Nia DaCosta reportedly joins Captain Marvel 2 as MCU sequel director

[jwplayer MDxzN19r]Captain Marvel 2 has reportedly found its director in Nia DaCosta, who previously helmed 2020’s ‘Candyman’ reboot. The flagship Marvel sequel is currently in production, and is set for a July 8, 2022 release date.

American director and screenwriter DaCosta takes over the Brie Larson-led franchise from first-flick duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. The original pair directed Captain Marvel’s cinematic debut to huge box office success.

The 2019 release marked the first time a Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movie was led by a woman in a leading role. It ended its release run having raked in $1.128 billion in the global box office. The all-but-guaranteed sequel was greenlit by MCU boss Kevin Feige in late July.

DaCosta first broke into the Hollywood mainstream with her 2018 thriller Little Woods, which the 30-year-old wrote and directed. Deadline, who first broke the news, reported DaCosta was Disney’s first choice for the Captain Marvel gig.

The ‘Candyman’ helmer may have won out in the end, but the Captain Marvel 2 director’s chair was hot property for some time. Marvel insiders tipped Olivia Wilde, as well as Jamie Babbit, as other potential options.

Disney and Marvel Studios have yet to comment on the reported appointment.

Megan McDonnell, who has already been working for Marvel on the upcoming ‘WandaVision’ Disney Plus series, is in line to pen the sequel’s script. Hollywood darling Brie Larson will be returning to star in the 2022 follow-up film.

DaCosta joins the ever-growing cast of female filmmakers working with comic book titans Marvel and DC, which also includes Cathy Yan and Chloé Zhao.

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Yan directed DC’s ‘Birds of Prey’, while Yan is in line to direct Marvel’s mystic ‘The Eternals’, coming in 2021. Australian director Cate Shortland helmed the upcoming ‘Black Widow’ solo outing, which has been delayed indefinitely.

Captain Marvel 2 is expected to play a key role story-wise in the fourth phase of the Marvel Universe, following the retirement or death of many of the original Avengers in ‘Endgame’.

All the way back in March 2019, MCU boss Kevin Feige teased a Captain Marvel sequel was already in the works. He suggested it would be “pretty amazing,” considering the early drafts he had already approved.

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Captain Marvel, who proved her status as one of Marvel’s strongest heroes with her brief role in Avengers: Endgame in 2019, is expected to continue her storyline relating to the Kree’s war with the shape-shifting alien Skrulls.

There have also been rumors the sequel will be a “mini-Avengers film,” similar to Captain America: Civil War in 2016. The Direct has suggested comic book hero Ms. Marvel, an in-universe Captain Marvel fangirl, is set to make her MCU debut.

Marvel has remained hush on details for the 2022 follow-up. We do know, however, that the new film will be set in the present-day, rather than the 1990s like the original.