Posted in: Movies | Tagged: HRL, karen gillan, kevin feige, marvel, Marvel Studios
Karen Gillan: Now is the Time, More Than Ever, for All-Women Marvel Movie
Once more before the year is over, a Marvel Studios star has spoken out about the need for more of a female focus in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While doing press for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, star Karen Gillan, who plays Nebula in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, remembered the famous photo and story about Marvel's female stars asking Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige to make an all-women team-up movie.
"Brie Larson was like, 'We should go up to Kevin Feige and tell him to make an all-female Marvel movie,' so we all marched up there in a group, a whole herd of us, and said that to him," Gillan recalled in an interview with IndieWire. "He was like, 'Yeah, that would be amazing!' but he didn't really commit to it, but he thought it would be a great idea."
"Now is the time, more than ever," Gillan continued. "Look at the success of Wonder Woman. It's clear that we all want that."
Some might say that it's actually long past the time for such an idea. Marvel has waited until after making twenty films directed by men with male leads or male-led ensembles before making a single movie with a female lead. In addition to the seventeen movies Marvel Studios has released so far — Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Thor: Ragnarok — they plan to release three more — Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Ant-Man and The Wasp — before finally releasing a superhero film where a woman gets top billing and which is co-directed by a woman: 2019's Captain Marvel.
After that, Marvel already has a Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and Avengers 4 planned, so it will be late 2020 by the earliest that Marvel could get an all-women Marvel film on the docket (at which point DC may have already made two of them: Gotham City Sirens, and an additional Harley Quinn girl power flick).
So if anything, while we agree with what Gillan is saying, we think she might be understating the point just a little bit.