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5 Marvel heroines who deserve their own MCU movie franchise
To quote Nick Fury, we'd give folding money to see these Marvel characters in several movies.
With Women’s History Month upon us, SYFY WIRE got to thinking about the women of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The MCU is full of powerful women (in more ways than one), and while some heroines have gotten the chance to headline films, like Captain Marvel and Black Widow, there are many more who deserve a shot.
14 years into their ongoing storytelling experiment, Marvel Studios has cultivated a deep bench of supporting characters who have resonated with audiences on many levels. Plenty of them, especially the women, could carry their own movies which would only add to the tapestry of the overarching narrative. Here are some of our suggestions:
1. Peggy Carter
A frequent connector character in the first three phases of the MCU, Peggy Carter appeared in several films, had her own One-Shot, and headlined a TV series. Even with all of that narrative time, there’s still plenty of Carter’s life we haven’t seen, including her co-founding of S.H.I.E.L.D. and time running it. Or if you want to really go for broke, Marvel Studios could create standalone adventures featuring her super serum injected Captain Carter persona introduced in What If...? Either live action or a theatrical animated feature would give us more jacked up Peggy and her HydraStomper man, Steve Rogers.
2. Frigga
Frigga, Thor’s mom as played by Rene Russo in the MCU, was always a wise but very cheeky presence in the God of Thunder’s life. While she was sacrificed to the gods of emotional story motivation in Thor: The Dark World, audiences (and Thor) got to meet an alternate-timeline version of her in Avengers: Endgame. We only got snippets of Frigga’s story, which touched on her spell-casting and overall seer abilities. Fleshing out those aspects of her history would make for a fascinating origin story that could show her feisty self in the past as a youth and in her more queenly mode with Russo returning to play her pre-death. Also, in the comics, she’s important because of her communication with the Celestials, who are featured in Eternals, which is another story path to potentially expand upon.
3. Nakia
Black Panther made it clear that Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o), the former Dora Milaje member, has a whole story that exists far beyond her relationship with T’Challa (the late Chadwick Boseman). A warrior, a spy, and a woman of many languages, Nakia might as well be the MCU’s Lady Bond. She certainly has a worthy origin story to tell inside Wakanda and outside.
And in light of the reconfigured storylines for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, in the wake of Boseman’s tragic passing, there’s also plenty of story to tell about where she is now working in Oakland at the Wakandan Outreach Center, or if she’s taken up more official duties again with Wakanda’s new future.
4. Thena
Eternals featured an ensemble of stellar super-humans, but audiences reacted especially well to Angelina Jolie’s warrior Thena. In the comics, she is a go-between for the gods and those on Earth, which is a whole lotta epic storytelling right there. Or, there’s a case to be made that seeing more of the duo of Thena and Gilgamesh (Don Lee) throughout the centuries would make an extremely compelling story that would also provide context for where audiences meet them in Eternals. Really, any excuse to see Jolie showing off her godly gifts of whoop ass is reason enough for more of her character on the big screen.
5. Janet van Dyne
Audiences got to meet the older Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), stuck for decades inside the Quantum Realm until she was able to escape with Hank (Michael Douglas). But what was she doing in that pocket of existence all that time? There’s a whole weirdo world that could be explored in a standalone movie as Janet learns to navigate her bizarro reality and then comes to master it for survival. The comics portray intricate alt worlds in the Quantum Realm and seeing Janet’s adventures there would give us more Pfeiffer to appreciate, but also honor Janet’s place as an original Avenger in the comics.
