The Marvels Director Reveals How She Referenced Two Iconic Final Fantasy Scenes In MCU Pitch

As she makes her big-budget debut with the Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel, The Marvels director Nia DaCosta reveals the various references she used in her pitch to the studio. Having made her directorial debut with the acclaimed indie crime drama Little Woods, DaCosta made her first big step towards mainstream recognition as she co-wrote and directed 2021’s Candyman legacy sequel. In addition to garnering rave reviews for her direction and socially incisive script, DaCosta became the first Black female director to see their movie open to No. 1 at the box office, with its ultimate haul being a solid $77.4 million against its $25 million production budget.

In honor of The Marvels‘ release, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with DaCosta to discuss the MCU sequel and making the jump from smaller scale productions to blockbuster shooting. While reflecting on pitching herself to Marvel, the co-writer/director revealed the various references she turned to in order to sell her vision to the studio, ranging from James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies to two of the most iconic Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children scenes. See what DaCosta explained below:

It’s so interesting because it’s so specific to Marvel, and also it has so many specific things happening, and we have these characters coming together. It has a really unique tone, I think. But there are films that I really love that I thought about when thinking about this film.Inside the MCU, Guardians, as a film that brings these disparate characters together, I really love. I love how funny it is and how heartfelt it is. And I’m a big fan of James’s work, anyway, inside and outside the MCU, so that was inspiring to me.And then films like Interstellar, where I love space and I love seeing space on film, and I thought what Nolan did with that, it was just beautiful. Advent Children, the Final Fantasy film. It’s so good; the fight in the church and also that ending scene where they’re throwing Cloud up into the sky, all the characters, so we can fight the big bad. Those were two scenes that I referenced in my pitch, actually.

Why DaCosta’s Marvels Pitch References Are A Big Boost Of Confidence

With a variety of different team-up movies within the franchise to pull from, DaCosta’s desire to look towards the Guardians of the Galaxy movies for reference in her The Marvels pitch is sure to instill confidence in longtime MCU fans. Similarly coming from a background of largely independent productions, Gunn continually showed across his trilogy that he was just as focused on offering meaningful character development and humor as the high-stakes action and visual spectacles expected from an MCU movie. Considering the very different personalities across Brie Larson’s Carol, Teyonah Parris’ Monica and Iman Vellani’s Kamala, this balance of humor and character growth is key to making the story work.

While turning to Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar is generally understandable simply from a visual point of view, as the MCU sequel deals with cosmic anomalies like black holes and alternate dimensions, DaCosta looking towards the Final Fantasy franchise, in particular Advent Children, that proves very intriguing. The two scenes in particular, in which the villainous Loz squares off against Tifa and when Cloud’s companions help propel him through the air to take down Bahamut SIN, can even be somewhat seen in the marketing for her movie in a fight between Jawe Ashton’s Dar-Benn and Carol, as well as the titular trio fighting the main antagonist.

The latter scene in particular marks a promising point of reference for DaCosta in The Marvels, as the sequence, which seems poised to be a climactic showdown, properly spotlights Carol, Monica and Kamala coming together as a team to take Dar-Benn down. With the former two already on rocky territory for Carol’s absence around the time of her mother’s death, and Kamala largely out of her element, it would be interesting to see if the sequence is them finally on good terms with one another, or if they are overlooking their internal conflicts for the betterment of the galaxy.