Brie Larson may have won an Oscar for last year’s Room, but she’s yet to receive the true Hollywood stamp of approval: a superhero vehicle. Well, that’s all likely to change with the very convincing talk of her status as a frontrunner to play Captain Marvel. And, before anyone gets excited about Marvel’s audacity to change the gender of a superhero, Captain Marvel has always been a woman — at least in some of the character’s many, confusing iterations.
The news came last night via Variety , and quickly spread like wildfire. It’s safe to say that even before the award success of Room, Larson was beloved by film fans, maybe for her work in Trainwreck, or in The United States of Tara, or any of her other numerous projects. Either way, it’s a big deal that she’s going to (likely) headline one of the first major superhero films centered on a woman. (Wonder Woman may or may not be the first, depending on where the scheduling chips fall.)
Aside from Larson’s involvement, we’ve also got news that Marvel super-producer Kevin Feige will be behind this one. It’s being written by Meg LeFauve (Inside Out) and Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy). The film will apparently tell the story of Carol Danvers, an air force pilot who suffers a crash and has her DNA fused with an alien, kind of like an extraterrestrial version of Captain America. Huh.
No director has been attached, though a few names have been tossed around. Most exciting is Babadook director Jennifer Kent. However, as she has spoken out about her distaste for blockbusters — along with the fact that she’s currently busy on a period piece, The Nightingale — that’s not likely to happen.
No word yet on a release date, but don’t be surprised if Marvel pumps this thing out pretty quickly.