This Kree-Skrull War Explainer Tells You Everything You Need to Know for Captain Marvel

SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses plot points and casting in Captain Marvel.

While many geeks have dutifully followed the adventures of Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel for years, there are of course plenty of folks who are going into the film blind. Luckily, the MCU excels at explaining some of Marvel’s more esoteric concepts and characters, meaning that you don’t have to be a comic book expert to enjoy the films (although it doesn’t hurt!).

Even fans of the previous twenty Marvel films may find themselves lost in the world of Captain Marvel. The film is set in the 90s, well before the events of the MCU (Captain America: The First Avenger excluded). It also introduces an entirely new world and two new alien races perennially at war with one another.

In the above featurette, the cast and crew of Captain Marvel give us a brief explainer of the Kree-Skrull war. We learn that Captain Marvel is a member of the Starforce, an elite team of Kree warriors, or as Carol puts it, “noble warrior heroes.” Larson said of her character, “when we meet Carol in this film, the Kree part of her is her identity.” One of the conflicts sure to arise in the film is Carol’s reconciliation of both her human and Kree aspects of her identity.

The Kree, native to the planet Hala, were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, making their first appearance in Fantastic Four #65 (August 1967). They are a highly advanced, highly militarized alien race ruled by the Supreme Intelligence, an AI that contains all the known Kree knowledge. Annette Bening will portray the Supreme Intelligence in the film.

We’ve already met two Kree characters in the MCU: Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) and Korath the Pursuer (Djimon Hounsou) in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1. Both actors will reprise their roles for Captain Marvel.

On the other side of the war are the Skrulls, shape-shifting aliens of the planet Skrullos. Jude Law says of the Skrulls, “the Kree see them as their greatest threat.” Directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden set up the story as, “Carol knows the Skrulls have infiltrated Earth and it kind of creates this sense of paranoia.”

Skrulls, also the creation of Lee and Kirby, first appeared in 1962 in Fantastic Four #2. The Kree-Skrull War has been an ongoing struggle in the world of Marvel for decades, frequently spilling over into Earth and requiring the Avengers the assemble and fight back.

The O.G. Captain Marvel of the comics was a Kree warrior named Mar-Vell, who came to Earth as a spy before bonding with humans and taking up the mantle to protect Earth. Like many other superheroes, Mar-Vell dies and passes on his mantle to a long line of Captain Marvels, with Carol Danvers as the most recent person to hold the title. I like to refer to it as the “Dread Pirate Roberts” phenomenon.

All in all, the film will likely repeat the above information, and you won’t need to be a Marvel scholar to enjoy the upcoming film.

(via /Film, image: Marvel)

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