11 Yan D' Aladna Facts To Prepare Marvel Fans For The Marvels

The first trailer for "The Marvels" showcased some familiar faces, while introducing new characters as well. While fans of 2019's "Captain Marvel" and Disney + shows like "WandaVision" and "Ms. Marvel" are familiar with Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Kamala Khan (Irman Vellani), many additional Marvel comics characters will make their big screen debut in the film.

One of these characters is Yan D'Aladna, a comic book character who has served as a love interest for not only Danvers but many other female Marvel characters. While Yan D'Aladna could be considered a fairly obscure character in the comics, his inclusion in "The Marvels" could indicate an expanded role in the MCU and perhaps even Marvel Comics moving forward. With that in mind, here are 11 details about Yan to serve as a primer.

Most MCU characters have long comic histories that date back to the 1960s or even earlier. A fan could spend weeks reading through years of content to get all the subtle references, in-jokes, and Easter eggs the filmmakers include in their movie adaptations. Even recent creations could have had multiple mini-series and guest appearances, especially if their creators know they are destined for movie stardom.

But not Yan D'Aladna. So far, this offbeat character has only appeared in a single Marvel comic book — 2014's "Captain Marvel" Vol. 8 #9. The issue has Carol Danvers and her sidekick Tic traveling to an alien planet to help a celebrity rock star out of some trouble. As it turns out, the rock star has been caught up in an unwanted engagement to Yan that needs some sorting. With Captain Marvel on the case, it's a safe bet this "sorting" involves someone getting punched in the nose.

Since then, Yan has only briefly been mentioned in one other comic book — "X-Men Unlimited: Infinity Comic" #28 — and even then, the writer didn't bother to provide his full name. Not only does Yan's limited comic book appearances mean the MCU can pretty much re-interpret the character any way they want, but in a rare case of the tail wagging the dog, it could mean that future comic book appearances by Yan will likely be influenced more by how he's portrayed in "The Marvels."

Carol's friend may have been stuck in an unwanted engagement with Yan D'Aldana, but there are plenty of other women who would love to have been in her shoes. It turns out that Yan isn't just some random alien guy, but the prince of a powerful royal family. In fact, the "Aladna" in his name is actually the name of the planet his family ruled over.

Despite being extraterrestrials, the people of Aladna are human-like in appearance, with Yan sporting the standard chiseled physique of a Marvel superhero as well as a purple lightning bolt mark over his right eye. While he's been raised in privilege all his life, Yan turns out to be a fairly decent guy. He understands the importance of free choice and does not want to force his betrothed into an unwanted marriage. However, Carol soon learns that dissolving their engagement isn't going to be an easy task.

Based on Yan's brief appearance in "The Marvels" trailer, where he leads a group of armored warriors, it appears he'll continue to be royalty, although he looks more like a warrior prince than the fairy tale-style royal in the comics. It's also worth noting that there's another "Yan" character in Marvel comics, the alien Kree military officer "Chief Yan," who appears in both "Nova" #4 and #5. No word on whether the MCU version of Yan will somehow combine these two, but considering Carol Danvers' past association with the Kree Empire, it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility. 

Yan D'Aladna is played by Park Seo-Joon, a South Korean actor best known for his role as wealthy student Min Hyuk in the Academy Award-winning film "Parasite" (2019). Seo-Joon has also had roles in many movies and TV shows, including the action-comedy "Midnight Runners" (2017) and "Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth" (2016) where he played a young man who becomes a legendary Hwarang warrior.

A popular star in Asia, Park Seo-Joon has already won multiple Asia Artist Awards and MBC Drama Awards for his acting talent. He's known for playing parts in romantic comedies — which may hint at the type of character he'll play in "The Marvels," as Yan D'Aladna was originally designed as a romantic lead-type character. Seo-Joon also played a taekwondo athlete in the 2017 TV series "Fight for My Way," indicating that he can handle the physicality that often comes from MCU roles.

Aside from his acting abilities, Park Seo-Joon has some other notable skills — he's a talented singer and dancer who did both in his dramatic debut "Dream High 2," and he has also recorded songs for some of his TV shows. This may become very relevant since, based on Yan D'Aladna's single comic book appearance, Park Seo-Joon's scenes in "The Marvels" may all be musical numbers.

Every alien race in the MCU has its quirks. The Skrulls are shapeshifters. The Chitauri share a hive mind. Drax's people are completely literal. And then there are the people of Aladna who... enjoy singing.

Or at least, rhyming. In "Captain Marvel" #9, Carol learns that everyone in Aladna speaks in rhyme. What's more, the rhyming isn't exclusive to just one person — if you're having a conversation, you need to make sure your rhyme schemes match up with those of your partner. As if this isn't complicated enough, every visitor to Aladna is expected to speak in rhyme, which keeps Carol on her toes. She even has to learn to fight and rhyme, leading to a weird moment where Carol assesses her opponent by thinking in rhyming couplets:

"Dammit, she's fast/And I can't use my blasts/Gotta win Yan his throne/Without breaking her bones."

In other words, Aladna is the Marvel version of a live-action Disney musical, which could make "The Marvels" the first MCU musical if the filmmakers stay faithful to the planet's comic book incarnation. No telling how much time Carol, Monica, and Kamala will spend on Aladna — or how big Yan's part will be — but any scenes on this world will likely be... interesting.

Remember the rock star celebrity who accidentally got engaged to Yan? Turns out, she's not just any planet-hopping rock star, but a famous Marvel mutant with strong ties to the X-Men. 

Although not a member of any mutant super-team, Lila Cheney has been popping in and out of X-Men comics for decades. A British mutant, Lila is a teleporter who can transport herself and others across vast intergalactic distances. She uses her power to take the X-Men to other planets or send her rock band on galaxy-wide tours.

As a child, Lila does a lot of planet-hopping and ends up on Aladna. Upon discovering she is from Earth, the royal family ropes her into an engagement with Yan, hoping this would create an alliance between their world and Earth's super beings. Lila teleports away, but years later, her past catches up with her.

Could this mean viewers will be seeing Lila — a known mutant — in "The Marvels"? So far, she hasn't appeared on any cast lists. The MCU has changed a lot of details from its source material, and Lila doesn't need to be part of the story for it to work.

On the other hand, the MCU is getting ready to introduce the X-Men and other mutants to its cinematic universe, and "Ms. Marvel" indicated Kamala Khan may already be a mutant. It could make sense for the movie to introduce another mutant like Lila, especially since she has spent so much time off-planet. At the very least, her band could make a fun cameo in the upcoming "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" film.

Yan may be royalty, but that doesn't mean he holds absolute power. In fact, Aladna has some pretty strong gender inequalities — all in favor of the women. On this planet, women get to choose who they marry, with men having no say in the matter. Yan even reveals to Carol that parents can choose who their sons will marry, or even sell their hand in marriage to the person offering the best deal.

As a result, Yan can't simply choose not to marry Lila Cheney or release her from their engagement; the choice is out of his hands. While Yan doesn't agree with his planet's traditions, he still submits to them, realizing his parents are getting older and only by marrying and becoming king can he ensure a peaceful succession to the throne.

No word yet on whether any of Aladna's traditions will translate to "The Marvels," but such an inclusion would offer a strong statement on gender politics. "Captain Marvel" spent time showing how Carol had to deal with sexism in the Air Force, so it would be interesting to see what would happen when that gender inequality is reversed.

As future king of Aladna, Yan's political power is a temptation; many women are willing to literally fight to the death for his hand in marriage. This occurs in "Captain Marvel" #9 when a rival suitor, Marlo of Sleen, arrives to challenge Lila Cheney for Yan. Marlo turns out to be a power-hungry alien who has been manipulating Yan's mother for the chance to become Aladna's future queen. While Yan says "I'd sooner wed a cat," Marlo looks to be next in line after Lila.

To make matters worse, Aladna has a brutal tradition when it comes to settling wedding disputes: Put the women in a gladiatorial ring and make them fight to the death. Although Lila's prepared to cut and run, Carol — realizing Marlo could destroy Aladna as queen — volunteers to fight in Lila's place.

What follows is one of the weirdest fights in Captain Marvel's career, as she beats up Marlo while providing rhyming narration. Naturally, Carol's cosmic-level power easily outclasses Marlo, but Yan fears Captain Marvel will need to kill Marlo to win and offers to marry whatever woman his family decides.

Luckily for Yan, Captain Marvel sways the audience in that comic book by pointing out that although she didn't kill Marlo, she still won the fight. Furthering her point by backhanding Marlo and knocking her out, Carol releases Lila from her wedding vows while still keeping Marlo away from the throne.

This leaves Carol in a tricky situation. As victor, she now holds the right to marry Yan and become queen of Aladna. Interestingly, both Yan and Carol express some attraction to each other, although Carol comes to Aladna under the guise of Lila Cheney's "mother." Yan even asks if Carol could return his affection, but she tells him her heart belonged to another.

Fortunately, women still hold the power over a man's choice to marry, so Carol simply returns Yan's choice to him and asks that the throne decree that all men on Aladna be given the right to choose who they want to marry. Carol also counsels Yan, telling him he doesn't have to marry at all, but he worries what such a disruption would do to his people, and is prepared to concede his choice back to his family.

Yan's wedding day may have been a disaster, but there is one silver lining that came out of it. After learning that one of the main reasons Yan's parents betrothed him to Lila was so they could have an alliance with an Avengers world, Carol attempts to pacify the royal family by offering her allegiance as an Avenger to Yan.

Carol further attempts to persuade the royal family to give the throne to Yan without requiring him to marry. However, they refuse, stating that isn't their way. Even so, Carol's interactions with Yan do put Aladna on her radar, and — as an emissary for the Avengers — she's likely placed the entire planet under the protection of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

How any of this might end up in "The Marvels," if at all, is anyone's guess. Captain Marvel's adventure on Aladna is largely a side quest in the comics, and the planet doesn't really hold the same type of significance in the Marvel Universe as the Kree Empire or Skrull home world. Nevertheless, there's always room for more fun planets in the MCU, and any excuse for the Avengers to visit another planet — especially one that would require them to sing and dance during their fight scenes — is just too good to pass up.

After making — and breaking — engagements with three different women, one would think marriage just wasn't in the cards for Yan. Surprisingly, the story did conclude with Yan finally taking a bride.

Earlier in the series, Carol had begun traveling with Tic, an alien refugee who helps Captain Marvel protect other displaced aliens like herself. As Tic's species only lives for 20 years, she wonders if it would be better to live a long life but never make a difference or change a world but die before she could see how her actions helped others.

Tic gets a chance to find the answer when she agrees to marry Yan and ensure a smooth succession for Aladna. Believing this will let her change a world, marry "a really hot guy," and possibly live long enough to see how her actions would help others, Tic happily goes through with the wedding. This is still a wedding of convenience, however, and Tic goes on to travel with Captain Marvel, while still bragging to everyone that she is a princess of Aladna.

As a minor supporting character, Tic probably won't appear in "The Marvels." Some online articles even claim that Carol is Yan's wife, although they never go through with a formal wedding ceremony in the comics. It's possible that the MCU film will simply ignore the entire wedding plot, focusing instead on the novelty of Aldana being a musical planet.

While his sort-of bride continues having her own adventures in outer space, Yan remains busy on Aladna. After releasing Tic from her "marital duties," Yan decides to change Aladna by giving men the right to marry whoever they choose. However, he acknowledges he can't actually do this until he becomes king and — as Tic continues to refer to herself as "princess" in later issues — it's possible Yan doesn't have the political power to do this yet.

How Aladna will react and change to this new policy once Yan does take over the throne is still unknown. Carol's adventures with Yan on Aladna were part of a pretty minor story, and other writers have never picked up on the story thread. However, it seems clear that Tic will succeed in changing Aladna's history one way or another by marrying Yan. For now, Aladna remains one of Marvel's more lighthearted alien worlds — but given its more militant look in "The Marvels" trailer, that could soon change.