Sometimes things check out. You wouldn’t want the president of Nintendo to not be into video games, and similarly, you wouldn’t want Marvel president Kevin Feige to not be into comic books. Director of The Marvels, Nia DaCosta, revealed that after doing her research, she determined that Feige was indeed the right man for the job.
Harper’s Bazaar recently did a deep dive with DaCosta and talked about her journey from nascent film director of Little Woods to the big show with a genuine tentpole Marvel release.
After directing a remake of Candyman, she really landed on everyone’s radar. However, she still had no idea her third movie would be a Marvel one.
“I always knew I wanted to do genre films. I love horrors and thrillers. But I didn’t think I’d be doing a Marvel movie as my third film. Absolutely not. Still, I’d always wanted to do a Marvel movie because I grew up with Marvel comics. I just wanted it to be a hero that I’m excited about. And I wanted it to be with good people.”
DaCosta said that Ms. Marvel is “one of my favorite characters in the comics. It also features Captain Marvel and Monica Rambeau, who are awesome too.”
That doesn’t mean she just blindly accepted the offer from Marvel.
“I interrogated every one of my friends who were inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and they were all like, ‘[Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige is a really good guy. He’s a big, old nerd.’”
Listen, if you’re going to make a comic book movie, you want your boss to be a nerd. “I was like, ‘Okay. I can step into this.’”
Still, it was intimidating. The whole process of making a film is a difficult one, no matter who you are.
“What I learned from working on that film is that trust, communication, and letting your ego take the back seat are huge parts of the directorial process. So is being honest with what you don’t know.”
Feige seemed to understand this, because DaCosta said that she was encouraged to “call all the other Marvel film directors” and “ask them questions.”
“I got really great guidance. Everyone was so generous.”
The best advice she got, however, didn’t come from super nerd Feige. It came from Black Panther director Ryan Coogler. He told her to “just be herself.” At first, that advice didn’t make sense to her. Then it hit her:
“I was like, ‘Oh, he was saying that there’s no point in trying to play politics or trying to be something you’re not. They chose you because of who you are. Bring that to the table.’”
The Marvels releases on Nov. 10.