) 

Fans seem happy that a female character will be at the center of a Marvel movie, though some feel the move was too long in coming. 

“It seems that if Captain America or the Hulk can get his own film, maybe Black Widow ought to as well,” Time writer Eliana Dockterman wrote in 2014, before “Captain Marvel” was announced. “It’s a matter of 50% of the population being able to see themselves represented in blockbuster films,” she wrote, explaining why the topic matters so much to some fans. 

Fans have "bemoaned the lack of a Black Widow movie for ages" wrote Laura Berger of Indiewire. "We can expect to see a woman-centric Marvel movie in [original release date] November 2018 – more than three years from now – which is when ‘Captain Marvel’ will be released," she concluded. "Marvel will of course be releasing many movies about men in the interim."