Michelle Pfeiffer in Talks to Play the Queen in 'Maleficent 2'

Ant-Man and the Wasp star Michelle Pfeiffer is in talks to board Disney's Maleficent sequel as the [...]

Ant-Man and the Wasp star Michelle Pfeiffer is in talks to board Disney's Maleficent sequel as the queen, Variety reports.

If cast, the three-time Academy Award nominee would join lead Angelina Jolie, reprising her role as the titular dark fairy, and Elle Fanning, who returns as Princess Aurora of Sleeping Beauty fame. Also on board is Deadpool star Ed Skrein.

Joachim Ronning, one-half of the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales directing duo, is set to direct.

Plot details remain under wraps.

The first film, released in 2014, put a live-action twist on Walt Disney's 1959 animated classic Sleeping Beauty, telling the story from the perspective of a more sympathetic Maleficent.

Hailing from an enchanted valley known as the Moors, Maleficent depicted Jolie's anti-hero as a betrayed fairy who upon the loss of her wings transforms into the darkest magical being in the land. Among the earliest Disney live-action re-imaginings, the film grossed more than $758 million worldwide.

Production on Maleficent 2 is set to start this year.

Pfeiffer took a four-year hiatus after 2013 Luc Besson-steered action comedy The Family, returning with dramas Where is Kyra? and The Wizard of Lies in 2017. The latter saw Pfeiffer star as Ruth Madoff, wife of the infamous Bernie Madoff, played by Robert De Niro.

Her performance landed her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.

She also appeared in Darren Aronofsky's horrific Mother! and hit crime-mystery Murder on the Orient Express, where she starred alongside Daisy Ridley and Johnny Depp.

The actress returns to the realm of superhero movies and makes her debut in Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe as Janet van Dyne, the original Wasp, in the studio's Ant-Man sequel.

There she plays the long lost mother of Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), who now suits up as the high-flying partner of ex-con and father-turned-superhero Scott Lang (Paul Rudd).

Pfeiffer is "every bit as iconic and amazing in this part as you would imagine," Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige told Vulture of the actress' looming Marvel debut.

The original 2015 hit "had this great sense of humor about it and just this unusual tone," Pfeiffer said of Ant-Man in a talk with Variety, explaining her return to the comic book movie world after her scene-stealing turn as a sexy and dangerous Catwoman in 1992's Batman Returns.

"This new script has the same thing," she said. "It's nicely written."

Ant-Man and the Wasp opens July 6.

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