When Captain Marvel--which hits Blu-ray on June 11--arrived in theaters, it filled in a lot of the blanks about a variety of things throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe, thanks to it being set in the early '90s, prior to every other MCU film--save for Captain America: The First Avenger. Not only were fans able to find out what happened to Nick Fury's missing eye, but it was also revealed why SHIELD decided to call its team of superheroes the Avengers in the first place.
Another piece of mythology weaved in was the role of Skrulls in the MCU. While the shape-shifting alien species are a well-known part of Marvel's comic book history, their role in Captain Marvel was the first time they've made the transition to the big screen, and it came with a massive change. While typically Skrulls were seen as villains in the comics, invading Earth and disguising themselves as humans--including several superheroes--which led to the Secret Invasion storyline.
In Captain Marvel, though, it's ultimately revealed that Skrulls are the victim in their war with the Kree. That leads to them working with Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) as she fights to stop her Kree mentor Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) from getting his hands on the Tesseract.
During an interview to promote the home release junket of Captain Marvel, GameSpot spoke executive producers Victoria Alonso and Jonathan Schwartz about changing the Skrulls to make them more sympathetic than the comics. "I think we never really want to do what's totally expected," Schwartz explained. "And as the movie sort of found its course--and we're committing to the structure where Carol's with the Kree at the beginning of the movie, and we know the Kree are gonna' initially feel like our heroes, and turn out to be evil--what does that mean for the Skrulls, and finding kind of a cool twist on what you would expect from a comic book mythology."
That twist certainly helps the MCU stand apart from the comics. However, it also offered the opportunity to explore Skrull characters further than if they were run-of-the-mill antagonists. "It felt unexpected, it felt emotional, it felt like it was giving Talos as a character a lot more to do and Ben Mendelsohn a lot more to sink his teeth into," the executive producer continued. "So it just kind of felt emotionally right for Carol and her journey to see the Skrulls in that way, and to not sort of make them comic-y villains."
Now the big question is what role the Skrulls will play in future films. It remains to be seen if they'll appear again--or if they'll remain friendly to Captain Marvel. However, according to Alonso, one of the cornerstones of the MCU is the communication that happens between those involved in each film to make sure they fit together like pieces of a puzzle.
"[We] work with filmmakers that are incredibly collaborative," she said. "So if something is happening in this movie, and [it] movie releases before [another], then we go back to those filmmakers and say 'Hey, by the way, this is happening in this storyline. It sort of affects yours, and when we started with your film, it was there, but it wasn't fully formed. Now we know the answer; now it's fully formed. It affects you in this way.'"
There's so much about the MCU's Phase 4 that remains a mystery. However, as far as we know based on the end of Captain Marvel, she and the Skrulls are still on very friendly terms. With that in mind--and the apparent communication between filmmakers--the chances of more Skrulls appearing in the future to help whoever Carol aligns herself with seems like a good bet. At the very least, perhaps Talos will pop up again in Captain Marvel 2, should that movie come to pass.
Then again, with the introduction of multiple realities in Spider-Man: Far From Home, there's no telling who can be trusted.
Captain Marvel is available on digital now. You can pick it up on Blu-ray and 4K on June 11. To get ready to experience the movie one more time, you should absolutely take a look at our interview with Goose the cat/flerken, as we ask him the hardest-hitting MCU questions.
