Captain Marvel 2: Who Is Zawe Ashton Playing?

Yesterday it was revealed that Zawe Ashton is joining the cast of Captain Marvel 2 as the film's villain, but the identity of that villain was not revealed. We actually don't know much about director Nia DaCosta's sequel, but that's not going to stop us from trying to figure out who Ashton could possibly play now is it? Spoiler, it's not, and there are a few characters that are already moving to the front of the line. Any of these could represent a good foil to Captain Marvel in the sequel, either for their skills at manipulation or their outright power, which in some cases could directly match Carol's, so lets get started.

We'll start with what could be the character with the most impact, which would be Dr. Karla Sofen, aka Moonstone. Sofen gets her powers from the Moonstone, which turned out to be a shard from the Kree Tree of Life that was discovered on the moon (hence the name). It bonded to Sofen's nervous system and gives her the powers of flight, intangibility, and the ability to control gravity in a variety of ways, including creating miniature black holes, super strength, force blasts, and more.

So, she's powerful, but that's not what makes her most deadly. Sofen is also a psychologist who studied under one of the great manipulators Doctor Faustus, so to say she is a terror of the mind is an apt description. Combined with her power set and her history of impersonating Carol during Norman Osborne's Dark Reign period, she would be a perfect way to have a villain who could legitimately beat Carol (since her power is also Kree derived) but also hit Carol's mind at the same time, hitting her with past failures and mistakes, which is how you could work in what possibly happened with Maria Rambeau and not being there for her or Monica (if that's what happened).

Sofen is also one of the founders of the Thunderbolts, and even for a time (thanks to blackmail) spent time leading the team, so this could be the perfect way to keep her around after the film and have her launch the fan-favorite team officially in the MCU. You could also tie in her creation to the fallout from when the Kree ships tried to attack Earth and Minn-Erva's ship crashing.

In the same vein of keeping someone in the role with a similar power level, we have Ripley Ryan, aka Star. Star is a relatively newer addition to the Marvel mythos, and starts out as a writer doing a piece on Carol. Eventually, she is recruited by Minerva in an effort to save the Kree race from extinction and has a receiver injected in her body that once Minerva injects a similar receiver into Carol will allow her to siphon off her abilities. Carol isn't aware of this though until Minerva comes to her and reveals the truth, which angers Star and thus the true battle between them begins.

Things end with Carol having to rip out the transmitter from both her and Star, which goes really badly for Star since she has to reach through her chest to get it, though it does pave the way for Star to get the Reality Stone.

Now, I've said it once and I'll say it again, I'm not a fan of taking Carol's powers away as a plot device moving forward. The first movie was based around that which was fine because it was an origin story, but we've revisited that well way more times than needed in the comics, and I'm good with not seeing it pop up again so soon. I want villains who can match Carol's power level or find weaknesses in her armor to achieve the same effect, and Star could be that with some tweaking to her story and premise.

Another interesting choice is Grace Valentine, a businesswoman who gets angered at Carol for being bumped on a magazine feature (Carol should really stop doing interviews). Valentine is actually the one who reveals to the world that Carol is half Kree, and is a threat because of her hacking ability and resources. You could actually combine Valentine and Star and come away with a compelling villain both before and after her powers come into play, and that might be the best bet.

Of course, you could also go with another Minn-Erva, retconning that the first one we saw was a clone and that the real one was scheming away somewhere else. It's not recommended, but hey, you never know.

Who would you want to see her play? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things Captain Marvel with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!