Director Nia DaCosta certainly made an impression out of the festival circuit in 2018 with her debut feature "Little Woods." The critically acclaimed independent neo-Western was so confidently directed that it would only be a matter of time until her work caught the attention of the industry at large. Like clockwork, DaCosta soon found herself falling into the studio system with the Jordan Peele-produced legacy sequel to "Candyman," but really got her shot at the big time by being hired to direct 2023's
"The Marvels." After 2019's "Captain Marvel" became a billion-dollar success for Marvel Studios, a sequel was all but inevitable. "The Marvels," however, was anything but a traditional follow-up, as it had to be a sequel to both the Brie Larson-starring film as well as the Disney+ streaming shows "WandaVision" and "Ms. Marvel." This naturally placed a lot of pressure on DaCosta to deliver the best film she could under the circumstances, and sadly, it ended up being one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's biggest disappointments.
/Film's Jeremy Mathai pointed out the film's highlights, such as Iman Vellani's Ms. Marvel, while criticizing the lack of narrative coherency in his review of "The Marvels." The movie itself came out in the period after "Avengers: Endgame" where Marvel Studios was throwing a lot of ideas at the wall to see what would stick, and it backfired. "The Marvels" received middling reviews at best, and at worst, held the moniker of being the MCU's biggest flop at the box office. At the time, there were a bunch of pieces leading up to the film's release in which DaCosta unfairly bore the brunt of the film's potential failure. Leading up to the arrival of her next film, "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple," the director took the time to reflect on why "The Marvels" went sideways (via The Hollywood Reporter):
"Making the '28 Years Later' sequel was one of the best filmmaking experiences I've had. One of the issues I had with 'Candyman' and 'Marvels' was the lack of a really solid script, which is always gonna just wreak havoc on the whole process."
Marvel Studios is no stranger to having script issues, with some of its movies even going into production without one completed. (I sure hope Marvel doesn't do that again, especially with, say, an "Avengers" film.) With "The Marvels," however, it appeared that the script transformed from a "Captain Marvel" sequel into a team-up movie. Despite DaCosta co-writing the project with Megan McDonnell ("WandaVision") and Elissa Karasik ("Loki"), the finished movie comes across as a familiar case of too many cooks in the kitchen.
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Nia DaCosta Got Caught Up In The Studio Machine Making The Marvels
It was no secret that Marvel Studios was throwing DaCosta under the bus when it started to come out that "The Marvels" wouldn't live up to expectations. A few years later, the "Little Woods" director is now able to candidly reflect on her experience making the film, highlighting the difficulty of making a movie under the watchful eye of the Marvel machine (via Deadline):
"They had a date, and they were prepping certain things, and you just have to lean into the process hardcore. The way they make those films is very different to the way, ideally, I would make a film, so you just have to lean into the process and hope for the best. The best didn't happen this time, but you kind of have to trust in the machine."
Part of what makes "The Marvels" so frustrating is that bringing together three superwomen of the MCU in a power-swapping superhero hangout movie sounded like a real fun time. Unfortunately, the film is a huge structural and narrative mess that can't seem to decide whether to lean into its sci-fi pulp (à la the singing planet of Aladna) or go about its contractual world-building obligations. DaCosta, for her part, is more than aware that her voice got lost in the early stages of the film's production:
"It was interesting because there was a certain point when I was like, 'Okay, this isn't going to be the movie that I pitched or even the first version of the movie that I shot' so I realized that this is now an experience, and it's learning curve, and it really makes you stronger as a filmmaker in terms of your ability to navigate."
While some filmmakers like James Gunn ("Guardians of the Galaxy") have been able to make great MCU movies with a discernible identity, it's almost impossible for newcomers to wholly put their stamp on something that's being run through a whole number of departments at Marvel Studios. It can't be totally singular, as it has to fit in within the breath of the MCU, but at the same time, films like"Thunderbolts*" have proven the franchise's installments can be about something other than setting up what comes next. That said, I think it's funny that one of the biggest setups for the upcoming "Avengers: Doomsday" (the post-credits scene from "The Marvels") was included with a movie that audiences didn't go out to see.
Anyway, it seems that DaCosta has really taken her complicated experience as a learning tool going into her next few projects. While she may have found herself directing another franchise film with the middle chapter in the ongoing "28 Years Later" trilogy, it'll be exciting to see DaCosta return to her dramatic roots later this year with "Hedda."
"The Marvels" is currently streaming on Disney+.
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