Captain Marvel: Who are the villains? Who are the Skrulls?

Not everyone who loves the Marvel Cinematic Universe is also a comic book fan.

The comics span decades, with a host of characters whose names change over time, as do their powers and likeness.

With the new Captain Marvel movie on the horizon, some not as familiar with her comic book history may be wondering what it’s all about.

Anyone reading the plethora of articles on how Captain Marvel got her powers will know who the Kree are.

But who are the Skrulls?

The Skrulls are, like the Kree, a race of aliens. But that’s where the similarities end.

Making life difficult for everyone, the Skrulls have the ability to shape shift.

And, of course, they’re almost always waging war on other planets and species, including the pro-human alien species, the Krees.

CAPTAIN MARVEL RELEASE DATE: IS CAPTAIN MARVEL THE NEXT AVENGERS MOVIE

The Skulls come from the planet Skrullos and were originally a mercantile civilization.

As shapeshifters, any time they came across a new species, they simply transformed themselves to resemble them.

They first appeared in Fantastic Four No. 2 back in January 1962.

Throughout Marvel history, the Skrulls have taken up the mantle of archetypal shape-shifting villains.

Tending to infiltrate and invade, the Skrulls fought not one but two Kree-Skull wars in the Marvel comic books.

But where do the alien baddies fall in the new Captain Marvel movie?

We can’t be sure, as Marvel head Kevin Feige has remained vague as ever when it comes to the Skrulls role in Captain Marvel.

Speaking with IGN, Feige said: “There’s an entire section of our comics that deal with the Kree/Skrull war, and we haven’t tapped into that at all, and we thought that would be an amazing, huge part of the mythology to belong to Captain Marvel.”

AVENGERS 4 END CREDIT TEASER: WHAT INFINITY WAR END CREDITS REVEAL?

Similarly, when asked by the Toronto Sun about the reason behind Captain Marvel’s 1990s setting, he was his usual obtuse self.

Feige said: “The answer is, you’ll see in the storytelling of the movie.

“But it allows us to play in an area that we have never played in before.

“And tapping into a 90s action genre was fun for us and being able to see an earlier part of the MCU before Nick Fury knew anything about aliens or anything about super-powered people and also tapping into the Kree-Skrull War, which in the comics was a huge part of the comic mythology, seemed like a fun thing to try and a fun way to give Carol Danvers her own standalone origin story.”

Captain Marvel is in cinemas Friday, March 8, 2019.