Roughly 16 months before Brie Larson's "Captain Marvel" debuts in theaters, Marvel Cinematic Universe's first ever female-led superhero film may have finally found its villain. Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are reportedly in talks with "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" star Ben Mendelsohn to take on the villain's role.
The news exclusively comes from Variety, which claimed that the directors eyed the actor since they started plotting the story. Nothing is official just yet, but Mendelsohn reportedly agreed to pursue the role when both parties met.
Unfortunately, there is no word on who the actor will play at the moment. However, with the inclusion of the Skrulls, Comic Book predicts he might portray someone of the green, rough-chinned variety.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced at the San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year that the Skrulls will be the film's primary antagonists.
For those who do not know the alien race, the Skrulls rank among the most powerful and widespread empires in the Marvel Universe, predating both the Chiaturi who invaded New York with Loki and the blue-skinned Kree who appeared in "Guardians of the Galaxy."
They are human-looking creatures, except they have green skin and pointy ears, and they are notorious for their shapeshifting abilities. They also have a strange obsession with Earth, a fact that sets them in conflict with Captain Marvel and the Avengers.
A concept revealed during Marvel's SDCC presentation offered fans an early look at how the alien race would look in the MCU.
First concept art of Brie Larson as #CaptainMarvel who will face the Skrulls in a 90s set film. pic.twitter.com/yB8izslz0A
— Adam Hlavac" data-caption="null" data-credit="null">"Captain Marvel" is just one of the several MCU films in the pipeline. Although it is still more than a year away, the studio said they have been focusing on the project because it has a very large impact on the MCU and its current run.
"It's going to be a big part of heading towards this epic conclusion and epic finale of 22 movies over the course of 10 years," Feige said in an interview with Indie Wire. "That is [the] focus for the next six movies we have to finish and get out. Really, the focus now is on delivering 'Captain Marvel' and then bringing Captain Marvel's story into the finale of everything we've started thus far."
In other words, Captain Marvel will indeed appear in "Avengers 4", and whatever storyline gets started in her solo movie will weave its way to the "Avengers" saga and resolve itself there as well.
"Captain Marvel" premieres on March 8, 2019, and "Avengers 4" arrives on May 3, 2019.
