Disney needed someone to blame for The Marvels, the MCU’s most disastrous outing to date, and Nia DaCosta became the easy target.
Right after the film cratered on opening weekend, the studio conveniently leaked stories about her “inexperience” and supposed on-set detachment. Classic scapegoating.
Now, two years later, DaCosta—speaking at the Edinburgh Film Festival— took a swipe back, comparing her “wonderful” experience shooting the upcoming “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” to her other films.
One of the issues I had with “Candyman” and ‘Marvels’ was the lack of a really solid script, which is always gonna just wreak havoc on the whole process.
She’s been consistent in saying that the version of The Marvels audiences saw was not the movie she pitched or shot:
It was interesting because there was a certain point when I was like, ‘Ok, this isn’t going to be the movie that I pitched or even the first version of the movie that I shot
It’s hard to argue with her. “The Marvels” will forever be remembered as one of the MCU’s biggest bombs, burning an estimated $300M in losses. A film dragged down by endless rewrites and reshoots, a bizarre fate given that 2019’s “Captain Marvel” cleared $1B with ease.
DaCosta has already moved on. Her Tessa Thompson–Imogen Poots starrer “Hedda” is heading to TIFF next month, and she recently wrapped “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” (Jan 2026). Early test screenings on ‘Bone Temple’ have been very strong, with DaCosta calling it one of her best filmmaking experiences
Making the 28 Years Later sequel was one of the best filmmaking experiences I’ve had […] Alex Garland hands you a script, and you’re like, ‘This is amazing.’ You don’t really have to change it, although I did, I basically asked for more infected. [Laughs.] That was, like, my big contribution.
DaCosta goes on to add that it was none other than “The Zone of Interest” director Jonathan Glazer who persuaded her to take on the sequel, which was shot back-to-back with Boyle’s film.
DaCosta might have been chewed up and spit out by Marvel’s machine, but she’s already noticing there’s life, and artistic freedom, after the MCU. If ‘The Bone Temple’ delivers on its early buzz, she could easily flip the narrative.