The film features Carol Danvers, who, possessing superhuman strength and combat skills, repeatedly engages in and wins physical confrontations against multiple male Skrull and Kree opponents in close-quarters combat.

The character Mar-Vell, originally established as male in Marvel Comics, is portrayed as female in the film, serving as Carol Danvers' mentor and the Kree scientist Wendy Lawson.

While most characters remained consistent, the Kree characters Minn-Erva and Korath, who were visually depicted as white in their human-passing forms in the comics, are portrayed by actors of East Asian and Black descent, respectively, constituting race swaps.