‘The Marvels’ is deliberately “confusing,” according to the director

The time has almost come: The Marvels, the 33rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, will be released in theaters on Wednesday. But that number is scary for many people, because it can feel like you have to do a lot of homework before you can understand the movie.

Director Nia DaCosta is certainly aware of that. In an interview with GamesRadar+ she explains how she approached this, and that approach can be called surprising.

Intentional confusion
It turns out that DaCosta wants the viewer to be confused. The story of The Marvels is about a collaboration between Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), who for some reason switch places when using their powers. This is of course very disorienting for them.

And DaCosta wants the viewer to get this feeling. “Because they are so disoriented by the shifting, [wil ik] that people can relate to their experience,” she says. “Each of them does very different things when the switching starts, so yeah, I wanted it to feel as confusing to the audience as it does to them.”

A sequel to four stories
“We don’t want people to have to look at something else,” DaCosta continues, “but of course you also have to be honest. This is it [33e] project in this universe. It’s kind of a sequel to [vier] different things.”

Those four things are Ms. Marvel, WandaVision and Secret Invasion on Disney+ and the 2019 film Captain Marvel. “It was kind of a constant negotiation to figure out, ‘Okay, how much information do people need?’ It was really trial and error,” concludes DaCosta.

Without social media
The Marvels is the first time that Ms. Marvel and a grown-up Monica Rambeau on the big screen. However, due to the actors’ strike in Hollywood, none of the actresses can promote the film on their social media: Instagram and

Analysts believe this is one reason why the film’s revenue is estimated to be low. And now that the film also turns out to be deliberately confusing, the question is what impact this will have when it is released. We’ll know more later this week.