Since long before the first official Captain Marvel photos and trailer debuted in September, everyone assumed that Jude Law was playing Mar-Vell, the Kree alien in the comics who serves as a mentor to Carol Danvers after his DNA fuses with hers to give her awesome powers. But now, via leaked images of Captain Marvel toys, it looks like Law might be playing another Kree, Yon-Rogg, one of Captain Marvel’s greatest enemies.
Late Thursday night, redditor u/PhoOhThree posted an alleged leaked image of the upcoming Captain Marvel Funko Pops to r/marvelstudios subdreddit. There are a staggering nine different versions of Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, and two for her cat (who’s named Goose and not Chewie, by the way). Tucked among a few key side characters is one surprise: a male figure in Starforce armor named “Yon-Rogg.”
This is the first inkling we’ve gotten that Yon-Rogg is even in the movie, and it would actually make a lot of sense for that to be the character’s secret identity.
We can’t really know for sure if this is Jude Law, but so far he’s the only white-skinned character we’ve seen wearing that specific armor. At least in Marvel Comics, the blue-skinned Kree are considered a “pure bred” minority, and the bulk of the Kree military empire is made of up interbred non-blue warriors that look similar to humans.
That being said, Yon-Rogg could conceivably be just another white-skinned male we haven’t seen yet in any promotional materials. But it makes sense that this would be Jude Law’s character. He’s billed as the male lead of the movie so it only makes sense that he’d get his own Funko Pop, right?
When Variety reported in November 2017 that Jude Law was in negotiations to join Captain Marvel, it was simply as the “male lead” of the movie.
With most versions of Captain Marvel, an accident fuses the Kree warrior Mar-Vell’s DNA with hers, transforming Carol Danvers into a Kree-human hybrid with incredible powers. Mar-Vell goes on to mentor Danvers as she grows into her role as the hero Captain Marvel, so the dynamic makes sense.
Pretty much everyone assumed that Law was playing Mar-Vell, so plenty of news outlets propagated this assumption, so much so that even IMDb perhaps incorrectly credits Law as “Walter Lawson / Mar-Vell.”
Jude Law's character serves as a mentor to Carol Danvers, but that doesn't mean he's Mar-Vell
But even when Entertainment Weekly revealed the first photos of Law’s character, he’s just called “the commander of Starforce.” Marvel Studios has been cagey for months about the character’s true identity, labeling him more as some kind of militaristic zealot rather than Carol’s wholesome, noble leader.
“He is driven by a belief in the divine leadership of the Kree people,” Law told EW in a separate interview. “So he’s almost a devout warrior — unquestioning, conservative, but inspirational.”
In that same article, Captain Marvel’s star Brie Larson teased some tension between Carol Danvers and Law’s character, saying, “There’s a lot and back and forth that comes with the two of them, which kind of creates a little bit of tension with the rest of Starforce. Like, ‘Why do they have a special relationship, and why isn’t it me?’” So their dynamic seems more antagonistic than one might assume.
Law's character alongside Ronan the Accuser with 'Captain Marvel' co-director Anna Boden.
Yon-Rogg has a close working relationship with Ronan the Accuser in Marvel Comics, and Law’s character seems allied with Ronan in some of the images we’ve seen so far. Yon-Rogg also leads an expedition to Earth with a ship called the Helion, on orders from the Supreme Intelligence. He’s the person who detonates a device called the Psyche-Magnetron in an attempt to kill Mar-Vell, and the ensuing explosion is what splices Mar-Vell’s DNA with Carol Danvers’.
Maybe the film could follow the comics far more closely than we previously thought?
This is pure speculation here, but perhaps Law is Yon-Rogg and after killing Mar-Vell and giving Danvers her powers, he erases her memory so he can use her as a weapon for his own ends? The Captain Marvel trailer makes it seems like Carol suffers some severe memory loss, and her crash-landing through Blockbuster Video could happen after she learns the truth and gets in some kind of fight with Yon-Rogg. This theory would sync up with the whole “renegade soldier” vibe Carol’s got going on.
All of this sounds like a plausible explanation that could explain why Danvers is with Starforce at the start of the movie and how she might wind up back on Earth.
Captain Marvel lands in theaters on March 8, 2019.
Check out that trailer again with this theory in mind.
