DeWanda Wise Addresses Her 'Captain Marvel' Exit

When Marvel was forming its cast for its 2019 movie Captain Marvel, DeWanda Wise (Jurassic Park Dominion) as Maria Rambeau, in an interview with Collider, the star revealed that her departure came down to a scheduling conflict with a project she could not sideline.

“I committed to She’s Gotta Have It,” DeWanda Wise said. “When you commit to something, you commit to it. And it just so happened that when they decided to essentially expand the role in Captain Marvel a little longer, a little larger, it conflicted with a very specific moment that we were shooting in Season 2, a very special episode that we shot that I would not trade for anything in the world when we shot in Puerto Rico.”

When DeWanda Wise decided, Marvel Studios went with Lashana Lynch (No Time to Die) for the Captain Marvel role. She spoke about how painful it was at the time. When it came to her replacement, she had nothing but positive things to say for Lynch.

“That was experientially, spiritually, personally one of the most remarkable and life-changing moments of my life. So it was painful. It was painful to be told no at the time. It wasn’t something that I didn’t have to grieve and process and be like, wow, this was a really big opportunity that felt like, at the time, that it was taken from me, but now of course, when you play it back and you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m playing a pilot. Here’s why. Here’s why. That’s why this didn’t happen, so that I could do this in this way.’ And also not for nothing, Lashana Lynch, y’all! She’s so good! So you’re welcome! You know what I mean?”

Things worked out in the end. For one, Lynch had a role in a Marvel film and followed it up with a Bond film. Wise found her success since then too. Last year she starred with Kevin Heart in the Netflix film Fatherhood. On June 10th, you can catch her in the latest Jurassic World movie, Jurassic World Dominion, with Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. Along with them will be legacy Jurassic Park stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and BD Wong.

Captain Marvel became a huge hit for Marvel. The first woman-led MCU project with Brie Larson grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide. The sequel, The Marvels, will be released on July 28th, 2023.