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Since its 2023 release The Marvels has gained something of a reputation as a rare misfire by Marvel Studios, and a movie that failed to connect with audiences. Now, director Nia DaCosta has opened up about her experience making the movie, and admitted that the version that reached theaters wasn’t what she had hoped for, either.

Speaking at the Irish screenwriting event Storyhouse, DaCosta told the audience that she had always wanted to make a Marvel movie because she “was a big comic book nerd growing up,” but that she quickly realized that in signing up to make the second Captain Marvel movie, she “stepped into a system.”

“They had a date, and they were prepping certain things, and you just have to lean into the process hardcore,” she explained. “The way they make those films is very different to the way, ideally, I would make a film, so you just have to lean into the process and hope for the best. The best didn’t happen this time but you kind of have to trust in the machine. It was interesting because there was a certain point when I was like, ‘Ok, this isn’t going to be the movie that I pitched or even the first version of the movie that I shot’ so I realized that this is now an experience and it’s learning curve and it really makes you stronger as a filmmaker in terms of your ability to navigate.”

While DaCosta seems to be taking the philosophical approach to what was clearly a negative experience now, she did admit that working on The Marvels influenced what she did next — namely, return to a passion project, adapting Henrik Ibsen’s stage play Hedda Gabler.

“I called my team, and I said that I need to make Hedda,” she explained. “I had written it years ago and I said that I really needed to go back to that because [working with Marvel] isn’t fulfilling in the way I need it to be.”

The Marvels is available to stream on Disney+ now, for anyone who wants to rewatch it knowing how seemingly compromised from its original creative vision it was.

Want more? Make sure you've read our list of all the best Marvel Comics stories of all time, and get ready for all the free Marvel comics coming as part of this year's Free Comic Book Day / Comics Giveaway Day events.