Air Force pilot-turned-Avenger “Captain Marvel” will hit the big screen in two months, and the first footage of the film’s star, Brie Larson, flying with actual Air Force pilots, has just been released.
A short behind-the-scenes featurette — which first aired during the college football championship game Monday night — shows the flight-suited Larson during her January 2018 visit to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Larson is shown hanging out with Thunderbirds pilots and in her F-16 sortie, during which she got up to 6.5 Gs and took part in a simulated dogfight.
The time visiting with Air Force pilots also apparently helped Larson understand where her superhero character — whose real name is Carol Danvers — is coming from.
“The thing that I found so unique about this character was that sense of humor, mixed with total capability in whatever challenge comes her way,” Larson said. “Which, I realized after going to the Air Force base, is really what Air Force pilots are like.”
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Larson also met with Brig. Gen. Jeannie Leavitt, the Air Force’s first female fighter pilot, while she was at Nellis, but the former 57th Wing commander is not shown in the clips.
This will be the first film appearance of Captain Marvel, although a post-credits sequence in last year’s “Avengers: Infinity War” all but announced she will also play a part in the fourth Avengers film. After Thanos' infamous snap in “Infinity War,” Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury grabs a beeper and manages to send out a distress call (which looks like Captain Marvel’s star-shaped icon) before he too dissolves into ash.
Watch the footage below and sound off in our comments section. Are you planning to see this movie?
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
