Jessica Chastain was undeniably one of the biggest breakout stars of 2011, with roles in a series of prestigious and generally great films that culminated in her Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for The Help. But her resume thus far lacks the kind of giant blockbuster that makes you a household name-- and that's an oversight she seems ready to fix. According to Deadline the actress is likely to take on a part in Iron Man 3, playing a "sexy scientist" who matches wits with Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark.
She had been the first choice for the role but was having trouble making her schedule work, forcing the studio to look into Diane Kruger, Gemma Arterton and Isla Fisher-- among others, presumably-- as replacements. But her schedule, which includes Kathryn Bigelow's Osama bin Laden movie, seems to have cleared up to allow for the iron Man 3 shoots, which gets started imminently in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Chastain's casting, of course, is just part of a recent flurry of news about the project, in which we learned Ben Kingsley would be playing the villain and Guy Pearce would be stepping in to play an expert geneticist. My guess is that Chastain's and Pearce's characters are somehow working together, perhaps on the Extremis serum that leads to the conflict in this story, but if you're looking for more comic book expertise on which character Chastain might be playing, I'm not the person to ask. Feel free to speculate in the comments, though, and if you somehow still don't know who Chastain is, well, that's not going to last long.
