Everything you need to know about Captain Marvel's cat

Technically, Captain Marvel is the lead of Captain Marvel. But for the cat lovers out there, it'll be Goose who emerges as the real star of the show.

The orange tabby first popped up in the Captain Marvel teaser poster before making her way into the trailers, into her own character poster, and – naturally – into our hearts. Here's everything you'll want to know about Goose ahead of Captain Marvel.

Yes, Goose is from the comics

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

But she had a different name: Chewie, like the Star Wars character.

In an interview with Collider, Captain Marvel director Anna Boden explained that they wanted to give the cat a name that would be more "specific to Carol Danvers' past" as a fighter pilot coming up in the 1980s. Hence Goose, like in Top Gun.

Goose is a girl cat

Not that it's relevant to the plot of Captain Marvel, but when I spoke to directors Boden and Ryan Fleck last month, they took pains to clarify that Goose is definitely a female cat.

Goose is played by four cats

Although Goose is just one cat, she's played by four different cats: Reggie, Rizzo, Gonzo, and Archie. The face you're most familiar with will be Reggie's, as he's the "hero" cat used for most of the close-ups and reaction shots. He was also the model for the prop and CG cats.

As for how one even goes about teaching a cat to act, the key, according to star Samuel L. Jackson, is food. "He's snack-oriented. He shows off," he said of Reggie in a press conference. "You give him something to eat, you talk softly and nice to him, give him something to eat again."

Those cats are already huge stars

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Reggie and Archie are both experienced actors, having previously starred in The Hateful Eight, animal trainer Ursula Brauner explained when I visited the set in 2018.

And speaking of that trip: Listen, I've done a few of these set visits in my time, and I've never seen a group of journalists so excited to interview any celebrity as they were to hang out with Reggie. (Was this entire section just an excuse to post a photo of me and the other reporters with Reggie? Yes.)

Nick Fury is a cat person

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Jackson's Nick Fury may be guarded around people, but as viewers will learn in Captain Marvel, he's a big ol' softie around kitties. That's part of what's so fun about Goose's role in the movie, Boden told me in an interview last month: "Who would have thought that Nick Fury was a cat person?"

... But Samuel L. Jackson is not

"No, I am not a cat person," Jackson said during a press conference. "But I’m also not a dog, bird or a fish person, either. I just don't engage pets." Nor is Captain Marvel herself, Brie Larson, much of a feline fan – "I'm severely allergic," she said.

Everyone else, though, had great things to say about working with Reggie. "The set got very, very quiet and respectful whenever Reggie came on," said Boden. "Actors were like, how come we don’t get this respect?"

Goose almost had a much smaller role in the movie

Because Captain Marvel has a cat in the comics, she was always going to have a cat in the movie, Boden and Fleck told me. But Goose's role wasn't always going to be this big.

"We wrote the first draft and we showed it to Marvel and Kevin Feige, and he said, ‘Mm-hm, mm-hm, yep. This is going to need at least 200% more of this cat in this movie,'" Fleck recalled.

Although they were skeptical at first, they took the note – "and he was right," Fleck admitted. "He just felt like this is something that the audience is going to respond to, and here we are, responding to Goose in a big way."

You can watch a whole hour of Goose in action right now

As part of their big press day in Los Angeles, Marvel Studios set up a livestream where fans could watch Goose just hanging around being Goose for a full hour. The feed isn't live anymore, obviously, but the video's still here if you're the kind of person who loves watching cat videos. And if you've read this far, we're guessing you are.

Actually, Goose isn't a cat at all

Finally, we've come to the biggest bombshell: This cat we've all been ooh-ing and ahh-ing over isn't actually a cat, but a Flerken.

What's a Flerken? In the comics, Flerkens are alien beings that just happen to look like ordinary Terran (Earth) house cats, but actually have lots of other special abilities and features. They're way smarter than regular cats, they lay eggs, and they have tentacles in their mouths.

Oh, and they carry entire pocket dimensions in their mouths, which can be used to travel across dimensions or even realities. I'm not saying this kitty will eat Thanos for breakfast. I'm just saying she probably could.