Annette Bening’s Captain Marvel role was originally intended to be a man

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Be warned; here be MAJOR spoilers for CAPTAIN MARVEL. The latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe hit theaters just several days ago and seems to be yet another rousing success for the studio, taking in over $455 million worldwide and receiving mostly decent reviews. Like most MCU films, CAPTAIN MARVEL also features an all-star cast, including the great Annette Bening.

If you've seen CAPTAIN MARVEL, you know that Annette Bening plays the role of the Supreme Intelligence, an artificial intelligence who rules over the Kree Empire, but she also plays Dr. Wendy Lawson, a brilliant scientist who's also secretly a Kree named Mar-Vell. As the comic-version of Mar-Vell is a man, directors Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck originally had their Mar-Vell written as a man as well. While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, the pair admitted that the choice to make the last-minute switch came very late in the game. "That was one of the epiphanies in the writing that came fairly late in the process," Boden explained. "Too late in the process for comfort, to be perfectly honest!" They were already in the midst of the casting process for Mar-Vell, but felt that the Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) and Dr. Lawson parts of the film weren't working. Then, Anna Boden suggested combining the roles of Mar-Vell and the Supreme Intelligence.

Pretty late in the process of writing it, I think I just woke up one morning and I had dreamt it or something. I texted Ryan, and I was like, ‘Am I crazy that these could both be the same actor?’ And he was like, ‘Yes, you are crazy, and yes, you should talk to Marvel about it immediately.’ So it was a late-breaking idea, but something that I think helped pull those elements together in a way that it would’ve been hard to otherwise.

After making this switch, they quickly found their Mar-Vell/Supreme Intelligence in Annette Bening. "We’ve just been big fans of her for a long time, and she’s got all those qualities," Fleck said. "She’s got the great mentor quality that we were looking for in that character, but she can also be really tough, and that was really necessary for both aspects. She can be regal, which was perfect for the Supreme Intelligence, and she can also just be casual and cool and laid back, which was necessary for Lawson." CAPTAIN MARVEL is now playing in theaters, so check out reviews from our own JimmyO and Kalyn Corrigan and be sure to let us know what YOU thought of the film as well!