As seems to be a growing trend with newcomers to the MCU, The Marvels star Zawe Ashton wasn’t aware that she would be part of the MCU when she originally connected with director Nia DaCosta via a Zoom meeting. While there is a lot to be revealed about the upcoming Captain Marvel sequel, which also acts as a sequel to the Disney+ Ms Marvel series and WandaVision’s Monica Rambeau storyline, Ashton is known to play the villain in next year’s summer blockbuster, but it seems that when she first got involved in the movie the possibility of joining the MCU was not on her radar.
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Ashton explained how her initial meeting with DaCosta went down, and how her main goal was focussing on projects with female directors of color, but the MCU connection came as a complete surprise. She said:
"I’m still terrified to say anything because I didn’t even know [the casting news] had come out! I’m in such a bubble. [But] first and foremost, where these films [Mr. Malcolm’s List and Captain Marvel] are twinned is that I had been moving away from acting for a while. I didn’t see the pendulum swinging hard enough and thought my time can be better spent behind a computer or potentially behind a camera. I went unrepresented for a while ... I needed to reenter the business in a very new way. I [told] my team that I wanted to be of service to first-time female directors. Specifically, first-time female directors of color.
One of the first people that I was set up on a Zoom with was Nia DaCosta, and we vibed really hard ... We signed off after a couple of hours going, Let’s do something, even if it costs like five [cents] to make. Then [later] she called and asked if I would do her new movie. I was like, yeah, absolutely! Where are we [going]? In the backwaters of somewhere? How small is the budget? And it was this follow-up to Captain Marvel, which had not been on my radar at all. [Laughs.] The expectation was just to fulfill Nia’s vision.
I honestly have had the best time doing it. I genuinely have. My respect for everyone involved in these movies has gone through the roof, in a very nuanced way."
The Marvels Could Bring An X Men Character To The MCU
The Marvels will see the return of Carol Danvers, who will join forces with Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan to fend off the latest cosmic threat to the world. There is also a belief that the movie will also have links to the upcoming Secret Invasion series, as both projects see the return of Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and delays in that Disney+ show seems to be the main reason that The Marvels was moved from a February 2023 release to July 2023. When it comes to Ashton’s villain role, there have been a lot of rumors that she will be playing Mystique, the X-Men character previously played by Rebecca Romijn and Jennifer Lawrence, who could be making her MCU debut in the film.
The Marvels is likely one of the upcoming Marvel projects that will be getting a lot of attention San Diego Comic Con and Disney’s D23 Expo later this year, but until then, everything is down to speculation. With plenty of surprised planned for the MCU’s future, The Marvels seems to be the final movie of Phase Four and a potential X-Men connection would hint at the hero group’s arrival some time in Phase Five.