Part of The Avengers featuring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, and Mark Ruffalo.
Rise to Fame
She had been trying to make it work since she was a kid. American Conservatory Theater at six, sitcom roles, a music career that didn't land (Finally Out of P.E., 2005), supporting roles in 21 Jump Street and Trainwreck. Short Term 12 (2013) was the first time anyone outside the indie circuit paid real attention. Playing a group home supervisor, she held the screen with so little effort that SXSW crowned her the festival's 'It' girl. Room followed in 2015. Locked in a single room for much of the film, she won the Oscar, the Golden Globe, the SAG Award, and the BAFTA in one sweep. Marvel noticed.
In the Spotlight
Captain Marvel (2019) opened to $455 million globally, a record for a female-fronted superhero film. The Marvels (2023) opened to $47 million, the worst debut in MCU history, and reportedly cost Disney a $237 million net loss. The internet had been building a backlash against her for years before the sequel arrived. She's responded by going elsewhere: FX's Cry Wolf with Olivia Colman, a J.J. Abrams horror project, a West End debut in Elektra in 2025. That's either a deliberate reset or proof she was never just a superhero actress.
Side Notes
The pop album (Finally Out of P.E., 2005) and early TV work (Raising Dad, United States of Tara) look, in retrospect, like someone methodically exhausting every option before finding the one that fit. The backlash she faced for her Captain Marvel press tour was genuinely disproportionate. She said she didn't need a 40-year-old white man telling her what didn't work about A Wrinkle in Time. The internet treated that as a capital offense.