But the actress, who has called for greater participation by women and people of color in the film industry and in the media covering it, said the global rollout of “Captain Marvel” could help bring her advocacy to a wider audience.

She said she felt invested in the moral lessons of her smaller films like “Short Term 12.” But when it came to “Captain Marvel,” Larson said she asked herself, “Could I still do the same thing of caring about the content and making sure it has a message while also playing all over the world? Being able to shape the conversation is what female leadership looks like.”

In Captain Marvel’s favor, Larson said that while other Marvel heroes are weak and lowly at the start of their origin stories, “she was a badass before she got her powers.”

A former Air Force test pilot named Carol Danvers, she gains superhuman abilities from an alien race, and Boden described the movie as a mystery of sorts in which Danvers must investigate her own past.

“As she gets to know herself and embrace what makes her her, she really achieves her true power,” Boden said. “Part of that means rejecting the voices of people who tell her she’s not strong enough and doesn’t belong. I feel like a lot of people will be able to relate to that, particularly women.”

THE CHARACTER OF CAROL DANVERS has been on a journey of her own since Marvel introduced her in the comics in 1968. At the time, she was not much more than a Lois Lane-type love interest for a male hero (an extraterrestrial soldier who was the publisher’s original Captain Marvel).