During May 2018´s screenings of “Avengers Infinity War,” viewers sat on the edges of their seats as they watched Thanos decimate mass amounts of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As the world spirals out of control, the viewers see one symbol cast onto the screen as a glimmer of hope: the crest of Captain Marvel, called by Nick Fury to save the people of Earth.

Many predict that Captain Marvel will be the key to defeat Thanos in the highly anticipated, “Avengers End Game”, which is released in April. But in order to give the character a proper arc and backstory, the creators decided to give Captain Marvel her own solo origin story. The film is projected to make upwards of 100 million dollars on opening weekend, passing all other Marvel projects in opening week sales projections except “Black Panther” and “Avengers Infinity War”. The cast includes Oscar-winner Brie Larson in the titular role, Jude Law as a Kree alien military commander, and Samuel L. Jackson, who reprises his role as a young Nick Fury.

Set in the 1990s, “Captain Marvel” serves as a prequel for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. The plot centers on Carol Danvers, a U.S. Air Force officer who gains superhuman strength and the power of flight after encountering an explosion which fuses her DNA with that of an alien. From there, she becomes a soldier in the Starforce military team of the Kree aliens and returns to her home planet, Earth, with no memories of her past life and finds it enthralled in an alien civil war. In her attempts to regain knowledge from her past life on Earth, she hope to find the key to ending the civil war.

Captain Marvel marks a monumental step in Marvel´s recent efforts to increase diversity in its films. Following the success of “Black Panther”, which grossed 1.23 billion dollars worldwide, “Captain Marvel” is the company’s first female lead superhero solo movie. Captain Marvel´s newfound prominence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe gives young girls the opportunity to see themselves represented in their favorite movies as the star and the hero, which has not been seen in modern films since the release of DC’s “Wonder Woman”. Anna Boden and Pinar Toprak also break tradition and are the first female director and composer of a Marvel film, respectively. The pre-release success of the film shows how important representation is in mainstream media.

¨Female superheroes should be a consistent presence going forward. As the stunning success of ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ has taught us, representation matters,” says Karie Bible, a box office analyst. In the past, female-centered superhero movies have been ignored by major studios out of fear that they would flop at the box office, similarly to DC’s films “Elektra” and “Catwoman,” which did not hold their own and perform financially. But, as the new wave of representation of people who have been ignored by mainstream film and television in the past strikes Hollywood, we can expect more stories like Captain Marvel that give everyone a chance to see themselves represented as their favorite characters on screen.