Once upon a time, back in 2012, Jessica Chastain was in talks with Marvel to star in 'Iron Man 3' as scientist Maya Hansen. Chastain eventually passed on the role saying, "My schedule is jammed packed and I can’t fit anything else in." (The part would eventually go to actress Rebecca Hall.) At the time, Chastain posted to her Facebook fans, "Hopefully there’ll be another Marvel film in my future." Has that time come already?

As was just officially announced the other day, and unofficially known for a few months, Marvel is introducing Captain Marvel (aka, Carol Danvers) to their cinematic universe. While that movie isn't set for release until 2018, Marvel may already have set its sights on Chastain as the actress they want to be their first lead female superhero. The actress spoke to MTV and teased some discussions between her and Marvel on an upcoming project:

We’ve talked about aligning our forces in the future. There was a thing...I don’t want to say too much – but there was one thing, there was a possibility in the future of the character becoming... And I was like, "I understand that, but I want to do it now!

Chastain never specifically says Captain Marvel or Carol Danvers, but it's not hard to read between the lines. After all, Marvel doesn't have many female superheroes. And the idea that "there was a possibility in the future of the character becoming [a superhero]" matchs up very well with what we know about Marvel's plans to introduce Danvers at the end of 'Avengers 2' in advance of her own movie. And, like with Chadwick Boseman and Black Panther (who is making an early appearance in 'Captain America: Civil War'), that's why Marvel is already meeting with actresses about the role.

Now, before you get too excited, not long after MTV's report, Chastain took to Twitter to backtrack:

If you take that tweet at face value, Chastain hasn't met with Marvel about playing Captain Marvel and that's that. But, she starts the tweet off with "Oops uh oh" which means maybe she realized she said too much in her MTV interview. We don't want to accuse an actress of lying, but it wouldn't be the first time an actor has publicly denied that they were in talks for a high-profile project. The "different film" she's referring to is likely 'Iron Man 3' but Maya Hansen is not, nor ever will be, a superhero. Here's what Chastain said to MTV about turning down the 'Iron Man 3' role:

And here’s the thing with me… If you’re going to be in a superhero movie, you only get one chance. You’re that character forever. So why do a superhero movie and play the boring civilian?

Those are her comments on 'Iron Man 3' or the "different project" from a year ago. It seems clear that she's talking about the Maya Hansen role and the alleged Captain Marvel role separately in her MTV quotes, so she can't dismiss them by claiming they were the same offer from the same film.

This could all be much ado about nothing, but frankly, Chastain is as close to perfect for the role as Marvel will find and if they really haven't had talks with her about the role, they should start thinking about doing it.

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