Carol Danvers being best friends with Maria Rambeau in Captain Marvel is an interesting spin on her comics counterpart. That version of Carol has a longstanding history with Monica Rambeau, the first woman to go by “Captain Marvel.” In the upcoming film, Monica is Maria’s young daughter, but it’s her mother who really has the chance to step into a new role as a hero.
Maria’s presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe obviously lays an important bit of groundwork for Monica’s potential elevation to superhero status in the future, but according to the film’s stars, there’s much more emotional and narrative substance to her dynamic with Carol that’s important to the film.
During a recent press conference we attended, stars Brie Larson and Lashana Lynch reflected on how, even though Carol and Maria’s friendship is forged during their time together in the military, they would have ended up bonding with one another regardless of where they met. That connection, Larson explained, is the emotional core that powers Captain Marvel’s story:
What they’ve gone through together — going through military training, being the only women there, and then using each other to lean on each other for that support and a recognition of their experience is really special. Of course, I think they would have been friends outside of that experience. But I think that’s a really tight-knit bond that they have, and they’re family.
Without being too showboating about it, this is the love of the movie. This is the great love. This is the love lost, this is the love found again, this is the reason to continue fighting and to go to the ends of the Earth for the person that you love. And it’s her best friend and her best friend’s daughter which, to me, is so natural.
Lynch added that while Carol’s very much the movie’s cosmically-empowered hero, Maria also reflects that same kind of strength in a much more grounded way. That humanizes Carol—something that will be interesting to see on screen, given just how much larger than life she is, when Captain Marvel blasts into theatres on March 7.