Jude Law to Play the Male Lead in Captain Marvel

Jude Law. Photo by David Buchan/Variety/REX/Shutterstock (7868829r)

According to various sources close to Marvel Studios, Jude Law has landed the male lead role in the upcoming movie Captain Marvel. Law will star as Dr. Walter Lawson, better known as superhero Mar-Vell. Reports say that the role was originally offered to Keanu Reeves, but he turned it down. Law joins Brie Larson who will star in the film as Carol Danvers and Samuel L. Jackson who will reprise his role of Nick Fury.

The majority of the details about the movie were revealed during Marvel’s panel at 2017 San Diego Comic-Con. Unlike other movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain Marvel will be set in the past, in the 1990s to be exact. It was also confirmed that the Skrulls, extraterrestrial shapeshifters, will be the movie’s main villains. Samuel L. Jackson will be de-aged using computer animation in order to portray the younger version of Nick Fury. This will likely mean that we will see Nick Fury for the first time without his eye patch.

Law’s character Mar-Vell is portrayed in the comics as a Kree empire spy sent to Earth to see if the humans are a threat. When he arrives at Earth, Mar-Vell assumes the identity of recently deceased scientist Dr. Walter Lawson. He plays an important role in the Carol Danvers’s story as he serves as a mentor while she learns to deal with her newfound powers and helps her in the transition to Captain Marvel.

The filming of Captain Marvel is expected to begin at some point next year, while the release date is set for March 8, 2019. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Sugar and Mississippi Grind) are attached as directors while Nicole Perlman (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Meg LeFauve (Inside Out) wrote the original script. The Tomb Raider reboot screenwriter Geneva Robertson-Dworet was recently brought in to do some additional work on the script.