Captain Marvel Casts Annette Bening As Carol Danvers’ Mother

Screen Rant

By Cooper Hood

Published May 9, 2018

Marvel Studios adds one more to Captain Marvel's cast by bringing Oscar-nominee Annette Bening into the MCU in an undisclosed role.

Four time Oscar-nominee Annette Bening is joining the cast of Captain Marvel. Brie Larson is set to lead Marvel Studios' first female solo movie, and production continues to move along in Los Angeles. The set has allowed for the usual amount of photos to leak, all of which focus on Larson in a Kree-version of Captain Marvel's suit on Earth. Those photos are only highlighting a portion of the movie, as a great deal will focus on the Kree-Skrull war. It is the events of this war that get most of the supporting cast involved.

While Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) and Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson) are likely only appearing in the Earth-based scenes, the rest of the cast leans towards the cosmos. Ben Mendelsohn is playing the villain, while Jude Law is set to play Mar-Vell. There's also Gemma Chan as Minn-Erva and the returns of Lee Pace and Djimon Hounsou as Kree soldiers Ronan the Accuser and Korath the Pursuer. Now, a major addition has been made.

THR reveals Annette Bening is joining the cast of Captain Marvel. While THR says her role is that of a scientist, Variety's Justin Kroll says that Bening will play the mother of Carol Danvers. This marks the first comic book movie gig for Bening and her first turn towards a blockbuster in years. Bening received Oscar nominations as a leading actress for American Beauty, Being Julia, and The Kids Are All Right, as well as one for her supporting role in The Grifters.

Bening is the latest in long line of premier talents to secure a role in comic book movies. Some of Marvel's recent additions include Kurt Russell for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Cate Blanchett for Thor: Ragnarok, and Michael Keaton for Spider-Man: Homecoming. It remains to be seen if Bening will have as significant of a role as any of these, but there's no doubt she'll make the most of her screen time regardless of how long it is.

The timing of this announcement could further indicate that Bening won't be featured too much. Still, there is the potential for her role to be significant early on at least. If both of the details for her character is true, the MCU's version of Carol's mother will be a scientist. There's been reports that Marvel also altered Carol's origin too, so we don't yet know how she got her powers or learned to control them. It is possible that however it happens, Carol's mom will help identify the changes that her daughter experiences. Even if that isn't the case and Bening just gets to play opposite of Larson as a loving mother, its a role she can knock out of the park.