Brie Larson's Captain Marvel finds a villain in Star Wars star
Ben Mendelsohn in talks for major role in 90s-inspired superhero movie.
Marvel Studios is in talks with Rogue One: A Star Wars story star Ben Mendelsohn about playing the main antagonist opposite Brie Larson's Captain Marvel in the character's upcoming solo debut in 2019.
There are no details regarding the role Mendelsohn would play if he did sign on, but it was announced at San Diego Comic Con earlier this year that Captain Marvel would be taking on the Skrulls - so the Aussie actor may be playing a leader of the alien race.
Marvel has not commented on the story, which was broken by Variety.
Larson will play Carol Danvers, an Air Force pilot whose DNA is fused with that of an alien during an accident, resulting in her developing supernatural powers which gave her the ability to fly and energy projection.
At Comic Con Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige also revealed that the story will be set in the 90s, well before the events of Iron Man kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe story.
It will be only the second period Marvel movie following 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger.
Samuel L Jackson will reprise his role as Avengers assembler Nick Fury in the film set to be directed by the team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, best known for their work together on Half Nelson and It's Kind of a Funny Story.
Captain Marvel's script has been written by Pixar alumni Meg LeFauve, Guardians of the Galaxy's Nicole Perlman and Geneva Robertson-Dworet.
Larson is expected to play Captain Marvel in one, if not both of the next Avengers movies as well. His solo film is set for release in March 2019, sandwiched between next year's Avengers: Infinity War and the untitled follow-up a year later.
The Oscar-winning actor has been spotted on the set of the latter, but could realistically make an appearance in the former given the two have filmed pretty much back-to-back.
