Marvel Studios’ ‘Captain Marvel’ will have a bit of production in January, before resuming full production in March. As such, things are starting to fall into place, including casting. Obviously, Brie Larson is portraying the title character, also known as Carol Danvers. We’ll also see the return of much-missed Samuel L. Jackson as S.H.I.E.L.D. head honcho Nick Fury. It appears that Jude Law will be taking on the role of Mar-Vell, the Kree sleeper agent sent to spy on the Earth, who in the comics was Marvel’s first Captain Marvel. He will also use his human alias as Walter Lawson. And ‘Star Wars” Ben Mendelsohn is said to be taking on the villain role as Yon-Rogg, another Kree spy with a vendetta against Mar-Vell, who played a major role in Carol’s acquisition of superpowers.
Now a new casting listing hints at another Marvel character joining the fray:
[UNKNOWN MALE] Supporting Lead Male (35-59) Intelligent, but can throw a punch. Open ethnicity. Sounds like he may be tied to a well-known character.
That’s not a lot to go on, but there is some speculation that this character could be Marvel stalwart Rick Jones. After all, Rick is “tied to” many well-known characters.
It was his trespassing on a military testing site that resulted in Bruce Banner being exposed to the Gamma Rays that transformed him into the Incredible Hulk. It was Rick that wound up assembling the Avengers for the first time when he attempted to contact the Fantastic Four for help, but thanks to the manipulation of Loki, wound up instead bringing together The Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, The Wasp and Iron Man. Then, after the Avengers discovered the frozen form of Captain America, Jones accompanied him on adventures, sometimes donning the guise of Bucky, Cap’s WWII partner.
Later, Rick became bonded with Mar-Vell and his Nega Bands. Essentially, they shared a body, with only one existing in the real world at a time. The other was held in suspended animation in the Negative Zone. They would swap places when the one in the regular world struck the bands together. During this period, Rick played a crucial role in the ‘Kree-Skrull War’ storyline in the ‘Avengers’. Rick later replicated this same symbiotic relationship with Mar-Vell’s son Genis.
At one point, he gained Hulk-like strength and took the name A-Bomb. He recently played a doomed role in the ‘Secret Empire’ series, in which he appeared to be killed.
Rick was meant to appear in the 2003 ‘Hulk’ movie, but his role was replaced with that of Harper. He was also included in earlier scripts for 2008’s reboot ‘The Incredible Hulk’ but was omitted when star Edward Norton retooled the screenplay.
Jones has often been used as the everyman figure in the Marvel U and as such has connections to many disparate aspects of its mythology. It would be nice to see him integrated into the film universe in some capacity, as long as it’s not just a throwaway role.
Would you like to see Rick Jones factor into ‘Captain Marvel’?
‘Captain Marvel’ invades the Marvel Universe on March 8, 2019.
Source: That Hashtag Show
