Captain Marvel movie to feature key Guardians, S.H.I.E.L.D. characters

Coulson lives — okay, sort of.

When Marvel announced Monday that production is underway on the upcoming Brie Larson-starring Captain Marvel film, the studio slipped in a few major spoilers via the cast announcement.

The story follows Carol Danvers as she becomes one of the universe’s most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races. Set in the 1990s, Captain Marvel is described as “an all-new adventure from a previously unseen period in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.”

And because the film is set in the ’90s, many familiar faces from films’ past are set to appear. Alongside Larson, the cast includes Samuel L. Jackson, who will be reprising his role as S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury, Lee Pace and Djimon Hounsou reprising their Guardians of the Galaxy roles as Ronan the Accuser and Korath, respectively, and the return of Clark Gregg’s S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson. Ben Mendelsohn, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Algenis Perez Soto, Rune Temte, McKenna Grace, and Jude Law will also star in the film.

The returns of Ronan, Korath, and Coulson are particularly exciting because those three characters are currently dead in the MCU. Ronan and Koreth both died in Guardians, but it makes sense that the Kree villain would appear considering Captain Marvel is a Kree hybrid in the comics. Coulson’s death came at the hands of Loki in Marvel’s The Avengers, but he was resurrected shortly thereafter to take the lead in ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — thought the Avengers still don’t know he’s actually alive.

Captain Marvel will be directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck based on a screenplay from the duo alongside Meg LeFauve, Nicole Perlman , Geneva Robertson-Dworet , Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch. Kevin Feige is the producer, with Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Jonathan Schwartz, Patty Whitcher and Stan Lee as executive producers, Lars Winther serving as co-producer/first assistant director and David Grant serving as co-producer.

Captain Marvel will be released March 8, 2019.