Brie Larson has proven she can do anything in her acting career. She’s riveting in drama, as demonstrated in Short Term 12 and, obviously, her Academy Award-winning performance in Room. She’s shown a talent for comedy in Trainwreck and 21 Jump Street.
Now Larson might get to play a superhero.
As first reported by Variety‘s Justin Kroll, Larson is Marvel’s top choice to play its first headlining female character, Captain Marvel. The actress is also leaning toward taking the role, according to Kroll’s sources, but talks are apparently in the early stages.
Captain Marvel is otherwise known in Marvel Comics as Carol Danvers, an Air Force pilot who eventually takes a position with NASA and encounters an alien race during a mission. Her genetic structure is altered in experiments, which gives her superhuman strength, bulletproof skin, the ability to fly and shoot energy from her hands. She’s kind of like Iron Man without the armor.
Larson seems a bit younger than how Danvers is portrayed in the comics, where she’s more of a contemporary to the likes of Captain America and Tony Stark. But maybe Marvel has a slightly different version in mind for the movies. Or they’re just casting the best actress available and adjusting the character accordingly. (Originally, Captain Marvel was going to be introduced at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, until it was decided that a quick intro wasn’t appropriate.)
Emily Blunt has been attached to the role in rumors, but that may have been fan casting more than an actual possibility. (Marvel had previously considered her for Black Widow and Agent Carter.) Many fans also thought Rebecca Ferguson would be suited for the character after her action star turn in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Battlestar Galactica‘s Katee Sackhoff, Yvonne Strahovski from Chuck and Vikings’ Katheryn Winnick have also been popular fan picks.
Someone else who’s expressed interest in playing Captain Marvel is MMA fighter Ronda Rousey. If Larson does end up signing on with Marvel, that will probably be the one time she could claim she beat Rousey at something.
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Captain Marvel is currently set for a March 2019 release, after being pushed back from two different dates in 2018 due to Marvel adding a Spider-Man film and Ant-Man sequel to its slate. Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Meg LaFauve (Inside Out) are writing the script.
No director is yet attached, though the studio’s apparent preference is for a female director. Indie filmmakers Emily Carmichael and Elizabeth Wood have been rumored as possible names. The Hollywood Reporter‘s Borys Kit also mentions Niki Caro (Whale Rider) and Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) as contenders. But maybe this is the film that would get Joss Whedon to return to Marvel. He and Larson would be an impressive combination.
[Variety]