A Captain Marvel toy leak of over 15 Funko Pops! hints that Jude Law will not be playing Kree hero Mar-Vell as many originally speculated.
The toy leak which appeared on the Marvel Studios subreddit shows off an iconic Captain Marvel character in Yon-Rogg.
If you are unfamiliar with Yon-Rogg, he is a Colonel in the Imperial Kree Army and served as an antagonist to the original Captain Marvel, Mar-Vell. In fact, Yon-Rogg attempts to kill Captain Marvel on numerous occasions. Their initial antagonism began when Yon-Rogg became jealous of Medic Una’s affection for Captain Mar-Vell. In order to separate the two, he would send Mar-Vell down to Earth by himself in what looked to be an apparent suicide mission.
In another instance Yon-Rogg would sit idly by while the Super Skrull and Mar-Vell duked it out. He hoped that the Super Skrull would eventually kill Mar-Vell and allow him to claim the affections of Una.
Yon Rogg has had his own run-ins with Carol Danvers, the current Captain Marvel as well. In Kelly Sue DeConnick’s run in 2013, Yon-Rogg took the name of Magnitron and used a fake Deathbird to haunt Captain Marvel. He would then activate Kree sentries that had lain dormant on Earth to wreak havoc across the planet. However, that wouldn’t be the finality of his plan. He would actually attempt to drop a replica of the Kree city, Kree-Lar onto New York City. What makes this story even more interesting is that Yon-Rogg and Carol Danvers are psychically connected. Yon-Rogg makes the claim that a piece of Carol Dnnvers is actually inside his own brain and as Carol gets stronger so does he.
In order to stop Yon-Rogg she flies into space and appears to send herself into a coma severing her connection to Yon-Rogg. When she awakes she has lost all of her memories.
Captain Marvel Movie
How does this tie-in to the upcoming Captain Marvel movie? It’s highly likely that Jude Law will be playing Yon-Rogg and be the primary villain in the film rather than the Skrulls as we’ve been lead to believe by Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige. With Yon-Rogg as the villain, it makes much more sense about why Captain Marvel doesn’t remember Earth at all as seen in the trailer. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that they might use the old Yon-Rogg stories and weave them together with DeConnick’s story to create a brand new Captain Marvel story that will have plenty of Easter Eggs for Marvel Comics fans.
If Jude Law is playing Yon-Rogg it also provides a much different context to his comments about his character. Law spoke to Entertainment Weekly about his character:
“He is driven by a belief in the divine leadership of the Kree people. So he’s almost a devout warrior — unquestioning, conservative, but inspirational.”
Law would also go into detail about his character’s relationship with Captain Marvel:
“These extraordinary powers she has, he sees them as something of a blessing and something that she has to learn how to control. That’s a motif throughout the piece, the element of learning to control one’s emotions and to use your powers wisely.”
He added:
“There’s a lot and back and forth that comes with the two of them, which kind of creates a little bit of tension with the rest of Starforce. Like, ‘Why do they have a special relationship, and why isn’t it me?”
What do you think? Do you think Jude Law might actually be playing Yon-Rogg instead of Mar-Vell?
Captain Marvel hits theaters on March 8, 2019.