Forget Dr. Watson and 221b Baker Street; former Sherlock Holmes star Jude Law is now in contention to play Doctor Walter Lawson (AKA Mar-Vell) opposite Brie Larson in the Captain Marvel movie.
News broke earlier this afternoon, when Variety revealed that Law had entered talks to join the 2019 spinoff. Should a deal place, he’ll play the film’s male lead alongside Larson and, presumably, Star Wars alum Ben Mendelsohn. That post has since been updated to include the most pertinent line of the lot: Jude Law’s character, Walter Lawson, will be the all-wise mentor for Carol Danvers as she begins to wrangle her superhuman powers under control.
Indeed, those familiar with Marvel Comics will know all too well that Doctor Walter Lawson originally held the title of Captain Marvel, though it’s unclear if that lore will be woven into the fabric of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s solo movie.
Carol Danvers, meanwhile, is the Air Force pilot and beating heart of Captain Marvel. When a routine test goes awry, her DNA is fused with that of an alien during a near-fatal accident. The resulting alteration imbues her with the superpowers of strength, energy projection, and flight.
That journey will be Brie Larson’s in-road into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, before her inevitable appearance in Joe and Anthony Russo’s super-sized (and untitled) Avengers 4. It’ll release shortly after Captain Marvel in 2019, though there have been rumblings that a select number of costumed crusaders will cross over into the Larson-fronted spinoff.
Exactly how that intersection will come to be is another question entirely, given Captain Marvel primarily takes place in the 1990s, but we’re intrigued nonetheless. March 8th, 2019 is the date for your diaries, while Jude Law also has Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald cramming up the pipeline.
