'Captain Marvel' Lays The Foundation For Another Character To Become Captain Marvel (Plus Everything We Know About Goose The Cat)
Carol Danvers is not the first to hold the title of Captain Marvel. Nor will she be the last. Brie Larson's Carol Danvers is being introduced as the Marvel Cinematic Universe's powerful photon-blasting superhero in Captain Marvel, but the upcoming Marvel film is already laying the groundwork for another comic book fan-favorite to take up the title.
And Captain Marvel is not only setting the scene for Carol's successors, we're also getting a sidekick — in the form of a cat.
Monica Rambeau
Comic book readers may recognize the last name of Lashana Lynch's character, Maria Rambeau. That last name belongs to superhero Monica Rambeau, who is confirmed to be the young daughter of Maria in Captain Marvel. In the comics, Monica is actually the first female Captain Marvel — that's right, even before Carol Danvers.
In the film, Monica Rambeau will only be a child who will have a close relationship with both Maria and Carol. No names have been announced yet, but leaked set photos reveal an actress who is approximately 10-13 years old. And since Captain Marvel takes place in the mid-'90s, Monica could be around 30-35 years old in the modern MCU. Will we see more of her by the time Captain Marvel catches up with the rest of the universe?
It's uncertain, but in /Film's Captain Marvel set visit, producer Jonathan Schwartz hinted that "there's more story to tell with Monica":
"I hope there's more story to tell with Monica, certainly the movie leaves it open for that stuff. I think one of the things that was really fun about the stories that came together and the Monica relationship and the Maria relationship with Carol was being able to tell this story of female friendship, and intergenerational female friendships."
In the Marvel Comics, Monica Rambeau is the superhero who became the first female Captain Marvel, debuting in 1982 and going on to lead the Avengers. As she passed the mantle on, Monica adopted a slew of other superhero aliases, including Spectrum and Photon — the latter of which plays a significant part in the upcoming Captain Marvel film – Monica's mother Maria goes by the pilot callsign "Photon."
As a single mother, Maria is an unusual character for a Marvel superhero movie. But "it felt like a natural way into the Maria-Monica characters," Schwartz said, noting that Carol's friendship with Maria provides Carol roots for when she returns to Earth. "Her and Brie's [Larson] character Carol Danvers are very close friends, they're best friends, in fact," Lynch said of Maria. Carol even helps raise Monica to an extent, which makes Carol's disappearance into outer space all the more devastating.
"You do get touches of moments to see how happy they were before and how happy they made each other. Because of that, when she comes back, you see why it affected her so much. You see why her death was such a big deal," Lynch said, adding:
"[She goes] from working with someone and actually being that complete bum chums to being alone, and raising a child single handedly with the help of their parents is a hellish experience and I could relate to that as well with having, losing someone myself. It's hard."
Goose the Cat
Maria and Monica Rambeau aren't the only characters who are more than they appear to be. The other is Goose the Cat. And yes, that is a Top Gun reference, Schwartz confirmed:
"That is a Top Gun reference, kind of a take on Chewie from the comics. Goose is played by a team of four cats, who all have their own specialty. There's Reggie, there's Archie, there's Rizzo, and there's Gonzo. They're an A-team of cats who can all do one trick, because you can't teach cats – I learned all about cats, shooting cats over the course of this movie. So one of them is, like, the face cat, who's the pretty cat, that's Archie. No, sorry, that's Reggie! One of them's the holding cat you hold and can be held. One of them's, like, the nuzzling cat who will walk up to your leg and nuzzle it. And one of them's, like, the cat who will paw you, who's a jerk. I think that's Rizzo. If you told me before this movie started that I would be auditioning cats to play the role of Goose, I would not have believed you."
In the comics, Chewie is Carol Danvers' fan-favorite pet who is revealed to be an alien known as a Flerken. In Kelly Sue DeConnick and Jamie McKelvie's comic book run, the Flerkens are shown to look exactly like cats but with a few notable differences: they lay eggs, they can attack with a huge set of pink tentacles that emerge from their mouth, and oh, they're highly intelligent beings that can achieve dimensional travel.
"It's not fully a cat. It's a mysterious cat," Lynch said, confirming she does have a few scenes with Goose. "The cat does things that we didn't expect for it to do, and it's very surprising, and it could happen at random times."
So we can look forward to the pink tentacles, hopefully.