Nia DaCosta has unjustly been placed at the receiving end of a lot of slack following the ill-fated release of The Marvels and its consequentially poor box-office performance. However, there are corners of the Internet still that recognize the director’s merits in the highly entertaining Marvel blockbuster.

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In The Marvels, DaCosta paired elements of a buddy adventure story with lighthearted family comedy and high-octane action sequences, in the process delivering some of the best character dynamics and personality-driven directing in MCU’s recent history.

To let go of such a budding talent would be a huge mistake on Marvel’s part. A number of factors contributed to the film’s disappointing ticket figures, namely the Hollywood strikes, a messy marketing campaign, and the disparaging hate train against anything Brie Larson touches, but Nia DaCosta’s work cannot and should not be counted among them. If she’s willing, the MCU would be lucky to have the promising filmmaker behind Candyman and Little Woods back in the director’s chair for any of the projects that follow.

Captain Marvel 3

Those of us who love Carol Danvers can appreciate the amount of heart Nia DaCosta put into her portrayal of the isolated and regretful Cosmic Avenger. Despite having to split Carol’s time between her two fellow leading ladies, The Marvels still managed to infuse the character with significant character development and charisma.

Brie Larson really shone under DaCosta’s keen conduction, making the duo not just a want but a need in the future of the super-powered franchise. As much as we loved the trio at the center of The Marvels, it would be interesting to take a proper deep dive into the Captain Marvel of today and how she has changed since we met her back in the 90s.

Ironheart

Let’s not forget that as well as being a three-movie deep filmmaker, Nia DaCosta is also a talented TV director — just see her work on acclaimed British crime thriller series Top Boy. It might be in Marvel’s best interests, then, to hire her to fix one of the unfortunately several Disney Plus productions that are in need of a tune-up. Ironheart springs to mind as one that could be perfect for DaCosta, given the wonderful job she did with fellow teen heroine Kamala Khan in The Marvels. Riri Williams deserves her chance to shine in her own solo show, and DaCosta could be just the person to helm those significant reshoots due to take place.

Wonder Man

On a similar page right now is Wonder Man, a series that Marvel Studios is apparently so keen to make us forget is even a thing that it’s hardly been mentioned amid all the talk of its reshuffled Disney Plus schedule. Although the Yahya Abdul-Mateen II series — starring him as actor-turned-superhero Simon Williams — had started shooting prior to the strikes taking effect, it’s now apparently been shelved as Marvel rethinks its creative direction. Enter Nia DaCosta. We know she’s great at nailing the blend of comedy and action this series requires and she’s already collaborated with Yahya on her Candyman remake.

Thor 5

Why include the best cameo ever in The Marvels by having Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie give Brie Larson’s Carol an emotionally charged pep talk if not as a hint to a future Thor film helmed by Nia DaCosta? We’re not saying Valkyrie needs to be the deuteragonist of Thor 5, as she deals with the pressures of being King of Asgard, and that only Nia DaCosta can be trusted with a job that important, but that’s also actually exactly what we’re saying.

Those two minutes of screentime in The Marvels did more for the character than all of Thor: Love and Thunder and we’re tired of Marvel sidetracking its best characters. It’s Valkyrie time, and Nia DaCosta is the one for the job.

Young Avengers

There are true undeniable truths in this world. The first is that the forthcoming Young Avengers movie or television show needs to be, come hell or high water, the best thing the MCU has produced since Avengers: Infinity War. And the second is that Nia DaCosta, given the chance and in the right circumstances, could do fantastic things with this massively beloved property.

It makes sense that she’s the one who gets to water the seeds she planted in The Marvels and watch them grow into what may very well be the most anticipated project in the future of the franchise.

X-Men

Well, I mean, this goes without saying, right?

Sam Raimi might’ve resurrected Patrick Stewart’s Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but Nia DaCosta is the first Marvel director to take us back into the X-Mansion itself, so naturally she definitely deserves first dibs on helming the X-Men reboot if she wants. And you can bet she would, given that DaCosta is an enormous Marvel nerd who had way more ideas to tie The Marvels into the wider MCU than came to pass.

With the entirety of Fox’s X-Men franchise directed by white guys, it’s about time Marvel switched it up for its own take on mutantkind and it just so happens that DaCosta is the most qualified person for the job.