Nia DaCosta Looks at The Marvels as a Learning Experience

Looking back at The Marvels, very few things went right. Production was difficult, the movie was a financial disappointment, and many fans found the story lacking, too. It was a bummer considering what was being attempted: a sequel to one of Marvel’s biggest surprise hits, Captain Marvel, as well as its most ambitious attempt to date of tying the Disney+ streaming shows into the Cinematic Universe, by weaving in Ms. Marvel and Monica Rambeau.

And, in the end, lots of people laid the blame on director Nia DaCosta. She was an easy target. A young, Black, female filmmaker given the reins to such big, complicated project. Of course, this was all largely unwarranted and borderline offensive because DaCosta was only a small part of a big, corporate machine she had little control over. Looking back on the experience, though, she now has a very healthy point of view on it.

Speaking at the Storyhouse screenwriting festival in Dublin, reported on by Deadline, DaCosta explained that the Marvel way of making movies was just a lot. “They had a date, and they were prepping certain things, and you just have to lean into the process hardcore,” she said at the event. “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.”

DaCosta even admits that, at a certain point, she was well aware of what was coming and just had to embrace it. “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,” she said.

We get the sense that, if you were one of DaCosta’s good friends and spoke with her in private, her feelings on the situation would probably be much less diplomatic. And rightfully so. She got thrown under the bus big time. But we love how she has seemingly risen above it, put it behind her, and now considers it a valuable learning experience on her Hollywood journey. One that will next take her to the zombie-infested coasts of the United Kingdom as she helms 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, out in January 2026.

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