Brie Larson And Tessa Thompson Say Marvel Sets Aren’t Inclusive Enough

Captain Marvel and Valkyrie save the world on the big screen, and now they’re trying to help make the real world be a better place too. While speaking about the Time’s Up movement, actresses Brie Larson and Tessa Thompson criticized the lack of diversity on Marvel Studios’ crews.

“Inclusion doesn’t happen by mistake,” Thompson told the Hollywood Reporter. “It’s also about creating pipelines where they don’t exist. Brie and I both work on Marvel films, and those are shot in Atlanta…”

“There are not a ton of people of color on some of them, given how many people of color there are in Atlanta,” Larson added. “In certain departments that might be understandable, but when you look at PAs, that doesn’t make any sense.”

Thompson, who joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2017’s “Thor: Ragnarok,” explained that production assistants are a lower-level position where studios usually hire local workers. More than half of Atlanta residents are people of color according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Marvel Studios has been slow to be more inclusive onscreen as well. While there have been a few supporting characters of color, “Black Panther” was the first time a black character was a lead. It was the 18th film from Marvel Studios. Larson’s “Captain Marvel,” the 21st movie from Marvel Studios, will be the first MCU film to feature a female character as a solo headliner.

Larson will soon be promoting the movie, which is due out March 8. She said that she’ll use the promotional tour as an opportunity.

“On the ‘Captain Marvel’ press tour, I’ll be pushing for representation across the board: my interviews, magazine covers, the clothes that I’m wearing. It means spending more time thinking about things than you sometimes want to, but it’s worth it,” she added.

Both Larson and Thompson are widely rumored to be in the cast of “Avengers 4,” which will hit theaters May 3.