6 Things the Marvels Movie Trailer Music Reveals You Should Know

Brie Larson returns to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in The Marvels, the sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel. Marvel dropped the trailer today during “Good Morning America”.

Watch it below.

Check out the first poster

The long-awaited sequel to Carol Danvers’s origin story is set after the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, in which Iman Vellani plays Kamala Khan. She’s a young superhero from New Jersey named Ms. Marvel.

Before the release of the first “The Marvels” trailer, the first look at the video was shown to attendees of Expo 2022’s D23 panel.

The opening sequence provides a glimpse into the aftermath of the Ms. Marvel post-credits scene. Kamala appears to switch places with Danvers. The trailer for The Marvels starts with Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) working as an astronaut on the SABER space station alongside Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). When Monica reaches a jump point in the space continuum, she transforms into Ms. Marvel. This confirms that she, Carol, and Kamala share unique powers of transformation.

The official “The Marvels” synopsis from Marvel Studios reads:

“Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel has reclaimed her identity from the tyrannical Kree and taken revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But unintended consequences see Carol shouldering the burden of a destabilized universe. When her duties send her to an anomalous wormhole linked to a Kree revolutionary, her powers become entangled with that of Jersey City super-fan Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, and Carol’s estranged niece, now S.A.B.E.R. astronaut Captain Monica Rambeau. Together, this unlikely trio must team up and learn to work in concert to save the universe.”

Why does The Marvel’s trailer use The Beastie Boys’ song “Intergalactic”? The studio hasn’t given a reason but we have a few guesses.

Watch the classic trailer

1. Trio

This is one of the few team-up movies that isn’t about the Avengers. This all-female trio of superheroes is historic in many ways. The song helps drive that home.

The band Beatie Boys has three members.  Michael “Mike D” Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam “MCA” Yauch (vocals, bass), and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz (vocals, guitar, programming). Like the band, the three members are treated as equals.

Adam “MCA” Yauch is the oldest member of the Beastie Boys. Many consider him both the creative and spiritual center of the group. But all the team members take center stage.

The song Intergalactic is a perfect showcase for this. It was the first time they’d rhymed together since “Paul’s Boutique”, and the lyrics took on a more upbeat tone reminiscent of “Licensed to Ill ” but without the more controversial humor.

Each rapper gets their own section where they each rhyme to the same word. For example, Ad-Rock raps “When it comes to beats, well, I’m a fiend / I like my sugar with coffee and cream”. MCA follows with “Well, I gotta keep it going, keep it going full steam / Too sweet to be sour; too nice to be mean”. Meanwhile, Mike D drops “Mario C likes to keep it clean (Clean) / Goin’ to shine like a sunbeam”.

The lyrics flow perfectly together and feel organic. The Marvels trailer is pushing that these three heroes are connected and working together. Although they’re “not a team” according to Rambeau and Danvers.

2. Marvel Studios Loves Hip-Hop

The MCU has a long history of referencing or featuring rap songs.

Iron Man (2008) has a scene where Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) tries to get his buddy James Rhodey (Terrence Howard) to loosen up. Stark plays Ghostface Killah’s song is playing in the background In Shang-Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings Shang and his sinter sing Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road”. In the She-Hulk: Attorney at Law series Jennifer Walter (Tatiana Maslany) twerks with Megan Thee Stallion to her song “Body”.

The best example of Marvel’s love of hip-hop is the Black Panther trailer which uses the Run the Jewels song “Legend Has It” as its backing track.

Marvel wants everyone to know this movie will be a fun trip.

3. Marvel Studios Loves The Beastie Boys

The band The Beastie Boys alone has been featured three times in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The song “Groove Holmes” is featured in Iron Man 2 and the What If…? episode “What If… The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?”. “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” is featured in both Spider-Man: No Way Home and the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

4. The Song Intergalactic is a Classic Throwback

Captain Marvel was set in the 1990s. This movie is set in the present day. But the song helps remind viewers of the throwback nature of the character.

One of the most popular songs of the 1990s is “Intergalactic”. It was released as the first single from their fifth studio album, “Hello Nasty”, on June 2, 1998. 

The single peaked at number 28 on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it the band’s third Top 40 single and peaking at number five on the UK Singles Chart, where it remains the band’s biggest hit. In 1999 they received a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group.

This movie is going to capture the throwback feel of the original.

5. The Movie is Intergalactic

Most of the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are based on Earth. Like the first Captain Marvel movie this one takes the hero back into space.

The song is not specifically about space but the hook (“Intergalactic. Planetary. Planetary Intergalactic”) drives home that this film will feature high-flying adventures in space.

6. The Song is a Nod to Black History

Black Panther broke new ground for black filmmakers. But this movie is ground-breaking as well. The movie stars one of the few black superheroes in the MCU. Plus, the movie is directed by Nia DaCosta.

After filming the Candyman reboot in 2021, director Nia DaCosta will make her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut with The Marvels, becoming the first black woman and fourth woman to direct a film in the MCU. DaCosta co-wrote the screenplay with Megan McDonnell, Elissa Karasik, and Zeb Wells.

The movie probably won’t be as unapologetically black as Candyman or Black Panther it will still feature African-American culture in a meaningful way.

8. Don’t You Tell Me To Smile

The first line in the song and in the trailer is “Well, now, don’t you tell me to smile”. The lyric may have been just a way to rhyme to word smile with dial. But it also could have been Mike D telling the listener that they don’t control his feelings. He does what he wants.

One of the biggest criticism of Captain Marvel is that Brie Larson didn’t smile a lot. The phrase “smile more” is often used by well-intentioned men to encourage a woman to be “more attractive”. As the Atlantic explained in 2016, people around women often advise them to smile — from co-workers to strangers on the street — and suggest that they need to appear happier for the sake of others, usually men.

After the release of Captain Marvel, people started sharing pictures of the hero digitally altered to look like she was smiling. The harassment got so bad that she used her personal Instagram account to respond.

This movie, which has a female director and three female leads is sending the message that these women are independent. They do what they want.

Speaking on Good Morning America about the Captain Marvel sequel, Larson said the new film will explore “some of the intricacies of the character.”

“The first one was the origin story of who she is. Now it’s digging into some of the complexities. That there is much more to her than that, that there are parts that are not so great about her. That we can see a hero as being a person that doesn’t make every right decision all the time,” she told the show.

The film also stars South Korean actor Park Seo-joon, best known for his roles in the film Parasite and the TV series Itaewon Class. Other confirmed cast members include Saagar Shaikh, Zenoiba Shroff, and Mohan Kapur as Kamala’s older brother, mother, and father respectively, as well as Zawe Ashton in an undisclosed villain role. Goose, the fan-favorite alien cat will also return to the big screen.

After being postponed this summer, “The Marvels” hits theaters on November 10, 2023.

What do you think of the new trailer for The Marvels? Do you think the song fits?