Two superhero veterans have joined the cast of the new sci-fi thriller Ursa Major. On Tuesday, it was confirmed (via The Hollywood Reporter) that Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Xochitl Gomez have been cast in the lead roles of Ursa Major, which will be directed by the sibling duo of Jonathan and Josh Baker. Winstead entered the superhero space as Helena Bertinelli / Huntress in the 2020 DC film Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), while Gomez recently portrayed America Chavez in Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
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Winstead and Gomez will play Charlie and Natalie, mother and daughter fighting for survival on an Earth-like planet, hiding from a group of relentless hunters with the added threat of an imminent and deadly storm approaches. But Natalie, now a teenager, has begun to question her mother’s decisions, her explanation of who there are, how they got here and what they need to do to survive.
The Baker Brothers will direct the film from an original script by Station Eleven’s Patrick Somerville, who co-wrote the film with Colleen O’Brien and Katie French. Producers on the project will include Somerville, Eisenberg, John Finemore, Mason Novick, Allen Fisher, and Brian Steinberg. James Hoppe and ack Byrnes will executive produce.
Ursa Major will mark the next high-profile project for Gomez, who became somewhat of a household name once her character debuted in Multiverse of Madness.
“I mean, just seeing the reaction to America and seeing how much people love her and want to see more of her is just, and the fact that people cosplaying her is pretty insane,” Gomez said in an interview for ComicBook.com‘s Phase Zero podcast earlier this year.
“I mean kind of all of it, I was not prepared for it because I had no idea what it was going to be or if people were going to like the character,” Gomez continued. “I just hoped that people really liked the character. That was the main thing. But I mean, it’s the aftermath of how much people come up to me and tell me that it just means so much to them that I’m on the screen and that I’m there being their representative and just also that they can see themselves with me being on screen, which is just so important. And I’m just so happy that I get to be that for them. And also, just the fact that some girls are like, they shake when they see me, they’re like shaking and some of them don’t even want a photo or they forget to ask for a photo. And so, I’ll be like, do you want to take a photo? We can take a photo and they just want to hug me. It’s so sweet. I’m so glad that I can be that for young girls, you know?”
