‘The Marvels’ Director Nia DaCosta Reportedly Left The Film’s Production During Post-Production

John F. Trent |

Nov 1, 2023

The Marvels director Nia DaCosta reportedly left the film in the middle of post-production to go work on her Tessa Thompson vehicle Hedda.

This latest information comes from Variety’s Tatiana Siegel who detailed, “Eyebrows were raised again when DaCosta began working on another film while “The Marvels” was still in postproduction — the filmmaker moved to London earlier this year to begin prepping for her Tessa Thompson drama Hedda.”

A source informed Siegel, “If you’re directing a $250 million movie, it’s kind of weird for the director to leave with a few months to go.”

DaCosta previously informed Vanity Fair she had moved on from Marvel Studios back in September, “It was really great to play in this world, and to be a part of building this big world, but it made me just want to build my own world more.”

Vanity Fair’s Rebecca Ford also confirmed DaCosta had moved on from the project by the time the interview was conducted. She wrote, “When we first spoke, she was just a week from starting production on Hedda, running from actor rehearsals in the morning to production meetings in the afternoon.”

Not only did she reveal she had moved on, but she detailed how stressed out the production made her, “That’s where most of the real pure stress as an artist came from.”

She explained, “People are like, ‘Oh, it’s a Marvel film. Cool, cool, cool,’ but I also have my name on it, so I want to be able to be proud of it too.”

DaCosta would elaborate while recounting advice she received from Black Panther director Ryan Coogler about being herself, “You can’t do anything but be yourself, so bring that to the table.”

“They can choose to take some and leave some, but that’s what your job is,” she added.

She also asserted, “It is a Kevin Feige production, it’s his movie. So I think you live in that reality, but I tried to go in with the knowledge that some of you is going to take a back seat.”

The movie is expected to perform poorly at the box office with the most recent report from World of Reel claiming the film is only expected to have an opening domestic weekend between $45 million and $50 million.

Not only is the film expected to perform poorly at the box office, but it also has an enormous production budget with Caroline Reid at Forbes claiming the production budget is $274 million albeit the production has received a $55 million subsidy from the United Kingdom bringing its net cost down to $219.8 million.

However, those numbers are based on financial reports at the end of September 2022 and do not include post-production work, meaning the budget is likely much higher.

The Marvels arrives in theaters on November 10th. The official description states, “In Marvel Studios’ The Marvels, Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe.”

It concludes, “When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol’s estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau. Together, this unlikely trio must team up and learn to work in concert to save the universe as The Marvels.”