Nia DaCosta Says Her ‘Marvels’ Departure Was Not “Dramatic”

Nia DaCosta is setting the record straight. The buzzy director who became Marvel’s youngest director and first-ever Black female director with The Marvels has addressed a recent Variety report that she ruffled feathers in the MCU when she left postproduction early on The Marvels to work on another project. 

DaCosta’s The Marvels serves as a direct sequel to Captain Marvel starring Brie Larson, and sees Larson’s Captain Marvel join forces with Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau, introduced in the 2021 Disney+ series WandaVision, and Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan, introduced in the 2022 series Ms. Marvel. Per the Variety story “Crisis at Marvel,” The Marvels cost approximately $250 million to make and is only tracking to open with $75–$80 million when it hits theaters on November 10. They also reported that the film needed “four weeks of reshoots” to make the three narratives cohesive. On top of the weak projections and reshoots, Variety reports that MCU execs’ “eyebrows were raised again” when DaCosta started working on another film while The Marvels was still in postproduction, claiming that the auteur moved to London earlier this year to begin work on the drama Hedda starring Tessa Thompson. 

“If you’re directing a $250 million movie, it’s kind of weird for the director to leave with a few months to go,” a source familiar with the production told Variety. 

But, according to DaCosta, that’s not entirely true. In an interview for the YouTube channel Jake’s Takes, DaCosta said that The Marvels went from a “two-year” process to which she was “deeply committed” to “a three-and-a-half year process” due to studio delays. “For me personally, it was that they moved the date of the film four different times,” said DaCosta regarding her early departure. “They knew the entire time that I had an obligation—a green-lit movie with people who were waiting for me. And I pushed that and then I pushed it again and then I pushed it again. Eventually, we all knew that if [The Marvels] pushes again, I’m not going to be in LA to do the rest of this in person.”

DaCosta went on to say that her departure from The Marvels wasn’t “dramatic” despite reports’ claims to the contrary. “By the time I left to start prep on my next film, everyone was so clear about what the film was, what we wanted,” she said. “It really wasn’t this dramatic sort of thing people are thinking it is.” 

While The Marvels’ run time, which at 1 hour and 45 minutes, makes it the shortest Marvel movie, DaCosta says she always intended for the film to be under two hours.  “I always think about the runtime actually, when I go into a film,” she said in an interview with Digital Spy. “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,” she continued. “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.”

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