Although the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a cohesive entity, with films sharing continuity, characters and a successful formula, there are key variations in tone. For example, Guardians of the Galaxy is different from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which is different from Ant-Man and The Wasp. For the upcoming Captain Marvel, co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck sought another tonal shift, with an approach that draws upon classic buddy-cop movies.

“We approached this movie as being at the heart of it, this mystery of self-identity for Captain Marvel," Boden told Fandango. “It has a lot of playfulness in it, and that kind of buddy cop vibe that Captain Marvel has with the Nick Fury character was really important touchstone for us.”

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"Yeah," Fleck added, "like the ‘80s and ‘90s buddy-cop movies, like 48 Hrs. or Lethal Weapon. We have some of that. Those movies, even the serious ones, they have a great sense of humor, and we wanted to maintain that as well.”

In both Lethal Weapon and 48 Hrs, the protagonists are mismatched characters who must put aside their differences in order to complete their goals. In Captain Marvel, Brie Larson's Carol Danvers attempts to uncover the mystery of her background while helping Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury prevent the war between the alien Kree and the shape-shifting Skrulls from overtaking the Earth.

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Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck from a script they wrote with Liz Flahive, Carly Mensch, Meg LeFauve, Nicole Perlman and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Captain Marvel stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Jude Law as the commander of Starforce, Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser, Djimon Hounsou as Korath the Pursuer, Gemma Chan as Minn-Erva, Ben Mendelsohn as Talos, Lashana Lynch as Maria Rambeau, Algenis Perez Soto, McKenna Grace as young Carol, and Annette Bening in an undisclosed role. The film arrives March 8, 2019.