Exclusive: Brie Larson Joins Star Trek Director For Action Thriller, Details Revealed
We've learned Brie Larson will star in the action thriller The Phoenix, directed by Justin Lin.
She may be working with a Star Trek director, but she’s not exploring strange new worlds this time around. Our trusted and proven sources tell us Brie Larson has signed on to star in the action thriller The Phoenix, which will be helmed by Justin Lin of Fast & Furious and Star Trek Beyond fame. While a lot of Larson’s upcoming projects are being made hand-in-hand with Netflix, The Phoenix will be instead produced by Universal Pictures.
Brie Larson may be best known as Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel, but from what our sources say The Phoenix will find her playing a character closer to Scarlett Johansson‘s Black Widow. They describe the film as an “action-packed thriller” which will star Larson as a retired assassin. Like John Wick, Larson’s character will be forced out of retirement, though in her case it will be her former employers who make her pick up her guns again when they come looking for blood.
Technically this won’t be Brie Larson’s first collaboration with Justin Lin. While Lin made a very public exit from Fast X as director — to be replaced with Louis Leterrier — he stayed on as a producer. However, The Phoenix will be their first time working together with Lin in the director’s chair.
Interestingly, Fast X isn’t the first time Brie Larson and Justin Lin almost worked together. As far as television series work is concerned, Lin’s first handful of gigs was on the beloved sitcom Community, and before she became a household name Larson played the recurring Community character Rachel. Their work on the sitcom was separated by some years, however, with Lin directing a few episodes in the inaugural season and Larson appearing only in seasons 4 and 5.
In spite’s of Lin declining to direct Fast X, his connections from the franchise seem to be serving him well since Brie Larson isn’t the only Fast and Furious alum he’ll be doing a separate project with. Last week we exclusively broke the news that Dwayne Johnson would be starring in the Justin Lin-helmed The Vanguard. It was only a day later that TheWrap confirmed another one of our scoops, that The Rock will be returning to play Hobbs in Fast 11.
We don’t yet have production or release dates for The Phoenix, but when we know we’ll make sure you know. In the meantime, you can catch Brie Larson in Fast X when it premieres in theaters this Friday, and she returns as Carol Danvers in The Marvels on November 10. Also in the fall she’ll lead the Apple TV+ miniseries Lessons in Chemistry.
