Jude Law

In just a matter of days, almost everything we thought we knew about ‘Captain Marvel’ has been thrown out the window, as the Marvel film has landed the cover of Entertainment Weekly and along with that, an in-depth article that has upturned a lot of previously held beliefs about the picture.  Almost from the start, it has been believed that Jude Law was playing Walter Lawson, a character in the comics, who turned out to be a disguised Kree spy named Mar-Vell, who would eventually be known as the hero Captain Marvel.  But now that is questionable, as Marvel Studios doesn’t want to refer to Law’s character by name.

But the new article confirms that Law’s character is indeed an important figure in the Kree hierarchy.  “He is driven by a belief in the divine leadership of the Kree people,” Law says. “So he’s almost a devout warrior — unquestioning, conservative, but inspirational.”  We now know that Law’s character is the leader of a group called Starforce, described as the “SEAL Team Six of space” which includes Brie Larson‘s titular character, Earth human Carol Danvers who also possesses some Kree DNA.  The group also includes Lee Pace’s Ronan the Accuser and Djimon Hounsou as Korath the Pursuer, two Kree warriors introduced in 2014’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, plus new addition Minn-Erva, a sniper played by Gemma Chan.

Marvel Studios’ CAPTAIN MARVEL
L to R: Leader of Starforce (Jude Law), Ronan (Lee Pace), Korath (Djimon Hounsou), Att-Lass (Algenis Perez Soto), Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Bron-Char (Rune Temte) and Minn-Erva (Gemma Chan)

Obviously, according to this picture, there are at least two more members, Att-Lass played by Algenis Perez Soto and Bron-Char played by Rune Temte, but even with all of these members, there will be a special bond between Law’s character and Carol.

Law implies that this is mainly because of his character’s concern over how powerful Carol is:

“These extraordinary powers she has, he sees them as something of a blessing and something that she has to learn how to control.  That’s a motif throughout the piece, the element of learning to control one’s emotions and to use your powers wisely.”

Larson adds that this may cause some friction with the other “pure” Kree:

“There’s a lot and back and forth that comes with the two of them, which kind of creates a little bit of tension with the rest of Starforce.  Like, ‘Why do they have a special relationship, and why isn’t it me?’”

With Law stepping into the MCU, there may be a chance that he will be reunited with his ‘Sherlock Holmes’ co-star Robert Downey Jr.  Although RDJ didn’t give Law any specific advice, he did help him wrap his head around making a Marvel entry as opposed to the average film.

“He obviously had a great time making these.  He talked a little bit about how [making a Marvel movie is like] fitting this one piece into a bigger picture that someone else has got their eyes on, and giving yourself over to that. It’s not about trying to understand everything. Just do your piece.”

He later added:

“It just seemed like an interesting party to join in with at an interesting time in their ascendancy.  That to me is an interesting playground to work in because suddenly you’ve got filmmakers who are looking at humor and script work and character, within an infrastructure that is obviously capable of creating enormous universes and worlds and special effects — while also not bogging down the creativity of the director.”

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said that Law was an actor that the studio had been eyeing for a while and now that they got him, they were not disappointed:

“He’s somebody we have admired for a long time and have wanted to find a role for in our movies, and as fate works in your favor, his part in this is extraordinary.  He really came to play.”

‘Captain Marvel’, directed by Anan Boden and Ryan Fleck, stars Brie Larson, Ben Mendelsohn, Gemma Chan, Clark Gregg, Djimon Hounsou, Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law, and Lee Pace, and arrives in theaters on March 8, 2019.