Entertainment

This 'Captain Marvel' Theory About Annette Bening’s Character Will Blow Fans Away

by Ani Bundel
Marvel

Marvel is known for keeping spoilers under wraps as best it can. It's not Game of Thrones or even Star Wars level, mind you, but the production company can keep things spoiler free when it needs to. Consider, for instance, how well the ending to Avengers: Infinity War was kept on the down low. But Exhibit A in "How To Keep Spoilers Quiet" may just be Annette Bening's character in Captain Marvel. No one knows who she's playing. This Captain Marvel theory about Annette Bening is a desperate stab by fans to figure out just who the heck Bening was cast to play.

Up until now, no one had seen Bening in the series, period. Marvel announced her casting, and that was it. "Oscar nominee... in the movie... this is all you get to know... have a nice day." There were unsatisfactory sounding reports Bening might be playing Carol Danvers' mother, but somehow those rumors just didn't sound right. Would one really waste an Academy Award nominee as a throwaway mom in a flashback?

When the new Captain Marvel trailer arrived this week, it was with great relief to learn Bening wasn't playing her mom.

Well, she's sort of playing Captain Marvel's mom, but maybe a better term would Captain Marvel's creator.

Bening is definitely a Kree scientist, it seems. One who took the broken, dying body of Carol Danvers and infused her with Kree blood, creating the hybridized creature Captain Marvel is today. Fans also are assuming Bening's character is the one who dubs her creation "Vers."*

*"Vers" is the name on the Kree-costumed Carol Danvers Funko Pop. Since Carol is shown looking at a piece of dog tag on Earth which reads "Carol Dan," in the trailer, fans are assuming the part reading "Vers" is the one the Kree find with her.

But even with a big clue of "Kree Scientist Who Put Captain Marvel Together Again," Bening's character is still unknown. This is because the movie has changed Danvers' origin story so much, there's no comic book equivalent for this character to match with.

Marvel

But it doesn't mean fans aren't trying. The latest theory is Bening's character is not just a scientist and not only the woman who rebirths Danvers, but the most essential figure in the Kree universe. If the theories are correct, she's the Supreme Intelligence.

Now, in the comics, the Supreme Intelligence is a giant head, which encompasses all the greatest minds ever born to the Kree empire. But to be real about it, this sort of image works in comic books. Annette Bening's Giant Head would not play well on the big screen as a character. People would giggle.

But making the Supreme Intelligence an entity who walks our hero through her paces? Now that's a visual representation of the Supreme Intelligence audiences could get behind.

Fans will have to wait a few more months to see if Bening really is the famed Kree leader. Captain Marvel arrives in theaters March 8, 2019.