Some comic readers have been wondering why the cat in ‘Captain Marvel’ is named Goose instead of Chewie, his name from the comics. It turns out that it has nothing to do with licensing (after all, Disney owns both Marvel and Lucasfilm), but rather the film’s 1995 time setting.
The film directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck offered an explanation.
Fleck said:
“It wasn’t a big thing. It just felt like Star Wars was so part of the culture that, it just felt like we wanted to remove it a little bit, you know, the nostalgia for the Star Wars movies which there are so many of around us. You know, when we were kids, Star Wars felt like it was something from the 70s and 80s, and I think that was the spirit of Chewie from the comics but we felt like we wanted to sort of just slide away from that slightly.”
Boden added:
“Yeah, and just the idea of having a reference that would have been so specific to Carol Danvers’ past, as her past in the movie itself being a pilot in the 1980s when Top Gunwas out and having a reference that felt a little bit more specific to her, whereas Chewie, when the comics were being written was a very specific reference in time but now with all the movies out it feels more contemporary and not so specific to her past.”
It’s true. In 1995, ‘Star Wars’ was viewed as a thing of the past. The first prequel, ‘The Phantom Menace’ wouldn’t arrive in theaters until 1999. While the film wasn’t well-received by die-hard fans of the originals, it did rekindle the long-dormant ‘Star Wars’ fandom, which still burns brightly today. But at the time of ‘Captain Marvel’, would have been considered retro.
Of course as comic readers, and those who have paid attention to the ‘Captain Marvel’ toys that have already hit shelves, there’s more to Goose than meets the eye.
Catch Goose and some human characters, when ‘Captain Marvel’ hits theaters on March 8.
Source: Collider
