Why The Marvels has the MCU's shortest EVER runtime

Martin Macdonald - 7 November 2023, 13:31 Share

The Marvels director Nia DaCosta has explained why her movie has the shortest runtime of any movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The official premise for The Marvels reads:

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'While investigating a wormhole linked to the Kree, Monica Rambeau's powers become entangled with those of Kamala Khan and Carol Danvers. The trio team up to determine why they are swapping places with each other every time they use their powers.'

Brie Larson reprises her role as Captain Marvel, with Teyonah Parris and Iman Vellani featuring after appearances in WandaVision and Ms. Marvel respectively.

It clocks in at 105 minutes, and DaCosta believes it wasn't necessary to needlessly bulk up the script to make it longer.

"I really wanted it to be under two hours," she told Digital Spy.

"I always think about the runtime actually, when I go into a film. I just feel like there's no need to have it long if you don't need to, because 1 hour 45 minutes is pretty average for a movie, so we were all really excited.

"I just think you do what's right for the movie. I didn't even know about this runtime thing until I think it was reported on. You have to do what's right for the movie."

Da Costa is particularly proud of the fight scenes in the Captain Marvel sequel, which she says are nothing like anything we have seen in the MCU previously.

"We get to add to that history, that starting to really dig into now, like women beating the s*** out of each other," the director continued.

"We do a lot in this film, which is really exciting for me, because I love fight scenes. I was very excited to do it. I think the main fight scene, I'm really proud of. It's something you haven't seen before in the MCU, because of the nature of it, the switching."

The Marvels will be released worldwide this Friday.