When The Eternals finally arrives next February, Angelina Jolie might be just the latest in a long line of big-name movie stars to board the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the argument could also be made that she’s also one of the studio’s biggest acquisitions yet.
The MCU might be the most popular and beloved franchise in the business, but their recruitment model has usually been based around hiring younger rising talents to headline their superhero blockbusters that will grow into the roles over time, and then surrounding them with an eclectic cast of respected supporting players. The approach has worked wonders for them so far, but there have been very few occasions that they’ve signed up one of the most famous and recognizable stars on the planet.
If the prospect of seeing Jolie appearing in Chloe Zao’s intergalactic epic wasn’t enough, some fans now think that the 45 year-old could be the ideal candidate to direct Captain Marvel 2. As well as a career full of critical and commercial success, Jolie has also turned her hand to directing in recent years, although her output hasn’t exactly signaled any sort of intentions to tackle a big-budget project of that kind of scale.
So far, she’s directed Bosnian war drama In the Land of Blood and Honey, biopic Unbroken, romantic drama By the Sea and Cambodia-set thriller First They Killed My Father, and while there’s been an admirable desire to tackle a variety of different genres, reviews for all four of her efforts behind the camera have been mixed at best.
The Eternals will mark just her fourth live-action acting role in a decade, and two of those have been under the Disney banner as part of the Maleficent franchise, so while she’s clearly in the good graces of the Mouse House’s higher-ups, it probably seems a little to early to consider the prospect of Angelina Jolie tackling a $200 million comic book sequel like Captain Marvel 2, especially when she’d need to start working on it almost as soon as The Eternals’ promotional circuit wraps up.
