The future is female — especially when it comes to the world of superheroes.
More than 40 years ago, it was easy to point out the female representation in a male-dominated science fiction-fantasy landscape: Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman, Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia and Nichelle Nichols’ Nyota Uhura on “Star Trek.”
But that has changed in the past decade with the arrival of dozens of female superhero characters flooding the mainstream.
“Wonder Woman,” which broke a record in its 2017 debut when the DC film’s $100 million opening became the largest for a female-directed feature, was directed by Patty Jenkins and starred Gal Gadot in the title role. That victory ensured a Gadot-led “Wonder Woman” sequel, scheduled for 2020.
On television, for the first time in 55 years, a woman (Jodie Whittaker) portraying the iconic role in the BBC’s “Doctor Who” made her debut in 2017; and the CW will add “Batwoman,” starring Ruby Rose, to its roster later this year, following up on the success of its other network series “Supergirl” and “Black Lightning,” which is also adding a new superwoman to its cast.
And now there’s “Captain Marvel,” with Brie Larson in the title role of the first superhero film of 2019. The film, opening Friday, March 8, is Marvel Studio’s first female-led movie out of the 21 films produced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise.
Click here for The Chronicle’s Q&A with “Captain Marvel” star Gemma Chan.
“We as women have been silently waiting for moments like this when we get our time, and I think that we’ve only really gotten our time because we’ve been vocal,” said Lashana Lynch, who plays Maria Rambeau in “Captain Marvel.” “We’ve been standing together in solidarity, and that’s what the difference is between now and maybe a few years ago. … We can connect in a way that we may not have been able to connect before because we didn’t know how to use our voice. Now we do, and that’s empowering.”
Indeed, the comic fandom is seeing the change, but it’s been a long time coming.
“When I came to DC Comics in the mid-’80s, there were a lot of people who were very much in favor of diversity — it’s just that they didn’t always think about it,” said longtime comic book writer and editor Barbara Kesel.
In those instances, a woman’s place in the story line served only as interaction with the male hero, because male creators often focused solely on the male superhero they created.
“More often, a male creator would see through the eyes of the male hero, and other people were adjunct to that. So they weren’t noticing, for instance, that the women didn’t act without talking to the men,” said Kesel, who has pushed for female representation in comics during her time with DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Crossgen, Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics.
“I taught a lot of them to step into each of the characters, look at it from their point of view. It automatically beefs up the role of any women or secondary characters.”
Nafessa Williams saw a rare opportunity to play a unique character in Anissa Pierce and her superhero alter ego, Thunder, on the CW’s “Black Lightning,” a comic-book-based television show centered on a high school principal with electricity-summoning powers.
“I hadn’t seen a superhero like myself coming up, so to be that for the generation coming up behind me was all the reason why I wanted to do it,” said Williams, who recently wrapped up season two of the series.
While Thunder can generate shock waves and make herself bulletproof, the character also breaks ground as the first black, lesbian superhero portrayed on television.
“The female characters they created and built on the show are very strong and independent and smart — characters that I believe young women need to see,” Williams said. “There’s a wave of female superheroes, and we’re setting it up for more in the future.”
Anna Boden, who co-directed and co-wrote “Captain Marvel” with Bay Area native Ryan Fleck, said she hopes to see more female-led superhero movies, but warned that it can’t be taken for granted.
“It’s not like, ‘Oh, this is how it is right now so it’s going to be like this forever,’” Boden said at a recent press junket for her movie in Los Angeles. “You need to keep focusing on it and pushing it forward and making sure that as writers, we’re writing complicated female roles. And not just as the protagonist but also the antagonists, so that it’s not ‘a thing’ anymore. … It just becomes part of the norm.”
That’s what Boden strove to do with the female characters in “Captain Marvel,” and what Kesel saw as a success in the “Wonder Woman” franchise.
“A woman does not mean one thing in that movie; it means many things,” Kesel said. “ ‘Black Panther’ does the same thing. So does ‘Crazy Rich Asians.’ Suddenly there’s a whole spectrum of what you can be, and they’re beautiful and different. The more we ‘people’ people, the more opportunities we have. Women see themselves in images of power, so they can dream.”