Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s 2019 Marvel Cinematic Universe film “Captain Marvel” was, kind of by necessity, a prequel. The sci-fi actioner was released on the heels of “Avengers: Infinity War,” a film that had wiped out half of the MCU and set the stage for the Infinity Saga’s climax with “Avengers: Endgame,” a movie that would come out after “Captain Marvel.” As such, it was an appropriate moment to go back in time.
“Captain Marvel” follows the titular hero (Brie Larson), a super-powered human with a fractured memory who’s been trained to function as a high-octane agent of the imperialistic Kree Empire on Hala, a distant planet and the Kree’s capital world. The machinations of the plot eventually bring her to Earth in 1995. There, she learns about her human past after joining forces with Nick Fury, then only a lower-ranked employee of S.H.I.E.L.D. played by a digitally de-aged Samuel L. Jackson. On Hala, Larson’s superhero was known as simply “Vers,” but her full name is actually Carol Danvers. This journey of self-discovery ultimately leads to Carol rejecting the Kree’s attempts to use her and becoming a freelance warrior for righteousness.
Carol’s superior officer back on Hala was the arrogant and tough Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), a Kree commander with yellow eyes and a temper. Yon-Rogg is a bit of a frustrating character; he is set up as an overbearing and even condescending presence in Carol’s life, only to end up being absent for most of the movie. Indeed, it’s later revealed that Yon-Rogg is merely one of several antagonists in the film, and that Carol — once she transforms into Captain Marvel — is really facing off against a malevolent Kree A.I. called the Supreme Intelligence (personified by Annette Bening in VR sequences).
Captain Marvel eventually bests Yon-Rogg in a one-on-one showdown at the end of the film, declaring that she has nothing to prove to him. Nevertheless, this conflict isn’t a major part of the movie and Yon-Rogg ends up being kind of a generic side character, with Law only serving to juice up the film’s overall star power.
Law, as it turns out, was also frustrated with Yon-Rogg. Speaking to GQ, he said that he wished he had been allowed to play up the character more, but was denied. As such, he likely won’t come back for any additional MCU movies.
Jude Law didn’t think Yon-Rogg was very interesting
Many likely recall that “Captain Marvel” was review-bombed by trolls when it opened in theaters, resulting in a rather-low 45% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes based on hundreds of thousands of reviews. Professional critics, meanwhile, were merely lukewarm on the film, granting it a 79% approval rating based on 549 reviews. Law, however, claimed that he wasn’t on social media and didn’t ever catch wind of the manufactured hate. He was one of the lucky ones.
Still, the actor doesn’t recall “Captain Marvel” with much fondness. When asked if he would ever reprise the role of Yog-Rogg, he replied:
“Would I do another one? Probably not. […] It was alright. [Yon-Rogg] was a bit dry. I wanted to be a bit funnier. I was hoping to be a bit more of a sort of mustache-twirling villain, and I think I kept coming up with ideas that were not going in this film. And so I just sort of did what I was told.”
The MCU, of course, towered over all popular culture for about a decade, leading just about every conversation about cinema from 2009 until 2019. It wasn’t until after “Avengers: Endgame” that the franchise began to contract in popularity. The odds of seeing another “Captain Marvel” film is incredibly slim, especially after the 2023 sequel “The Marvels” bombed as hard as it did. Law, even if he was interested, is likely in no danger of reprising Yon-Rogg. Demand for the character seems to be very low.
The next three films in the MCU (“Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts*,” and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps”) are all scheduled for 2025 at the time of writing, and it remains to be seen if they are hits or not. It’s a guarantee, though, that they will be 100% Yon-Rogg-free.