Marvel has found its female lead for the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Casting on the anticipated space-set comic book adaptation had been mum for quite some time until we learned in February that Chris Pratt had been cast as the film’s male lead, Peter Quill aka Star-Lord. While there appeared to be a bit of a heated negotiations battle taking place between Jason Momoa and David Bautista for the bulky Drax the Destroyer role in the James Gunn-directed film, Bautista eventually landed the gig last month. As the remaining three members of the Guardians team were Gamora, the talking raccoon Rocket Raccoon, and the giant tree Groot, all eyes were on who would land the final humanoid role of Gamora.
That anticipation ends today, as word now comes that Star Trek Into Darkness actress Zoe Saldana is poised to tackle the part. Hit the jump for more, including the appearance of a villainous comics character in the film.
Per Heat Vision, Zoe Saldana is in talks to play Gamora in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The skilled assassin character sports green skin and is that last of her species, which was exterminated by a race known as the Badoon. More interestingly, though, is the fact that the character was raised and trained by supervillain Thanos before eventually turning against him. Thanos was glimpsed in the tag at the end of The Avengers and is rumored to be the main villain in The Avengers 2, so one assumes that he’ll also play a major role in the Guardians of the Galaxy story given that Gunn’s film serves as the lead-in to Avengers 2.
To that point, the folks over at Latino Review are reporting that Guardians will see the appearance of the comics character Basil Sandhurst aka The Controller. The character serves as the main henchman for Thanos and will apparently be one of the antagonists in Guardians. A highly skilled chemist and mechanical engineer, The Controller specializes in mind control and sports an armored exoskeleton. No further details on his role in the Guardians story are given, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he served as the main physical antagonist in the film before Thanos is revealed towards the end of the story as a bridge between Guardians and The Avengers 2.
Saldana is becoming quite the sci-fi mainstay as of late, as she reprises her role as Uhura in Star Trek Into Darkness next month and is also poised to return for James Cameron’s Avatar sequels whenever he finally finishes the scripts. The actress still finds time for smaller-scale dramas, though, most recently wrapping Crazy Heart director Scott Cooper’s thriller Out of the Furnace opposite Christian Bale. Production on Guardians of the Galaxy is poised to get underway in the U.K. this June in anticipation of the film’s August 1, 2014 release. If you missed it, click here to take a look at a bounty of concept art from the Marvel pic.
