According to Deadline, Chris Pratt has been cast as Starlord in Marvel Studios upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy adaptation. Pratt, who is known for his work on television as Parks and Recreation‘s Andy Dwyer and on film as the head of the SEAL team that killed Osama Bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty, was chosen from a group that included fellow Zero Dark Thirty alum Joel Edgerton, Jack Huston of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, Lee Pace of The Hobbit trilogy and the sadly short-lived Pushing Daisies and Eddie Redmayne of the recent theatrical adaptation of Les Miserables.
Pratt is the first announced cast member of Guardians of the Galaxy, which is based on a Marvel superhero team of the same name that originated in 1969. Rumours have pegged Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler as possible additions to the cast but as of now, nothing has been confirmed on that front.
The film will be based on the second iteration of the Guardians, which was created by writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning in 2008 and featured characters created by Steve Englehart, Steve Gan, Mike Friedrich, Jim Starlin, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers, Bill Mantlo and Keith Giffen, amongst others.
Guardians of the Galaxy is a part of what is colloquially known as “Marvel Cosmic,” a small series of titles published off and on starting in 2006 with the Annihilation storyline and continuing today with the soon-to-launch third volume of Guardians of the Galaxy itself. The second volume, which the upcoming film is based on, ran 25 issues from 2008 to 2010, and the team itself broke up during The Thanos Imperative, a 2010 miniseries that featured the villainous titan introduced to movie-goes during the stinger of last summers The Avengers.
Star-Lord, Pratt’s character, was created in 1976 by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan. In his comic biography, he is Peter Quill, a heroic NASA trainee turned interplanetary police officer who founds the Guardians of the Galaxy alongside Rocket Racoon, Drax the Destroyer, Quasar, Adam Warlock, Gamora, Mantis and Groot. Based on the concept art released so far, Star-Lord, Drax, Gamora, Groot and Rocket Raccoon will also feature in the upcoming film, but there’s no word on who will play them.
Guardians of the Galaxy is directed by James Gunn, and is currently slated for a 2014 release.
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