Credit: Marvel StudiosThe Marvel Cinematic Universe has changed forever. The end of The Marvels (2023) saw new entities arrive in Kevin Feige’s franchise, and with them came the evidence that anyone can be anyone in this new age of the MCU.
Last November, Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels made a quiet entrance onto the big screen. The sequel to the billion-dollar smash Captain Marvel (2019), this recent entry into Phase Five had the worst box office performance in franchise history. Hindered by the superhero fatigue Marvel Studios itself helped create, the team-up of Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan, and Teyonah Parris’ Monica Rambeau did not draw in audiences.
The end, however, may prove to be more vital to any recent MCU offering. Sure, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) introduced the Council of the Kangs, but who knows what is happening with Kang following the ousting of Jonathan Majors? The Marvels, though, revealed the first X-Men character to enter the MCU–Kelsey Grammer’s Dr. Hank McCoy, AKA Beast, plus Binary–a new Variant of Captain Marvel, played by none other than Lashana Lynch.
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In the Marvel Universe, Binary is part of the Captain Marvel mythos, with Carol Danvers herself going by this name at points in her comic book journey. Therefore, Lynch’s Binary character in the MCU looks set to be this universe’s version of Captain Marvel. It is unlikely that Lynch will return to play the Maria Rambeau audiences know, judging by how much emphasis The Marvels placed on Monica’s (Parris) grief affecting the fraught relationship between her and Carol (Larson). Thus, Lynch has been recast in this exciting new X-Men adjacent role.
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Lynch recently spoke to ScreenRant while promoting her new movie, Bob Marley: One Love (2024), and discussed what she knows about her future with the behemoth franchise:
“…I didn’t know what would happen next. I don’t know anything, literally. Every single increment of the character has been play-by-play, so I knew about Captain Marvel, then I knew about Doctor Strange, and then I knew about The Marvels. I didn’t even get the script for that, I just had those moments. I know what you know, and that’s it.”
It would seem, too, that Marvel Studios themselves don’t fully know what trajectory the MCU is on. What was once such a stable part of the Hollywood landscape has been damaged by oversaturation and an apparent lack of new characters–at least according to Disney CEO Bob Iger.
That said, the MCU will be back this year with July’s Deadpool 3 (2024). The Ryan Reynolds-led movie will likely be a summer hit thanks to the pairing of Reynolds with long-standing Wolverine actor and real-life friend Hugh Jackman. The R-rated action movie is perhaps what Feige needs to restart the heartbeat of the franchise as the studio heads into the territory of the Thunderbolts and the Avengers in the coming years.
Lashana Lynch’s Captain Marvel franchise roles in the MCU
Lynch first appeared in the MCU in Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Captain Marvel in Phase Three. Here, the actress played Carol Danvers’ best friend and fellow pilot, Maria Rambeau. After the pair reconnect and Carol is introduced to her daughter Monica, the pair join forces with Samuel L. Jackson’s young Agent Nick Fury, and Skrull Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) to take on the Kree threat.
After it was revealed that Maria had died during the Blip in WandaVision, which also introduced Parris’ older Monica Rambeau, Lynch returned in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, playing Maria Rambeau from a different universe, and also a Variant of Captain Marvel. Her time didn’t last long, though, as the Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) killed her and her Illuminati peers. But her appearance as Binary in The Marvels came as a surprise to many.
Where do you want to see Lashana Lynch’s Binary next? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!