Rumor Patrol: Does Marvel Want Emily Blunt Again?

Just some scuttlebutt, but The Daily Mail is a slightly more trustworthy source than The Sun, as British tabloids go. Still, I wouldn't take it to the bank. But it's a holiday in the states and the presses are slow. OK...here's the rumor: Marvel, which has professed its admiration for Emily Blunt twice in the past couple of years, may have her in mind again. You'll remember she was the first pick for Black Widow, the role Scarlett Johansson eventually wound up with. Fox made her turn it down, invoking a contractual clause that locked her into Gulliver's Travels. Fair trade there. And then there was a female role in Captain America: The First Avenger, and she passed on that, maybe because the studio didn't cast her new husband, John Krasinski. Round three is to put Blunt back in Tony Stark's universe, and The Daily Mail quotes a source as saying that Scarlett Johansson won't be back next time, adding, "They are desperate to have Emily as the villain in the next Iron Man film and will continue to have Gwyneth [Paltrow] playing Pepper, though she wont feature in The Avengers." Make of that what you will. Jon Favreau has all but cemented that the Mandarin is the villain, but we also know how Marvel likes to stuff its movies with bad guys. I have no idea what that character would be. That's why it's a British tabloid rumor. But I don't doubt that Marvel might have Blunt in mind for something, sooner or later.