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No one puts the "Marvel" in Marvel Studios quite like Captain Marvel. After Carol Danvers blasted onto screens in 2017 – in her box office-busting, solo introduction – the Infinity Stone-powered superhero has consistently proved she is a witty weapon of mass destruction not to be trifled with.

Following some small but significant sojourns in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – namely, putting the fear of women in Thanos in Avengers: Endgame – Brie Larson is back in action in The Marvels.

The MCU's 33rd big screen instalment is directed and co-written by Candyman's Nia DaCosta and it promises three times the marvellous power with Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) and WandaVision's Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) forced into a team-up with Carol to face off a new intergalactic threat.

Set around 30 years after the events of Captain Marvel, where the eponymous hero broke free from the Kree Empire's brainwashing and destroyed its Supreme Intelligence leader, Carol has discovered who she is again. She's also been busy on a clean-up mission.

"The Blip" destabilised many worlds, planets and civilisations around the universe but after a visit to a freak wormhole connected to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become twisted up with that of her biggest fan, Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel, as well as her estranged "niece", now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Rambeau.

Monica and Kamala are still getting used to their newly acquired superhuman abilities. Kamala in particular will be thrown in the deep end as she faces a far greater menace than any she faced in her Disney Plus series. They are also trying to figure out a dynamic with a woman they have both hero-worshipped.

"We leave WandaVision and see there may be some tension between Carol and Monica," Parris told Entertainment Weekly, whose character's mother, Maria Rambeau, was Carol's best friend and died of cancer while Monica was blipped. "You see these two come together finally and deal with things like that."

"Carol and Monica are having to find the relationship again after all this time apart," added DaCosta. "You have these two adults having to reconcile their relationship – while this younger person is also having a relationship that mirrors the way Monica and Carol used to be together – so I find it really interesting with them altogether. They become a little bit of a sisterhood with their own different points of view."

With the weight of the universe on her shoulders, Carol will face an emotional journey in The Marvels to recognise that she can share the burden. "To change the world can never just be on one person," Larson says. "This concept that she's holding this mantle that she is 'the mighty Captain Marvel' is too much to carry; you need a lot of different people with special skill sets to come in and help get the job done."

Zawe Ashton won't be making things too easy for this sisterhood as Dar-Benn, a formidable Kree warrior and Accuser who has a giant axe to grind. "Captain Marvel, the Annihilator," Dar-Benn says in the trailer. "You took everything from me and now I'm returning the favour."

With Carol, Kamala and Monica taking charge, as well as Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) on back-up, The Marvels promises to kick some Kree ass, and remind the world why Carol is not just Earth's Mightiest Hero – but the universe's too.  Hanna Flint

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