The Marvels (2023) is a superhero film adapted from Marvel Comics, directed by Nia DaCosta and starring Brie Larson and Teyonah Parris. The film is part of the MCU and was released by Marvel Studios. Runtime: 1h 45m. Rated PG-13. Audience rating: 5.7/10.
What is The Marvels (2023) about?
Carol Danvers, Monica Rambeau, and Kamala Khan find their powers entangled, forcing them to work together whenever one of them uses their abilities — while battling a powerful Kree villain.
Released in 2023, The Marvels was directed by Nia DaCosta and produced under the Marvel Studios banner. The film occupies a significant place within the MCU — contributing to the ongoing narrative and mythology of that cinematic universe.
The film features lead performances from Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani, among others, anchoring a story that adapts characters first brought to life in Marvel Comics. Its source material gives the film a foundation rooted in decades of published storytelling, which DaCosta and the creative team interpret through a cinematic lens.
The film's 5.7 audience rating indicates a mixed response. Even so, it holds interest as part of the broader MCU catalogue and for how it fits into the lineage of Marvel Comics-based cinema.
What happens in The Marvels (2023)? — Full Plot
We open with Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) on a remote starship investigating a Kree military base. The Kree civil war — fallout from her solo film's events — has been ongoing for two years. Carol intercepts a signal from a derelict ship containing an artifact called the Quantum Band — an ancient Kree relic that links to a parallel-quantum dimension.
Simultaneously, on Earth, Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) — a teenage Jersey City Pakistani-American mutant with Ms. Marvel powers, established in her Ms. Marvel Disney+ series — has been navigating high school while also being a low-key Avengers fangirl. She has the second of the matched Quantum Bands inherited from her grandmother. Kamala doesn't know about the cosmic significance of the bracelets.
Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) — Maria Rambeau's daughter, gifted with electromagnetic-energy powers from the Westview hex in WandaVision (2021) — has been working as a SHIELD-adjacent astronaut. She is currently aboard a space station investigating a jumpy spatial anomaly.
The Quantum Band activation triggers a quantum-entanglement phenomenon: whenever any one of the three superpowered women uses her cosmic powers simultaneously with another, the three of them physically switch places. The 'switch' mechanic is the film's defining gag. Carol, Kamala, and Monica spend much of the second act involuntarily teleporting into each other's situations — Kamala into a Kree battle, Carol into Jersey City, Monica into a Khan family Sunday dinner.
The villain is Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton) — a militant Kree warlord who has been using the other Quantum Band to extract energy from various planets, intending to restore the Kree homeworld of Hala (devastated by Carol's earlier intervention). Dar-Benn's planet-draining campaign threatens to destabilize multiple star systems.
The climax involves the three superheroes coordinating their powers via the quantum-band switch mechanic — which they have finally mastered as cooperative teamwork. They defeat Dar-Benn. The Quantum Bands are severed from their cosmic source. Carol, Kamala, and Monica are separated permanently.
The film closes with Monica trapped in an alternate universe (setting up future Maria Rambeau Captain Marvel possibilities). Kamala returns to Jersey City. Carol returns to her Avengers work. Kamala recruits another teenager named Kate Bishop / Hawkeye (Hailee Steinfeld) into a 'Young Avengers' team — the film's mid-credits scene serves as the franchise's first formal Young Avengers recruitment.
The Marvels grossed $206 million globally on a $274 million budget — the MCU's most-significant commercial failure. Critics responded warmly to the film's compact 105-minute runtime and the three-way buddy dynamic. The commercial failure was attributed to MCU fatigue, the Captain Marvel-specific online backlash, and the rapidly-shrinking-MCU 2023 release schedule. Brie Larson's future MCU appearances are uncertain.
Who stars in The Marvels (2023)?
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What are some facts about The Marvels (2023)?
The Marvels released in 2023, placing it within the 2020s era of comic book cinema — a decade that saw superhero films become the dominant force at the global box office.
Directed by Nia DaCosta, the film was produced by Marvel Studios and adapts source material from Marvel Comics.
The principal cast features Brie Larson and Teyonah Parris, with key supporting roles played by Iman Vellani, Samuel L. Jackson.
The film belongs to MCU — the Marvel Cinematic Universe — the highest-grossing film franchise of all time.
The Marvels carries an audience rating of 5.7 — a mixed reception that highlights the divisive nature of superhero film adaptations.
The Marvel Comics source material for The Marvels has been in continuous publication for decades, giving filmmakers a rich well of storylines, character arcs, and iconography to draw upon.
Modern superhero films like this one use a mix of practical effects and digital VFX, with entire sequences often shot against volume walls or LED stages pioneered by shows like The Mandalorian.
The Marvels is catalogued on Movies on Comics among our collection of 162 comic book films spanning 48 years of cinema — from Richard Donner's 1978 Superman to the present day.
