Warning: Potential SPOILERS for Captain Marvel
There's no question that there's a shocking twist or two planned for Captain Marvel, based on how much the studio isn't showing. But could the biggest twist make Carol's Mother a key player in the movie, the Kree-Skrull War, and the larger MCU beyond?
That's a theory we've been building for some time, and after the first Captain Marvel trailer kept plenty of secrets, leaving Carol's childhood, family, powers, and connections to Earth a total mystery. So why is Marvel Studios keeping so much of the film's plot under wraps? There could be good reason for it, and anyone who would rather steer clear of spoiling it by reading our theory on Captain Marvel's mother... should stop reading now.
- This Page: The Mystery of Captain Marvel's DNA
- Page 2: How Carol's Mother Could Be The Movie's Big Twist
Somehow, Captain Marvel's DNA Becomes Half-Kree
Determining exactly how close to the comic books the Captain Marvel movie will stay is almost impossible, since the studio has made it clear that it won't be a traditional origin. That is, Carol will already be an adult on a mission when the audience meets her. All that's really being assumed so far is that in the movie, like the comics, it's a combination of human and Kree DNA in Carol's cells that allows her to wield and absorb cosmic energy.
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Even though the filmmakers are keeping cagey on just what they're changing, Carol's classic origin story is told in the Captain Marvel trailer, somewhat obscured by being broken up and shown out of sequence. But that doesn't mean it will be adapted to the letter, either (for reasons we'll address later, without getting bogged down in the alien comic book lore... probably for the same reasons Marvel Studios would prefer to avoid it). The point is: Carol's powers originate in a fusion of human DNA and Kree. No matter how that happens, the next chapter of Carol's story is even more obscure.
Carol's Shift From Earth To The Kree (and Back) is a Mystery
It follows that if the movie isn't starting with Carol's origin, she would mostly be appearing in her eventual Kree military uniform, with Earth in the rear view mirror. But the physical trauma Carol is shown ensuring in the trailer, not to mention beams of energy firing into her brain imply outside forces shaping her journey. The comic book stories have relied on brain injuries and memory loss to move Carol Danvers from Point A to Point B, so the highlighting of her brain does seem to confirm our own theories on how Carol Danvers joins the Kree army.
But in the portions of the trailer focused on her life on Earth, presumably living a more common existence, there's one character noticeably absent: Carol's Mother... or a parent, or family member at all. When it was first reported that Annette Bening had been cast as Captain Marvel's Mother, it was assumed she would play a significant role. So why keep an actress of Bening's caliber a secret?
There's a good reason why Marie Danvers would be keeping out of sight to both her daughter and movie fans... and the comics may have shown exactly why.
Page 2 of 2: How Carol's Mother Could Be The Movie's Big Twist
Was Carol's Mother Secretly a Kree Soldier?
Yes, it may sound crazy taken out of context, but if Annette Bening's role is intended to be small, but significant, then the reveal of Carol's part-Kree lineage may actually be the most straightforward answer. Both to the question of Marvel's motives in keeping her out of the marketing, and how Carol ends up with both human and Kree genes.
Believe it or not, that's what the Marvel Comics version of this story has revealed too, recently revealing that Captain Marvel's mother is a Kree soldier, and doing it by dropping her into Starforce armor of her own, to boot. That's hard to pass off as a coincidence, since the comic was described as the "definitive Captain Marvel origin story" and set to be released as hype was building for her MCU debut. In hindsight, it's hard to imagine Marvel would choose such a time to deliver a new, shocking, and completely different origin to the one fans will (hopefully) be picking up comic books to see, don't you think?
RELATED: Infinity War Hinted at Captain Marvel's Kree-Skrull War
Sure, Marvel Comics has done things that dumb in the past, but no company, nor comic book publisher is innocent of that crime. Still, it doesn't take long to realize how much the origin story of Carol is streamlined with this explanation. Not for the story it cuts out, replaces, or makes impossible for Marvel Studios, but for the doors it opens. Even for Marvel, the classic origin - in which Carol is bombarded by alien radiation from the explosion of a Pscyhe-Magnetron and infused with "stuff" from the nearby Kree that makes her a superhero - is a hard sell. Especially since they must also explain the source of her energy-based superpowers.
But explain that Carol was secretly half-human, half-Kree, and that mixture meant the explosion affected her differently than the other Kree? You're set.
Captain Marvel's Conflict Could Be Family, Not Galactic War
Now that our conspiracy theorist hats are fully on, logic (and previous Marvel films) would suggest that the bombshell of Carol's Kree mother isn't the entire twist. Since Carol is already a member of the Kree military when the movie begins, finding out that her mother was a Kree who seemingly headed to Earth to Secretly mother a human child is a shock... but not all that impactful to her life. But if her mother isn't just a Kree soldier, but one of some importance - with a reason to keep her heritage, even her child a secret - then we have the makings of a conflict big enough to fuel the whole movie.
The secrecy surrounding another character once assumed to be obvious also has us suspecting that Jude Law is secretly Captain Marvel's villain, for reasons also being kept under wraps. Assuming that he plays a role in unleashing Carol's power, removing her memories, and placing her on his own team, potentially for purposes that are his own and not that of the Kree leadership... well, the secrets start to overlap. Are we suggesting that Jude Law's character is the father of Carol, whom her mother was fleeing? Not necessarily. But he's certainly the kind of vindictive and ruthless commander who would send a good Kree soldier running, and do who knows what to insure her unique, weaponized daughter serves him best.
Is our theory based on a desire to see Annette Bening take her place alongside Michael Douglas, Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, and Michelle Pfeiffer as the older generation of Marvel heroes? Maybe. But it would make for one hell of a twist.
