Emily Blunt, who will be seen next in the horror film A Quiet Place in April [read our review here], really solidified her place as a rising action star with Doug Liman’s Edge of Tomorrow, or Live Die Repeat as it became known on home video. The 2014 sci-fi blockbuster starring Blunt alongside Tom Cruise became a surprise favourite, with Blunt’s performance as Sergeant Rita Vrataski, ‘The Angel of Verdun’, as one of the film’s most praised aspects.
While fans of the first film await word on an Edge of Tomorrow sequel, tentatively titled Live Die Repeat and Repeat, Blunt revealed to IndieWire that work on the sequel could have begun last year, but she delayed the film so she could work on Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns.
“It’s a lot for all the stars to align for everyone to be free at the same time and available to do it at the same time,” Blunt said. “They asked me to do it two months before I started Mary Poppins. Tom was like, ‘Can you go this autumn?’ and I was like, ‘No, I can’t go, I’m playing Mary Poppins for like a year, dude! I can’t do Edge of Tomorrow.’ Doug Liman has got an awesome idea and he’s excited and they just need to write it. There has been a script, but now I gather there’s another one in the works.”
The delay didn’t seem to hurt them or the film’s production very much at all. While Blunt filmed Mary Poppins Returns and A Quiet Place, Cruise went on to film Mission: Impossible – Fallout while Liman was hard at work on the sequel’s script, revealing in January that Live Die Repeat and Repeat could potentially be his next film once they finalize the script.
Meanwhile, another role Blunt’s fans were clamouring for her to get was that of Carol Danvers in Marvel’s Captain Marvel, a role which has since been filled by Brie Larson (Room). It was heavily rumoured Blunt was up for the part before Larson took the role, but Blunt revealed to ScreenCrush that she was never actually in the running to play Captain Marvel at all.
“Oh, no, nobody ever called me about it,” Blunt said. “It was all untrue!”
Blunt was previously cast as Black Widow in Iron Man 2 before dropping out due to scheduling conflicts, at which point Scarlett Johansson took the role and has since portrayed the character in The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War and the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4. Despite the rumours of her being up for Captain Marvel, it seems Blunt’s chance to reappear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Carol Danvers was never close to coming true.
