Lashana Lynch talks playing Air Force pilot Maria Rambeau in Captain Marvel

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Although it didn't exactly break the Internet, it has been illuminating to learn more about CAPTAIN MARVEL throughout the week. The film will open with Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) having already left Earth behind as she joins Starforce, an elite Kree military team, but when the Skrulls plot an invasion of Earth, Carol finds herself returning with new questions about her past. One of Carol's best friends on Earth is Maria Rambeau, a fellow Air Force fighter pilot who is played by Lashana Lynch (Still Star-Crossed), and Lynch recently spoke with Entertainment Weekly about her role in the upcoming film.

"Maria’s got a strength that’s undeniable, in that you don’t feel like you need to help her," Lynch said. "She is thrown into many a situation in this movie that she’s never been a part of, never seen, never experienced — and she just learns it, immediately. She’s very resilient and very strong." Maria also happens to be a single mother to a young daughter named Monica, who comic-book fans will recognize as a superhero who held the title of Captain Marvel before Carol Danvers. Monica went by many other names as well, including Photon, which just so happens to be her mother's call-sign in CAPTAIN MARVEL.

Lashana Lynch added that "there’s a certain level of female sisterhood that I haven’t seen in a superhero film before, that we have in abundance," and the actress is excited to bring the "multifaceted" Maria Rambeau to life.

I, especially after watching Black Panther, want to keep the black community in a place where they trust that every single African-American character in the Marvel universe is going to be represented positively, is going to be represented accurately, and is going to have a real through-line that the black community or people of color will be proud of… I want Maria to be upstanding. I want her to have a voice, I want people to understand her and relate to her, and I want mothers to be proud that there’s a single mother in the MCU.

CAPTAIN MARVEL will hit theaters on March 8, 2019.