Well, so much for Kevin Feige’s promise to announce the director of Captain Marvel before the end of 2016 — but we can’t fault the Marvel Studios president too much, especially since Brie Larson’s superhero solo film isn’t hitting theaters until 2019, and it’s hard to criticize the studio for making sure they have the right script and director for the job. Still, it would’ve been a nice little holiday treat for those of us who are anxious to see Marvel’s first female superhero project get off the ground.

Over the summer, the studio formally announced Larson’s casting as Carol Danvers, with the actress joining the rest of the MCU family in Hall H at Comic-Con. Kevin Feige subsequently assured fans that a director announcement wasn’t far behind and that we’d know more by fall; winter at the latest. Shortly after, a handful of contenders emerged. Then, while promoting Doctor Strange in October, Feige promised to set a director for Captain Marvel by the end of the year.

Here we are in December with no Captain Marvel director in sight — well, not in our sight, anyhow, but it’s definitely on Marvel’s horizon. Over on Twitter, Variety’s Justin Kroll offered this promising, though slightly disappointing, status update:

It may be a bummer for fans (such as myself) that were anticipating bigger Captain Marvel news before the end of 2016, but it’s reassuring news for the project itself. As for that script, Marvel has Nicole Perlman (who worked on an earlier draft of Guardians of the Galaxy) and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out) co-writing the screenplay for Larson’s big solo outing, which will tell the origins of Carol Danvers.

Over the summer, we learned that the character’s backstory will be reimagined a bit to avoid comparisons with Green Lantern, since both heroes share similar origins. That’s all we know for now, but hopefully the new year will bring new-news for Captain Marvel, which is set to hit theaters on March 8, 2019.

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