'Captain Marvel' Teaser Breakdown: Marvel's Leading Heroine Shoots for the Stars

As the hype surrounding April's Avengers: Infinity War steadily dies down, even after July's Ant-Man and the Wasp furthered the momentum of the startling superhero team-up, the latest project from Marvel Studios seeks to take prominence as March's Captain Marvel approaches. With our first official peek at the film releasing this week, in a trailer that not only worked to establish the film's off-beat timeline, but the story's powerful leading heroine as well, there is still plenty to unpack surrounding the origins of Marvel's newest on-screen hero. From the central characters of the film to its relation to the other films in the franchise, here's my breakdown of the first trailer for Captain Marvel. 



The trailer kicks off with our first introduction to the protagonist of the film -- the part-human, part-alien warrior Carol Danvers. An ex-U.S. Air Force pilot who soon finds herself as a member of an elite Kree military team known as Starforce, Danvers (played by Brie Larson) dons the armor of the Kree as she plummets towards Earth. As a bruised Danvers stumbles out of a still-standing Blockbuster Video, we're introduced not only to our main hero, but the distinct setting of the film as well. Set in the mid-1990s, the timeline of the film is only further realized when a familiar face arrives in a young Nick Fury. As the voice of a de-aged Samuel L. Jackson echoes overhead as Danvers finds trouble on Earth, a budding partnership is teased between the brash half-alien fighter and the low level bureaucrat of Nick Fury.

As Fury and Danvers quickly get acquainted, the reluctant S.H.I.E.L.D. desk jockey steering Danvers out of trouble just when he thought he was finished, the conflict at the heart of the film ignites as we delve into the muddled past of Carol Danvers. As she recalls her previous life on Earth as a talented Air Force pilot, we see glimpses of what molds her into the warrior she later becomes. Eventually joining the elite military force of the Kree -- aligned with not only a specialized team of deadly otherworldly warriors, but also a devout mentor in Jude Law's Mar-Vell and Kree radical Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) -- Danvers shields the humanity she once sought after on Earth in favor of becoming a relentless and highly-ambitious soldier to another kind.



With the war inside herself paralleling the battle set to arrive on Earth's doorstep, we find the film's other central conflict in the looming Skrull army. As the infamous alien race known to many fans of the comics look to finally make their way to the silver screen, the shape-shifting, green-skinned foes aim to be the secondary force hero Carol Danvers must tackle once in her return to Earth. While the trailer only teases what the Skrulls are capable of, we know that actor Ben Mendelsohn will play a large role in the story as Talos, the driven leader of the alien army that impersonates a high-ranking member of S.H.I.E.L.D. As we see Danvers get her first taste of the Skrull threat, we're treated to a number of intriguing shots, everything from Captain Marvel's classic helmet to Clark Gregg's de-aged return to the films as Agent Phil Coulson.



With a brief two minutes of footage to feast on, plenty is teased in our first look at 2019's Captain Marvel. As its pre-Iron Man setting seeks to take the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a period it has yet to explore in full, and its mostly self-contained story strives to bring actress Brie Larson into the fight (before the even-greater fight that Avengers 4 holds), the first trailer for Marvel's latest promises a bold new take on how the hero's origin can be told. With its central hero striving to discover her identity just as much as we are, Captain Marvel shoots for the stars as it introduces us to the MCU's first leading female hero.     

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