‘Captain Marvel 2’ Will Be Helmed By ‘Candyman’ Director Nia DaCosta

Nia DaCosta is taking the helm for Captain Marvel 2. The director of the highly anticipated Candyman reboot has been tapped by Marvel Studios to direct Captain Marvel 2, making her the first-ever Black female director for a Marvel movie.

Deadline broke the news that Nia DaCosta, director of the acclaimed drama Little Woods and the upcoming Candyman reboot, has been tapped to helm the sequel to Captain Marvel. DaCosta will be taking the reins from Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who wrote and directed the first Captain Marvel film starring Brie Larson as the titular Marvel superhero. Disney and Marvel Studios had no comment, according to Deadline.

DaCosta “seemed to have the edge” over several individuals that the studio met with, Deadline reports. And with the filmmaker’s star rising with the hype for the Jordan Peele-produced Candyman, it seems like that tipped her over the edge. DaCosta broke out with the 2018 indie Little Woods, a heartbreaking neo-Western starring Tessa Thompson and Lily James, and would soon be tapped to helm the new version of Candyman, which is building buzz for its strong sociopolitical approach to the horror genre. But DaCosta’s work on Little Woods is often overlooked — a haunting slow-burner, it beautifully depicts a troubled sister relationship amid America’s ongoing opioid crisis. That kind of strong character writing can only help with Captain Marvel, a movie that hit all the beats of the Marvel formula but fell a little flat on the character (and action) front.

With Captain Marvel 2, DaCosta joins the elite group of female filmmakers like Chloe Zhao, Cathy Yan, and Patty Jenkins who are helming superhero tentpoles, as well as the even more elite group of Black filmmakers directing comic book movies (a group that includes Black Panther‘s Ryan Coogler and The Old Guard‘s Prince-Bythewood). But DaCosta is in a league of her own as the first-ever Black female director to helm a Marvel movie, and all eyes will likely be on her as she steps into the director’s chair for Captain Marvel 2.

Megan McDonnell, a story editor on the Marvel-based series WandaVision, has penned the script for the Captain Marvel sequel, for which Larson is set to reprise her role as Carol Danvers. The first Captain Marvel, which starred Larson as a human searching for her identity who gets involved in the war between the two alien races, the Kree and the shape-shifting Skrulls, hit theaters in 2018 and grossed $1.128 billion at the worldwide box office.

Captain Marvel 2 is scheduled for release on July 8, 2022.

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